New Lux Power LXP-LB-US 12k / GSL-H-12KLV-US with 200A AC Passthrough Current (US Market)

[fromport]

After about 6 weeks of confusion and going around in circles, I finally ordered two hybrid inverters.

Great!
Did you also get some batteries?

 

[Archcpj]

It comes down to....do you trust this inverter or not ?
IF it is made with the exact same quality and QA as the Sol-arks then yes, trust it.
If not, prepare a quick and easy method to go around it if it blows up.

I've had $35000 heart monitors fail on me when I needed a most in my main job when it comes to something complicated and mechanical I always want a backup... If this was true off grid I would just have 2 cheaper inverters But There are 2 things 1 it's a brand new productAnd if it breaks and replacement is 5 to 10 days away... But I also don't want to spend $2000 coming up with a disconnect system... Then it begins defeating the purpose

 

[adamantium]

It comes down to....do you trust this inverter or not ?
IF it is made with the exact same quality and QA as the Sol-arks then yes, trust it.
If not, prepare a quick and easy method to go around it if it blows up.

I generally agree, but it is nice to be able to work on the inverter or swap it out without taking the house offline. This is even more important when your service goes straight to the inverter and then to the only distribution panel.

 

[adamantium]

I've had $35000 heart monitors fail on me when I needed a most in my main job when it comes to something complicated and mechanical I always want a backup... If this was true off grid I would just have 2 cheaper inverters But There are 2 things 1 it's a brand new productAnd if it breaks and replacement is 5 to 10 days away... But I also don't want to spend $2000 coming up with a disconnect system... Then it begins defeating the purpose

Cost of what I showed above is under $500 if you go with the switch. A Square D 225A external panel costs around $110 from Gordon Electric. Two matching 100A two-pole breakers cost $64 each from HomeDepot, and a 100A Eaton double-pole double-throw switch costs $222 from HomeDepot. #1 copper stranded cable costs no more than $4 a foot. Aluminum is less expensive of course.

 

[Archcpj]

Cost of what I showed above is under $500 if you go with the switch. A Square D 225A external panel costs around $110 from Gordon Electric. Two matching 100A two-pole breakers cost $64 each from HomeDepot, and a 100A Eaton double-pole double-throw switch costs $222 from HomeDepot. #1 copper stranded cable costs no more than $4 a foot. Aluminum is less expensive of course.

Im 200amp service

 

[adamantium]

Im 200amp service

Are you sure? Do you really use 200A? Do you have double-pole 100A breaker, two double-pole 100A breakers, or a quad pole 200A breaker? If the grid fails you are only going to get 50A out of the inverter, and only 100A out of two of them. If you really use 200A then your cost will be high. Your house must be large or you must be talking about your business. In either case, you can probably afford it and an electrician to install it. If that isn't the case, then I would plan on having a long 4/0 cable ready to rewire your meter to your load center in the event of an inverter failure.

 

[Archcpj]

Im 200amp service

Are you sure? Do you really use 200A? Do you have double-pole 100A breaker, two double-pole 100A breakers, or a quad pole 200A breaker? If the grid fails you are only going to get 50A out of the inverter, and only 100A out of two of them. If you really use 200A then your cost will be high. Your house must be large or you must be talking about your business. In either case, you can probably afford it and an electrician to install it. If that isn't the case, then I would plan on having a long 4/0 cable ready to rewire your meter to your load center in the event of an inverter failure.

My service is 200 amps but my back up generator is 6500watts 240 volts and runs about everything I need unless my 4 freezers and electric watter heater go on at same time in an emergency outage... But because my main is 200 amp Im assuming I need 200 amp breaker...

If I didnt need the pass through great all Im trying to do is be able to use as described above... mainly to supplement my grid power and lower my bills second as a power source in event of grid failure but zero export

 

[Not Aerosmith]

Great!
Did you also get some batteries?

No batteries, I decided not to AC couple. Once the hybrid inverters are able to provide me emergency power in the sun, I will add (2) 10 KW 200AH power wall batteries. If all is good, I will add another (2) 10 KW 200AH power wall batteries for a total 800AH. I'm not living off-grid, so the batteries are for short power outages and to have some emergency power for necessities should there ever be a major event.

I decided that 50A 240V 12,000W off grid was not enough power for my home to prevent nuisance tripping, so I decided to parallel two inverters for more off grid power up to 100A 240V 24,000W. I checked my consumption graphs and I do peak several times a day over 12 KW, so for me nuisance tripping would definitely be an aggravation.

