EEVblog 1628 - Home Solar Power Re-Install + Upgrade + FAIL

Reinstallation of the 5kW Enphase microinverter home solar power system, and installation of a new 5kW Deye Hybrid inverter string system did not go well...
Forum: www.eevblog.com/forum/blog/ee...
Deye user manual: www.sunovagroup.com.au/wp-con...
00:00 - New Trina, old LG, and even older LG panels
03:44 - Salute the old Sunnyboy 3kW string inverter
05:23 - New 415W Trina, old 370W LG, and even older 250W LG panels. Plus some bonus 440W Trina panels.
06:45 - The old fuse box
10:00 - Roof racking installation
14:49 - Old 370W LG panels are getting reused
16:36 - Panel installation on the roof
20:46 - Timelapse
21:35 - New 5kW Deye Hybrid inverter installation has problems...
24:35 - And now the Solar Analytics system fails!
25:56 - I got it working!
30:30 - The Electrician with no Multimeter!
31:02 - Solar Assistant running on a Raspberry Pi 3
33:51 - Summary of the dodgy half and half pizza install
35:28 - Update on the various monitoring systems, Enphase, Solar Analytics, and MyEnergi Zappi
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#ElectronicsCreators #solarpower

[@Rob2]

"Hey Mr Jones, we forgot to bring our multimeter, do you happen to have one laying around?" 😀😀😀

[@YoutubeBorkedMyOldHandle_why]

Mr Jones ... "Ripper ... got one I can sell you mate."

[@aturegano87]

🤣🤣🤣🤣 This comment is so underrated

[@tripplefives1402]

Brings out the one from the 1920's made with tubes.

[@redsquirrelftw]

Bring out the biggest scope. "Couldn't find mine either but this will tell you the voltage".

[@EEVblog]

Mr Jones: "Sure, here is my analog meter I had when I was a kid"

[@andrewsnow7386]

No more roof space -- put your old 250 watt panels on your driveway. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@UnreasonableSteve]

Solar FREAKING driveways??

[@chitlitlah]

Solar Freakin Driveway

[@daghtus]

Those failing drive-over panels were certainly FAKE NEWS

[@MMMM2MMMM2MMMM]

Never heard of a carport?

[@Clynikal]

@@MMMM2MMMM2MMMMwhy would you put solar on the roof when you can built them right into the road…. I hear they’ve had great success with this concept overseas…..

[@rolyicecold]

An electrician without a multimeter, is unheard of. That grinds my gears.

[@pomonabill220]

And YOU are paying THEM to install the system!!!!!

[@arvetemecha]

At work we once had a "security consultant" who came to audit our IT systems and plugged a laptop infected with a well known trojan malware into our management network...

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

@@pomonabill220 should've charged them rental on the borrowed multimeter ;)

[@AdrianSchwartzmann]

I tried to install computers and phones at an office three imes and every time I found a bunch of outlets that didn't work. The last time I was still there when then electrician showed back up. He was mad and trying to blame it on other people. He started going around "testing" each outlet with a none contact ac voltage detector. He "tested" one of the outlets that I knew didn't work and kept going. I stopped him and asked if what he was doing was actually testing if the outlet worked. He said of course see when it beeps there is voltage. He waved it over the outlet again and said see voltage. I responded yes but is the neutral hooked up. He was like of course it is I did this one one myself. I plugged an actual outlet tester pointed to the results and said are sure about that. A few minutes later I hear different beeping and I wanted to see what he was doing. He was walking around with a multimeter testing each outlet. Not sure why it was beeping. He did manage to fix all the outlets i needed. I still wonder if he was just lazy or an idiot.

[@stephenw2992]

@@AdrianSchwartzmann Most of them are both. Wait until you call a linesman to fix a broken neutral. He will seem like a genius after that.

[@BobSacamano-dy3wg]

Would have been funnier if you gave the electrician a meter with your face on it.

[@sarahjrandomnumbers]

Nah, give him the "Babies first multimeter". The one that super pinky swears it's cat3 but uses smd fuses.

[@KeritechElectronics]

"Here, take this Brymen 235 as a consolation prize..."

[@mondotv4216]

Doesn't the L3 light flashing indicate a problem with phase 3? ie voltage is either disconnected or running at the wrong frequency on phase 3.

[@KeritechElectronics]

@@mondotv4216 my wild guess is that the enclosure and panel blend was reused from a 3-phase model, or the markings don't denote phases but LEDs (LED 1, 2, 3 instead of live 1, 2 and 3).

[@HSAC.WDTK.DTKT.LFO.]

You silly Australians, pointing your solar panels to the north!

[@johnathanasiou9284]

Australia is located within the southern hemisphere & pointing solar panels generally north increases the available sun hours on them. Pointing solar panels south in Australia is counterproductive, since that is where the south pole is & attracts the least amount of sun hours, especially during midday

[@Cmdad]

​@@johnathanasiou9284that's the joke

[@petergoose8164]

It is to counteract the Coriolis force.

