Solar inverter failure

Aia

Looks like my solar inverter has failed after 6 years.
The company that supplied and fitted the system no longer exist (Solar King) and neither do the manufacturer of the inverter Sonnen Macht. It looks like the inverter was actually a rebranded Chinese inverter made by Macsolar who also no longer exist.

What have other people done in this situation? Some things I have been pondering on;

1) There was meant to be a 10 year warranty backed by IWA this info was in my quote, but I was never given a certificate for this, which I didn't know I needed. I have not called them yet, till I've checked all my paperwork. A quick search online has shown a certificate is required. Solar King were very slow with paperwork ,I was more concerned about my fit registration deadline as I was very close to the cut off point.

2) Claim from my building insurance? (but my insurance will likly go up)

3) Get an MCS registered electrician to fit a new one. I'm in Manchester .(I'm guessing I am not legally allowed to fit it myself) anyway I would want a full 10 year warranty from the manufacturer.

4) try to get it repaired, (cost of removal, repair, refitting, fit losses and time, probably dont make it economical)
5) buy a second hand one (same issues above also might only last a few years)

Thinking of getting a SMA sunny boy or a Fronius inverter due to their warranty lengths/company age/size



If you have solar inverter, its a good idea to go and check if your generation meter is changing. I think a lot of people are going to start to have failed inverters in the next couple of years. The lifespan of 10-20 years was exaggerated.

Other info;
The inverter is 4kw
(solar panel manufacturer also no longer exist but still working fine)


Looked at Solaredge inverters (different kind of inverter) which have a longer warranty but require a module fitted to each panel. That would require scaffolding etc so not [FONT=&amp]feasible.[/FONT]
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[FONT=&amp]Edit moved to Green and Ethical Moneysaving forum
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System

My feeling is that this one falls to you unless you can contact the third-party that issued any form of insured warranty. I am not sure that your home insurance will cover such a failure. Most solar websites that I looked at some time ago did make mention of the need to factor in the cost of an inverter replacement into any financial decisions.

I am also pretty sure - notwithstanding the cost - that it is not permitted to start changing the configuration of your registered system. Others will be better placed to provide advice.

ard123en

What is on the operating panel? Is there an error code

Guessing tried a reboot already how far dose it initialize

zeupater

ard123en wrote: »

What is on the operating panel? Is there an error code

Guessing tried a reboot already how far dose it initialize

Agree, make sure the basics are covered first, starting with the fusebox ....

On replacing (if necessary), I'm pretty sure that you can get any qualified sparky to change the inverter over as it doesn't change the system capacity (etc), but it's probably easier to use a local installer as long as they're not looking for unreasonable margins ... a number of regular contributors have had inverter technology/unit changes, hopefully someone will be along soon with info on their experience!

HTH
Z

pinnks

Another silly comment perhaps and don't shoot me but have you checked all "fuses" and isolating switches are fine and dandy :think:

forestwn6

EEC home improvements of Southport do replacement inverters.
I have not used them, but they get good customer reviews.

theboylard

My Schuco branded SunnyBoy 3300 is still available? Only used for 9 months then replaced with a SolarEdge retrofit.

If you go the SolarEdge route - I have 16 or 17 P300 optimisers still (never registered, so covered under first use waranty of 25 years), plus I can't fault SolarEdge support.

Just putting it out there, you know...

Aia

I had tried the reboot. But the fault light comes on. The latest code was from april 2017 , and just says 0 followd by 00 00 00 and then load more 00. According to the manual 0 means Grid Voltage Fault. it doesn't say anything about 00

At the bottom of the main display it says
Status: 0x02 Time (follwed by todays date and time)
I don't know what status means and there is no reference to it in the manual.

On the main screen
Pac 0W
Vgrid reads 249.0V
Igrid 0.00A
Vpv1 404.2V
IPV1 0.00A

on a side note
There is no Vpv2 and after removing the cover (when all switched off) it appears all the solar panal wires attach to 2 points on the board marked PV1+ and PV1-

Aia

yes. From what I can tell, everything looks fine. Switches work. And the display show voltage from the grid and solar panels.
Theres a large fuse under the first cover of the inverter and its ok (checked with multimeter)

Aia

Little update

When switching back on, DC first, the panel lights up and no fault light comes on. Only when the AC is turned on, a clicking noise can be heard followed by the fault light coming on, followed by more clicking noise. no new error code is shown on the display.

A friend suspects its a faulty relay. As it a slow clicking (on then off)

Dave_Fowler

At 249V, Vgrid is higher than normal. Can it be that when you start to generate power via the inverter, the mains voltage rises still further and the inverter is registering a fault because of excess mains voltage and the relays disconnect the input?

If the inverter operates without an error light when there is no PV voltage (DC off, AC on) and also operates with no error light with DC on and AC off, I would suspect there is an over-voltage condition on the mains grid input.

Dave F