[RE-wrenches] Enphase monitoring picking up other systems

[Louis Woofenden]

Hi Benn,

We've run into these problems when simultaneously commissioning systems 
in adjacent units of a housing development where we did PV systems on 
all homes, and 2-3 homes are on one utility transformer. I'm a little 
surprised that the Envoy picked up inverters from an existing system, 
unless those microinverters were never associated with another Envoy. My 
understanding from Enphase is that once they are "bound" to one Envoy, 
they won't be easily picked up in a device scan. But maybe I'm missing 
something, or got bad info from tech support.

We've definitely had to work with Enphase tech support on a couple of 
systems to remove inverters from one Envoy, then do a device scan on 
another Envoy, as August suggested. Another option is to spend the money 
for the Array Gun scanner (SocketMobile CHS7xi scanner), and use the iOS 
Enphase Installer Toolkit app to build arrays and "provision" the Envoy, 
sending the inverter serial numbers directly to the Envoy, without need 
for a device scan. Not sure if this is worth it at the $450 retail price 
for the scanner, but if you can find one used, it might be. I recently 
was able to pick one up for about $250 used.

Haven't yet had issues serious enough to require LCFs on residential 
systems. Crossing my fingers on that one.

Best,

Louis Woofenden

Net Zero Solar, Tucson, AZ

On 4/14/14, 9:08 AM, Benn Kilburn wrote:
> Wrenches,
> I'm sure i read a thread on this list about dealing with this, i've 
> searched but cannot find it.  If anyone recalls the subject line, 
> please let me know.
>
> We are dealing with setting up Enphase monitoring in neighborhoods 
> with other Enphase systems nearby and these 'other' systems are being 
> picked up by the EMU.
>
> A few weeks ago we finished a 14 module (3.5kW) install and i plugged 
> in the EMU to search for the inverters.  As it was picking up the 
> first few inverters, it was showing several hundred kWh already 
> produced???  Not bad for a 14 module system being in operation for 10 
> min!!!  (yes the inverters were new, out of the box)
>
> After 30-40 min, the EMU had picked up 28 inverters in total.  There 
> were 14 on the system we had just installed, and 14 on a house across 
> the street that we had installed back in Nov'13.  I'm pretty sure it 
> had picked up the 14 across the street before picking up the ones we 
> just installed.
> Funny that we can sometimes have communication issues btwn the 
> inverters and EMU in some houses, and here we have EMU's picking up 
> inverters across the street!?!
>
> Anywho... has anyone dealt with this and streamlined a process with 
> Enphase to remedy this issue?
>
> Cheers,
> Benn
>
>
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