[RE-wrenches] EG4 Equipment

Sat Feb 17 10:05:51 PST 2024

Surrette and Full river AGM's  Been berry berry good to me!

Dave Angelini Offgrid Solar
"we go where powerlines don't"
    [1]https://offgridsolar1.com/ [2]  [1]
e-mail  offgridsolar at sti.net
text 209 813 0060

On 2024-02-17 9:43 am, Drake Chamberlin via RE-wrenches wrote:

> I fully agree that off grid solar has taken a major downturn. Once the 
> equipment became software based, the reliability dropped. Sure, there 
> are nice features available with these cyber enhanced systems, but the 
> cost in reliability makes being energy independent off the grid hard to 
> accomplish.
> 
> There are good reports on Samlex products. Has anyone tried their new 
> 120/240 split phase units? Are they stack-able yet?
> 
> As far as batteries go, I'm pretty much in the Lead Head club, 
> especially for off grid. That being said, lead acid batteries, 
> especially AGMs have gotten really expensive and it seems the quality 
> isn't what it used to be.
> 
> What is the best AGM battery these days?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Drake
> 
> ---
> 
> On 2024-02-16 17:02, Michael Morningstar via RE-wrenches wrote:
> 
> We gave EG4 and Signature another chance after promises from their 
> dealer oriented support department that we could expect better service 
> from them. We had an EG4 BMS crap out a couple months ago after only a 
> few months. Lots and lots of communications with Signature and we still 
> don't have a BMS or replacement battery. It's been a shit show with 
> them. I think we are going to remove them and install 3rd party BMS's 
> and find some use for them. Maybe donate them. We've only had luck with 
> Schneider/Discover pairings in closed loop. A large system we did with 
> Sol-Arks never really worked in Closed loop, despite Discover coming to 
> the site. Most likely it's a Sol-Ark issue, but we've reached Sol-Arks 
> technical expertise limits. Even with Schneider/AES, there have been 
> some issues that are causing me to re-consider Li for offgrid. I just 
> had a conversation this morning with a long time off-grid pro and he 
> said the same thing. It used to be, we'd install a wet lead acid bank 
> and then ten years would pass before hearing from the client when it 
> was time for another bank. Sometimes fifteen years. Our call backs with 
> systems over the last ten years, first with a decline in equipment 
> quality and then the switch to Li are costing us too much money and 
> causing a lot of heartburn for our clients. Rant Over
> 
> On Fri, Feb 16, 2024 at 12:57 PM Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches 
> <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi All,
> 
> I've searched the archives for info pertaining to EG4 inverters and 
> batteries. The comments have been mostly positive.  I have stayed away 
> from EG4 until now in part, for the reason the Michael Morningstar 
> suggested last June - that is, they seemed very oriented to the DIY 
> market and not real serious contenders in the lasting marketplace. 
> However, I was at RE+ Boston this week and was quite surprised to see 
> that the EG4 18k inverter is, for all I could tell, identical to the 
> Fortress Envy 12k, in both physical layout as well as menu structure. I 
> have very limited experience with the Envy (having just installed my 
> 1st one last week, in order to compare it to the Sol-Ark 15). I don't 
> have any thoughts about it yet, except that the font on the screen is 
> quite small and the opening screen is not as intuitive as the Sol-Ark, 
> but that might just take familiarizing myself more to the Envy (and/or 
> the EG4).
> 
> My question is, for folks who have had either the Envy or the EG4 
> inverters installed for a decent period of time, what is your current 
> take on their functionality, durability, and for the EG4, the quality 
> of support? Also, what experience have folks had similarly with the EG4 
> LLI batteries? I'm not unhappy with the Sol-Ark or in general the 
> Fortress eVault Max battery, but there are some attractive things about 
> the Envy and potentially the EG4 18k, and the price point and seemingly 
> smart configuration of the EG4 LLI batteries are certainly 
> eye-catching.
> 
> I'm also currently starting to lean toward using Lithium batteries and 
> inverters from the same manufacturer, as I'm growing weary of the 
> mismatching firmware updates that are causing somewhat frequent issues 
> between the 2 components. Although the inverter/battery integrated 
> units (i.e. Sonen, Tesla, etc.) don't seem ideal, since the market is 
> so volatile at the moment. If one component fails, I'd like the option 
> to replace it with a different brand without having to replace the 
> other component as well. Using the same manu doesn't necessarily cut 
> down the problems, but it certainly will help in the troubleshooting 
> process by hopefully having less of the "not my problem" or "we haven't 
> seen that problem" responses from tech support.
> 
> I really don't like making forays into bleeding-edge technologies, so 
> I'm hoping to gain some experienced insight.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Howie Michaelson
> 
> Sun Catcher _______________________________________________
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> --
> 
> Michael Morningstar
> 
> Morningstar Electric
> 
> PO Box 1494
> 
> Mount Shasta, CA 96067
> 
> 530-921-0560
> 
> mjmorningstar at gmail.com
> 
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------
[1] http://members.sti.net/offgridsolar/
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