Sungoldpower 5kW-48V all-in-one,120V AC output, 500voc solar for $720 w/free shipping!! Any good?

[dpd]

I have been planning out my RV install and looking at all-in-one units.
I had my sights set on an MPP LVX6048, but I just ran across this unit:

https://sungoldpower.com/collections/all/products/5000w-48v-solar-charger-inverter
Model designation is SPH504880A

The unit is $799 but there is a 10% discount until the end of June, $720 total. Shipping is free.
This seems like a really great deal for the specs.

Pros:
- 500Voc max for solar
- 5kw inverter output
- 120V direct output (no auto transformer required)
- UL 1741
- Gen start dry contact, RS485, other goodies similar to MPP

Cons:
- only 40A battery charge from grid AC
- high frequency
- no 240V/split
- not parallel capable (I think?)

Has anyone run this unit, or care to comment on possible concerns?
Which MPP Solar unit would be the closest match? Maybe the LV5048?

I have the impression that SunGoldPower units are just another Voltronics rebrand, and usually come in very similar or exactly the same as MPP Solar cross referenced models. I have seen mostly positive reviews online, and I haven't come across a lot of complaints or concerns, like for some of the discount brands e.g. PowMr.

The only things that are missing from this system that I would like are 240V split phase and parallel capability, both for future needs, nothing I care about right now.
The LVX6048 shipped will be about $2200 CAD for me, this SunGoldPower will arrive for around $1050.
Too good to be true?

 

[JoeHam]

Looks like a lot for the money.

I have no experience but a forum search for Sungold shows this :

Search results for query: Sungold

diysolarforum.com

And a different model but this YT from Will :

 

[dpd]

Thanks for the input guys! Sounding good so far...
Sungoldpower said in an email:
"The 5kw 48v inverter is our new product, we are still looking for an influencer to review it. We'll share the video on the website later."
So I guess it's pretty new to the scene, I will just have to bite the bullet I guess!

 

[JoeHam]

Blaze that trail and report back how it goes please.

 

[dpd]

I asked SunGoldPower for more information about idle / zero load draw, and PV charging with the inverter OFF.

Of course, these are vital things to know for off-grid, and differentiates good units like MPP Solar from junk. Low quality AIOs like PowMr drain your battery by requiring the inverter to be ON during PV charging, requiring a large idle draw with no load, just to allow PV charge.

Bad news all around with this AIO unit:

1. The unit must be run with inverter ON to do PV charging
2. When I asked about idle draw, they avoided answering.
"When the inverter is fully on, there would be less than 20W consumption for start."

As we know, many inverters with high idle draw are able to start with a low idle draw, then shoot up to a high idle consumption as soon as a load is applied, and stay there. It's reasonable to conclude, from their evasion, that it's a high idle draw after "for start". Maybe it's a poor choice of words and the idle draw really is 20W, but it's more likely that this is typical marketing lies like other low quality AIOs.

It is too bad that they missed the target with these problems. It is not an off-grid suitable unit and I recommend staying away unless you want to install big extra battery capacity and solar panels just for the high idle draw, which the company won't even admit, very bad sign.

 

[42OhmsPA]

I asked SunGoldPower for more information about idle / zero load draw, and PV charging with the inverter OFF.

Of course, these are vital things to know for off-grid, and differentiates good units like MPP Solar from junk. Low quality AIOs like PowMr drain your battery by requiring the inverter to be ON during PV charging, requiring a large idle draw with no load, just to allow PV charge.

Bad news all around with this AIO unit:

1. The unit must be run with inverter ON to do PV charging
2. When I asked about idle draw, they avoided answering.
"When the inverter is fully on, there would be less than 20W consumption for start."

As we know, many inverters with high idle draw are able to start with a low idle draw, then shoot up to a high idle consumption as soon as a load is applied, and stay there. It's reasonable to conclude, from their evasion, that it's a high idle draw after "for start". Maybe it's a poor choice of words and the idle draw really is 20W, but it's more likely that this is typical marketing lies like other low quality AIOs.