[@Zanzubaa]

@@johnathanasiou9284 It was an obvious joke bud

[@CT-vm4gf]

@@johnathanasiou9284lol

[@DumahBrazorf]

I understand they did not provide panels and inverter but leaving without even checking the system is producing...

[@sarahjrandomnumbers]

An electrician asking me to borrow a multimeter would be an instant "You can leave now." moment for me. Then again, it sounds like a bunch of amateurs got sent out to you. I'd name and shame them if I were you.

[@MarkFunderburk]

Jesus these installers are a clownshow

[@retrozmachine1189]

What?! The sparky didn't have a multimeter because someone else had it? Come on guys, what outfit doesn't have spares, even if they are just basic meters not multifunction whizz bang meters. Who turns up to a job without a meter!

[@somedude-lc5dy]

right? I'm not even a sparky but I have like 3 meters and a portable scope-meter. they're not very expensive. most clamp meters do double-duty as a multimeter as well, so you'd expect them to have at least 2.

[@Splarkszter]

Worst company ever

[@musashi939]

They know it's Dave. He has tons of em laying around.

[@tullgutten]

In my home i have 3 floors and have one in each and 2 bonus ones in the livingroom 😅

[@ipullstuffapart]

Sounds like Dave got caught by the racket of solar cowboys given the dumb mistakes, undertooled, and unprofessionalism of showing up unannounced onsite after hours.

[@Tomthetoolman100]

The installation that was carried out for you Dave was piss poor to say the least I would suggest you have an independent inspection carried out.

[@Jimmeh_B]

Ya buy cheap, ya buy twice.

[@captainheat2314]

​@@Jimmeh_Byou can also buy expensive inexperienced

[@alexandersichwardt3652]

Even if installation went more than perfectly fine, some idiots later guaranteed will mess something up

[@WreckDiver99]

He was shocked at the costs of what I was quoted for installation. He said he was able to do his original system for well under $10K AUD. His system in my neck of the woods is WELL OVER $35K, and I need nearly double what he has thanks to shading, being in the north, and full load requirements. Maybe that "cheap" install isn't so cheap after-all...

[@FrozenHaxor]

Look at 19:37, they just chopped off one of the AC cables right off that microinverter connector and left the bare copper exposed. This is shoddy and a fire hazard at best!!!

[@harveycreekin]

Back of the truck and no MM makes me confident there will be a follow up "solar install fail" vid 😂

[@alexv3780]

It's unbelievable that they didn't double check the installation. They should have label the two pv string and measure them to verify that they are connected and the polarity is right. The same for the micro inverters, they should have verify they are connected to the grid.

[@tullgutten]

26:48 Wild external earth connection spotted at the far right, back. No reason to have it going into the unit

[@rw-xf4cb]

Would have thought the orange grid cable would be in conduit as the orange is not normally UV rated.

[@michaeljames1893]

Worse than that, no fixed wiring is permitted to be installed without physical protection in Australia.

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

yeah, orange circ is NOT UV rated, and should be in conduit in any case

[@robertalabla]

@@SomeMorganSomewhere Also seems odd to have the AC cut off rather than a breaker. The inverter is a power source and the conductor is unfused the whole way to the breaker panel.

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

@@robertalabla yeah, that's a bit odd too since the point is to protect the wiring. Personally if I was to hypothetically (because I'd totally NEVER do that because I'm just a EEE and I don't got the schoolin' for this electrimacicianing) install a submain, I'd install MCBs at both ends because it's a really convenient way to provide an isolator AND overcurrent protection.

[@v8snail]

Orange circ in Australia is UV rated. It is commonly used in industry in full sun. We have some parts of our plant with 40 year old orange circ in full sun still in use and it's serviceable despite some chalkiness discolouration.

[@TheCod3r]

You should just install them in the pavement instead 😂

Solar Freakin' Driveways!

[@nateb3105]

Really poor install processes - earth cable in the wrong place, labelling over the removable panel... sheesh! Are they class 2 screws they used on the conduit clamps? For a hybrid - you should ALWAYS install the CT cable & backup/emergency cables back to the mains panel, the sparkys dont want to - as they can charge you for another visit. You bought a hybrid for a reason - so do it up front & do it once!

[@netbootdisk]

Screw missing on the conduit saddle to the AC isolator too. I also don't like that orange flex cable being looped like that too. Doesn't look like enough mechanical protection and I'd also question the UV rating?

[@nateb3105]

@@netbootdisk @netbootdisk I've seen loops put in as "drip" loops - if there's any water/moisture, then it doesnt travel from one enclosure to the next. With you on the lack of grey UV conduit though! It should be in the shade (inverter location)... but still - i want more mechanical protection. #strayatradie

[@robertbackhaus8911]

And did you see the empty plug, back right corner, marked with an earth symbol?

