[RE-wrenches] Enphase track record

[Bob-O Schultze]

Marco,
I'm with you. Regardless of how well the company stands behind their  
product, a failure of any kind reflects back on the system integrator/ 
installer. That would be us, ladies and gents...
I've been down this road before with PV Powered in the early days with  
inverters which they now refer to as their "Legacy" line. They stepped  
up and fixed them all, but the damage to my rep as a system integrator  
was done. Some legacy...
I'll just wait and see.
Bob-O
On Nov 7, 2009, at 8:32 AM, Marco Mangelsdorf wrote:

Can anyone think of a more brutal environment for a piece of  
electronic equipment than under a solar module which day in and day  
out experiences the elements and temperatures of 130+ plus F?

Despite any so-called accelerated life-cycle testing and estimated  
mean time to failure probabilities, nothing takes the place of actual  
time cooking under solar arrays.

Having seen my fair share of controller and inverter manufacturers  
come and go out of business in 30+ years in the RE field, I’ll be  
watching with great interest the great Enphase experiment unfold.

And ever heard of the word “recall”?  Swapping a central inverter or  
two is one thing.  Imagine doing it with the X number of  
microinverters you installed six months or two years ago…..

But hey, other than my Eeyore-sounding words above, aren’t Enphase  
inverters so cool with all that they can do?

marco in Hawaii

A while back there was a discussion about the reliability of Enphase  
inverters.  As I understand, they have been selling like hot cakes, so  
a lot must be installed.  Some sort of track record must be emerging.

Has the promised reliability of these inverters been met?  Can they be  
connected to a rail, under a large array without worry that the unit  
will need to be dug out and replaced?  Should the inverters be located  
in an attic or other accessible location.

Thanks,

Drake Chamberlin
Athens Electric
OH License 44810
CO License 3773
NABCEP TM  Certified PV Installer
Office - 740-448-7328
Mobile - 740-856-9648

No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
Version: 8.5.425 / Virus Database: 270.14.52/2485 - Release Date:  
11/06/09 19:39:00

_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20091107/9e7a017a/attachment-0004.html>