Signature Solar and the EG4-6000EX-48HV

[Eber]

People are having problems with the voltage jumping around when the units start. Ask NC73 about it.
Inverters going whacky trying to run them.

 

[realpinochet]

Schneider and outback are solid...I'm leaning on the xwpro 6848. If you don't have heavy inductive loads and want a easy install..solark seems to be a good choice from people on this thread. These are UL listed!

 

[Bripromo solar]

My experiences with Signature Solar


I first became aware of Signature Solar about 18 months ago, from a solar customer who had a bank of EG4 batteries. The batteries were performing well and appeared to be very competitively priced.

Normally I avoid non-name brand solar equipment, however I also get many customers on a tight budget and don't want to leave them out. So I got in touch with Signature Solar and applied for wholesale pricing. I proceeded to place multiple orders and recommend them to other solar customers.

Their EG4 batteries work ok and I thought the new EG4 6000EX-48HV might be a good fit for some of my customers. I purchased two to resell and recommended two of my customers to purchase EG4 6000EX-48HV on their own, as well.

The two inverters I ordered arrived with the upper mounting bracket broken off. Upon further inspection, the bracket is only attached with four pop rivets. I thought, “No big deal, I’ll make my own improved version.” I attached to the upper threaded handle holes using angle steel.

The EG4 6000EX-48HV inverter does not list the idle consumption in any of it’s documentation, and now I see that’s probably because it consumes a lot! About 130 watts idle consumption for this unit. For comparison, a 4448 Magnum inverter consumes about 25 watts at idle and the OutBack 8048GSA consumes about 34 watts at idle. This is disappointing, but I decided I can accept this even though I don’t like it.

The biggest problem I have with this inverter is what happens when the lithium battery bank is fully charged. The AC output fluctuates a LOT, like 113-126 volts. It makes lights flicker and household fans etc speed up and slow down. This seems to be a problem with the built in charge controller. As soon as I turn off the solar input the problem stops. Also If I use a separate charge controller the problem does not happen.

I have been in touch with Signature Solar and at first I felt like I was getting somewhere. They acknowledged this is an issue and one lady in customer service says she herself owned the 6000EX, but ended up swapping it for the 6500EX-48 and no longer has that problem. I’ve been told that the solution for now is to keep a big enough load on the system, and they're working on a long-term solution….

This is not good enough for me and I decided I would like to return or exchange these inverters. That's when their customer service went from bad to worse. My wholesale account rep, Bruce, told me I need to complete a service request which entails sending them no less than 14 pictures. Not an easy task and the most leg work I have ever been asked for. I did this and then they told me my neutral and ground are swapped. This is not the case the wires are just labeled wrong (it happens).

So that's the end of them helping. For this problem I have called them 7 times and have emailed them numerous times. All we do is keep going in circles and blame-shifting. I am DONE with this BS.

Signature Solar has had so many excuses for poor business practices. Number one is “we are so busy” and number two is “we are short staffed.” Maybe cut back on the promotional sales and advertising, then?

As a human and a good business, our reputation is everything to us… I’ve lost some money over the years to keep our customers happy; it’s what good businesses do. I don't advertise, as word of mouth is all we need.

For one of my customers I did swap the EG4 6000EX-48HV inverter out for a magnum 4448 and no more problems! In the past 10 months I have spent over $64 thousand with Signature Solar and I will never give them another dollar.

I am going through the same problem with signature solar right now!

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

I am going through the same problem with signature solar right now!

I understand your frustration, but you aren't dealing with that same problem. We went through the troubleshooting steps with you, deemed that you have a faulty inverter and it's going to be replaced at no cost to you. Which was communicated to you just yesterday. I get that the troubleshooting process can seem like it takes a while, especially when you have such a large investment put in. But, we have to rule out the issue being repairable in the field or being the result of an application error before we are able to bring the unit back for a warranty replacement.

 

[Bripromo solar]

The thing is Ben I am running out of time, I am scheduled to travel overseas in the last week in January gone for 2 months cause of solar installations the Caribbean island and the British virgin islands I don't know if everything will work out before I leave! Quick question are those 6000ex inverter defective or just not designed properly I heard alot of terrible complaints about this inverter. ??

 

[BenFromSignatureSolar]

Last time I ran a failure report the units were defective less than 1% of the time. There are thousands of these in the field and the vast majority of the time all issues have been fixed in the field. We are working to take care of you. I don't want to see you stuck with a faulty unit or issue you are unable to resolve.