[@FrozenHaxor]

Look at 19:37, they just chopped off one of the mains AC cables off that microinverter and left it like that, that's shocking, literally.

[@SomeMorganSomewhere]

@@netbootdisk yeah, too tight and not UV rated.

[@johnwest7993]

I smile when I see panels on roofs. They look beautiful to me. I see silent self-sufficiency with no moving parts to fail.

[@xephael3485]

They fail slowly each year

[@acmhfmggru]

that's because you don't see the toxic junk that goes into their creation, and you don't see the toxic junk leeching out of them when they get damaged. Hail, for instance, will completely destroy a panel, and then leech toxic chemicals into the run off water. But if you ignore all of the negatives then it is just positives left, what a trick! 🤦🏿‍♀️👏🏿

[@TylerDurden-pk5km]

Parts do not have to move to fail ...

[@racitup4114]

Except they only last 20 years because of UV and heat damage... and then they can't be recycled... and they're not sustainable because the high-quality quartz is mined just like coal, except there's much less of it and when we run out it's bye-bye silicon wafers for chips and therefore civilisation.

[@tripplefives1402]

I see alot of broken ones too, hail storms are very common here as are they in Australia I hear.

[@Razor2048]

When they start charging to put money into the grid, then in that case will the system offer any options to prevent power from being sent to the grid?

[@LB-fx1kn]

Yes, many/most inverters offer a no-export option. Though that does require a CT to measure your demand so it knows how much to output to cancel it out.

[@guy7gsa]

You said you don't have a CT connected on the grid side, how do you prevent the inverter from exporting to the grid and more importantly how do you prevent your inverter from exporting when you have a power failure and don't kill one of the linemen working on a fault. Just wondering

[@LB-fx1kn]

The inverter is connected to the mains and is constantly measuring it. If it falls out of spec the inverter shuts down. It's required by Australia/New Zealand Standard 4777 which all inverters must adhere to.

[@EEVblog]

As the other comment said, all Australia compliant inverters must disconnect from the grid if ti goes down. Don't need a clamp for that, it just measures the grid voltage is there.

[@Cmdad]

How is it 11 years ago? I remember watching that video like it was 3 years ago 😭

[@redsquirrelftw]

I was thinking the same! Time goes by too fast these days.

[@stinkycheese804]

Dave, you're no longer a spring chick. If you don't know by now, that if you want it done right, then you have to DIY, then I don't know what to tell you.

[@vgamesx1]

Last I recall, you have to be certified to do any electrical/solar work in Aussie land, plus it doesn't matter he's already paid to have someone do it, so now you nag them to do it right or threaten to charge back.

[@WillProwse]

Oh Australia 🤣

[@WesselLemmer]

Your requirements are not that far out and Im a little shocked at the incompetence or at least lack of communications.

[@BenMitro]

Solar installers are specially licensed, so they charge through the roof and employ monkeys.

[@truglodite]

Sometimes when you're blue collar busy, stuff can happen. My truck bed gets messy sometimes, especially near the end of a larger job. I've asked to borrow a screwdriver from a client before, despite having $1000's worth of other tools on me sans a #2 phillips. OTOH, silicone caulk sealed roof jacks, plus what appears to be a significant chunk of troubleshooting time with no result? That is where it gets a bit shady to me.

[@timvdwest]

Solar Assistant is great, I've been using it for just over a year now. Just be sure to make regular backups and if you can connect a small SSD to install it to would be recommended as micro-SD cards are prone to fail (like it did with me). If you have Home Assistant you can easily integrate it there too which is nice as I rarely have to use the Solar Assistant interface as everything I need for the house is in Home Assistant.

[@EEVblog]

Yeah, I figured I'd have to backup. Was hoping it would have cloud dumped it?

[@timvdwest]

@@EEVblog unfortunately no cloud backup (I’d love that too). You have to manually do it and then upload the file to your backup location of choice.

[@smartups1]

I have been following you since 2011. I have also seen your previous videos of solar panel installation. I got a lot of information and enjoyed watching .

[@ja8020]

Geeze the extra expense for enphase iq8A would be forgotten long before the pain of this install fades. :):) I love the ones I have and trina 440s on my roof and your video has convinced me that it was the right option for us now.

[@elco400]

Hi Dave, I have a sunny boy TriPower which you could tear down? It stopped working a couple of months ago, in Castle Hill

[@SpeedLockedNZ]

will the panels be signed? looks up shipping to NZ

[@calholli]

You could have put the 250w panels hanging off the edge of the roof like a porch overhang.. A little sun shade and more power

[@ThaVoodoo1]

I have trina TSM-500DE panels in a home 24V Lithium setup. I'm very happy with these panels, work well in low light.

