09/10/2018
Anonymous
I have had a residential solar system for 13 years. Sunny Boy, i was told, was the best. My 1800U inverters -- yes, that's plural because they only last about 6 years -- have been nothing but trouble, and Sunny Boy doesn't stand behind its product. The first inverter shut down every time PG&E burped and wouldn't restart till my tech came out to reset the innards. SMA did develop a fix for that, and the thing worked OK for about a year, then all sorts of problems developed. During a fix-it call to an SMA tech, my tech was instructed to do something that fried the whole machine. With the SMA tech on the line, we watched with horror. Did the SMA tech take any responsibility? No. I had to buy another inverter. Before long, this inverter also had all sorts of problems. For the past 2 years it periodically shuts down power-making even though the readout shows normal voltage and no error message, sometimes for a day, sometimes for a week. SMA's techs are uninterested in helping diagnose the problem. They just say buy a new inverter. Now the thing acts totally dead, nothing lights up, no output according to the electric meter. If you want to spend a lot of money on a 6-year inverter, SMA is your deal. I'm a green architect, so my experience with SMA's lousy tech backup and unwillingness to stand behind its products can hardly not affect guidance I provide others. What a shame.