Solaredge v Enphase - 4kw quotes

Exiled_Tyke

Martyn1981 wrote: »

Hiya. Not sure if you're interested in this, but I read it and thought of you.

SolarEdge returns to revenue growth in Q1 FY 2017

I may be misreading it, but it seems to me that any downturn in their share price was due to a reduction in their growth, despite reasonable profits. So perhaps the share price was going too high due to over expectations, and hence needed a correction.

I'm giving myself the impression (not sure about you?) that I'm trying to 'sell' you the SE option. However, I'm simply trying to show that SE does what it says, and I have some personal experience. However, Enphase may be just as good, or better?

It seems to me that whilst it is a difficult choice, there are plenty of SE users here who seem to be very happy with their decision (me being another one!). This would suggest that it's unlikely to be a decision that would be later regretted.

saf1973

Well i took the plunge and went for Solaredge, it came down to the deal i did with the supplier, so the best ROI, which is what its all about at the end of the day.

14 x 285 Solarworld Mono panels
SE3000 SE Inverter
Solar iboost
Voltage Optimiser.

I queried the use of the SE3000 and have been assured that due to the allowed oversizing (to 4050 watts) it will not clip power on our brightest summer days.

The iboost was a bonus and has already, (despite the 3 gloomy days we've had and me working from home with a wife and baby) already been in action. ok, probably not warmed a teaspoon full but it was a surprise it has done anything.

The voltage optimiser i'm not sure about, the company said it would save me a fortune but i'm in the camp that thinks the kettle will just take that bit longer to boil at 220v than it would have at 240v, but i haven't seen any negatives with dimmer lights or poor performance of appliances. The electric shower may not be so hot but the outside air and incoming water is also getting colder so its hard to tell.

one thing of concern with Solaredge was i had it installed on Thursday but had to wait until Monday for the American team to enable it and start production, this conversely means they could at some point in the future hold us to ransom and pull the plug on production. I was very surprised they hold that level of control over our owned systems.

FYI - the enphase installer was going to give me full panel level monitoring with the install, if they are enphase partners they can do that.

There is a revenue tab on the SE site, i've already set this up to see what revenue I am achieving, my calculation for kwh is below and assumes 100% usage. The revenue figure includes the savings of what i would have paid to the energy company, so its a true ROI saving.

FIT Generation rate + (energy supplier £/kwh +5%vat)+(Fit export rate/2) = revenue rate on SE Portal

as at Q4 2016
FIT Generation rate = £0.0418
FIT Export rate = £0.0491 on 50% generation

glennevis

"one thing of concern with Solaredge was i had it installed on Thursday but had to wait until Monday for the American team to enable it and start production".

Are you sure. My installer flicked the switch and generation began immediately.

If you are referring to online monitoring then what you say makes some sense. My installer's office staff took 3 months to sort out my SE account. When I was finally able to login to my account, I could see all the daily generation figures from day one but the weekly, monthly, annual reports only start 3 months after installation.

ASavvyBuyer

glennevis wrote: »

"one thing of concern with Solaredge was i had it installed on Thursday but had to wait until Monday for the American team to enable it and start production".

Are you sure. My installer flicked the switch and generation began immediately.

If you are referring to online monitoring then what you say makes some sense. My installer's office staff took 3 months to sort out my SE account. When I was finally able to login to my account, I could see all the daily generation figures from day one but the weekly, monthly, annual reports only start 3 months after installation.

Same with us when our Solaredge was installed, generation started straight away.
A couple of days later we had access to the online monitoring and have done ever since.
Don't think it is possible for the generation to be turned off remotely.

saf1973

Thats what i thought would happen but no, generation showed zero (meter & inverter) until Monday morning and that was after a very sunny weekend so i know it would have generated something if it was enabled. I queried it with my installation company as i wanted to know why it wasn't generating anything and they said that SE America had to enable it.

I got the monitoring email shortly after and that also shows that it wasn't generating anything until Monday.

Its certainly a concern that someone else has the "keys" to it.

tunnel

saf1973 wrote: »

Its certainly a concern that someone else has the "keys" to it.

Nobody has the keys to it! You can't be forced to take up the online monitoring for starters(why some wouldn't is beyond me)
In fact....I was the one who instigated the online monitoring for my system, it took nearly a month before I got my online presence, everything before that was logged by the TGM.


Are you sure the system wasn't commissioned until the Monday?

saf1973

yes absolutely sure. The installers physically switched everything on before they left on Thursday night and told me that someone from the office would enable the system remotely. I checked for production constantly over the next few (sunny) days and the inverter and meter was at zero. I checked on Monday morning and it was still zero until mid-morning, around the same time i received the SE email.
So the upshot is, they do have the keys to enable it remotely.

saf1973

update - I put in a support call with Solaredge regarding the ability to switch on remotely and they confirmed that they can switch the system on

"Thank you for your enquiry, I can confirm the system is able to be paired remotely.

This is likely to be the case at this time of year if your installer finished late in the day."

So, if they can pair the inverter remotely, they can also unpair it and disable your system remotely.

I doubt they would ever go down the path of disabling systems remotely without permission but if they were to go bust the possibility could arise.

saf1973

Update 2: Solaredge confirmed they could enable the system remotely but they cannot disable the system remotely.

theboylard

Fisrt question I ask is how do they communicate with your inverter?

If they are using your internet connection (which you usually do for monitoring), then you just block it at your router - they can no longer talk to your inverter?

Unless the spec of the SE inverters has changed and they now include their own comms kit, but I can't see that?