[@jessew6757]

I need to say the ground (Earth) cable from the roof PV array should have run independently straight to be onnected to the common earth bar (common AC grounding connection point) of your building's electrical installation point, And NOT "looping" through inverter as they did. Then they should install another inverter grounding cable between inverter and run it all the way to the common AC grounding point of the building AC installation. This arrangement is known as "Equipotential Bonding". The various grounding cables from each section run with separate cables and these cables finally "meet" or join up only at the grounding busbar or pint of the Ac installation. NOTE: It's is also advisable to have a backup earth cable connection wired on the outside of the inverter casing again running it al the way to grounding terminal. This is for touch protection Incase the primary earring inside inverter were to fail or come loose.

[@cptlooney]

Whats the Grid input rating 60A or higher? Ive seen when they do upgrades, they tend to lower the Single phase current rating and if you want more then you move to 3 Phase at 40A each.

[@EEVblog]

60A grid fused

[@Kaballasx]

Oh Dear. I have installed several of these DEYE inverters. I have had no issues. Your installer did not connect it property. They used the generator port for the mains AC input. Your mains AC input is not connected. Then these guys charge for a service?

[@joshw1986]

I have 24 of those exact same 440W Trina panels recently installed. Runs great, or at least as well as Victorian winter weather will currently allow :) And I spent extra and got a battery, and have all sorts of nice monitoring running on it. I jury rigged my own monitoring, as the Sungrow inverter and Powerwall have web interfaces which I can scrape data from. But I feel lucky, I have no dramas with my install.

[@volodymyrzakolodyazhny7740]

(22:00) It is not convenient without DC isolator. Hybrix inverters are more complex and more prone to fault, so it is much more convenient to have an outer DC isolator (but not inbuilt). So, I don't understand why they removed it.

[@IIGrayfoxII]

They're ending the Solar Feed-In Tarrif in NSW and Vic. So its point-less to export it.

[@darrylr]

We need a show explaining the solar and wind powered Hills Hoist to the non-Aussies.

[@HamishHughes]

How can an electrician not have a meter and still perform the mandatory tests to comply with 8.3.3 of the AS3000. Without testing earth continuity, polarity and Insulation resistance your system could be unsafe and dangerous.

[@eDoc2020]

If there's more than one electrician then the other one would perform the tests. If there's only one electrician they could make another trip back before switching it on.

[@triplexdread]

"Naaah can't clean the panels while we are up there because we didn't supply 'em" Great customer service solar install company, Bangin

[@impmeister1]

I installed my home battery last week. I use Enphase micro inverters and a Victron multiplus 2 GX for charging the Lifepo4 batteries and regulate the usage and export to the grid. So far i am pretty pleased with the results.

[@ChrisRosenhain]

Looking at the installation manual for that Deye inverter, the grounding point is on the rear right behind the grid hole. Installer didn't RTFM I guess.

[@bradmesserle999]

Can you not get eg4 inverters ? The new ones seem pretty impressive..

[@Luzgar]

With that many current clamps, did you catch any of them lying about the power they are producing or using ?

[@cgauer]

I’ve been running my Deye hybrid with Solarman flawlessly for three years. However, last year, I had to update the data logger firmware to keep it functioning. The update was carried out via Deye’s support email through an over-the-air operation. Interestingly, they restarted the inverter at 11 PM without prior notice a day after I requested support. After that, the logger was back in action.

[@video99couk]

Not a fan of wi-fi connections. When we had Tesla Powerwalls and Gateway installed (along with solar), I ran network cables for the installer to connect. Annoyingly the Gateway and first Powerwall each require their own network cable, but the second Powerwall takes its data connection from the first. There is an option for wi-fi connection but cables are very reliable.

[@reasonablebeing5392]

Imagine how long it would it would take even if you only had one system if you were not tech savy? Being handy / a techy is a real time saver.

[@ibd1977]

Out of curiosity, how much have you spent on solar tech since the very start in total versus your return in investment in power savings? Am considering solar, but is it a break-even exercise?

[@vgamesx1]

Of course it will, otherwise there would be no point since most people don't go for home battery systems, but break even can depend on a lot of things like the panels, how many and company you hire or what part of the planet you live, shading, power cost for your area, etc.. The quickest and cheapest although not the most legal way if you just want to save a few bucks, is try to find your baseline power draw, for lights, modem or anything that gets left on 24/7, easy way for that is to get a home CT power monitor, so for example if you're constantly using 250W at all hours then you can get 200W of solar, any random grid-tie inverter and plug it right into a mains outlet, this isn't approved by pretty much any electric company especially if the inverter doesn't support grid isolation however as long as you never feed back to the grid this can be incredibly inexpensive, for the example I gave the setup would only cost about $50 for inverter and $30-60 for some used panels (and another $20 or so for a power monitor), if you pay around 20 cents per kw you'd save somewhere around 1k or 20c a day or nearly $70 a year, so not much but hey it pays for itself in just a year so hard to complain.

[@Zyphera]

I love that as much as possible is reused.

[@exapod23]

Now that's a pro KZbin thumbnail!