It is too bad that they missed the target with these problems. It is not an off-grid suitable unit and I recommend staying away unless you want to install big extra battery capacity and solar panels just for the high idle draw, which the company won't even admit, very bad sign.

This looks like a clone of the LV5048 which appears to be 29w standby/idle consumption.
They were receptive to all off my questions, sometimes I had to ask a different way to get clarity due to the language barrier.
I'm impatiently waiting for FedEx to deliver my TP6048 which has around 130w idle consumption, I'll add a panel to address it. Ordered June 25th, arriving today.
I figure I'm using power 24/7 regardless, the inverter is just another load to account for.

 

[dpd]

This looks like a clone of the LV5048 which appears to be 29w standby/idle consumption.
They were receptive to all off my questions, sometimes I had to ask a different way to get clarity due to the language barrier.
I'm impatiently waiting for FedEx to deliver my TP6048 which has around 130w idle consumption, I'll add a panel to address it. Ordered June 25th, arriving today.
I figure I'm using power 24/7 regardless, the inverter is just another load to account for.

Thanks for this info!
I have requested clarification about the idle draw consumption, and promised to correct this critique if they can state that the idle consumption is 20W, as opposed to "20W for start" like all the inverters out there with low draw on startup, and much higher after the first load connected.
If they can come through with better info I'll post it here.

If the idle is indeed 29W (LV5048) or 20W (their claim) then I will buy this in a heartbeat!
Idle draw is a funny issue to discuss, different views from different users in different situations.

If you have lots of daily sun, "I only need 30mins every day to compensate for idle draw", "it's just another load".
If you're up north like me, trying to scavenge every last photon and make it last as long as you can? Then 130w idle kills my 14kWh bank in 4 days with no other loads. With my typical 50W average total, I'm good for 8 days with 25W idle draw and no sun...or 2 days with 130W draw.
That's a 75% performance loss systemwide, in crappy conditions (which happen too often.)

Big solar + big loads = no care about idle, it becomes a minor variable.
Small solar + small loads? It sucks to try to optimize conservation with low draw appliances, when the inverter itself is the dominant consumer!
All stuff you know very well I'm sure!

Thanks again for the tip, I have hope again that maybe this economical unit will meet my needs with true low idle, that would be a huge win. I'll update if/when they reply with clarification on idle draw. If it's 20W, they shouldn't omit it from the specs and manual !!!

 

[dpd]

For anyone that is looking at this unit, I got some more info from sungoldpower.
Not verified myself, but more complete. Quoting:
---
1. What is the idle consumption at startup?
When starting the inverter, there would be about 20W consumption

2. What is the idle consumption in power saving mode?
When the inverter is in Power saving mode, Idle consumption is 20~25W

3. What is the idle consumption in normal use?
When the inverter is not in Power saving mode, Idle consumption is 45~50W

4. Does it have MPPT and grid charging with the inverter off?
The 5000w 48v inverter is our economical version, we have another inverter that can charge the battery when the inverter was turned off.

5. Can you remote power on/off the unit with contacts or RS485?
[no answer]
---

I am disappointed that there is no MPPT/grid charge with the inverter section off, but the idle consumption is not bad so this is not as big of a deal as with the 135W-idle inverters! So if there is a way to switch it off automatically (on a daily schedule, or based on a small pilot panel reading sun levels, etc.) then at 20-25W idle in power saving, you don't have to bleed energy all night. Even if there's no way with RS485, a small relay on the power switch itself could do the job.

Power saving/sensing mode, >50W loads in this case, isn't usually useful IMO. But in this case, where the unit can't bring in solar without powering the inverter, power saving mode is probably about the same as inverter-off, when it comes to reducing idle draw. So as long as the whole thing can be powered down gracefully when the sun goes away with a hack, the idle issue isn't so bad.

Power saving mode isn't so bad if I don't plan on using the inverter often. I plan to have a small 1500-2000W inverter, with a known low idle draw, for daily use. Switch to the big inverter when I need 5kw. So flipping a transfer switch, then having the microwave bring the AIO out of power saving mode is an OK setup I think.

 

[CoreyN3FE]

Maybe I missed it. I do not believe this can stack though. It would be a good deal for me if it could stack and do split phase!

