Solar panels seem to have stopped working

grumpy_codger

I'm new to this - bought a house with panels recently and am busy with loads of other things.
They definitely worked - the meter readings were going up and the red light was blinking (with the frequency indicating the power (small meter at the top).

Recently I noticed that the readings don't change and the red light is static.
That's what I have in the loft:

The inverter seems to be alive - 'Power' and 'Comm' indicators are blinking, 'Fault' one doesn't. The LCD indicator was black, but woke up when I randomly pressed 'OK' button - with blue backlight and some weird message - "Waking up.... Remaining 2334 sec" - counting down. I didn't have time to wait for 40(!) minutes.

So, the questions are:

1. Who do I call to fix this?
2. What can I check myself before wasting my money? I'm good in DIY, including electricity, have a good tester.

Any thoughts and advice are very welcome.

Netexporter

Inverters always take a while to "wake up", because they are checking the stability and frequency of the grid, so they will be in synchrony when it connects. However, mine counts down for 60 seconds from when it it switched on. You will normally hear some relays clicking when it starts the countdown and again, in the last 5 seconds before it connects.

If it hasn't reconnected at the end of the current 40 minutes I suggest isolating both the AC and DC feeds, wait a minute or two, switch back on and see what happens.

Qyburn

I presume you didn't get a Solaredge login, which you should have done.  You might be able to use Solaredge instant chat to see what they think. Do that near the inverter if possible so you report status of LEDs etc. 

QrizB

There are a lot of appreciative comments in this forum about SolarEdge's excellent warranty arrangements; if the inverter is faulty, you might become another data point 🙂

Screwdriva

Contact SolarEdge support (via WhatsApp) and explain your situation to them. They will eventually reassign ownership of the device to you. 

grumpy_codger

Screwdriva said:

Contact SolarEdge support (via WhatsApp) and explain your situation to them. They will eventually reassign ownership of the device to you. 

How?

• On their website I do see live chat, but no information on WhatsApp.
• I installed their app, but it asks me to login without an option of signing up.
• For signing up they say everywhere that my installer has to do this for me, but I have no information on the installer. In the paperwork I see photos with some other, old inverter. It was probation, so I cannot get any extra information. And I have a letter from my solicitor saying that I am the owner of the system, that I needed to register with Eon.

Yes, when I have time I will use their live chat to find answers, but meanwhile maybe someone here already knows them?