[@SebastianSonntag]

Not sure about AU code, but there is a grounding location on the bottom side of the Deye inverter that is mandatory to connect at least according to EU spec.

[@richardgrier4721]

I did almost the same thing as Dave. Mix of DC Enphase microinverters + LG panels on the Southwest roof and old Sharp panels and Fronius string (DC) inverter on the Southwest. This mix seems to maximize production throughout the day. Only 7.2 kW peak total, but I have a small(ish) home.

[@alch3myau]

shady power company there!

[@lua-nya]

Don't worry, Dave. You'll soon need one more current clamp, with a 2 Din rail unit device for it, with a 485 twisted pair back to the inverter from the meter box. Once you get it: A: Switch to 'Zero export to CT' B: Activate 'Solar Sell' if you'd like to export after that. C: Enable grid peak shaving and set its wattage to the maximum you want imported. D: Consider using the LOAD output (get a contactor for the earth neutral bond). E: If you wanna export from battery for some reason, you'll need sell first AND disabled grid peak shaving AS WELL AS a target to sell down to in the schedule. D: Be sure to enable MPPT multi point tracking under advanced. Cheers from someone who installed a Deye 6k hybrid in Europe last November!

[@outbackev-hunter6035]

So a few things to Note... 1. on the Deye inverter, the earth lug is on the RHS at the outside bottom next to the grid output... 2. microinverters probably won't work as they need to see grid to fire up? 3. deye does hook up to Home assistant as it has a hac 4. Sooooo,, for a correct CofC, systems usually need to have current approved panels, so even may incluse your old ones are getting reinstalled , so make sure you get that from your sparks before they realise! (Correct me if I'm wrong)

[@iampennochio]

Yeah but geez dave you have to pay the power corporation for giving them free power now!

[@steviebboy69]

Yes I heard about that as well and at one stage you would be paid a pittance for it but that would be better than having to pay. we pay enough down under for it all ready. Next they will charge us to breath the air.

[@robertbackhaus8911]

In most of Australia, wholesale power prices go negative in the middle of the day. Solar is feeding power in, wind is there, Gas turbines and hydro are both practically off and coal is ramped down to as low as they can be, and there is still too much power on the grid. All they can do is let the voltage drift up until home solar plants start shutting off. They are working on pumped hydro to absorb some power, but large construction projects take time.

[@LB-fx1kn]

Generally you do have to pay someone money to take something they don't want. So much rooftop solar in Aussie now that there's more generation than demand. So you're basically paying them to dispose of it.

[@pupperozucca4994]

bent over to power company, also here in USA

[@jameslawrence8734]

@@LB-fx1kn We have so little power during the summer at mid day the power company is telling everyone to get solar. They also charge to feed back to grid. They can't fix black/brown outs due to low power production but they still want to charge to take it and sell it...

[@JimnyVR5]

Is "fell off the back of a truck" different in Australia? In Europe it means stolen 🤔

[@petehiggins33]

No, it means they 'might' be stolen but there's sufficient plausible deniability if you don't ask too many questions.

[@KeritechElectronics]

New Trinas: all electrons fell out, but the neutrinos sticked. As for meters, I never thought someone would still install an electromechanical meter in the 2010s! Here in Poland most of the meters are electronic, the old electromechanical ones (that could be tricked with a neodymium magnet) are phased out in utilities and used mainly as sub-meters for monitoring the energy use in parts of wiring. It's still mainly found in the older wiring - DIN rail mounted meters conforming to MID (measurement instrument directive) are preferable because they're so much smaller and more practical. Smart meters (as opposed to electronic meters) are being deployed, but this is hampered by lack of infrastructure as these things use power-line communication and need transceivers in transformer stations. I have a 1939 made meter waiting for restoration in my lab... that's gonna be quite a project! An electrician with no moldymeter on a friggin' job site... WTF? I hope it was just a Fluke. Beefier, weird requirements, not your Joe Average... Same here. Nerds gonna nerd and sometimes push the limits of tech. To boldly go where no one has gone before...

[@rikvdmark]

For monitoring I’m a big fan of Home Assistant. I have it connected to the P1 port (serial) on my power meter so it can log power usage and the energy being exported to the grid. I have a solar edge inverter and use their modbus interface via the inverters LAN connection to monitor my solar power production. Home Assistant correlates all the information to show me all the information in a nice interface. Can’t recommend it enough, and it’s free if you don’t want/need external access. Of course power meters with a serial connection are not available everywhere but I’m glad it saves me extra hardware and cost. Definitely a lot of things went wrong with the install of your new system. Damn Murphy 😅

[@bjiirn]

There are multiple ways to get external access for free as well. The easyest is probably using the Tailscale Addon. (Personaly i use the HomeAssistant cloud tho, to support the team.)

[@halko1]

@@bjiirn You're telling me there's addon for tailscale? Facepalm. All I had to do was install addon? 🤣Well, at least I now know. Thank you.