 

[dpd]

Correct, it seems this unit can not stack. It is not under the "parallel" section in the product listings, and it makes no mention in the manual that there is any stacking ability. The SGP units that can stack have this advertised prominently.

 

[magic_smoke]

 

[42OhmsPA]

Bringing this thread back to life (I'm a dumbass and waited to long to order a 6548 from the savings shack... You know the saying about procrastination...)

Is anyone running this inverter?

5000W 48V Solar Charger Inverter

No Tax Free Shipping 12 Months Warranty Hightlight: ★ All-in-one solar charge inverter : 5000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter Combined with 80A MPPT solar Charging and 40A AC battery charging, Max 5000W 500V PV Array. ★ Stable AC output : Pure Sine Wave off grid solar inverter for home 110V AC...

sungoldpower.com

I'll be adding a ground mount array soon enough and want to leave both my rooftops and TP6048 alone since everything is working so well (besides the flickering lights when the washer agitates).

Instead of buying a separate mppt, why not add another AIO and have some additional / redundant 120V power... I could also connect my 3500 inverter generator to this for charging.

I can't find the MPP version of this, going to look for the voltronic soon.

 

[Crowz]

I had no luck either finding much info besides on sungolds site. Nice looking unit though.

I ordered 2 of sungold's 450 watt panels today. If they spec out nicely I will be ordering more and converting over to them as my others are getting old.

As much as the stand alone charger controllers cost to get 100 amps worth of charging I have been going back and forth on something like that or a stand alone. I want something who's job is just to charge the batteries the entire day in place of it having to make power for the house stuff but having it as an emergency thing wouldn't be bad.

 

[dpd]

Bringing this thread back to life (I'm a dumbass and waited to long to order a 6548 from the savings shack... You know the saying about procrastination...)

Is anyone running this inverter?

5000W 48V Solar Charger Inverter

No Tax Free Shipping 12 Months Warranty Hightlight: ★ All-in-one solar charge inverter : 5000 Watt Pure Sine Wave Inverter Combined with 80A MPPT solar Charging and 40A AC battery charging, Max 5000W 500V PV Array. ★ Stable AC output : Pure Sine Wave off grid solar inverter for home 110V AC...

sungoldpower.com

I'll be adding a ground mount array soon enough and want to leave both my rooftops and TP6048 alone since everything is working so well (besides the flickering lights when the washer agitates).

Instead of buying a separate mppt, why not add another AIO and have some additional / redundant 120V power... I could also connect my 3500 inverter generator to this for charging.

I can't find the MPP version of this, going to look for the voltronic soon.

Sorry for the late reply! I have had this unit up and running for a few weeks and it's fine. No problems or issues so far.
I think it's a good unit if you're looking for an affordable AIO, with 120V as your only need.

Nice suprise: the 2 cooling fans at the bottom of the unit are very quiet, and variable speed. They don't run at all until significant watts are inverting or charging.

I don't have a detailed reading on the idle power draw yet, but it's encouraging so far. In power saving mode, my JBD BMS does not register any draw at all, but I'm not sure how accurate the JBD is for low currents. I'll try the clamp-on and see what it reports.

I also received a detailed RS485/modbus doc from sungoldpower if anyone's interested...it might be a good cross reference to compare and see which Voltronic unit it's derived from.

 

[42OhmsPA]

Sorry for the late reply! I have had this unit up and running for a few weeks and it's fine. No problems or issues so far.
I think it's a good unit if you're looking for an affordable AIO, with 120V as your only need.

Nice suprise: the 2 cooling fans at the bottom of the unit are very quiet, and variable speed. They don't run at all until significant watts are inverting or charging.

I don't have a detailed reading on the idle power draw yet, but it's encouraging so far. In power saving mode, my JBD BMS does not register any draw at all, but I'm not sure how accurate the JBD is for low currents. I'll try the clamp-on and see what it reports.

I also received a detailed RS485/modbus doc from sungoldpower if anyone's interested...it might be a good cross reference to compare and see which Voltronic unit it's derived from.

Thank you for following up.

