Enphase field MTBF: M190: ~36 Years M215: ~316 Years M250: >357 Years

RegGuheert said:

It appears I had a fifth inverter failure in my system on Tuesday. Interestingly this inverter, located at the top left of the field array, was NOT one of the inverters reporting "Grid Gone" events daily. I had one fail last September in a similar fashion (no "Grid Gones" in advance). It seems there are at least two different failure modes for these M190 inverters.

I informed Enphase of this failure this morning. We'll see how long it takes to receive a replacement. Last time took a month.

Click to expand...

First thing this morning Enphase updated the malfunctioning inverter from firmware revision 520-00008-r01-v01.08.00 to 520-00008-r01-v01.08.01 and there was no malfunction all day. Instead, this inverter started producing GridGone events. It seems the newest version of the firmware addresses a malfunction that the previous version did not properly handle.

Overall, I lost between 3 and 4 kWh due to the malfunctioning of this inverter before Enphase addressed the problem. Not too bad.

RegGuheert said:

This failure brings the MTBF of the M190s in my system down to 40 years.

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I guess I'm back down to 4 total failures and back up to 50 years MTBF.

I'm favorably impressed at what Enphase is capable of addressing via firmware. The longer these M190s last, the later I get a replacement which likely means better quality and longer overall lifetime.

I've just replaced two more Enphase units with M190240-M190IG-R replacements. That makes 14 of of 23 failures to date. I think I am line 88 on your spreadsheet.

One difference this time: when I called CS for some help in updating my array in Enlighten Manager, the greeting said that homeowners should hang up and call their installer. No more technical support for homeowners !

I did find Array Builder in EM and updated my array, but still, I was surprised and disappointed. When the rest of my units fail (and I have no doubt that they will), am I supposed to have my electrician request the replacements?

billg said:

I've just replaced two more Enphase units with M190240-M190IG-R replacements. That makes 14 of of 23 failures to date. I think I am line 88 on your spreadsheet.

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Thanks for the update, Bill. I've updated the spreadsheet, which now indicates your MTBF is only 10 years (and likely will go lower).

billg said:

One difference this time: when I called CS for some help in updating my array in Enlighten Manager, the greeting said that homeowners should hang up and call their installer. No more technical support for homeowners !

Click to expand...

Clearly their support costs are really hurting Enphase. They need to tread carefully as they cut support in order to avoid class-action lawsuits from a rather large class.

billg said:

I did find Array Builder in EM and updated my array, but still, I was surprised and disappointed. When the rest of my units fail (and I have no doubt that they will), am I supposed to have my electrician request the replacements?

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Since I am my electrician, I will expect them to provide me with direct support.

My array is 1.5 years younger than yours and has not yet shown the massive upswing in failure rate that you started seeing last year. Since my last failure at the end of April, my MTBF has shown an improvement from about 40 years to 52 years where it currently stands. Here is a list of my failures by year:

2011: 1 (July)
2012: 0
2013: 0
2014: 2 (July and August)
2015: 1 (April)

Immediately after replacing the April 2015, failure in May, I only had one inverter reporting "Grid Gone" failures. Now there are NINE, so I would not be overly surprised to see a big surge in failures next year. I was kind of expecting that to occur this year, but it didn't happen. Even if I ignore the nine malfunctioning units (which are still harvesting almost all of the available energy), the current MTBF of the M190s in my system with four failures in five years is about 6.5X The value that Enphase indicated on their datasheet.

Since there have been no failures, the MTBF of the 12 M215s I installed last summer is now over 18 years. I would not be surprised to see this MTBF surpass that of the M190s sometime next year. That would require five or more new failures of the M190s with no failures of the M215s. This comparison is interesting since both types of inverters are connected to nearly-identical modules and live in identical environments. The only real difference is that the M215s were installed 3.5 years after the M190s.

The good news is that this system has now produced nearly 70 MWh and it would have produced over 75 MWh had it not been switched off during part of that first year (due to issues with my utility that are now resolved).

Would anyone else like to give updates (good or bad) on systems they own or are following?

I called Enphase last week to report a failure and got the same response. No longer opening cases and RMAs directly from customers. Must go through your installer.

My installer is getting very tired of coming out every few months to replace micros.


This latest failure was not of one of the originals, but of a replacement, which was installed only six months ago. Second time I've had a replacement fail.