[@animarkzero]

PV installing electrician from Austria here: These PV installers have done an absolute shoddy job! The Earthing is supposed to terminate on the outside of the DEYE (there is a screw on the underside) The earth bar inside the device is only for the GEN LOAD and GRID cables not for Panel earthing. I would have installed a separate earth bar under the DEYE. Also where are the Lightning Surge Arresters? I would really install an Arrester Box before the DEYE to be safe!

[@FrozenHaxor]

Nearby lighting strike will have potential to mess up that system for sure, that's a ground loop into the wrong place. Panels are supposed to have separate grounding of the frames straight to the ground rod + bonded at mains box, I don't see any string surge varistor packs installed either. There should be a panel installed with surge protectors and DC fuses, two for each string. Very odd installation practice indeed.

[@beaujo]

Great video. Go Sunny Boy!

[@AmauryJacquot]

there must be some power coming out of that connector that is used for the wifi dongle the problem with the solar analytics system was the 4G network crapping out

[@Clynikal]

Super interested to hear what you’re thinking about batteries Dave.

[@joruss]

What was the ROI from the old panels?

[@funnycatvideos5490]

I would be surprised if it even broke even. Also with multiple micro-inverters just higher chances of failure. Look at all about roof penetrations that rely on silicone. There has to be a better solution than this cluster.

[@siggyincr7447]

As someone who knows fairly little about solar this video makes me wonder a few things. 1. Would the ideal orientation of of the panels always be facing the Equator? Or does it make sense in terms of investment/kWh produced to have a system that like his has part that gets more morning sun and the other that gets more afternoon sun? My thinking being that maybe the overall kWh is similar but peak output is lower so you can have a smaller inverter with the way his is set up. 2. Is the reduction in solar heat gain that you would have in your attic because of the shade that the panels provide the roof enough to significantly lower AC power consumption?

[@anthonyshiels9273]

I would LOVE to see a teardown video about your Sunny Boy inverter.

[@whuzzzup]

Don't know much about solar installation, but why did you not complete the bottom installation to the end of the roof at 17:45?

[@EEVblog]

Max string power already reached, and no extra panels or microinverters. Layout plan changed on the day based on the possible roof mountings.

[@AdnanJabbar]

How come they are the max in Australia. I have installed 21 Panels of 585Watt Longi Himo X6 Panels and we still have 625 Watt as the highest in the market here in Pakistan

[@Blasterxp]

Do the old panels deliver as new? Or did they degrade?

[@SupremeRuleroftheWorld]

just curious, but how much more would you be willing to pay extra compared what you paid now for a company to actually do the job right the first time?

[@mohsenSL]

In my country, Ginko and Trina solar panels are sold with capacities of 575 watts and 590 watts.

[@shaunphillips321]

Remember to email Deye and ask them to change the wifi logger dongle update time from default 5min to 1min update intervals.Or it will only update every 5min to web interface/ monitoring.The setup is pretty simple to link to solarman assist / Deye Cloud

[@DesignBuildFixReview]

An ad for not getting solar. Here is a question how does a panel that is basicalliy same size as the old ones put out almost double the power? What technology makes them more powerful?

[@FrozenHaxor]

They are physically bigger.

[@Saddex]

They have gotten more efficient. They used to be like 16-17% or less like 10 years ago. Now it's common to find panels with 23-24% efficiency.

[@morantaylor]

You have provided a solution for me to locally monitor my solar inverter, it only sends data to the cloud and has no API for local monitoring. It does however have a USB port so I am going to dig out a raspberry model 1A and connect it to USB port using solar assistant.

[@florinbogdan6806]

Hi Dave, as far as I know the way to install this inverter you should have your grid line connected to its grid input, the load as being your house main panel input to the inverters load pins, once you do this in hybrid mode as in with battery the inverter would internally connect load with grid to perform injection to the grid, you will need the CT installed to measure what goes in and out, without battery it will behave the same way, once you have the battery and set it properly to charge and export the excess if you lose the grid it goes in off grid mode and you still have power. The way it was connected for you its the worst way, it limits the inverter alot in terms of what you can do with it. Do make sure the installers or you if allowed connect it in hybrid mode, main grid line to grid , your loads/ entire house if that power covers your needs. My brother has one , the 8kw version and it works very well as I have described above. Good luck and I hope it last at least as the old sunny boy.

[@Orbis92]

I'll give your setup a rating of "got the job done with existing tools"/11 I love my PoE powered Raspberries and Arduinos around my house. Hitting "2 flies with one clap" like we use to say in German ;) All are powered by some old 100Mbit PoE switch next to my regular 1Gbit switch in the basement. I like to pull 2 cables everywhere, so I'm flexible if I want a second PoE or a Gbit if I need another connection. This was really handy when I bought a buch of PoE cameras a few month ago. They came with their own DVR with internal Gbit PoE switch, but since its all central I could patch that easily to the unused existing cables :)

[@j3xk72r9]

Will you do some EMC tests to see how much RF noise all this is producing?

