Terrible Signature Solar / EG4 18Kpv Experience - Returning and Replaced with Sol-Ark 15k

[beastman]

I take no joy in writing this, I sincerely wanted to love this new inverter and to support an active business on the forum, but I cannot sit silently and pretend this unit is "flawless" and anywhere near ready for the real world. I am not alone, I have received many messages from other members with their own struggles, we've all seen threads and it needs to be addressed.

After weeks of what I'd call nothing short of a circus, the new EG4 18Kpv is heading back to Signature Solar in a Sol-Ark 15k box and I'm asking Visa to step in and handle the refund. Very long and detailed story to follow, but the short version is this:

I took a chance on the latest and greatest from Signature Solar and I've been beyond disappointed every step of the way. The hardware fit and finish is great, I'd argue better than the Sol-Ark, but the software, support and attitude from specific members of their organization are utterly pathetic. In time I imagine they can fix things, but as of right now, I'd highly suggest considering another platform and company altogether. The software difference between the EG4 and Sol-Ark is like comparing a Nokia flip phone of the early 2000's to a modern day iPhone, they are worlds apart. With the EG4 you're asking it to do things and hoping for a positive outcome, with the Sol-Ark it's well documented, easy to follow and does exactly what you want 100% of the time. If you value your time and sanity, the decision is easy. I will however say the online monitoring and app for the EG4 18Kpv are great, very graphically attractive.

Remember, I'm just a guy on the internet, but I do hope you'll consider I have many years of experience working on dozens of systems with the leading manufacturers in the industry. I am not new to any of this, I am a licensed contractor and my work focuses in the IT and tech space. I am well aware that customers are often the source of problems with technical equipment like this, but in this instance, I can assure you that is not the case. Wrap your mind around this:

EVERY SINGLE ISSUE I HAD WAS IMMEDIATELY SOLVED WHEN THE UNIT WAS REPLACED BY A SOL-ARK 15K.

My entire goal was the following: Never under any circumstance backfeed the grid, period. The only other major sticking point I had was to peak shave from 3-9pm, then recharge battery bank after 10pm. These are not wild ideas, this isn't some lofty goal, this is exactly what the unit is advertised to do.

First problem: I get the unit installed and try to configure the app/wifi dongle and I'm met with an error, 4 days of no response from Signature Solar and it ends up being fixed by Gilbert from Luxpower. The dongle seemingly was never registered on their servers and needed back end work to begin functioning. There was nothing that could be done on the customer side. I was also given different Customer Codes for registration by different employees.

Once up and running, my sole support for a week was from Gilbert. They seem to have a quasi relationship with him helping diagnose customer issues, but not really working for them. He was always great and very helpful, but clearly had his limitations. Not that he was unqualified in any way, but there was only so much he could actually do with the inverter, everything was always a compromise and lots of, "it's not perfect, this is just how it works". For example, he got the 3-9pm peak shaving semi-functional right off the bat, except it would always pull roughly 10% of it's output power from the grid and the switchover time would (in his own words) happen + or - 8 minutes from the time it was programmed. How a computer decides to drift I do not know, but he didn't have any explanation.

After days of attempted fixes and me speaking to multiple Signature Solar employees, I noticed each person didn't really understand how to make it work. Not because they weren't smart, but because they truly didn't know, nor share any continuity of answers. One employee would tell me solution A would work, then another would be completely contradictory and say solution B would work, neither of which solved the problem. It legitimately was a guess and check situation, and more than once lead to the inverter back feeding the grid.

Second problem: I was never able to install or connect solar panels to the system because my inspector basically laughed at me when he asked about a remote rapid shutdown device. I had the 18Kpv installed in my garage and both CAT6 and 14/2 from the unit to the main service panel for a remote disconnect switch. After asking no less than (4) times both via direct message and email, I never once received a response. I've seen it addressed in other threads as, "we have a white paper coming soon". I've even seen other members posting how they've temporarily rigged up a solution. The manual CLEARLY states this can be done, but has absolutely no direction as to how to do it. There is no pinout, no clue, other than a crude drawing in the manual (there's nowhere to connect said switch, those two spots on the board don't exist). My inspector had serious doubts to say the least, and made it clear that no panels should be connected to the system until a remote rapid shutdown switch could be installed and tested. During this time I'm receiving messages from other forum members that are having differing forms of issues and some expressing how they feel lucky they got their unit at a "substantial discount", which really just twists the knife!
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At this point I reached out to Markus from Signature solar via the forums and expressed the situation, his initial messages were very reasonable:
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He then goes on to offer a full refund, and I express I want to see it work and am willing to help however I can (trust me, I had ZERO desire to take the thing back down, buy another inverter, hang it, redo an expensive wire way, rewire everything, ship the old one back etc.). I was financially invested and hoped for positive results:

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At that point I went camping for the weekend, here's where we picked up. The old firmware he is referring to is the firmware that Gilbert had installed and stated was what helped eliminate grid backfeed (my number one concern).

