Solar PV Inverter lifespan

Solarchaser

EVandPV said:

Fronius inverter here installed Feb 2012 and still going strong (touches plenty of wood).
 It's in our loft and I hardly ever look at it from one year to the next. 
Is there much involved in replacing them when the time comes or is it a job for a spark ?

Piece of pee if you have any DIY type skills.
The dc and ac will both be able to be isolated by isolation switches, usually rotary as that's part of the msc  install spec.
So you work with everything dead, not live.

EVandPV

Solarchaser said:

EVandPV said:

Fronius inverter here installed Feb 2012 and still going strong (touches plenty of wood).
 It's in our loft and I hardly ever look at it from one year to the next. 
Is there much involved in replacing them when the time comes or is it a job for a spark ?

Piece of pee if you have any DIY type skills.
The dc and ac will both be able to be isolated by isolation switches, usually rotary as that's part of the msc  install spec.
So you work with everything dead, not live.

Thanks, had feeling that was the case.
Hopefully won't need to go there anytime soon.

The_Green_Hornet

SMA Sunny Boy 1200 installed October 2010 still going strong.

datec66

Had Eltek valare he-t 3.8kw inverter installed Feb 2012.  Lasted 4 years and then it couldn't cope with midday peak power on sunny days.  Had to keep going in the loft to do a hard reset which was a real PITA to get it to work again.  This was replaced under 5 year warranty.  It had a fault on the DC side error code.  The replacement lasted about 2 year's and it kept getting a similar fault but this time on the AC side.  I.ve still got it thinking it needs a new varistor or relay to fix it but I'm not that clued up with them to fix it.  I bought a Solax inverter with 10 yr warranty as standard in August 2019 which was easy to set up myself and so far no problems with inverter No3 lol since install.  I suspect elteks replacement inverter was refurbished and not a new one, could be wrong though.  Set up consists of ac and dc isolation, take off wall jig, remove jig, drill holes for new inverters jig, put that and new inverter on the wall, connect up mc4 connectors and L N E and turn isolators back on.  Then go into menu and set/check grid code etc.  U need installers password off the retail shop to access installer settings but they're kind of factory or shop pre set and plug n play really from the users point of view in most circumstances.  I.d love to fix my eltek as it was a very good inverter with useful built in web interface. 

EVandPV

datec66 said:

Had Eltek valare he-t 3.8kw inverter installed Feb 2012.  Lasted 4 years and then it couldn't cope with midday peak power on sunny days.  Had to keep going in the loft to do a hard reset which was a real PITA to get it to work again.  

Our inverter does a similar thing where it reboots if the power suddenly jumps up, usually when the sun appears from behind a cloud and the output from the panels jumps from say 200w to 1+kw.
Takes about 3 minutes for the inverter to reboot when it does this. I'm guessing this is to protect itself from the sudden spikes in generation ??
Is this normal or should there be a setting to adjust to prevent this ?

jimjames

jimjames said:

Sunny Boy HF3000 here, installed in 2011. Mine is outside so does have a bit more abuse with the weather but so far so good. 

I spoke too soon! My inverter has now stopped working, it still powers up but no input or output showing. Need to get it fixed now we're getting sunny days!

mickyduck55

I hope this is not a start of a barrage of postings about inverter failures.. touching wood AGAIN all is well here  SBL 4000

ispookie666

@jimjames At least yours is accessible, It will cost me more in scaffolding to replace a single microinverter and have 14 points of failure   

1961Nick

Ectophile said:

Some of the early ones were rubbish.  My Power One Aurora came with a 5½ year warranty.  I wondered at the time why it was such a strange length.  Of course, it died after 6 years.

Maybe the Sunny Boy ones are better made.  But don't count on it lasting the full 20 years of the FIT payments.

My Aurora died at 5 years & 8 months.

jimjames

1961Nick said:

Ectophile said:

Some of the early ones were rubbish.  My Power One Aurora came with a 5½ year warranty.  I wondered at the time why it was such a strange length.  Of course, it died after 6 years.

Maybe the Sunny Boy ones are better made.  But don't count on it lasting the full 20 years of the FIT payments.

My Aurora died at 5 years & 8 months.

That makes me think the Sunny Boy isn't so bad at nearly 12 years and 36000 kWh generated