With 2 GSL inverters, I have 8 strings, which will permit me to use the MPPT connections for my existing 57 solar panels and add another future 23 panels. I can put 10 solar panels on a string with an adjusted VOC of 477VDC (under limit 500VDC) with the GSL-12K. For now, I will use the existing 18,810W of solar panels and add 7590W later.

If I use SA-15K, I would need to cheat in order to use just 9 solar panels with VOC of 429VDC (over limit 425VDC) and limit to 54 solar panels on 6 strings with 3 solar panels unused. I can make it work legally, but I would need to connect 0-38 solar panels to the MPPT and AC couple 1 to 3 inverters and add batteries.

With the SA-15K, I would be limited to 50A 240V 12,000W in off-grid power, which I have already stated is not enough power for me without nuisance tripping. The 15,000W is only for on-grid not off-grid. I can buy (2) GSL-12K for less than (1) SA-15K, but I can't afford to buy (2) SA-12K to prevent nuisance tripping.

Right or Wrong, I have reasons for my madness.

 

[Wet1]

If I use SA-15K, I would need to cheat in order to use 9 solar panels with VOC of 429VDC (over limit 425VDC)

Congrats on the purchase!
BTW, I believe the SA 15K has a max VOC of 500VDC @ 26A, IIRC.

 

[fromport]

Mine should arrive today. I am looking forward to install it and play with it over the weekend

A heavy 94 Lbs package arrived today.
Made some photos I would like to share:

Label on the box

In the box

Bottom part with the punch outs still in tact.

What I like from this inverter is the vertical airflow instead of the horizontal airflow of my MegaRevo.
Access hatch open:

Close up of the line input and pass through connections. RJ45 plug for size reference

Battery terminal has a built in 400Amp fuse

Overview of supplied goodies with the inverters.
The size of the split core CT's are huge.

Close up of the WIFI dongle.
The plug looks a lot like a HDMI [thanks @adamantium ]connector

To my surprise it comes with a built in RSD transmitter (on the left)!

 

[adamantium]

No batteries, I decided not to AC couple. Once the hybrid inverters are able to provide me emergency power in the sun, I will add (2) 10 KW 200AH power wall batteries. If all is good, I will add another (2) 10 KW 200AH power wall batteries for a total 800AH. I'm not living off-grid, so the batteries are for short power outages and to have some emergency power for necessities should there ever be a major event.

With 2 inverters, I have 8 strings, which will permit me to use the MPPT connections for my existing 57 solar panels and add another future 23 panels. I can put 10 solar panels on a string with an adjusted VOC of 477VDC (under limit 500VDC) with the GSL-12K. For now, I will use the existing 18,810W of solar panels and add 7590W later.

Right or Wrong, I have reasons for my madness.

Some inverters don't support battery-less operation with inverters in parallel. I hope that is not the case with this inverter, but you may find that you are required to have a battery to parallel the inverters. Also I think you must have the wifi dongle in order to configure the inverters in parallel. Make sure you are getting the dongles and everything you need to parallel them. The manual also says that you will need a customer ID for the monitoring software, and that they must create one for you.

Settings for paralleling function in monitor system 1. Set up monitoring for the system, add all dongles into one station. Users can login to visit the monitor system, Configuration->Station->Plant Management->Add dongle to add dongles.

Users can use WiFi/ WLAN /4G /2G dongle to monitor their inverter, and view the monitoring data on computer or smart phone remotely. To view data on smartphone, please download the LuxPowerView APP from Google Play or Apple APP store, then login with their user account.

The "customer code" is a code we assigned to your distributor or installer. You can contact your supplier for their code.

 

[adamantium]

Close up of the WIFI dongle.
The plug looks a lot like a DVI connector
View attachment 117302
To my surprise it comes with a built in RSD transmitter (on the left)!

Exciting! Very nice. The WiFi connector looks like HDMI. Did you have to ask for the dongle or did it come with the inverter?

 

[fromport]

Some inverters don't support battery-less operation with inverters in parallel. I hope that is not the case with this inverter, but you may find that you are required to have a battery to parallel the inverters.

I also think that it would be better to have at least 1 (small) battery (_with_ BMS communication) to at least 1 of the inverters to act as a buffer.

Also I think you must have the wifi dongle in order to configure the inverters in parallel.

Afaik wifi dongle is only used for monitoring to the cloud so you can see statistic. Communication between the inverters is done with a shielded RJ45 cable.

