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SolarEdge SE 10000H up in smoke

John Schmidt

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My SolarEdge SE-10000H has been up for about a week, and producing up to 63kWh a day up here in Maine in March. I have 9600 watts of panels. Yesterday was a bit cloudy, and it was peaking at about 8kW around noon. I noticed on the SE app that it had stopped producing, so went downstairs and the breaker had tripped. I reset it, and heard a pop in the inverter as the breaker tripped again. I reset the breaker again, and it immediately tripped and the inverter popped. I took off the cover, and a couple of the inductors near the bottom looked like they had overheated. There was some carbon residue in the bottom of the case as well. I have a ticket in with SE, and called my distributor. I hope that it won't take long to get a replacement. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas of what may have gone wrong?IMG_1673.jpg
 
My SolarEdge SE-10000H has been up for about a week, and producing up to 63kWh a day up here in Maine in March. I have 9600 watts of panels. Yesterday was a bit cloudy, and it was peaking at about 8kW around noon. I noticed on the SE app that it had stopped producing, so went downstairs and the breaker had tripped. I reset it, and heard a pop in the inverter as the breaker tripped again. I reset the breaker again, and it immediately tripped and the inverter popped. I took off the cover, and a couple of the inductors near the bottom looked like they had overheated. There was some carbon residue in the bottom of the case as well. I have a ticket in with SE, and called my distributor. I hope that it won't take long to get a replacement. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas of what may have gone wrong?View attachment 40342
UPDATE: CED Greentech is sending a replacement up via FedEx. They have always been great.
 
Thanks for sharing this information, really glad they're stepping up!

63kWh a day up here in Maine in March. I have 9600 watts of panels
Wow! 63 / 9 ... that's an insolation of 7! Guessing you're optimized for equinox? (I thought I was hot stuff with an insolation of 6 ? )
 
Thanks for sharing this information, really glad they're stepping up!


Wow! 63 / 9 ... that's an insolation of 7! Guessing you're optimized for equinox? (I thought I was hot stuff with an insolation of 6 ? )
63 has been the peak so far. The panels are exactly due-south, but at about 35 degrees rather than 42. They should do even better this summer.
 

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Update: The inverter has been down for 24 hours since first reported by me, and not even the slightest response from SolarEdge support? Not good. CED was great, and I likely can count on them if SolarEdge continues to be unresponsive, but I was hoping for at least an acknowledgement from SolarEdge that I had submitted a trouble ticket. I also contacted them via the proper warranty support, by submitting my issue with my SolarEdge SE-10000H receipt from CED. No response via email or from their support trouble ticketing site. We'll see how this goes. I put the Inverter on my American Express, but would hate to go that route. Maybe I'm just impatient. A simple reply from SolarEdge would go a long way.
 
Between you and @GXMnow I'm starting to feel special, when I call Enphase I can usually be talking to a tech within 5 minutes and support tickets same day. Not that the first or even second call gets the problem resolved or I get the best information out of the gate... but at least they talk to me.
 
My SolarEdge SE-10000H has been up for about a week, and producing up to 63kWh a day up here in Maine in March. I have 9600 watts of panels. Yesterday was a bit cloudy, and it was peaking at about 8kW around noon. I noticed on the SE app that it had stopped producing, so went downstairs and the breaker had tripped. I reset it, and heard a pop in the inverter as the breaker tripped again. I reset the breaker again, and it immediately tripped and the inverter popped. I took off the cover, and a couple of the inductors near the bottom looked like they had overheated. There was some carbon residue in the bottom of the case as well. I have a ticket in with SE, and called my distributor. I hope that it won't take long to get a replacement. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas of what may have gone wrong?View attachment 40342

Hi John,
My thanks to you and all who post here. I have learned a lot. Sorry to hear about your inverter. And glad to read about your large system.

For what it's worth, perhaps to help others, and definitely NOT a criticism of you, as a jet pilot for some 35 years one of the things we are taught in recurrent training every 6 months when it comes to circuit breakers is not to just reset them. The breaker pops for a reason and to protect you from bigger problems (I know this from not following this, and thus creating bigger problems for myself!) So, as I read this, in the case of DIY it would be most prudent to diagnose and resolve any problem before resetting the c/b. Multiple resets of c/bs are an even bigger no-no. (worst of all is covering a c/b, which was "always popping" on a gasoline-fueled airplane cabin heater, with a heavy glob of silicon sealant to prevent it popping!!) Diagnosis is rarely quick or easy though. Good luck with the replacement inverter. Please let us know if that functions without (the same or other) issue.
 
Hi John,
My thanks to you and all who post here. I have learned a lot. Sorry to hear about your inverter. And glad to read about your large system.

For what it's worth, perhaps to help others, and definitely NOT a criticism of you, as a jet pilot for some 35 years one of the things we are taught in recurrent training every 6 months when it comes to circuit breakers is not to just reset them. The breaker pops for a reason and to protect you from bigger problems (I know this from not following this, and thus creating bigger problems for myself!) So, as I read this, in the case of DIY it would be most prudent to diagnose and resolve any problem before resetting the c/b. Multiple resets of c/bs are an even bigger no-no. (worst of all is covering a c/b, which was "always popping" on a gasoline-fueled airplane cabin heater, with a heavy glob of silicon sealant to prevent it popping!!) Diagnosis is rarely quick or easy though. Good luck with the replacement inverter. Please let us know if that functions without (the same or other) issue.
Good point! I should have known that. I guess that I was so surprised that it had tripped, and didn't think that was I was seeing was real! A SolarEdge SE reached out and offered to help grease the wheels at SolarEdge support. I'll let everyone know how it goes, either way!
 
My SolarEdge SE-10000H has been up for about a week, and producing up to 63kWh a day up here in Maine in March. I have 9600 watts of panels. Yesterday was a bit cloudy, and it was peaking at about 8kW around noon. I noticed on the SE app that it had stopped producing, so went downstairs and the breaker had tripped. I reset it, and heard a pop in the inverter as the breaker tripped again. I reset the breaker again, and it immediately tripped and the inverter popped. I took off the cover, and a couple of the inductors near the bottom looked like they had overheated. There was some carbon residue in the bottom of the case as well. I have a ticket in with SE, and called my distributor. I hope that it won't take long to get a replacement. Has anyone else experienced this? Any ideas of what may have gone wrong?View attachment 40342
Did you get your system up and running?
 
Hi, Sorry for the late response. My system was up and running about 10 days after it went down. I didn't get a quick response from SE, but after getting onto an SE forum and asking about why SE support was not responding to my RMA request, one of the members reached out to SE support and got some attention. I'm not sure if it would have been as fast if the person on the SE forum had not reached out, but the forum member appeared to be the catalyst. I followed the RMA process that SE has on their support page, and submitted all docs via the support portal as required. Just a simple "we received your RMA request and will respond go/nogo within 24 hours would have been nice.
 
Thanks Having just purchased the same inverter, I was hoping that you had a pleasant outcome! :)
 
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