 

[Supervstech]

This looks like a clone of the LV5048 which appears to be 29w standby/idle consumption.
They were receptive to all off my questions, sometimes I had to ask a different way to get clarity due to the language barrier.
I'm impatiently waiting for FedEx to deliver my TP6048 which has around 130w idle consumption, I'll add a panel to address it. Ordered June 25th, arriving today.
I figure I'm using power 24/7 regardless, the inverter is just another load to account for.

130W is 3120Wh daily consumption...
So... average 6 hours od daylight charging, you need 520W panel dedicated to the charging... fyi...

 

[dpd]

Yeah, that idle draw gets you bad! My setup is for an RV/mobile office, with 48V/280AH (13440WH) battery and it's just gross how a 130W idle draw will run me out of power in 3-4 days without any other loads!

So I suppose 50w from the sungoldpower could be worse, but I have a scheme in mind to save on idle draw when the sun's down:
Install a small inverter with low idle draw, like a Victron Phoenix 48/1200, idles at 10W.
Put it on an auto transfer switch. When the sun goes down, the PV input will drop below 50W.

The raspberry pi that is monitoring the sungoldpower PV input with RS485, will sense PV input <50W, and send an "off" command to put it to sleep (wake back up at sunrise). But first, it will remote-on the phoenix, which will cause the auto transfer switch to run my night time loads (TV, phone chargers, modem etc.) on the Phoenix.

If it's a warm night that needs AC, or I get up hungry and have to cook? I'll have to turn the AIO back on for more power...
But it seems like this is the only way to really deal with this AIO idle draw issue, to remote switch it off at sundown by default! Or get Victron stuff but I'd have to win the lottery first.

 

[aussiesam]

Yeah, that idle draw gets you bad! My setup is for an RV/mobile office, with 48V/280AH (13440WH) battery and it's just gross how a 130W idle draw will run me out of power in 3-4 days without any other loads!

So I suppose 50w from the sungoldpower could be worse, but I have a scheme in mind to save on idle draw when the sun's down:
Install a small inverter with low idle draw, like a Victron Phoenix 48/1200, idles at 10W.
Put it on an auto transfer switch. When the sun goes down, the PV input will drop below 50W.

The raspberry pi that is monitoring the sungoldpower PV input with RS485, will sense PV input <50W, and send an "off" command to put it to sleep (wake back up at sunrise). But first, it will remote-on the phoenix, which will cause the auto transfer switch to run my night time loads (TV, phone chargers, modem etc.) on the Phoenix.

If it's a warm night that needs AC, or I get up hungry and have to cook? I'll have to turn the AIO back on for more power...
But it seems like this is the only way to really deal with this AIO idle draw issue, to remote switch it off at sundown by default! Or get Victron stuff but I'd have to win the lottery first.

I saw a review of a guy switching a similar inverter from appliance mode to UPS mode and the idle consumption went down around 70%. Have you guys tried this? Would be interested to know if its a universal thing

 

[dpd]

I saw a review of a guy switching a similar inverter from appliance mode to UPS mode and the idle consumption went down around 70%. Have you guys tried this? Would be interested to know if its a universal thing

Hmm, interesting idea!

I will check which mode mine has been running in. I am perfectly happy running in APP mode if the only difference is switching delay.

I have a proper UPS for the computers already so this could be a big win, thanks for the idea!

I'd guess that most people already have devices that will switch gracefully enough in app mode... if you have a wall power supply like a mini pc it will go for a few milliseconds on capacitors anyway!

 

[dpd]

I saw a review of a guy switching a similar inverter from appliance mode to UPS mode and the idle consumption went down around 70%. Have you guys tried this? Would be interested to know if its a universal thing

Hey aussiesam, could you please share that video with me if you can find it? I'd like to know if there's anything else he comments on with his testing like power saving/search mode.

My sungold AIO has settings for both UPS/APP mode, and power saving search mode on/off. I'm really curious now what combination can get as low as possible.

I have a shunt that I think I have to install to get any kind of decent reading on it tho. I thought the jbd BMS would give me an accurate reading across its mosfets but it doesn't seem to be reliable, and my clamp on just says 1 amp DC no matter what I do on the idle draw.