diy solar

diy solar

Sol-Ark not a good company to deal with 12k

So many complaints against so many companies. Still the wild west in solar stuff. Makes me lean towards a power shack, cheap ash components, and if it burns out, it burns out. Nothing but sweet AC into the house.
Haaa .. ditto… that’s why all my stuff except the power cord feeding the premises will be at least 50 ft away.. this is the growing pain years of solar …….the Wild West as you say …
 
I find it pleasantly reassuring that Schneider under-advertises their XW-Pro 6848, which can handle 12kW for a few seconds and has a published capacity curve.
 
I find it pleasantly reassuring that Schneider under-advertises their XW-Pro 6848, which can handle 12kW for a few seconds and has a published capacity curve.
I thought 12kW for 3 seconds was their official surge spec
 
Theyre official spec is 12k with solar.

It IS capable of 12k output, when solar is there to supply the remaining 3k that the inverter itself cannot.

I think this only applies when 3kw of AC coupled PV is connected though, not DC coupled PV. If it was DC coupled, then it is still relying on the inverter, which is limited to 9kw.

I agree its not right, and they probably know that, but they arent going to change it now, with who knows how many they have sold. Having said that, I have purchased one myself.
 
Theyre official spec is 12k with solar.

It IS capable of 12k output, when solar is there to supply the remaining 3k that the inverter itself cannot.

I think this only applies when 3kw of AC coupled PV is connected though, not DC coupled PV. If it was DC coupled, then it is still relying on the inverter, which is limited to 9kw.

I agree its not right, and they probably know that, but they arent going to change it now, with who knows how many they have sold. Having said that, I have purchased one myself.
I think it is 12k with DC coupled solar and quite a bit more with AC coupled
 
It specifically says in theyre Manual with PV (but not which type) the max is 12000w. But when grid or generator is available it is 63a or 15120w.
It says the optimal configuration is 3kW AC coupled with 13kW of DC coupled. I'd be surprised if they considered that optimal if it could only use 9kW from DC coupled panels.

That would also be more consistent with the 15k which can do 15kW from DC coupled panels (plus 19.2kW from AC coupled).
 
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It says the optimal configuration is 3kW AC coupled with 13kW of DC coupled. I'd be surprised if they considered that optimal if it could only use 9kW from DC coupled panels.

That would also be more consistent with the 15k which can do 15kW from DC coupled panels (plus 19.2kW from AC coupled).
It's only with 3kw from other sources.
Grid, generator, or AC coupling.
The inverter is only capable 9.6kw.
 
Interesting. That's different than the 15k. Maybe they changed it because it was confusing.
Yup, they've realized that they screwed up and actually down rated the new ones. What they're calling the 15k, is Deye's 16k. I guess that they decided to go the other way, this time. Or maybe they had to, because of the imbalance issues that split-phase brings. Maybe, it's not even capable of 15k. Time will tell. Just have to wait and see.
 
Well. I thought it was described in his sig line. But now I don’t see it.

Hope I’m not mixing up members.

@upnorthandpersonal
@73powerstroke

My entire set-up is in one of the blog entries (see my sig). The inverter and charge controllers in particular are from MUST - they do very little in Europe/States but are popular in certain African countries. I got a 6kW low frequency inverter from them (EP3000) and several spare power and control boards in case something goes wrong. It's been running for two years now (except periods in winter) without issues.
The reason I don't use it in winter is because a) I don't need 6kW then and b) the idle consumption (75W or thereabout) is a bit high when you don't have sun. For this reason I used a Victron Phoenix (currently being upgraded to a Victron Multiplus II 3kVA) with an idle consumption of 10W or thereabouts.
 
There it is. I don’t know why I didn‘t see it last night.

I’m heavily leaning towards a set up like this. Interesting that you are upgrading to the victron though.

You are the second experienced user I’ve run across making the switch. Though here, we have more sun than we want making idle consumption less of an issue.
 
Interesting that you are upgrading to the victron though.

Not making a switch - I've had a Victron Phoenix for winter time since the beginning. It's an old non-VE version I've had for years. I'm just updating that component to the Multiplus II. The MUST EP3000 stays very much where it is!
 
@73powerstroke

My entire set-up is in one of the blog entries (see my sig). The inverter and charge controllers in particular are from MUST - they do very little in Europe/States but are popular in certain African countries. I got a 6kW low frequency inverter from them (EP3000) and several spare power and control boards in case something goes wrong. It's been running for two years now (except periods in winter) without issues.
The reason I don't use it in winter is because a) I don't need 6kW then and b) the idle consumption (75W or thereabout) is a bit high when you don't have sun. For this reason I used a Victron Phoenix (currently being upgraded to a Victron Multiplus II 3kVA) with an idle consumption of 10W or thereabouts.
Only phone mobile version it doesn't show your signature, but it pops up when I switch to view desktop version in the opera browser. I'll check it out. Thanks!
 
Only phone mobile version it doesn't show your signature, but it pops up when I switch to view desktop version in the opera browser. I'll check it out. Thanks!
It pops up in the mobile version if you turn your phone to landscape mode.
 
i dont care about misleading marketing 9k/12k that's in spec sheet, but the one that gets me is the "engineered in the USA" which its not, im sure they give them specs to update firmware to make sure its compatible with local grid here etc but its def not enginerded in the usa, second monitoring is straight from china and hosted in china, they probably sold enough of them to buy teir own license of solarman and host in the usa so at least when you traceroute their hostname doesnt lead straight to china.
i personally had ok comms with support one time was quick other was a bit slow and snarky but like with any support how you present the question depends if you get an answer
 
My guess is that in about 5 years, we'll start to see these Sol-Arks failing.. and once the warranty claims become too burdensome, the company will go out of business.

I'm curious, does anyone here own a high frequency battery inverter that has been used for more then 5 or 7 years and is still working? I'm not talking about a grid tied unit, I'm wondering about the off-grid battery inverters.
 
My guess is that in about 5 years, we'll start to see these Sol-Arks failing.. and once the warranty claims become too burdensome, the company will go out of business.

I'm curious, does anyone here own a high frequency battery inverter that has been used for more then 5 or 7 years and is still working? I'm not talking about a grid tied unit, I'm wondering about the off-grid battery inverters.
Inverters are pretty dumb, unless you fry them they will pay for a long time, the thing that might die is the confuser (control/cpu board) inside, but that should be cheap to replace
 
Inverters are pretty dumb, unless you fry them they will pay for a long time, the thing that might die is the confuser (control/cpu board) inside, but that should be cheap to replace
I would imagine that even if someone has some 2000 Watt POS Chinese inverter but limits its load to a 250 watt television, the thing will probably last a long time.

What I want to know is how do the whole-house HF units hold up? Units like the 5000 watt AIMS inverters, or the other Chinese import units when used full time.
 
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