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MIDNITE THE ONE Inverter

I set 30W as buffer to draw from grid and rarely does it only draw 30W so that setting is off but this capture from the envoy CTs show that feeding into the grid on a load release is very much possible. Luckily I have a NEM agreement but i'm just warning you guys out there...

View attachment 270172

Is all the backfeed into the grid the negative/red? Seems like more than short duration backfeed during “load release”.
 
No, I have defined green as feed in and red as load. There is a small feed into the grid when there is a load step (as seen by the drop in dc power)
 
Talked to Rick at MidNite he recommended if you were to run zero export and not want to backfeed you need to set constant draw from grid if you have a lot of heavy loads at about 500w continuous
Holy crap. 12KWh a day!!! Are you certain?
What happens if your house idles ~300W/h overnight?
 
Well anywhere from 300-500w draw. But yeah that’s what I thought I’m just installing with grid going into the generator side. Little less power but meh I’m gonna eventually have two of these inverters
 
Well anywhere from 300-500w draw. But yeah that’s what I thought I’m just installing with grid going into the generator side. Little less power but meh I’m gonna eventually have two of these inverters
Worth mentioning, especially in light of the notion of constant 500W draw, there are really only a few concrete ways to prevent unwanted feedback:
  • 'Offgrid' inverters (EG4 6000/12000XP, SRNE ASP and clones, Victron (has to be programmed to be grid interactive)). They can use the grid, but it's either or; you're charging and passing grid through while doing so or inverting from battery with PV support
  • Program your hybrid for its off grid mode and/or don't install the CTs. Without CTs, the inverter has no way to determine ins and outs that it could take action on
  • Charge externally if you charge from grid (i.e. Chargeverters)
  • I like the GEN port idea - if you have an inverter with a GEN port
  • Have an analog/spinning disc meter ( :cool: ), which is more you're not detected vs. not backfeeding
I'd still be curious, even with a 500W buffer, what it looked like when a 6-7000W load turned off, especially in the case of a dryer that cycles a heating element or something similar.
 
While not detected is safest (if you don't have a sell back agreement), not noticed is really what we are after. With these new meters, the PoCo can detect very small power going back; whether or not they care or notice is another question.

If they really do care, in absolute terms, then they are going to be visiting a lot of customers, every time a deep well pump or large AC compressor shuts off or the like. There may be some utilities who are that picky, but I would assume it's not the majority. Maybe it warrants a drive by and if they see new PV panels then they pay a visit.
 
Two days ago, the Midnite AOI stopped charging batteries from solar. I am running self consumption mode. I was racking my head and checking all settings but the batteries would not charge. I am using the can connection from the powerflo16 and today, I wondered if the batteries were sending some pylon fields that disabled charging. So I change my canbus connection back to yambus which takes my smartshunt soc and talks pylon with the inverter and suddenly, charging is enabled again! I don’t what to conclude but could it be the Midnite batteries??
 
Two days ago, the Midnite AOI stopped charging batteries from solar. I am running self consumption mode. I was racking my head and checking all settings but the batteries would not charge. I am using the can connection from the powerflo16 and today, I wondered if the batteries were sending some pylon fields that disabled charging. So I change my canbus connection back to yambus which takes my smartshunt soc and talks pylon with the inverter and suddenly, charging is enabled again! I don’t what to conclude but could it be the Midnite batteries??
No clue. I’d reach out to support and ask for data logs
 
Anyone have any regrets going with the one? Hoping to install soon but waiting on approval from PG&E/CA CEC listed which seems to still be pending.
 
No regrets. I'd agree with goldserve, the support app SW and documentation need work (which are coming so I am told). And more knowledgeable support people would be nice. But the HW and general design features are not to be found elsewhere without buying more equipment and spending a lot more, and they seem to work well.

To some extent, all electronics one buys these days have a "learning curve"; where the electronics are really training you to use them. More mature products typically (but not always) will have their bugs discovered and worked out before you buy them. When you are going with a new product you can pretty much count on some bumps in the road, and that you will be a beta tester to some extent.

Six months or so ago, when I decided to go with "The One" it was the only inverter which had the features and certs I wanted. Still no real competition IMO, but I would assume there will be other choices in the future as many of its features are becoming more popular.

@unusual_bread I though TheOne had CEC listing already, as being on that list was a requirement for my PoCo to accept them. Is the PG&E list different than the plain CA list?
 
