Don P

Reviews by Don P

1 Review

Enphase Energy

The biggest advantage of Enphase is problem identification and isolation. My system of 34 panels and microinverters has been up for three years. Unfortunately, the company that made my panels, and the one that installed them, went out of business.

I have had four microinverters go bad in the three years that I have had my system. Three in the period of about a month and the fourth a few months later about a year ago. They are under warranty. The technicians at Enphase and I discussed the situation and they told me what had to be checked. I had another local company check the first three, I notified Enphase, and they sent out repacements. The local company then installed the replacements. I replaced the fourth one myself to save some money. During that time the other panels and microinverters still worked fine.

With microinverters, I basically have 34 individual PV systems. If my system had only one inverter, the entire system would have been down if the inverter went down. In my case, I lose 1/34 of my output if I lose one microinverter or one panel.

I currently have one panel that is only putting out about 2/3 the amount of power that it should. If this was a conventional system, it would have degraded, or dropped, the entire system. Then I would have had to troubleshoot the entire string to determine which panel was bad. With microinverters, I have the ability to see which panel / microinverter combination has a problem. The only physical troubleshooting necessary was to swap that panel with another panel to verify if the problem was the panel or the microinverter.

Having microinverters on your system instead of one inverter is like having gauges on your car, so that you can determine WHAT is wrong, as opposed to an idiot light that will just tell you that "something" is wrong.

Enphase does not make panels or install systems. If you have a problem with a panel, the installation or your installation company, don't blame Enphase. Enphase's monitoring unit, the Envoy, receives the microinverter communications signals via the power lines. They recommend that it be as close to your power panel as possible. It "CAN" work farther away, but that depends on your location. If you don't have an outlet close enough to your panel that you can spare... you can always install another one.

Type: Other

Reviewed: 01/21/2015

Excellent

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