enphase

[moggy1968]

Just fitting my first enphase unit, what do you put as the serial number of the inverter?
commissioning it tomorrow, any top tips?

cheers

 

[jason121]

i just put the gateway number, as an installer you do have ref via the enlighten log on page.

 

[moggy1968]

Well, got the system installed. It was a bit of a faff as the panels were spaced around 2 velux windows so I had to cut the supplied enphase cable and splice in an AC extension, connected in IP rated boxes attached to the frames, a proper pain, especially as the Enphase AC cable is reall really difficult to strip! Would avoid using the enphase on a layout like this agin probably, better for a continuous block of panels.

I'm not a computer techie so was dreading the setting up but it was actually reasonably straightforward. I made a couple of phone calls to enphase who were really helpful and didn't laugh at my stupiditiy!

I'm quite interested with the way the system is now performing. This is a south facing roof, with no real shade characteristics, but there are still quite significant differences in individual panel outputs. I like the onliine interface and initial impressions are that there should be some good harvesting gains even on an unshaded roof compared to using a standard inverter, time will tell!

 

[jason121]

You will receive monthly updates form enphase showing the performance of the installation and every installation you install.

 

[pwboston]

I am impressed with the mechanism for reporting each panel, the costs are quite high, and looking at performance its hard to say if it would outperform SMA inverters for instance, its a watch and see.

Your system and mine are identical in orientation, so i can see how they would perform against each SMA, the main factor in favour of yours is the reporting thats for sure.

 

[jason121]

reports coming back around 10% better than SMA,
Most decent single string inverters give better figures than SMA

 

[moggy1968]

The costs aren't that high when you consider the full lifetime cost as they come with a 20year warranty.

 

[pwboston]

I should have said initial costs.

Ill monitor the SMA system over the next Month, cant report it as nicely as that though, but it did 6.6kw today on a 16 panel system the same orientation of the enphase.

I have a quote in for an enphase on a job but its initial cost in comparison to an SMA TL dual tracker inverter is quite a lot more, so need to look at justification. It is a very interesting system though.

 

[jason121]

If all goes to plan, we are installing enphase on a church

 

[pwboston]

I am quoting a job using enphase, 1 question though, if you have 16 panels with 250w inverters on them the system isnt inverter limited as such like through a SMA inverter at 3.6kw.

Did you get DNO permission prior to installing the 16 panels?

Or is it limited in some otherway?

 

[jason121]

You will be fine
I believe they are limited to 215w on the AC side

 

[Gavin A]

hmm, so that means the peak output from a 4kWp array is 3440W AC.

I accept that for most 4kWp arrays they'll rarely operate above this level for long, but I'm still a bit surprised they didn't set the maximum at 230W to give 3680W max output, and I would think they'd have suffered in comparison to an efficient 3680A limited string inverter last March when output on many systems was peaking pretty high due to the bright sunshine and relatively cool temperatures.

 

[jason121]

At the end of the month i will post the outputs of two installs with enphase
One west 4kw
One south 4kw
This will either prove right or wrong if they are worth the money

 

[Gavin A]

You'd need to match them up with the best outputs from different string inverters to really demonstrate much on that score.

I'm hoping to get chance to collate some output info from systems we've installed at some point soon, all of which are string inverter based, and we probably have some not too far from your systems, so there might be some useful comparisons to be had.

 

[jason121]

ENPHASE have already done that with SMA and results are 10% higher
Will find web address