Micro inverters

[SRE]

Ok, I like the idea of micro inverters, not keen on the extra cost but that will come down and I'm sure the intial glitches will be resolved over the next few months and I love the monitoring system.

BUT is it just me - my customers will be on the phone to me every time there's a slight difference on one of the panels, they will want a full explanation and analysis to make sure they are squeezing every last drop out of the system, potentially including site visits under your warranty to confirm that everything is ok. There's nothing wrong with this in theory but imagine every other customer doing this - you'd be left without any time to survey and install.

We had a customer call us last week the morning after the installation at 7.50am complaining because he hadn't started generating. We're in the North in the Winter for God's sake what did he expect. By the time he'd finished his call 10 mins later he'd started generating. He called me later in the day to compain about only generating 4.4kwh, a whole 2 kwh more than my crummy Sharp panels. Imagine the "fun" we'd have if he'd had micro inverters installed!

If we have any queries we respond the same day but it just wouldn't be possible if we had micro inverters installed on say 50% of our installations.

What does everyone else think?

 

[SolarCity]

I think it's a fair point, Budgie.

I like the look of them but I'm still not convinced. I imagine some panels will degrade quicker than others as well which will add to the problem.

My biggest issue with them is the maintenance/repair aspect. I know that there is a 20 year warranty on them but that's useless. If the manufacturer is so convinved that their product is so reliable then they should include labour and scaffold under their warranty. They don't, and until they do I will be staying clear of them.

 

[edexlab]

We've done three of these now ,I agree about lots of the above points and came across the monitoring problem early on where the client phoned up saying that one panel only worked on alternate days ,Enecsys said this was a problem with the monitoring not updating correctly.
also the roofers have broken two inverters on jobs just by leaning against them and the casting has snapped where it bolts to the rail this is an issue as they are not cheap
all in all these systems have done well almost matching other string inverter systems nearby .
We are carefull who we offer these to and if they seem finickity we would'nt do the job
Have to say Enecsys themselves are'nt that good and I think that when SMA bring their version out (I hear in the spring)it will do them some damage