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The next morning I receive an email from Ty at Signature Solar. He's apparently been tasked with handling this situation.


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So I naturally responded with as much detail as I could, stressing the need to not backfeed the grid, at this point I'm trying to remain hopeful, maybe this person fixes everything and I become a happy customer.

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The next messages to Markus show how well that went. It was becoming a disaster quickly.


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(limit of 10 attachments reached, I'll post the rest in the first comment).

i was on the fence between the two units, just commissioned the solark 15k with sok batteries in an afternoon. zero regrets. works exactly as it should with little help needed from current connected on the battery settings for discharge. 100% satisfied. i ordered two eg4 2 ton mini splits and they show up next month. will see how that experience goes.

 

[Farm Boy]

From what I've been told all utility companies here in usa, are switching out for smart meters at some point. I live in a rual area and my utility replaced mine with a smart meter this past April. It continuously go's through a series of viewing settings showing the build number followed by 3 other steps : DEL =( total delivery) DMD = receive today REC = EXPORT. I was there when they installed it as they said it will show back feeding grid as well. My point here is some do some don't have these smart meters and this is a definite way to show if your back feeding or not.

 

[OutlawSolar]

You're right. Mine worked right from the start.
I thought I saw somewhere it could auto correct. But it appears I was mistaken.
"Auto detect home Limit Sensor" here it is from the 15K manual -
View attachment 163155

Wondering if either EG18 or Sol-Ark implements this function that limits the maximum grid feed in at CT?
For example. Max grid feed (at CT)is set to5kW and grid attached load 7kW, an inverter limits its output to 5+7kW.

 

[ArthurEld]

Auto detect does correct for CT's being in the wrong direction.

It is awesome to see all of the decisions the Solark is making all of the time. I crack up when people say they want to use separate components so they can make all of the decisions. lol

 

[Tulex]

It is awesome to see all of the decisions the Solark is making all of the time. I crack up when people say they want to use separate components so they can make all of the decisions. lol

I like my 15K for that reason, it just does the job. It knows how to work together because it's built together. I get that if one internal component has an issue, the whole unit is down, but that's what support is for.

 

[Watts Happening]

i was on the fence between the two units, just commissioned the solark 15k with sok batteries in an afternoon. zero regrets. works exactly as it should with little help needed from current connected on the battery settings for discharge. 100% satisfied. i ordered two eg4 2 ton mini splits and they show up next month. will see how that experience goes.

Exactly how my install went, same products too!

 

[houseofancients]

It is awesome to see all of the decisions the Solark is making all of the time. I crack up when people say they want to use separate components so they can make all of the decisions. lol

Auto correct is -as said- flacky at best.
So always make sure they are on correct

 

[robby]

It may be Flacky on Deye or Sunsync firmware but it works perfectly on Sol-Arks Firmware.

 

[1201]

From what I've been told all utility companies here in usa, are switching out for smart meters at some point. I live in a rual area and my utility replaced mine with a smart meter this past April. It continuously go's through a series of viewing settings showing the build number followed by 3 other steps : DEL =( total delivery) DMD = receive today REC = EXPORT. I was there when they installed it as they said it will show back feeding grid as well. My point here is some do some don't have these smart meters and this is a definite way to show if your back feeding or not.

does DMD show kw or kwh? my demand shows kw, the highest amount of instantaneous power I used per billing cycle

 

[houseofancients]

It may be Flacky on Deye or Sunsync firmware but it works perfectly on Sol-Arks Firmware.

It is the same, but hey, what ever floats your boat

 

[beastman]

Exactly how my install went, same products too!

im really glad sok got ul9450a. makes me feel better if i end up permitting it as ul9540 is supposedly a few months out. had an existing sma system in place since 2015 and leaving it alone on nem 2.0. have not sent back any power to the grid as solark is storing and using it all. on ev2a plan so i can charge bats between 12am and 3pm at .27c kwh and use that power when it costs .48, .53 and .57c kwh. still optimizing settings. ideally i need another 5k worth of panels to get to zero and more batteries.

 

[Watts Happening]

im really glad sok got ul9450a. makes me feel better if i end up permitting it as ul9540 is supposedly a few months out. had an existing sma system in place since 2015 and leaving it alone on nem 2.0. have not sent back any power to the grid as solark is storing and using it all. on ev2a plan so i can charge bats between 12am and 3pm at .27c kwh and use that power when it costs .48, .53 and .57c kwh. still optimizing settings. ideally i need another 5k worth of panels to get to zero and more batteries.

