Any reports of Solar PV failure or required maintenance?

The_Green_Hornet

SMA expect their inverters to last over 20 years.

After completion of our Sunny Boy and Sunny Mini Central inverters' service life, which is over 20 years, we take our inverters back and ensure proper disposal and recycling. Just send the devices back to us with a note saying "For Disposal".

SMA Service Life

rogerblack

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

SMA expect their inverters to last over 20 years.

After completion of our Sunny Boy and Sunny Mini Central inverters' service life, which is over 20 years, we take our inverters back and ensure proper disposal and recycling. Just send the devices back to us with a note saying "For Disposal".

SMA Service Life

Which is nice, of course, but legally about as meaningful as a chocolate teapot.

(It may give you some arguments under the sales of goods act in some cases).
Their standard warranty is 5 years.
The extended one is 10 years.

The 20 year claim is at best a technical aim for the design, which may or may not succeed due to design problems.
You have no way of knowing which. (And indeed nor may the manufacturer)

The_Green_Hornet

rogerblack wrote: »

Which is nice, of course, but legally about as meaningful as a chocolate teapot.

(It may give you some arguments under the sales of goods act in some cases).
Their standard warranty is 5 years.
The extended one is 10 years.

The 20 year claim is at best a technical aim for the design, which may or may not succeed due to design problems.
You have no way of knowing which. (And indeed nor may the manufacturer)

Hmmm. Who to believe - a long established respected German manufacturer or some random person posting on a forum?

Watch your shoes for Earl Grey.

rogerblack

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

Hmmm. Who to believe - a long established respected German manufacturer or some random person posting on a forum?

Am I saying they're intentionally defrauding people, or making an intentionally misleading claim - no.

Due to the advances in technology, there are few common parts between 10 years old inverters, compared with new ones.

There is at best limited data with which they can extrapolate to get a realistic lifespan figure.

I note also they only state 'over 20 years' - at this point, half will have failed.
Many will have failed much earlier, even if they meet this claim.

Martyn1981

Lots of speculating on inverter life expectancy, but a couple of things:

I've read some comments from a couple of the biggest German manufacturers and they seem to be implying over 10 years expected (maybe 15 to 20) but (as Roger says) until they have actual data, Germans being Germans are reluctant to make any false claims.

So we may see these life expectancies creeping up (or not) as failure rates are noted over the next 5 to 10 years.

Another thing that might be interesting, at least I think it's suggestive, is the SMA retail warranty extension prices (all for 3 to 4KW inverters):

5-10 years £142.14
5-15 years £311.06
5-20 years £453.20
5-25 years £907.43

so roughly £150 per 5 year extension, until they get nervous at 20+ years. Purely my take on it, but I think that suggests they are comfortable assuming low losses until around year 20, then they get nervous.

Memory is letting me down, but I'm pretty sure those fees are less than they used to be?

Mart.

Kernel_Sanders

The_Green_Hornet wrote: »

SMA expect their inverters to last over 20 years.
After completion of our Sunny Boy and Sunny Mini Central inverters' service life, which is over 20 years, we take our inverters back and ensure proper disposal and recycling.

This doesn't necessarily mean they expect their inverters to last 20 years without breaking down. A vehicle manufacturer wouldn't give an estimate of its likely lifetime without assuming some repairs would be needed along the way.

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Memory is letting me down, but I'm pretty sure those fees are less than they used to be?

Even paying those fees could be higher than the eventual cost of a replacement. I advocate becoming your own insurance co., i.e..starting your own fund which avoids insurance premium tax and contributing to some company's profits.

Martyn1981

Kernel_Sanders wrote: »

Even paying those fees could be higher than the eventual cost of a replacement. I advocate becoming your own insurance co., i.e..starting your own fund which avoids insurance premium tax and contributing to some company's profits.

Too true. My SE2200 came with a 12 year warranty, which could be extended to 20 years for approx £400. But they cost about £570+VAT. Might as well take a punt, and if it does fail in year 13, the saved premium will pay for a whole new inverter - fingers crossed.

Mart.

Energetic_2

We've had a few inverters DOA, a few go in the first couple of months. If they get past that they seem to do ok. Most problems we encounter are firmware related and can be fixed with an upgrade.

The design life is 20 years but who knows, some will likely last that long and some won't, very helpful statement... Expect them to cheaper if you have to replace them and many like the SMA's are plug and play, a 10 min job to swap and reconfigure (if the same model is still available when your fails).

Dave_Fowler

Energetic wrote: »

We've had a few inverters DOA, a few go in the first couple of months. If they get past that they seem to do ok. Most problems we encounter are firmware related and can be fixed with an upgrade.

The design life is 20 years but who knows, some will likely last that long and some won't, very helpful statement... Expect them to cheaper if you have to replace them and many like the SMA's are plug and play, a 10 min job to swap and reconfigure (if the same model is still available when your fails).

The Solar Edge inverter fitted yesterday lasted 2 hours before dying. Awaiting replacement. The installer said it was the first one he had fitted that had failed. Just my luck!

Dave F

Martyn1981

Energetic wrote: »

We've had a few inverters DOA, a few go in the first couple of months. If they get past that they seem to do ok. Most problems we encounter are firmware related and can be fixed with an upgrade.

The design life is 20 years but who knows, some will likely last that long and some won't, very helpful statement...

I remember reading a statement (I think from SMA), comparing failures to a bath-tub profile. Failures at the very start as faults are discovered after install, but quickly replaced, then a flat (bottom) with very low levels of failure. Followed 10 to 20 years later with the other side of the bath as failure rates accelerate.

@ Dave, not only have they taken your money, but now they're making a song and dance about it too!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GP7AkDLONZI

Mart.