Settings for paralleling function in monitor system 1. Set up monitoring for the system, add all dongles into one station. Users can login to visit the monitor system, Configuration->Station->Plant Management->Add dongle to add dongles.

Users can use WiFi/ WLAN /4G /2G dongle to monitor their inverter, and view the monitoring data on computer or smart phone remotely. To view data on smartphone, please download the LuxPowerView APP from Google Play or Apple APP store, then login with their user account.

The "customer code" is a code we assigned to your distributor or installer. You can contact your supplier for their code.

Will be able to tell you more in a few days ;-)

 

[Not Aerosmith]

Congrats on the purchase!
BTW, I believe the SA 15K has a max VOC of 500VDC @ 26A, IIRC.

I agree with what you said.

However, my discussion was based on the MPPT operating voltage range, which is 125VDC to 425VDC, for the SA-12 and 255VDC to 500VDC fir the GSL-12K. GSL list their maximum input voltage at 600VDC. I apologize for not being clear in my post. Thank you for the comment.

 

[fromport]

the MPPT operating voltage range 255VDC to 500VDC for the GSL-12K.

The sticker on my LuxPower says 120-500V MPPT range

GSL list their maximum input voltage at 600VDC.

Same on the LuxPower ;-)

 

[adamantium]

Afaik wifi dongle is only used for monitoring to the cloud so you can see statistic. Communication between the inverters is done with a shielded RJ45 cable.

Will be able to tell you more in a few days ;-)

From what I read in the manual you have to connect to the software in order to form a parallel group. Those screens aren't in the LCD and are too large for it.

Thanks for providing all of the images. More confirmation that its a LuxPower branded inverter. The GSL branding is supposed to be available in a couple of weeks. Please keep us informed as you learn from it. It looks like a great alternative so far.

 

[adamantium]

The sticker on my LuxPower says 120-500V MPPT range

Same on the LuxPower ;-)

3 MPPT controllers 100-600V (230-500V for MPPTs) (4 strings total - 2/1/1, 25A/15A/15A, 12kW/7kW/7kW)
From the front page of this thread (and the manual)

Funny how we are seeing different numbers everywhere.
Looks like they improved the MPP range for lower voltages.

 

[adamantium]

Will be able to tell you more in a few days ;-)

Can you open the top part of the inverter and take some pictures of the insides? I would like to see the motherboard and the inductors, etc.

 

[fromport]

From what I read in the manual you have to connect to the software in order to form a parallel group. Those screens aren't in the LCD and are too large for it.

I bet you the configuration might be way easier to do using app/desktop.
But the parallel communication between the (up to 10) inverters in parallel would be way to uncertain if you would use WIFI.
I highlighted in purple the CANBUS cables for inter-inverter communication here:

Thanks for providing all of the images. More confirmation that its a LuxPower branded inverter. The GSL branding is supposed to be available in a couple of weeks. Please keep us informed as you learn from it. It looks like a great alternative so far.

I agree that it looks good. It surpasses my expectations so far.

 

[Not Aerosmith]

Some inverters don't support battery-less operation with inverters in parallel. I hope that is not the case with this inverter, but you may find that you are required to have a battery to parallel the inverters. Also I think you must have the wifi dongle in order to configure the inverters in parallel. Make sure you are getting the dongles and everything you need to parallel them. The manual also says that you will need a customer ID for the monitoring software, and that they must create one for you.

Settings for paralleling function in monitor system 1. Set up monitoring for the system, add all dongles into one station. Users can login to visit the monitor system, Configuration->Station->Plant Management->Add dongle to add dongles.

Users can use WiFi/ WLAN /4G /2G dongle to monitor their inverter, and view the monitoring data on computer or smart phone remotely. To view data on smartphone, please download the LuxPowerView APP from Google Play or Apple APP store, then login with their user account.

The "customer code" is a code we assigned to your distributor or installer. You can contact your supplier for their code.

I agree, I investigate a couple inverters that specified that scenario. The Solar MPP and the SunGoldPower hybrid inverters are battery-less for a single inverter. However, when you parallel them, they require batteries for every inverter in parallel. I had consider them, until I read in their user manual that a 40A disconnect is required between the inverter and the grid. I think you needed to buy 3 inverters and 6 batteries just to have 125A available on-grid or off-grid. These hybrid inverters didn't have the 200A pass-through current like other models.

I asked GRV0423, if the GSL-12K worked without a battery and he said yes that he tested it. I simply forgot that these hybrid inverters might not work in parallel. The GSL-12K installation manual have very little information about battery requirements.