[@ozzybloke4830]

The Deye hybrid inverter looks the same as the Vitech hybrid inverter, wonder if its just rebranded.

[@olleassistans7467]

what would be the problem of seeing the solarpanels from the front of the house? i think they look good, but i guess not everyone think the same.

[@JuergenBoehringer]

Thanks for the insight. But what a pity to replace a good old German SMA with a Deye :-( . I am actually done with Deye. First, they "forgot" the security relay #relaygate. And I already had one defective micro-inverter from them.

[@calholli]

I think they should have placed your top row up towards the peak a little further so that you could walk between the two rows.. Which would help a lot for cleaning.. Unless they are strong enough to walk on-- ??? Which I don't know the answer to

[@andrewdollins2321]

Nice setup I am converting my hydroponics system to solar, which should be decent in Arizona. Dave hope your upgrade works for you.

[@kthfriend]

Not sure if it's noted. But check the broken roof tile at 11.15.. could do with a dollop of silastic or replace the tiles.

[@andrewmclauchlan9205]

How did you go finding someone that would install the Deye as I'm finding rural guys in Vic don't want to know about it

[@EEVblog]

The local company said they'd do it even though they hadn't installed one before. They hadn't even heard of them. All they cared was if it was CEC certified or not.

[@user-uy8cv6yi3f]

How is your country's or continent's electricity grid structured? Do you have direct connections to another continent? I'm asking because I live in Germany and Europe has a large interconnected electricity grid. I would think that this should be easier to regulate with many controllable generators than a "smaller" grid like in Australia. Do you have problems in this area and how do you solve them? I myself have a ~14KWp system and an 8KWh storage system and think that my system should also help with stabilization (my PV system is not controlled by the grid operator, nor is my wallbox (it is perfectly legally registered and normal in the power class)). I would be very interested in a video on the subject of grid stability. I see the problem as solvable, we simply need to control more consumers and producers (and I am sure that this is possible without any real loss of comfort). I would find a comparison between our grid and yours really interesting :)

[@Spelter]

I wanted used panels as a start for my house, no way I pay the same price as new 400 watt panels. People are crazy here in Germany. To the Deye Inverter: I use Hoymiles with OpenDTU/AhoyDTU, running on an ESP8266 or ESP32 and wireless gets the data from the microinverters and push it into my Home Assistant and the home automation system.

[@hardergamer]

Look into vertical hanging your panels, like on a garden wall etc, as I'm amazing how well they work in winter, you could use them old panels maybe, as it will give you power when you really need it.

[@andyhello23]

You should try and do a series on videos on the new install, would love to see you install, and do a real series on the install and setup

[@sylvester2294]

In series...right? any panel can open the circuit...

[@jacobnielson7175]

The mc4 connectors can clip in and have the metal end inside press back into the wire which will cause an open circuit. Luckily most of the mc4 connectors pull apart and can be fixed without needing a new one.

[@volodymyrzakolodyazhny7740]

I'm not sure it is good idea to use invertor earth tefminal as Earth for panels (29:00). I guess it is better to have a separate earthing system built for panels only (because of lightning etc).

[@reedreamer9518]

Your setup is 10 out-a 10, for sure! My rent has increased by 250%, so I'll be living off grid in my RV soon. So, I'll need to put together a decent solar system with batteries and backup genie. I don't think my government will give me a rebate if I'm off grid in my RV ; (

[@mycosys]

Why people 'choose to be homeless'. :'( Good luck dude, van life can be awesome - some days you wake up to a view and think even a billionaire couldnt pay for it. But its also really challenging.

[@hudson_orr]

you can get concessions for self generation (off grid systems) atleast in south australia from what ive seen getting grid pwr concessions

[@Hunter_Bidens_Crackpipe_]

Buy them for your house with the rebate and then take it with you when you move out.

[@MattyEngland]

You may be homeless, but you can sleep easy knowing that illegal immigrants are being housed in nice warm 5* hotels

[@calholli]

If you get yourself a cheap umbrella and bring it with you to the inverter.. you can hold it over your head and block all the glare.. and pull it down close to you and the screen and make it a little dark and that would make it much easier to see the screen.. OR just pull a dark sheet over your head like they used to do on old timey photography.. Or just pull your coat over your head, etc. Anything that blocks out the sun glare and covers you in the dark will make it much easier to read--- in case you need to stand there for an hour and run through all the options and settings someday, again..

[@Abihef]

Interesting roof tiling, I've never seen anything like it here in Holland

[@G1acelynPh]

Have you checked out the Pepennedy project yet? I think they have a lot of potential, and I'm excited to see where they go next.

[@olipito]

Hello Dave, if you think to it one more time, it will appear clear that it's normal that you will have to pay for injecting power to the grid : not only you still profit of the grid infrastructure when you need power, but by injecting you actually generate costs for the grid company that has to adapt the infrastructure to a very different topology in terms of grid load. The price of grid electricity includes the infrastructure, compuded in a sort of shared cost where everybody contributes a bit. Therefore, with big power injection this equilibrium gets messed up.

