[RE-wrenches] Connector mix & matching

[North Texas Renewable Energy Inc]

Wrenches

I was ready to order Enphase 215s with the MC4 connectors when I was told by
the distributor that these micros with the MC4 was for the Ontario FIT and
more expensive so I should go with the Anphenol H4 connectors on the US
version. I was leary of using different brands ever since I read the Photon
article mentioning that Multi Connect would not honor warranties on their
connectors if used with anyone elses connectors. It also would be a UL
violation since connectors aren't rated to interchange

So I went to the shop and got a Enphase 190 with H4s and a Yingli 230 with
MC4s. Both items are brand new spare parts but to my surprise would not even
plug together. The MC male would fit into the H4 female but not the
opposite. Looking closer I find that the O-ring on the H4 is about .010"
larger in diameter which will clearly never allow it to fit together unless
you remove the O-ring.

Enphase says nothing in their install documents about not connecting with
other brands so I guess they don't recommend it? I don't want to open a can
of worms but I want to know what works and what doesn't.

thanks as always

Jim Duncan
North Texas Renewable Energy
NABCEP Certified Solar PV
Installer No.031310-57
TECL 27398
ntrei at 1scom.net
817.917.0527
www.ntrei.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20111104/3f23cac4/attachment-0004.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: North Texas Renewable Energy Inc.vcf
Type: text/x-vcard
Size: 166 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20111104/3f23cac4/attachment-0007.vcf>