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Old 06-13-18, 01:42 PM   #691
pinballlooking
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Yes, wait to buy your spare. I did not have a bad one for 4 and 1/2 years. I think my spare one was on sale $152 shipped five years ago.

I could have saved $100 by waiting. I have 54 microinverters and have had 3 failures one was just 20% off in producing but they replaced it.
No cost to me they wanted that one back and paid shipping to get it back.

The two others went to 0 watts output and they did not want those back.
Unlike a string inverter I only lost production for one panel not the whole array or ˝ the array.

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Last edited by pinballlooking; 09-25-18 at 08:14 PM..
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Old 06-13-18, 08:03 PM   #692
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Elcam84 View Post
Well the good thing is that micro inverters have dropped in price quite a bit so having a spare on hand isnt a big deal. I remember them being around $150 and I just looked up the price on a 215 and its $57 now and less if you buy more.

That said are the benefits of micro inverters still worth the extra cost considering the failure rate as well. The sunny boy string inverters seem to keep chugging along for years.
The one microinverter that has failed cost me $137 new in 2012. The 22 I have in a boxes to my left cost me $27 each (last month). My roof has shading issues from a royal palm in my neighbor's yard. The microinverters work perfectly for my application, since I don't have to dedicate garage space to mount a string inverter, or run high current DC cabling from the second floor roof down to a string inverter. I have a double run of 10/3+Gnd UF running from my second floor down to my combiner panel.

My ground mount will have shading issues as well, so unless I get permission to cut down the neighbor's trees... I'm in for $540 worth of Enphase M215's. I don't think I can touch a 4.5kw SunnyBoy and 20 SolarEdge Optimizers for $540.

Back on the subject of rebooting my misbehaving M215, I'll have to do that tomorrow evening. I neglected to attempt to reset it until after it had already gone to sleep for the night. I head out the door to work before the sun wakes the system up.

Looking at the input power graphs for this unit, the voltage readings are normal, the current readings are down at 0.210A or less.
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Old 06-13-18, 08:40 PM   #693
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My spare microinverter is installed and ready to make power tommrow. They shipped my replacement microinverter today. I hope this is the last replacement but not very much down time is a very good thing.



They made is simpler to do a replacement in Enlighten Manager just go the setting tab and to the section.
Then to the “Self Service”


Select Install Replacement


You then enter original serial number then the replacement serial number select submit that’s it, you are done.






It is back to working 100% again.
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Last edited by pinballlooking; 06-14-18 at 12:04 PM..
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Old 06-14-18, 05:51 PM   #694
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinballlooking View Post
My spare microinverter is installed and ready to make power tommrow. They shipped my replacement microinverter today. I hope this is the last replacement but not very much down time is a very good thing.
You lucked out. I was quoted 2-3 weeks on shipping my M215 when I was just on the phone with them. That's why I bought a spare for each installation location.

Logged in through my Envoy, the bad inverter lists "DC Power Too Low" while the other inverters show "OK". As a result, I didn't seem to be able to determine whether I was able to successfully perform a reset on this inverter. In any event, the very courteous woman at Enphase was apparently able to look at the graphs and determine it was not performing as it should. She gave me a reference number, setup the RMA, then said there may be a 2-3 week delay before it ships. I told her I was in no rush, I had 22 new M215s in boxes to go on an addition to this 4.4kW array. I can use one of them while the RMA is in transit.
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Old 06-14-18, 08:18 PM   #695
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Glad support took care of you. It is because I bought so many of them at a much higher cost they take care of me. (Not really I just got lucky)

Even know I will have my replacement next week I do not want to have one panel not making power that long that is also why I have a spare.

Gasstingy did you call support I would love to see you get your issue taken care of.
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Old 06-15-18, 06:02 PM   #696
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Quote:
Originally Posted by where2 View Post
You lucked out. I was quoted 2-3 weeks on shipping my M215 when I was just on the phone with them. That's why I bought a spare for each installation location.

Logged in through my Envoy, the bad inverter lists "DC Power Too Low" while the other inverters show "OK". As a result, I didn't seem to be able to determine whether I was able to successfully perform a reset on this inverter. In any event, the very courteous woman at Enphase was apparently able to look at the graphs and determine it was not performing as it should. She gave me a reference number, setup the RMA, then said there may be a 2-3 week delay before it ships. I told her I was in no rush, I had 22 new M215s in boxes to go on an addition to this 4.4kW array. I can use one of them while the RMA is in transit.
Hi Guys,
After living with microinverters for several years I would say it's a good idea to have a couple spares on hand. Mine seem to be prone to high outside temps. I've never lost one in the winter.
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Old 06-15-18, 06:05 PM   #697
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinballlooking View Post
My spare microinverter is installed and ready to make power tommrow. They shipped my replacement microinverter today. I hope this is the last replacement but not very much down time is a very good thing.


You then enter original serial number then the replacement serial number select submit that’s it, you are done.






It is back to working 100% again.
That's a beautiful picture!
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Old 06-29-18, 02:25 PM   #698
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Quote:
Originally Posted by pinballlooking
Glad support took care of you. It is because I bought so many of them at a much higher cost they take care of me. (Not really I just got lucky)
Haven't been on the roof yet to replace the dead microinverter, but an M250 came via FedEx to replace my dead M215. What was in the box was an M250-72-2LL-S22. That translates to "this was designed for 60 or 72 cell panels", and requires no ground wire connection, unlike my previous M215 units.

I think I'll save this for my 270W panels in the garage.
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Old 07-01-18, 09:13 PM   #699
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My 4.4kW array
Apparently 2018 was not as rainy as 2017...
June 2018 = 473kWh
June 2017 = 458kWh
June 2016 = 541kWh
June 2015 = 588kWh
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Old 07-02-18, 10:23 AM   #700
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12.5 kW array we generated 1,843 kWh June 2018

June 2018= 1,843 kWh
June 2017= 1,823 kWh
June 2016= 1,952 kWh
June 2015= 1,994 kWh
June 2014= 1,995 kWh

Highest one day June 2018 = 78.1 kWhs
Our system lifetime production is 97.6 MWh

We have banked for the winter. 1,486 KWh

Other solar producers show us your numbers for August when you have them.

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Last edited by pinballlooking; 07-03-18 at 11:22 AM..
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