[RE-wrenches] Enphase / Inverter failures

Thu May 9 09:28:13 PDT 2013

This is fascinating - the majority of the Enphase failures reported on this
list seem to be near coastal areas. I know that is true for us. We've had
extensive failures on the M190 and M210 units close to the ocean. We have
yet to have a single M215 failure so I have my fingers crossed.

SMA has continued to be the most reliable for us but I worry that slowly
their fans will fail. The first gen Fronius units have been horribly
unreliable and have all been replaced. Fronius was excellent in dealing
with the warranty claims. The 2nd Gen Fronius have been pretty good with
just a couple of units DOA and no long term failures yet. Power One, which
is the most interesting to me, is still too new to judge. We've had two
Power One failures so far. I understand that the first 10 and 12 k units
sold in the US had really bad problems but those are fixed now. Xantrex was
horrible but we still have over 100 units in operation after the capacitor
recall.

It's a real crapshoot with all these inverters!

Best,

August

*From:* re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:
re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On Behalf Of *Mike & Jessica
Nelson
*Sent:* Thursday, May 09, 2013 8:45 AM
*To:* RE-wrenches
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Enphase / Inverter failures

Wrenches,

I have had extensive failures on 3 installs that are situated right on the
coastal bluff in Northern California. Once you replace more than one
inverter at one site on one day, the compensation goes from $150.00 per
inverter, to next to nothing for the remaining. Enphase actually sent out
their field services tech, and did a complete swap out on these 3 systems
(with my assistance). It was a long day. But now, 2 years later, we are
seeing more failures. One has had 4 micro failures to date. Once I get away
from the coastal edge, with it's corrosive effect, the failure rate goes
way down. I have asked Enphase to upgrade these 3 systems to the newer M215
system, and am still waiting for a response. I am to the point where I
won't install Enphase within 1/2 mile of the ocean.

Michael D. Nelson

MD Electric & Solar

On Thu, May 9, 2013 at 8:31 AM, Will White <William.White at realgoods.com>
wrote:

It’s funny because I’ve had a very different experience from everyone
else.  I’ve had lots of Xantrex inverters fail and a few Fronius but not to
the extent that everyone else has.  I’ve only replaced a few Enphase
inverters and they were usually dead out of the box.

Thanks,

Will

*
__________________________________________________________________________________________
*

Will White

Regional Field Operations Manager – New England

Real Goods Solar

64 Main St.

Montpelier, VT 05602

Tel: (802) 223-7804

Cell: (802) 234-3167

www.realgoodssolar.com

*From:* re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:
re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On Behalf Of *Troy Harvey
*Sent:* Thursday, May 09, 2013 11:06 AM
*To:* RE-wrenches
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Enphase / Inverter failures

I don't enjoy the PLC interference problems, which are rare. When they have
occurred, Enphase provided continuous technical support, including factory
evaluation of line filters and enhanced system analysis.  Did you know that
each Enphase system has a built in spectrum analyzer? Tech support can
provide a printout of interfering signals to help in troubleshooting.
Installing a separate AC load center to accept the AC return breakers helps
with solving these problems.  I understand that the next release of Enphase
inverters will be Wi-fi, eliminating the PLC protocol entirely.  When the
communication works, (which it does most of the time) it is a very valuable
resource.

I find we have several times the service calls on enphase due to the
customers thinking their system isn't working, when in fact it the flakey
PLC network. And all that monitoring is only really telling me about the
inverters or their networking, since the long term failure rate of the
panels is several orders of magnitude better than even the best inverter on
the market.

I have only seen 2 Xantrex string inverters go out in the last 5 years (no
surprise there) out of all of the string inverters, and all of the brands.
But I've seen failure at everyone of our Enphase installs, and usually
failures every year (1 or 2 dead micros per year per site).

There is no argument that micros improve flexibility. And the potential for
a micro to have a higher MTBF is believable. But first they need better
design, more market experience, and will never reach 25 year lifespan like
they say until they take electrolytic caps out of their designs.

thanks,

Troy Harvey
---------------------
Principal Engineer
Heliocentric
801-453-9434
taharvey at heliocentric.org

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-- 
Michael & Jessica Nelson

MD Electric & Solar Inc.

Office: 707-884-1862

Cell: 707-684-0064
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