The newer model of M190 (IG or R-1) appears to be holding up reasonably well. All of my failures have been with the original M190 models. Enhpase was sending me M190-Rs or m190-IGs as replacements for a long time, but then sent me four of the older m190s as replacements in June. One of those has, now, failed.


Of my thirty micros, thirteen are M190-IG or M190-R-1 replacements. Seven are older M190 replacements (one of which has failed). I still have ten of the original M190s, of which seven are dropping power on grid-gone events.


Including the defective, grid-gone ones as failures, my batch of m190s have about a 90% failure rate in three-and-a-half years.

Would anyone else like to give updates (good or bad) on systems they own or are following?

Click to expand...

No outright failures here since the one in September that I reported here. I do have two M190s that are producing about 10 percent less than the other inverters. I suspect it to be the inverter, I do have a couple of spares to swap in at some point.

The change in Enphase's support policy is yet another difficult pill to swallow. I installed all of my PV systems. It will be interesting to see if I can get support since I am listed as the installer. If the answer is "no" then it is time for me to go with another micro-inverter manufacturer. I would probably phase in that switch, my systems have six micros per string right now, so I could easily switch out six micros on a trunk and gain a couple more Enphase spares.

Ever since Enphase's stock drop I have been carefully researching alternatives. I am currently leaning toward Chillicon Power, but the ABB Aurora and SMA Micros (if still available) look interesting too:

ABB Aurora
250 and 300 watt Micro Inverters
Micro Inverters recently priced at: $161
Trunk cable $19 for every 41 inches Manufacturer Part #:AC-TRUNK SPOOL-41inches
Requires ABB PVI-CCD Wireless Communications Gateway (1 gateway for 30 micros) recently priced at $300
Uses bluetooth for connectivity

AP Systems
https://usa.apsystems.com
Two PV modules per inverter, max 250 watt modules
No trunk cable required.
ECU for monitoring uses power line communications.

Chilicon Power
Micro Inverters http://www.chiliconpower.com/
CP-250 Micro Inverter, recently priced $150 manufactured in CA
Trunk cable $23 for every 41 inches Manufacturer Part #:CP-TC-P-1
Chilicon Power CP-GWY-100 Gateway recently priced at $423
Manufacturer Part #: CP-GWY-100 Gateway
Uses powerline communications

SMA - Sunny
240W Micro Inverter
No trunk cable required - 1 cable with each inverter. Can purchase AC field plugs for first connection to inverters or to extend the length of cable for special runs.
AC field plug part number: ACCON-US-10 cost: $ 10.67
Requires 1 Sunny Multigate 1XT recently priced at $500 each for each 12 micro inverters
Uses powerline communications

(Corrections are appreciated)
Respectfully,
Ken Clifton

Weatherman said:

I called Enphase last week to report a failure and got the same response. No longer opening cases and RMAs directly from customers. Must go through your installer.

My installer is getting very tired of coming out every few months to replace micros.

Click to expand...

Who is paying your installer to install the replacements?

Weatherman said:

This latest failure was not of one of the originals, but of a replacement, which was installed only six months ago. Second time I've had a replacement fail.

The newer model of M190 (IG or R-1) appears to be holding up reasonably well. All of my failures have been with the original M190 models. Enhpase was sending me M190-Rs or m190-IGs as replacements for a long time, but then sent me four of the older m190s as replacements in June. One of those has, now, failed.

Click to expand...

I can understand Enphase sending out the old-style M190s before they had a new-design replacement in place. But I must say it was quite foolish for them to send them out after developing a high-quality solution. Thas was a penny-wise and pound foolish decision if there ever was one.

Weatherman said:

Of my thirty micros, thirteen are M190-IG or M190-R-1 replacements. Seven are older M190 replacements (one of which has failed). I still have ten of the original M190s, of which seven are dropping power on grid-gone events.

Click to expand...

Thanks. I have updated the spreadsheet with your lastest information.

Weatherman said:

Including the defective, grid-gone ones as failures, my batch of m190s have about a 90% failure rate in three-and-a-half years.

Click to expand...

Your system's MTBF is now 4.75 years, which means your system's failure rate is 69.5X what was printed on the M190 Datasheet:

Enphase M190 Datasheet 142-00005 REV 05 said:

- MTBF of 331 years

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I guess Enphase is footing the bill. I've had no out-of-pocket expense since the initial installation in June 2012. Only the inconvenience of having to continuously monitor the system, keep calling Enphase for replacements, and contacting my installer to perform the replacement.