Now you're making me feel lucky!

I'm charging at sub 10 cents, from 3-9pm I'm at about 42 cents and all of that is covered by the SOK batteries. I may pick up another one or two, hell I'd like three but the UL9540 is making that a pain. I have a perfect place for six of them together, I don't have multiple places for three :/

 

[Zapper77]

Now you're making me feel lucky!

I'm charging at sub 10 cents, from 3-9pm I'm at about 42 cents and all of that is covered by the SOK batteries. I may pick up another one or two, hell I'd like three but the UL9540 is making that a pain. I have a perfect place for six of them together, I don't have multiple places for three :/

Build a wall partition?
Inside outside?

 

[Watts Happening]

Build a wall partition?
Inside outside?

Garage on top of a large gun safe

 

[beastman]

Now you're making me feel lucky!

I'm charging at sub 10 cents, from 3-9pm I'm at about 42 cents and all of that is covered by the SOK batteries. I may pick up another one or two, hell I'd like three but the UL9540 is making that a pain. I have a perfect place for six of them together, I don't have multiple places for three :/

In CA they just raised rates again June ; previously was a high of about .48c kwh. Now up another 20 percent. Going with two EG4 2 ton A/C mini split hybrids. Will be wiring up another 2500w of panels to each one of those. Should reduce the demand from my existing grid-tie system dramatically. Supposedly going to .62c kwh 2024 from what I have heard. I honestly don't know how the middle-class is going to deal with this in California. I'm a business owner and saver, we paid off our modest home years ago when I turned 40. I can afford to make these investments to give the power company the finger, but most cannot.

1700 square foot home, family of 8, no central a/c. Only window a/c in bedrooms and swamp cooler. Charging a Tesla after hours. $650 bill last month. Existing solar produces 55kwh per day.

 

[Zapper77]

1700 square foot home, family of 8, no central a/c. Only window a/c in bedrooms and swamp cooler. Charging a Tesla after hours. $650 bill last month. Existing solar produces 55kwh per day.

Ouch. If my reverse math is correct...1,300 kWh consumed from the grid.

How many kW is your existing solar array?12k?

 

[robby]

It is the same, but hey, what ever floats your boat

Keep believing that if it makes you feel happy. I know Sol-Ark is doing a firmware update about once every 3-4 weeks.
When last has Deye come out with a Firmware update and how many have they released?

 

[G00SE]

Keep believing that if it makes you feel happy. I know Sol-Ark is doing a firmware update about once every 3-4 weeks.
When last has Deye come out with a Firmware update and how many have they released?

It seems solark is really striving for a great user experience
One question I have though, why is a firmware update monthly a good thing? I haven’t updated my tv, car, welder, or really anything I own outside of my phone and computer and those auto update. Everything simply works as intended

 

[Watts Happening]

In CA they just raised rates again June ; previously was a high of about .48c kwh. Now up another 20 percent. Going with two EG4 2 ton A/C mini split hybrids. Will be wiring up another 2500w of panels to each one of those. Should reduce the demand from my existing grid-tie system dramatically. Supposedly going to .62c kwh 2024 from what I have heard. I honestly don't know how the middle-class is going to deal with this in California. I'm a business owner and saver, we paid off our modest home years ago when I turned 40. I can afford to make these investments to give the power company the finger, but most cannot.

1700 square foot home, family of 8, no central a/c. Only window a/c in bedrooms and swamp cooler. Charging a Tesla after hours. $650 bill last month. Existing solar produces 55kwh per day.

I’ve often wondered the same thing. I’m in Northern Nevada and did the same, paid off our home in 2020 when I was 34 and welcoming our child into the world. Never want him to know what debt is.

Our power bill is half what you’re dealing with, but it’s to a point I can’t imagine how most can do it.

I have multiple friends that will literally not go to dinner because they can’t afford it etc. It’s a wild time.

 

[Gotshocked!]

In CA they just raised rates again June ; previously was a high of about .48c kwh. Now up another 20 percent. Going with two EG4 2 ton A/C mini split hybrids. Will be wiring up another 2500w of panels to each one of those. Should reduce the demand from my existing grid-tie system dramatically. Supposedly going to .62c kwh 2024 from what I have heard. I honestly don't know how the middle-class is going to deal with this in California. I'm a business owner and saver, we paid off our modest home years ago when I turned 40. I can afford to make these investments to give the power company the finger, but most cannot.

1700 square foot home, family of 8, no central a/c. Only window a/c in bedrooms and swamp cooler. Charging a Tesla after hours. $650 bill last month. Existing solar produces 55kwh per day.

Time to pack up & leave. I did last housing market crash, right before the bottom fell out.