Solar IBoost+ experience

ajbell · 19 March 2019 at 9:58AM

My iboost is very noisy but I just think of it as the sound of free energy/money.

mgbond · 19 March 2019 at 1:48PM

JKenH wrote: »

I had a look at the Marlec website for contact details and noticed their troubleshooting page and particularly their comments about positioning the clamp relative to the Henley block. From there I went to look in the meter cupboard and moved the clamp - it had been positioned by the installer between the Henley block and the consumer unit - not between the Henley block and meter.

Now it is in the right place the readings are far more acccurate and last night there was no solar heating taking place so that was significant progress. I am grateful to those who commented on here.

I just need to resolve the noisy fan issue now. Apparently the fan should only work intermittently. Mine is on all the time that heating is taking place.

I did say check the position of the clamp.

As per the noisy fan, they sent me this.
https://www.marlec.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SiB-Fan-Operation.pdf?v=79cba1185463

Cottage_Economy · 19 March 2019 at 2:44PM

ajbell wrote: »

My iboost is very noisy but I just think of it as the sound of free energy/money.

I've lost count of the number of times I've gone to look at mine because I can't hear that sound of free energy and want to know what's going on.

OP how noisy is noisy? I can hear my unit going in the next room if the door is open between and I can certainly here it through the floor in the room above it, but it is not annoyingly loud. I believe that's the fan. It is going all the time it is heating but stops when not.

Like you we were facing issues with multiple walls and intermittent signals if we put our iBoost in the airing cupboard. In the end, our unit was installed in the utility room and wired into the house consumer unit as the immersion had its own fuse. Ours was a slightly different situation though as the panels and inverter were located on/in barns about 25 feet away from the house so we were able to put the sender on an outside barn wall in a waterproof box. Doing this eliminated three of the five walls between the two, reduced the distance between them and helped strengthen the signal.

JKenH · 19 March 2019 at 3:04PM

mgbond wrote: »

I did say check the position of the clamp.

As per the noisy fan, they sent me this.
https://www.marlec.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/SiB-Fan-Operation.pdf?v=79cba1185463

Thank you, you did indeed. That’s the beauty of forums, it makes you look at things again in another light. I actually ended up with the clamp closer to the meter as it had been installed on the wrong side of the Henley blocks. I don’t know why the Henley blocks make such a difference as as far as I am aware they are just connecting blocks. No doubt someone will explain.

Yes, I saw that page about the fan on the Marlec troubleshooting site which made me realise it should only run intermittently, not continuously like mine does when “saving” energy. Were you having the same problem? I am going to take the front off and have a look at the fan at some stage today.

JKenH · 19 March 2019 at 3:15PM

Cottage_Economy wrote: »

I've lost count of the number of times I've gone to look at mine because I can't hear that sound of free energy and want to know what's going on.

OP how noisy is noisy? I can hear my unit going in the next room if the door is open between and I can certainly here it through the floor in the room above it, but it is not annoyingly loud. I believe that's the fan. It is going all the time it is heating but stops when not.

Like you we were facing issues with multiple walls and intermittent signals if we put our iBoost in the airing cupboard. In the end, our unit was installed in the utility room and wired into the house consumer unit as the immersion had its own fuse. Ours was a slightly different situation though as the panels and inverter were located on/in barns about 25 feet away from the house so we were able to put the sender on an outside barn wall in a waterproof box. Doing this eliminated three of the five walls between the two, reduced the distance between them and helped strengthen the signal.

Sounds just like my fan. We did originally have it on a stud wall which I thought was acting as a soundboard and then I could hear it in the room below. It’s not much quieter on the masonry wall on the landing but I don’t hear it through a closed door in the bedroom immediately opposite.

It is just a whirring sound which disturbed anyone sleeping in the bedroom where it was located.

I had never noticed the signal strength icon until after we moved ours about 30ft nearer the sender but on numerous occasions it said “lost signal” and had stopped heating. The move seems to have sorted that. I have the sender on a windowsill with the wire going out to the meter box though the frame and a hole in the box.

mgbond · 20 March 2019 at 2:11PM

JKenH wrote: »

Thank you, you did indeed. That’s the beauty of forums, it makes you look at things again in another light. I actually ended up with the clamp closer to the meter as it had been installed on the wrong side of the Henley blocks. I don’t know why the Henley blocks make such a difference as as far as I am aware they are just connecting blocks. No doubt someone will explain.

Yes, I saw that page about the fan on the Marlec troubleshooting site which made me realise it should only run intermittently, not continuously like mine does when “saving” energy. Were you having the same problem? I am going to take the front off and have a look at the fan at some stage today.

My fan runs whenever its heating the hot water. I have noticed that the engineer has not fixed the IBOOST using all 4 mounting point that the guide suggests should be done. Mine is in the airing cupboard and the stud wall that it is on is the other side to part of the wall in my bedroom and I can hear the fan.

JKenH · 20 March 2019 at 7:54PM

I took the bottom panel off and the rubber foot which holds the fan in place is there so no obvious reason for the noise. As yours runs continuously when heating then maybe mine is functioning correctly.

peterwlane · 4 September 2019 at 12:28PM

Our second replacement iBoost failed in May 2019, in the same way as the original unit which failed in August 2016 after 8 months operation, and the first replacement in November 2017. Marlec replaced the first two under the warranty, but now say we are out of warranty. The type of failure is nasty if you’re away from home: the iBoost starts to direct power from the grid through to the immersion, regardless of any generation by the panels, day and night. After the second failure, we came home to a large electricity bill! We’ve had several discussions with Marlec, who have raised minor issues like plastic trunking being too near the unit, and now the fact that our unit is by the meter rather than by the immersion, and has a run of cable supplying it (which was necessary because the radio signal is not strong enough to transmit through our granite walls). I have heard from our fitter about another installation with exactly the same issue as ours. When it worked, the iBoost was effective as other reviewers report, but it is clearly not a stable and robust unit.

tim_p · 4 September 2019 at 4:17PM

Mine (original iBoost, not iBoost+) was installed in Nov 18, batteries replaced after 3.5 years and still going strong. Had an issue where the existing thermostat failed in the ‘On’ position so whenever the panels were generating then the iBoost would happily feed the immersion. It then totally failed and that was when I first noticed any issues. Replaced the thermostat and it’s been fine ever since. Considering the + model along with the Buddy thing, but am waiting for that time when the panels have paid for themselves of the iBoost fails. It gets turned off if we go away.

Crowmann · 6 September 2019 at 3:51PM

Just to chip in our Iboost decided to burn out in March this year - I returned home to smell and then see smoke coming out the airing cupboard.

I was extremely concerned and in all fairness so were Marlec. I have never been that happy with the unit being in the airing cupboard - mostly heat which as any electrical engineer will tell you is the last thing you want with circuitry and capacitors in particular. Turns out one of three capacitors was in the process of self destructing - they can go bang quite spectacularly.

Marlec issued a service exchange unit (it was out of warranty so thank you Marlec if you are reading) and assured me that when they tested and approved the unit it was designed to not be able to catch fire - didn't stop the case from melting and the house smelt of electrical burning for perhaps three weeks - very pervasive.

I had the new unit fitted to 3mm stainless plate within the loft - non combustible and much cooler than a hot airing cupboard. Oh and silence as a bonus.

I bought a Buddy unit to tell what's going on. All in all much happier with the new location.

I dread to think what I might have come home to had I been an hour later as despite the billowing smoke the unit was still shifting 3 plus Kw when it was turned off.

Solar IBoost+ experience

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