 

[Bripromo solar]

Thank you for your assistance I appreciate it ??.

 

[Hedges]

Last time I ran a failure report the units were defective less than 1% of the time. There are thousands of these in the field and the vast majority of the time all issues have been fixed in the field. We are working to take care of you. I don't want to see you stuck with a faulty unit or issue you are unable to resolve.

Do you know if the 1% are DOA, or just have issues with strange configurations?
Maybe briefly powering up each unit before shipping, a form of QA, would be worthwhile to avoid having the faulty ones discovered by a newb who can't be sure if the problem is the equipment vs. the installation.

How much testing you would need to do would depend on which functions are affected. Seems like PV input, AC input, battery, AC output should cover most things.

 

[BrandenL]

Could someone help me... I'm confused? In the initial "New Product" review video of this model, Will mentions that this has an "automatic bypass" in the inverter. At 4:59 in that video he identifies a "transfer switch" during his tear down examination of the unit. But, at the 2 min. mark in a video that he did later on "code complience" he is recommending an external "critical load transfer switch." Do these units have an internal transfer switch or not? I'm wanting to have an automatic transfer switch situation set up so that when there is no solar and the batteries are nearing a low voltage... I want it to automatically switch back to grid power. Do these units do this or not? Thanks for any help.

 

[Bripromo solar]

Most all in one inverter comes with a Built in transfer switch.

 

[Bripromo solar]

Which inverter you got?

 

[BrandenL]

I’m looking at buying the one that this thread is about. The Eg4 6500 Ex-48HV. So it does have a transfer switch built in? And just to be specific…. It is an automatic Transfer switch and not a manual switch or does it have both?

 

[Bripromo solar]

6500 EG4 does got automatic transfer switch,that's switches from grid to battery etc.

 

[Bripromo solar]

First priority settings in the manual is SBU,Which means solar,Battery, utility.

 

[dcg9381]

Any one know the triggers / logic for switching back to priority sources? IE - once on utility, when will it switch back to "higher priority" sources?

 

[Bripromo solar]

Don't understand what you are saying.

 

[dcg9381]

Don't understand what you are saying.

I'm saying that we have "source priority" for power.

Lets say that's set: Solar, Battery, Utility.

I assume it'll run fine on solar (assume we have enough PV). We get a few minutes of clouds, it "downshifts" to battery source. At what point will it go back to solar source?

 

[Zwy]

I’m looking at buying the one that this thread is about. The Eg4 6500 Ex-48HV. So it does have a transfer switch built in? And just to be specific…. It is an automatic Transfer switch and not a manual switch or does it have both?

Recent discussion concerning the EG4 6000EX, which is what this thread is about and not the EG4 6500EX, indicates this is a transformer based inverter and contains an isolation transfer to generate neutral.

As such, if you want a total grid bypass of the inverter, you will need a 3 pole transfer switch in order to supply grid neutral to the subpanel. One other thing will be needed is to have a method to switch N-G bond in the subpanel. As this is an isolation transformer, N-G will need to be bonded in the subpanel.

 

[Bripromo solar]

I'm saying that we have "source priority" for power.

Lets say that's set: Solar, Battery, Utility.

I assume it'll run fine on solar (assume we have enough PV). We get a few minutes of clouds, it "downshifts" to battery source. At what point will it go back to solar source?

Basically it depends on your Loads

 

[Hedges]

Recent discussion concerning the EG4 6000EX, which is what this thread is about and not the EG4 6500EX, indicates this is a transformer based inverter and contains an isolation transfer to generate neutral.

As such, if you want a total grid bypass of the inverter, you will need a 3 pole transfer switch in order to supply grid neutral to the subpanel. One other thing will be needed is to have a method to switch N-G bond in the subpanel. As this is an isolation transformer, N-G will need to be bonded in the subpanel.

How does grid passthrough work with EG4 6000EX, if it has isolation transformer?
Does it pass grid through to 240V primary, so output is still isolated?
Does it pass grid through to transformer secondary? If so, does secondary then act as an auto-transformer and try to rebalance grid? Or does it disconnect center-tap when passing through?
Does it switch between grid and isolation transformer feeding output?

I was going to say you don't need 3-pole transfer switch, can just used interlocked breakers switching only L1/L2 (and get neutral/ground bond from grid always), but I realized pass through inverter needs to be understood.