[@olipito]

I hope this reaches you, because I think it's important

[@Cooee28]

I don't suppose anyone knows if controlled load 1 (in NSW if it matters) is always imported from the grid, or can solar power that too? My 80yo dad switches off his hot water trying to save money, and I'm wondering if he can use his solar panels on weekends to heat up his hot water.

[@robertbackhaus8911]

The solar system would feed back through the main meter, and the controlled load is a second meter fed from the grid side of that meter. So if the CL1 is on while his solar is feeding back, he will be paying for the power going into his hot water, at the same time as he may be paying for the grid to take away the same power. Dave did set up his system to feed his solar power to his (heat pump) hot water system, so it is possible.

[@Cooee28]

@@robertbackhaus8911 Nice explanation, thanks. Makes sense.

[@ozzybloke4830]

@@robertbackhaus8911 Possible but not while on the controlled load as it is also switched on during off peak times usually from 11pm till 6am, sun doesn't shine at night.

[@transmitterguy478]

OH NO! Dave's going to have to pay money to the electric company!🤣Great video Dave, I'll be looking forward to what was the fault.

[@fredflickinger643]

Even considering the unique nature of your configuration, you have to ask about the state of installation techs and this fly by night solar industry.

[@JohnnyX50]

That is an amazing install. I remember when I had solar fitted (Australian made 7x285W Black Sapphire panels) I get about 1.6Kw out on a good day. I live in UK in a small roof terrace house, so no room for more. I have 2 silly roofs on the SSE facing roof, so my panels are split between SSE and W, which isnt ideal but it works. I had to go into settings on Solax inverter because some voltage settings were wrong and my system would keep cutting out when the sun was at its brightest and giving me the best return, so in theory this made the system stupid and pointless. I fixed the issue with the higher AC line voltage set too low, below what the normal supply voltage is here in UK, my meter was showing supply of 245V and threshold was set to 220V so anything above that was causing the inverter to stop inverting lol. I did check all online documents for the inverter and its specs so the setting of 250V I set was within its tollerances, so now the inverter stays on untill there is a drop below about 60V from the panels. My system is about 4 years old now and still works great, and it was all I could afford at the time (paid for outright, not on finance or 'rent a roof' system) Just wanted to add, while your your birds were chirping away, they were driving my budgie mad, he keeps trying to talk back to them LOL 🤣😂

[@bluewinds10]

As a comparison, I have 12x330w (4kw) that is nearly 4 years old and I get 30kw on a good day in the summer and only 1kw on the worst possible day in winter when its dark and drizzling.

[@johnnodge4327]

For another UK comparison. I live in the Southwest, about 40 east of Lands End. I have a 3.78kWp system consisting of 9 X JA solar 420W panels, SSW facing and a Solis inverter. In summer on a variable weather day, I see about 18 kWhr of generation, and about 25 kWhr on a full sunny day. In the summer I'm generating from 5am to almost 10pm, which is pretty impressive IMO.

[@davespages]

6:14 I have an 8kw sunsynk inverter (deye rebrand) and the manual and online videos state not to exceed 50% of the Rated AC rating for generator/Microinverter input. For my 8kw thats 4kw max. Does it matter? Well ive noticed some weird behavior in full sun. I am in the UK - so not as hot or sunny as Oz, but when we get sun and cloud we get peaks in power. When theres 5.2kw AC coming in on the Microinverter port and the 2 Strings on the inverter are generating over 5kw combined (sometimes 5.8kw) then one of the mppts just drops to zero for a few seconds and then tracks back to peak power. This only happens during peaks and when more than 5kw AC coming into the Microinverter port. If i add a load on the Microinverter feed before the sunsynk inverter to keep the AC under 5kw, the random drops on the string mppts stop. So its unhappy with that ammount of solar. For context, 35kwh batteries so max of 10.4kw charging 175A) and it will allow up to 9kw AC to export. So its a weird quirk. Something to watch out for as i fear you might be have issues with 4.1kw of AC input from the Microinverters

[@davespages]

If you install the CT clamp (you will need to so it can charge/discharge and sense the house load) then you don't need to connect the Enphase panels to the micro inverter port. They can just be AC coupled. As long as the CT Clamp is right by your meter it will see the outbound energy from the Enphase Inverters and if you choose a microinverter mode and "Zero export" the inverter will effectively "Grid charge" your batteries up to the value of the energy that would have been exported.... until your battery is full, then export resumes. The Sunsynk inverter firmware is different but the internals are the same so your Deye should behave the same!

[@eDoc2020]

As long as you have a grid connection without an export limit I don't see why the inverter would care. The microinverter input connects right through to the grid input. Are you near the max AC current rating? If you're trying to export 11kW on a connection only made for 11kW I would expect problems.