I thought solar arrays were supposed to be really low-maintenance. Mine, certainly, has not been.

pclifton said:

No outright failures here since the one in September that I reported here. I do have two M190s that are producing about 10 percent less than the other inverters.

Click to expand...

I have updated the spreadsheet to reflect no further failures of M190s, M215s or M250s.

pclifton said:

I suspect it to be the inverter, I do have a couple of spares to swap in at some point.

Click to expand...

You have spare M190s, or something else? I almost bought an M190IG on eBay a while back to fill in when I wait for replacements, but I messed up the bid.

pclifton said:

The change in Enphase's support policy is yet another difficult pill to swallow. I installed all of my PV systems. It will be interesting to see if I can get support since I am listed as the installer. If the answer is "no" then it is time for me to go with another micro-inverter manufacturer. I would probably phase in that switch, my systems have six micros per string right now, so I could easily switch out six micros on a trunk and gain a couple more Enphase spares.

Click to expand...

I just read the warranty statement which came with the M190s I purchased. The verbiage in my warranty talks only about the "customer" requesting an RMA. There is NO mention of a requirement to go through any installer to request a replacement. How the microinverter gets removed or replaced should not be any concern of theirs, IMO.

pclifton said:

Ever since Enphase's stock drop I have been carefully researching alternatives. I am currently leaning toward Chillicon Power, but the ABB Aurora and SMA Micros (if still available) look interesting too:

Click to expand...

Nothing tells me that any of those inverters will have higher reliability than the Enphase M215s (or later), which give no indication of the problems we have seen with the M190s. In fact, they currently have a measured MTBF approaching 700 years. I'm not sure if Enphase can get out from under their warranty commitments through bankruptcy (if it comes to that), but even if they do, I find that used M215s are available on ebay already and I expect more people will dump them in the future if the company disappears. Neither you nor I have a failure rate approaching what Weatherman is experiencing, so I'm pretty comfortable sticking with Enphase.

@RegGuheert

I just read the warranty statement which came with the M190s I purchased. The verbiage in my warranty talks only about the "customer" requesting an RMA. There is NO mention of a requirement to go through any installer to request a replacement. How the microinverter gets removed or replaced should not be any concern of theirs, IMO.

Click to expand...

If as Weatherman mentions, Enphase will no longer speak with home owners, how could a home owner even request a RMA? I can't quite get my head around how someone could ever get a replacement. It sounds like the old theory of "if we make the claim process bad enough no one will use it..."

Nothing tells me that any of those inverters will have higher reliability than the Enphase M215s (or later), which give no indication of the problems we have seen with the M190s.

Click to expand...

True, however, as in the case of Chillicott Power, those micro inverters are said to not contain electrolytic capacitors. I have seen things posted both ways regarding whether the Enphase M215s still have electrolytic capacitors on board, or not. Some of it here on this site.

I'm not sure if Enphase can get out from under their warranty commitments through bankruptcy (if it comes to that), but even if they do...

Click to expand...

In the event of a Bankruptcy, not sure how likely the Enlighten Web service is going to stay up and running, independent of any warranty. Part of the attraction for me was the ability to easily visualize and troubleshoot a problem. I know we can see some information locally on the Enphase Envoy, just not that much. The Chillicott system can run completely local with no cloud service at all, for whatever that is worth. Of course if any of these manufacturers goes under who is to say what, if any warranty there really is 20 years from now?


Respectfully,
Ken Clifton

If Enphase goes down in a ball of flames I can assure you that a workable replacement for Enlighten will come together. The only other microinverters I've used APS microinverters and their site is also cloud based but is poor compared to Enlighten. Their failure rates are also much higher than current model Enphase though I hear from the installers they've gotten better now.

No failures to report on the various Enphase systems you are tracking in WA.

pclifton said:

If as Weatherman mentions, Enphase will no longer speak with home owners, how could a home owner even request a RMA? I can't quite get my head around how someone could ever get a replacement. It sounds like the old theory of "if we make the claim process bad enough no one will use it..."

Click to expand...

Agreed "There's something fishy in the state of Denmark!" Based on what I read, I don't see how Enphase could deny claims from anyone, but in our cases where we are the installers, it would be utter nonsense.

pclifton said:

True, however, as in the case of Chillicott Power, those micro inverters are said to not contain electrolytic capacitors. I have seen things posted both ways regarding whether the Enphase M215s still have electrolytic capacitors on board, or not. Some of it here on this site.

Click to expand...

