SunGoldPower 24v 6000W 240v split phase inverter charger

[Supervstech]

A bridge where? If you tie the two output legs, you will blow up the inverter...

 

[bsterzenbach]

AIMS, "Sungoldpower", "Oneinverter", "Ouyad", "Upsen" and "Sigineer" inverters (the low-freq models with 120-204v split-phase outputs) are all extremely similar and appear to be made by the same factory, Yiyen. I suspect Sunray Shenzhen inverters are also made by Yiyen. And probably a few other brandnames I have not seen yet.....

The point is that Yiyen's inverters are sold under a TON of assorted brandnames. It's perfectly legal, since these are meant mostly for off-grid or mobile applications. If you want one with UL type approvals you will have to pay loads more for the "premium" types like Schneider or Outback Power. AIMS has some inverter models that are "ETL conforming" and alleged to conform to UL standard 458. They SHOULD be acceptable for home solar installation but I suspect you would need the blessing of a professional electrician.

I have had a 4kW AIMS and a 6kW Sigineer. They are amazingly similar except the Sigineer has a built-in display. Both of them consumed about 50-60 watts at idle with no load, so you may have gotten a bad sample. I put a scope on the outputs and saw very clean sine waves, even under some load. They are not BAD products--you just can't expect the built-in fans to cool them properly. You MUST put plenty of external fans around them if they are exposed to temps of 80 deg F or more. Take better care of them than the "serious industrial" types.

Like a lot of industries, the inverter manufacturing base in China is a crazy mess, with dozens of resellers buying OEM inverters and remarking them--and pretending to be the original manufacturer. Applies to all other solar-power products too. Be aware of this.

I don't know about all SungoldPower inverters, but I'm 99% certain that this one is manufactured by Voltronic. I was trying to track down the manufacturer of mine, just out of curiosity, and I searched an ID from one of the boards on the unit and found this test report. It lists the ID and specifies the manufacturer as Voltronic. Also, Voltronic bills themselves as a white label manufacturer.

 

[bsterzenbach]

I just received this for my offgrid home project https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00S4DZRSK/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza?th=1

24V 6000W inverter charger - $1099 + tax. Very heavy and well built. Initially looked very good, then some problems arose.

Just turning on the unit and having it idle consumes 155W, that's over 3700W or 3.7KW a day. Thats a whole bank of batteries needed just to turn it on and you will need a big solar array to replace that energy. If you run anything fridge / tv/ lights etc, that's in addition to this load, so if you want to run a 100W light, you will be using 255W. The only idle consumption usage numbers mentioned in the manual and sales literature is 25W. They covered the real consumption numbers up. Turns out the low rate documented is in idle/standby mode which has its own problems, making it unusable

I wanted this split phase unit to run my house off-grid 24x7, I don't want to have to turn it on and off each time I want electricity, but having an inverter use nearly 4KW a day just to idle is crazy, that's nearly the same power I use myself to run the house.

I tried Power Saver mode and that uses a fraction of the power, 25W, that looks promising, but unfortunately it doesn't work. In the standard setting, it's meant to search every 30 seconds for a load on the AC circuit, but it doesn't work. If you switch the toggle #3 on to enable a 3 second search, that does work, but only searches on 1 side of the 240 split phase, plug the same device on the other 120v leg and it doesn't work. Why? Was this a cost saving measure?

So, initially this device look great, but it consumes so much power, its not worth it, especially when its power saving feature is broken.

So you will need four 12v 100a/h batteries ($200 each) and ten 100 watt solar panels ($1000) just to run the inverter itself. Forget plugging anything into it. I tested its power consumption using 3 different methods and they all concurred. Its that bad.

What alternatives are there for whole house split phase inverters? How much idle power do the MPP units take?
View attachment 12358

This was my discovery as well. I have a 6k inverter and it uses about 125w just idling. I guess I'm not surprised, but it was a little disappointing to realize that so much power was going to just keeping the unit powered up. I did a real-world test, and yeah, it takes about 100AH for my 48v system to survive the night to the next solar charge. I have about 3k watts in panels, so they'll handle the charging, but it was a bit of a buzzkill to see that my whole bank will be DoD'd to 75% each night just on idle. I'm seriously considering getting a 1kw inverter and having it auto-transfer to the 6k when there is demand.

 

[Hedges]

I don't know about all SungoldPower inverters, but I'm 99% certain that this one is manufactured by Voltronic. I was trying to track down the manufacturer of mine, just out of curiosity, and I searched an ID from one of the boards on the unit and found this test report. It lists the ID and specifies the manufacturer as Voltronic. Also, Voltronic bills themselves as a white label manufacturer.

Interesting to scan through the test details.

"L4 coil(For main power board) 108.2 105.7 101.9 102.4 110"
With max allowed 110 degrees C, this inductor measured 108.2 degrees.
Think that was under lab ambient conditions? Or max temperature, min humidity? I would expect inverter to regulate heatsink temperature, not measuring inductor temperature but that would track.

"C26 Short PV 450Vdc 10min -- 0.03 Unit shutdown immediately, no damage, no hazards."
Various parts shorted out, checking that no unsafe condition occurs. Some resistors, when shorted, killed a transistor.
Small number of parts subjected to that, probably those related to grid connection plus cooling.

Sounds like what I hear UL listing involves.
A product I was involved with relied on AC supply rated 240W to feed it DC. So not being line connected, testing of ours was less stringent.

Creepage and clearance also shown.

UL listing of various components.

Undergoing such testing and using compliant components makes the product more expensive, but verified safer and allowed to be connected. That one appears to be for European standards; similar to UL standards for U.S.