It's on the list but not yet certified is my understanding. Apparently it needs UL 1741 as well as CSIP. EG4 gridboss/flexboss is in the same boat I think. Screenshot 2025-02-08 123127.pngScreenshot 2025-02-08 122911.png
 
Still trying to learn and wrap my head around how this works but apparently the midnite AIO is good to go w/ PG&E as a "Grid Supported Battery Inverter" but not as a "ESS". IOW their battery is not yet certified.
 
@Steve777 First, make sure you are updated to the latest firmware #6 as it has fixed some on_grid with grid feed-in use cases. View attachment 265768
Based on my own experience, here are my interpretations of the operation of the inverter.

1. Max feed-in is the max power selling back to the utility but i didn't get a chance to test this because when my inverter was installed in october, I need the max power of my AC coupled solar + DC string on the inverter. The One does measure grid-in properly when comparing to the Enphase consumption CT meter as well. The only question is how graceful the power control is. My previously outback skybox did this perfectly. It throttled its own DC PV power to meet max sell-back.
View attachment 265769

2. If you allow Discharge end SOC (on-grid), the inverter will use battery and try to zero out all the usage at the point of the CT. If you set 300W (default), it is where the algorithm tries to maintain. I'm guessing this is the inverter's way to have some buffer against accidentally feed-in by always trying to consume some power versus trying to really cancel out all power consumed. Weird that 30W is the lowest it can go and not true 0W if I have a NEM agreement with the utility company.

3. I think you are right, this setting should zero out AC side house loads plus the Loads Out if you have set up the CT and associated setting of the CT properly.

4. I am guessing this is the re-bulk setting?

5. Something funny going on with the reporting of the MPPTs. I pull the data directly from the inverter and I can't seem to get individual MPPTx power but there is a "PV Total Input Power" and it's quite noisy when I would expect this to be 0W.
View attachment 265770

6. Same issue observed. I think there are inverter and app updates to improve the data coming post new years.

7. Unfortunately not. Push midnite to document and TEST more because on-grid use cases are not fully documented, let alone tested. The replies I get are along the lines of "there are over 500 installs of the MN15 inverter...", implying people aren't encountering the issues I am reporting...

Good luck and please post your findings in this thread as well!
I have heard the exact same lines as you have from midnite support. As a matter of fact, dealing with Logan has been such a huge pain, he has been wrong in answering every single question I have asked him. I even had to record a video explaining step by step how they are wrong. Rick has been nice to talk to, but communicating is difficult because sometimes you don't hear back, even after calling a number of times and sending several text messages.

I've been struggling with periodic inverters going into standby mode. I was told to look at error messages, but every time it has happened, there were no errors reported in the logs.
One of my inverters would go into standby mode every few days. Using open loop or closed loop made absolutely no difference, other than closed loop seemed to be a bit more stable. I ended up setting the max SOC to 99% and then finally ran for 12 days without one of my inverters going into standby mode. I set it not to 98% and it's been running for 6 days so far without going into standby.

I noticed one of the batteries tends to drift (between 2 and 10%) but have not been able to determine if that is causing an issue that makes the AIO go into standby mode. I have been charging my batteries to max SOC setting almost every day, and let them go down to 5% a number of times as well.

I have 2 AIO inverters in parallel, with 3 EG4 indoor wallmount batteries.
 
Thanks Goldserve. Looks like I do have those latest FW versions installed. So will have to wait for the upcoming new versions of FW and app to see what improves.

Stumbled across a detail page in the app, scroll the main page to the left, and a useful page of settings and readings comes up, including FW numbers. It is NOT kept in sync very well (main page show PV output, verified by my clamp on meter, but this detail page is still showing 0), and sometimes will show output by MPPT, which can be handy. It shows the FW versions and various other things. Anyway, thought I would pass that on...

on 4, trying to understand how this is supposed to work in self consume mode. It may be ok and I just can't tell since I am running with a low amount of PV connected right now, and have not had the extra PV power around to recharge the batt much. But curious what if any details you've discovered about this. I had thought that rebulk was more for separate CC systems, when power had to go to the batt before going out the inverter; which is not really necessary in an AIO.

And curious, has anyone found a way to go into installer mode in the app while connected via wifi? I can do this with a local (BT) connection but have not found a way when using a wifi connection.

In general, my impressions are that the inverter itself seems to be working well, however the documentation is more or less non-existent, and support from MN is spotty at best. Hopefully both of these will improve over time...

Well, may need to revise that. The inverter just shut itself off, for no reason as far as I can see. I happened to be standing in front of it when it happened, and pushed the on button to start it up again. No errors in the logs??? Hmmm.
I have had the same issue with going into standby mode for months now. Tech support from MN has not been useful at all.
 
My setup is grid-tied, zero export.