Yes, dsinned posted this excellent picture of the first prototype M215 which clearly shows four Nichicon aluminum electrolytic capacitors:



Given the form factor closely resembles a production M215, that's a pretty strong indication that they are in there. Still, I discussed contrary evidence in this post.

I certainly don't know the answer to whether electrolytic capacitors are in the M215s or not, but that is an issue which might affect us in fifteen years. It is not an issue for today. The failures which we have seen to date in the M190s almost certainly relate to something other than the electrolytic capacitors (with one exception I have seen where the unit apparently had an internal explosion). Much more likely are failures resulting from the thermal cycles which these units undergo. One specific failure which I know about in a different roof-mounted inverter was with CERAMIC capacitors: The thermal cycling literally ripped them in half.

The point is that eliminating electrolytic capacitors is not a cure-all for microinverters. There are other very difficult reliability issues which must be addressed. Unfortunately, often these issues can only be discovered the hard way: put them up on a bunch of roofs and see how things go.

pclifton said:

In the event of a Bankruptcy, not sure how likely the Enlighten Web service is going to stay up and running, independent of any warranty. Part of the attraction for me was the ability to easily visualize and troubleshoot a problem. I know we can see some information locally on the Enphase Envoy, just not that much. The Chillicott system can run completely local with no cloud service at all, for whatever that is worth. Of course if any of these manufacturers goes under who is to say what, if any warranty there really is 20 years from now?

Click to expand...

It's a good point. QueenBee has a good response to this issue:

QueenBee said:

If Enphase goes down in a ball of flames I can assure you that a workable replacement for Enlighten will come together.

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I agree, and I know there has been quite a bit of effort done on homebrew access software for the Envoys. Perhaps a bigger issue would be the reliability of the Envoys themselves, which I am now tracking. You know better than I do that these things fail. If you cannot purchase a replacement, then there could be a real issue determining what is going on up on the roof.

Note to self: Consider picking up a spare Envoy...

QueenBee said:

No failures to report on the various Enphase systems you are tracking in WA.

Click to expand...

Thanks! I've updated the spreadsheet. The MTBF of your system is currently above 212 years. Overall M215 MTBF is now above 700 years and M250s are above 200 years.

RegGuheert said:

pclifton said:

FYI: My logic for updating the firmware on all the units was simply that any time I have called Enphase for warranty replacement the first thing they try is to update the firmware, then they want to "watch" the unit for a few days. If, however, I am already running that firmware, then I might eliminate that 3-7 day waiting period. Of course the last M190 failed differently (as did yours). In that case the failed M190 refused to take the latest firmware they were trying to send it, so my RMA process started with my first call.

Click to expand...

Enlighten says my Envoy is up-to-date and I don't even know how to update microinverters without calling Enphase.

Click to expand...

On December 16, Enphase finally updated ALL of the remaining "original-style" M190s in my system with the 520-00008-r01-v01.08.01 firmware. With this change EVERY ONE of those 37 M190s in my system report "Grid Gone" just after noon at least once every two days. Some microinverters (namely, the ones which had previously been updated to this firmware) also report "Grid Gone" at other times.

Since it is highly unlikely that 28 more inverters started malfunctioning all on the same day, I can only conclude that there is something in this new firmware which is "therapeutic" for the inverter. Given that this happens at noon, I wonder if they are running PV short-circuit current through the solder joints which carry power from the PV module in order to cause them to flow the solder in the case that joint is failing. (Note that such an approach would only cause the solder to flow IF it had built up some resistance by cracking.) But who knows? Just a guess based on what I see happening.

With this change EVERY ONE of those 37 M190s in my system report "Grid Gone" just after noon at least once every two days. Some microinverters (namely, the ones which had previously been updated to this firmware) also report "Grid Gone" at other times.

Click to expand...

That is interesting RegGuheert. As mentioned previously, all my M190s have that firmware. Not to jinx it, but I have not seen a single "Grid Gone" event logged in the months since the update was installed. I have previously seen that message logged by inverters that eventually failed. I believe the last time was about 2 years ago.

My last M190 failure was basically flat-lining power output at about 160 watts, regardless of the DC voltage produced by the PV module. It was not logging "Grid Gone" events. I feel fortunate that it was replaced under warranty. Given all that has been written here regarding recent changes to Enphase support, I am dreading the next time that must contact them regarding a replacement.

At least their stock price has recovered somewhat. The extension of the ITC helped all the solar component stocks tremendously.

