RegGuheert said:
ltbighorn said:
SolarEdge seems interesting, though seems combine the risks of a central inverter with many more points of failure. Their new system with no electrolytic capacitors -- is that expected in weeks or months?
According to
their press release? Three months ago.
Anyway, it may be worth an inquiry.
Hah! So are SolarEdges safer from fire as well? Do the optimizers detect arc-faults and automatically shutoff DC output from the panels?
RegGuheert said:
Certainly, but I wonder how long they will honor NEM 1.0, even for those who are "grandfathered. They can make net metering very unattractive simply by fiddling with the rates. If I lived in CA, I think I would be making sure to install a system with the potential for energy-shifting with a battery (which both Enphase and Solar-Edge offer).
Yes, certainly a concern of mine. It sounds like they will tweak the rates (I'm on E-6 now in prep for solar) and potentially minimum charges depending on how they're framed, but at least it'd keep the annual true-up, retail credits, and TOU hours (well, for the next 5 years on E-6, not 20). If I understand correctly what's locked in by NEM 1.0, anyway.
I haven't looked much into the battery options much, but it seems like it wouldn't be very cost-effective right now to load shift that way, especially as you'd need to be able to store most of a day's kWh production to fully benefit. Maybe in 5-10 years?
To a certain extent I'm going out on a limb that they won't bend the economics backwards that much before I've at least paid off the system, which would probably be 7-8 years. Hopefully with the TOU hours set for at least 5 of those, the rates won't be able to be too punitive -- allowing me to at least continue to offset my usage 1:1 even if I'm no longer benefiting from the peak multiplier effect. On the upside, at least I can charge my Leaf at home during the day! (though I rarely need to charge it more than 1-2 times a week).
On second thought - on NEM 1.0, in a worst case, couldn't I always go back to non-TOU E-1 rate? As long as a non-TOU rate is available to the general public, I got the impression you'd be allowed to be on it.
RegGuheert said:
Enphase has recently made changes to further monetize their monitoring, so I don't know the exact situation today. I do know that installers have a different portal, but I think you have full access once you pay an additional one-time fee.
ltbighorn said:
Should I insist that my installer list allow me to register as the installer, to protect myself down the road? Given that Enphase apparently won't even talk to owners anymore?
It might be a good idea.
This is definitely the aspect that worries me. Terms changing after you've locked in.
Is there anything that gets more difficult for my solar installer, if I insist on registering with Enphase as my own self-installer? Trying to anticipate what objections or concerns they might have.
RegGuheert said:
ltbighorn said:
Would I be able to get an eBay replacement online, producing, and monitored without Enphase's cooperation?
I've done it with the four (new) M250s now on my roof, but I'm the installer. To be more precise, you can easily replace an inverter and have the Envoy find it without any intervention by Enphase. Even without connection to an Envoy, the inverter will produce electricity just fine. The Envoy will track production and will let you know of any problems. But you need to have access to "Array Builder" online in order to modify the online monitoring. I'm pretty sure that is only for installers (or self-installers).
RegGuheert said:
ltbighorn said:
Though I suppose with 12-15 micros it's less of a disaster if I have to replace all the micros for compatibility reasons, vs a 30 or 70 micro install.
I don't see that happening. You can even purchase a spare microinverter or two now. The shelf life should be many decades.
Excellent. Seems like in a very worst case -- if Enphase went out of business, as long as I bought a few spares before they all disappeared (and there weren't sudden mass micro die-offs), I'd be able to swap and keep generating power, just without per-panel monitoring (no web service). That feels within my risk tolerance.
I could still keep an eye out for issues by examining daily production -- though if that requires manually inspecting the LCD daily, it'd be hard to tell whether you have a panel/micro problem or just a cloudy day. Can the Envoy be polled for production data locally? (i.e. not through the web service?). If so then I could graph the data myself should that ever happen. Assuming the Envoy doesn't die -- any MTBF stats on those?
Online reviews are terrible...
RegGuheert said:
Thanks for the excellent links. They make the point well.
One more advantage of Enphase:
+ no inverter taking up space in my garage (nobody has outside electrical panels here) -- I really like that, as more square footage is the most expensive thing here
I think if I can get myself listed as the installer, then the risks of the installer, Enphase, and/or the web service going away can be reasonably mitigated, and the potential upside of the 25-year warranty is nice. The better fire safety, less interior space occupied, panel-level monitoring and potential option for battery load-shifting someday is enough to convince me they're probably my best bet. I don't mind using a nice service as long as I'm not crippled if it goes away. I think I'll also request my installer put some of Enphase's ferrite chokes between the subpanel and my main, and an outlet on the subpanel for the Envoy -- to minimize potential issues from AC noise affecting the ability to talk to the modules, or interfering with other systems in my home (like powerline networking), which I've heard some people complain about.
Looks like it's just final tweaking on sizing and roof mounting details to sort then.