The network adapter issues I've had are not being able to disable Wifi or change the SSID. Even with an ethernet cable attached. It seems to prioritize WiFi. I was told they were going to replace the network adapter hardware and provide new ones for previous buyers.

Do you have issues with the display screens glitching?
I've had both those issue. The screen glitch still happens periodically for me. As far as the dongle issue. you can only change the SSID and password when you take your inverter out of parallel settings. Once you change that setting to have the inverter not be in parallel, you can change SSID/pwd and then you can turn on your parallel settings again once you've verified your wifi is working.
 
I have heard the exact same lines as you have from midnite support. As a matter of fact, dealing with Logan has been such a huge pain, he has been wrong in answering every single question I have asked him. I even had to record a video explaining step by step how they are wrong. Rick has been nice to talk to, but communicating is difficult because sometimes you don't hear back, even after calling a number of times and sending several text messages.

I've been struggling with periodic inverters going into standby mode. I was told to look at error messages, but every time it has happened, there were no errors reported in the logs.
One of my inverters would go into standby mode every few days. Using open loop or closed loop made absolutely no difference, other than closed loop seemed to be a bit more stable. I ended up setting the max SOC to 99% and then finally ran for 12 days without one of my inverters going into standby mode. I set it not to 98% and it's been running for 6 days so far without going into standby.

I noticed one of the batteries tends to drift (between 2 and 10%) but have not been able to determine if that is causing an issue that makes the AIO go into standby mode. I have been charging my batteries to max SOC setting almost every day, and let them go down to 5% a number of times as well.

I have 2 AIO inverters in parallel, with 3 EG4 indoor wallmount batteries.
Interesting. If the inverters are in parallel, wouldn't one going into standby shut down the entire system? Do you have battery comms going to one inverter or both?
 
Interesting. If the inverters are in parallel, wouldn't one going into standby shut down the entire system? Do you have battery comms going to one inverter or both?
With 2 systems in parallel, one system (sometimes the slave, sometimes the master) will go into standby while the other inverter keeps going on. The issue is that in order to bring the inverter out of standby mode, both systems will shut down. In the app (via BT) the button shows the inverters are on and you can only turn them off.
 
With 2 systems in parallel, one system (sometimes the slave, sometimes the master) will go into standby while the other inverter keeps going on. The issue is that in order to bring the inverter out of standby mode, both systems will shut down. In the app (via BT) the button shows the inverters are on and you can only turn them off.
Is it possible to take a multi-meter and tone out the connections of the parallel cable to make sure you have solid contact on both sides? I don't know how each cable works and what data is sent for each of the 4 wires. I'm wondering if something may be lose and only used in certain situations for parallel communications? I know how big of a pain in the rear they were to wire in...
 
Is it possible to take a multi-meter and tone out the connections of the parallel cable to make sure you have solid contact on both sides? I don't know how each cable works and what data is sent for each of the 4 wires. I'm wondering if something may be lose and only used in certain situations for parallel communications? I know how big of a pain in the rear they were to wire in...
Heya Adam,
I just checked again doing a continuity test on each port (1,2,3,4) and the signal sounds strong. Also verified the color coding.
 
Heya Adam,
I just checked again doing a continuity test on each port (1,2,3,4) and the signal sounds strong. Also verified the color coding.
Do you know if your inverters both have the same firmware version on them?
 
Funny that I check this thread daily to see who is having issues. We must not be included in the 500. I just had to completely shut down both of my inverters after noticing they were only pulling ~500 watts of PV. Full reboot and it went up to 4kw. I've had my 2 MN15s/5 MNPF16s installed since the end of October. In December I had the shutdown issues and removed the system from powering my home. I have it running in a "testing" stage in my shop pushing none essential items and haven't had any more shutdown issues. I waited 2 months for the "new" v7 firmware. Some of that time was in it getting field tested and some of it was Logan and Rick not being available to push it. On the day Rick pushed it one of my inverters dropped offline and he couldn't see it on his end, mind you its hardwired, and when we finally got it back he pushed the same firmware I had. Needless to say there was 4 hours wasted to get the new v7 firmware that has worse screen glitches and now MPPT issues. I get when Rick and Logan mention the quality of service they provide vs. EG4 or others. I do have their cell phone numbers and they do respond quickly. That being said it seems like it's a lot of playing whack-a-mole with problems and no follow up. I do think in the end MN is a better company than most of the others and I think they will get this resolved. I just don't like playing beta tester when I didn't sign up for it. I spent $25k+ on their name and it's yet to show any dividends. I wonder if CC knows of these issues as I see they are still pushing this inverter on their home page.
 

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