Respectfully,

Ken Clifton

pclifton said:

With this change EVERY ONE of those 37 M190s in my system report "Grid Gone" just after noon at least once every two days. Some microinverters (namely, the ones which had previously been updated to this firmware) also report "Grid Gone" at other times.

Click to expand...

That is interesting RegGuheert. As mentioned previously, all my M190s have that firmware. Not to jinx it, but I have not seen a single "Grid Gone" event logged in the months since the update was installed. I have previously seen that message logged by inverters that eventually failed. I believe the last time was about 2 years ago.

Click to expand...

Hmm.

Looking more carefully at what is going on, I have an idea that might explain why I am seeing so many "Grid Gone" incidents while you are seeing none. I'm starting to think that the Envoy is actually sending the "Grid Gone" message to the inverters rather than the other way around. (At least for the noontime events: the microinverters may trigger them at other times.) It appears to be basing its decision about whether or not to do this based on the relative production of the inverters at that time. Here are a couple of images from a sunny day to try to clarify this:

December 19, 2015 at 11:55AM:



December 19, 2015 at 12:05PM:



Notice that it was mainly the microinverters producing below about 182W which experienced the "Grid Gone" and then dropped out. (There are one or two exceptions, but I suspect the actual event is based on another measurement exactly at noon which I do not see.) Notice that NONE of the microinverters in the "Field Array" dropped out on this day, even though most of the nine previous "Grid Goners" are located in that array. I suspect this is because that array is at a different orientation and all were operating at full power at the time. On cloudy days, the opposite is true: the microinverters on the roof produced more power than those in the field. In other words, I think the fact that I have multiple orientations is the reason I have so many noon "Grid Gone" events while you have none. It creates a larger difference between the production of different microinverters. Also note that none of the inverters in the top row of the house nor the rightmost two on the second row ever drop out since they are not original-style M190s. Instead, those microinverters are a mix of M190IGs, M215IGs and M250s.

The picture at 12:05PM is at the peak of the dropout and in this case production dropped from 10.152 kW to 9.265 kW at that time, or about 9% of total production is lost (even though the 17 non-M190 inverters are not affected). By integrating the power lost during the entire event, I estimate that it cost me about 400 Wh of energy production that day, or about 0.7% of the 58.8 kWh that would have been produced had the event not occurred. Over a year's time, that 0.7% equates to about 126 kWh lost production or about $15/year.

Greetings.

I'm the owner of the Zomeworks trackers listed on line 29 of your spread sheet. I thought you might want to update the spreadsheet to reflect the correct number of failures.

So far I have had a total of 8 inverter failures. However, one of those failures was on the first replacement inverter, so I still have 8 of the original 15 inverters running.
The first inverter I had fail was replaced with another original model M190, that inverter and all of the others that have failed have been replaced with the M190-IG models. So far I haven't had any of the M190-IGs fail.

FWIW While I do live in Arizona, I live in the high desert where it is MUCH cooler than Pheonix. We hardly ever see temperatures over 100 degrees here, maybe 5-6 days a year. Up until a couple years ago the record high temp here was 103 degrees (it's now 107).
The inverters are mounted on the back of the trackers so they are shaded from the sun and since there is no roof, etc. trapping the air, they probably stay cooler in my setup than the majority of installations out there. Most of the failures on my system have occurred during the fall or early winter.
Bottom line, I don't think the issue is heat related.

Someone mentioned that Enphase won't deal directly with the customers, that has not been my experience. I just had them send me another replacement inverter last month.
Their responses are slower than molasses in winter, typically taking 1-2 months to send out a replacement, but they do eventually send out a replacement. This is using their online system to file the complaints. If I get tired of how long that takes and call them up and bitch at them on the phone every few days, I can get a replacement in 2 or 3 weeks.

AZDude said:

Someone mentioned that Enphase won't deal directly with the customers, that has not been my experience. I just had them send me another replacement inverter last month.

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I lost another inverter at the first of the month, and when I couldn't get through to them on the phone, I reported it online on January 7 and received this boilerplate reply, giving me hope that a replacement might soon be on its way (bolding mine):

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Enphase Support <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, Jan 7, 2016 at 3:06 PM
Subject: Enphase Customer Svc. Ticket # 00704022 - ref:_00DA0aQ9D._500A0TIEG7:ref

Thank you for contacting Enphase Energy.

Answers to common questions are easily found on the ASK ENPHASE virtual-agent. Click HERE to give it a try.

