[RE-wrenches] Enphase

[August Goers]

We're still installing Tesla Powerwalls in the SF Bay with good results. I
perform price and feature comparisons from time to time and find that most
other manufacturers are still playing catchup with the Powerwall. We're
also experimenting with the Powerwall+ system which is significantly
cheaper than 3rd party PV AC coupled with Powerwalls and has some design
and operational benefits. I have a Powerwall+ on my home and have been
happy with it so far, albeit only for a few months since installation
earlier this summer. I know that Powerwalls have been in major short supply
but maybe that will change?

All that said, we're still keeping our feelers out for different systems on
the market. A colleague of mine is going to try the Enphase IQ8 Sunlight
Backup system if all goes as planned. He has very low consumption, much
different than folks who would like (or need) to run AC during outages.

Best wishes to those of you in the path of Hurricane Ian!

August
Luminalt


On Mon, Sep 26, 2022 at 4:30 PM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> I should probably write this in 48 hours after Hurricane Ian passes by
> here. But I'll give you a couple of personal opinions.
>
> Complicated? No. It's pretty dead simple since there is no DC aspect to
> consider. But there are a lot of little things, I'll call them quirks, to
> learn and understand to make commissioning easier. A strong background in
> the Enphase ecosystem makes it all pretty intuitive. I'm not sure how
> someone new to Enphase in general would see it.
>
> From an installer perspective, you're taken out of the loop on quite a
> bit. You become pretty reliant on customer support for some things that
> don't work out of the box sometimes. There are pros and cons to this. There
> is a lot of remote diagnostics, resetting, updating, etc. And
> communications can be absolutely infuriating. The WiFi radio in the data
> monitor is embarrassingly weak. They didn't learn that lesson, and the
> comms between the gateway and batteries is also extremely poor, which means
> proximity and line of sight are of paramount importance.
>
> Batteries seem to fail updates and require resets initially, but once
> everything is up and running it seems reliable, except, again, the wireless
> communications aspect which sometimes results in frustration. But all
> things considered, once it's all set up it seems reliable, but time will
> tell.
>
> Back to Hurricanes. The 40 kWh limit is pretty pathetic for our market
> where people can easily consume 100 kWH per day in September. The bulk of
> that is air conditioning, which is also the #1 or #2 thing people want to
> back up in the first place. A 40 kWh whole house solution, realistically,
> is really a partial home backup when so many sacrifices are required. There
> is also a serious limit on the ability to support the surge requirements of
> central air conditioning. A soft start kit is virtually required, even with
> a maxed out 40 kWh system.
>
> I hope to have nothing additional to report after Hurricane Ian. But if
> some systems go off-grid for any significant amount of time I will
> certainly learn a lot and share the results.
>
> Jason Szumlanski
> Florida Solar Design Group
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Sep 26, 2022, 7:04 PM Drake Chamberlin via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> Hello All,
>>
>> Looking into the Enphase Ensemble system, I'm not sure that is a
>> direction I want to take. It seems that they are extremely complicated
>> and require a 30 hour training course to commission.
>>
>> Once installed, are they reliable? Do they require on going tweaks and
>> firmware upgrades?
>>
>> Will the IQ8 micro inverters taper charge with phase shift? I am
>> considering the possibility of AC coupling some to a pair of Radians.
>>
>> What is the most reliable and economically feasible way to provide
>> backup power today?
>>
>> Thank you,
>>
>> Drake
>>
>> Drake Chamberlin
>> Media & Communication Action Project
>> https://m-cap.org/
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> _______________________________________________
>>
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August Goers
Luminalt
o: 415.792.6666
m: 415.559.1525
august at luminalt.com
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