Enphase provides live, customer-support services Monday through Friday.

This email is being sent to inform you that a Customer Service ticket has been generated on behalf of your submission. An Enphase representative will respond to you.

Details for this ticket are as follows:

Ticket : 00704022
Submitted : 1/7/2016
Subject : Enlighten Contact Us Submission - Microinverter failure

Details:
--------------------------------------------------

Microinverter 030917025492 has stopped working

--------------------------------------------------

The Enphase Installer Toolkit is a free mobile app used to quickly and effectively commission an Enphase system. Start using it today!

Apple iPhone - - Get it from the App Store
Android Phone - - Get it from Google Play
Watch this Quick video

Best Regards,
Enphase Customer Service
(877) 797-4743
http://www.enphaseenergy.com

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When I hadn't heard from them in ten days, I sent a status request and received this reply in return:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: support <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, Jan 18, 2016 at 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: Re: Enphase Customer Svc. Ticket # 00704022 - ref:_00DA0aQ9D._500A0TIEG7:ref

The email-support channel through [email protected] is no longer active.

If you are a solar-professional, please submit your inquiry to Enphase Customer Support via our web-page at:
https://enphase.com/en-us/support/contact
or contact Enphase Customer-Support at (877) 797-4743.

Note that Enphase free, live-agent tech support is for solar-professionals only.

Thank you,
Enphase Energy Support Team

Click to expand...

My original installer is no longer in this market and I have been using another local solar professional for my replacements. Up until this month I have ordered all of my replacements, but he is trying to get a replacement ordered for this new failure. I haven't heard back from him as to any success in this effort.

Long story short, I think things have changed since last month.

Enphase decided to update the firmware on all my M190 inverters today.

Snippet of a single inverter's messages as logged by the Envoy:


If it was summer time when TOU rates have a big spread, this would have been a bad time to lose half an our of production. I also wish that Enphase would let us know when this was going to happen and what changes are in the firmware update.

Agreed, I'd really enjoy reading release notes.

AZDude said:

I'm the owner of the Zomeworks trackers listed on line 29 of your spread sheet. I thought you might want to update the spreadsheet to reflect the correct number of failures.

So far I have had a total of 8 inverter failures. However, one of those failures was on the first replacement inverter, so I still have 8 of the original 15 inverters running.
The first inverter I had fail was replaced with another original model M190, that inverter and all of the others that have failed have been replaced with the M190-IG models. So far I haven't had any of the M190-IGs fail.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the update, AZDude! I have updated the spreadsheet to reflect the failures in your system. That brings your MTBF down to only 6 years. It's not the lowest number I've seen, but it is close.

AZDude said:

FWIW While I do live in Arizona, I live in the high desert where it is MUCH cooler than Pheonix. We hardly ever see temperatures over 100 degrees here, maybe 5-6 days a year. Up until a couple years ago the record high temp here was 103 degrees (it's now 107).
The inverters are mounted on the back of the trackers so they are shaded from the sun and since there is no roof, etc. trapping the air, they probably stay cooler in my setup than the majority of installations out there. Most of the failures on my system have occurred during the fall or early winter.
Bottom line, I don't think the issue is heat related.

Click to expand...

My original thesis in this thread was that the high temperatures were the main issue, but currently I believe it is related to thermal CYCLING, rather than simply due to high temperatures. Being in the high desert, your system likely experiences larger temperature excursions than most systems out there. But there have been systems with very high failure rates in this area where the climate is much more moderate.

BTW, it's good that you have 60-cell PV modules. I expect the M190-IGs will give you a very long service life in your application.

drees said:

Enphase decided to update the firmware on all my M190 inverters today.

Snippet of a single inverter's messages as logged by the Envoy:

Code:

Mon Jan 25, 2016 03:43 PM PST: Completed download of procload, part number 520-00008-r01-v01.08.00

If it was summer time when TOU rates have a big spread, this would have been a bad time to lose half an our of production. I also wish that Enphase would let us know when this was going to happen and what changes are in the firmware update.

Click to expand...

It's interesting that your inverters were updated to the firmware version I had prior to my last update. This is what I have now:

520-00008-r01-v01.08.01

I wonder what triggered the update of your system and also if they will eventually update you to the newer version.

As far as my system goes, it has now been nine months since the last M190 failure in my system. MTBF of the M190s has thus clawed its way back up above 50 years to 53 years. No failures so far in any M215IGs, M250s or the lone M190IG.