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Have you owned a multi-kW inverter before? Because if you know one that is mostly free of drama I would love to know the brand! Solar photovoltaic systems are n

Have you owned a multi-kW inverter before? Because if you know one that is mostly free of drama I would love to know the brand! Solar photovoltaic systems are not as maintenance free as one might wish. They still make a ton of financial sense if you own them outright, but inverters and critter damage to wiring can be unwelcome surprise costs.

deleted 8y ago
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secabeen 8y ago
I have an Aurora PVI-6000-OUTD-US that's been pretty solid. I've also heard good things about the Sunny-Boy inverters. One thing I like about my Aurora is that there is a linux command-line tool that can pull data from the inverter over serial. I pull data from mine every 5 minutes into text files on my home server.
- throwaway5752 8y ago
  Thank you. I have a SolarEdge currently... after two bad units (to their credit, under warranty) the third has been solid for a long time. I have heard mixed things about microinverters, and my installation has developed partial shading over time (damn trees!) so that's something else I've looked at.
Nanzikambe 8y ago
Victron's Multiplus and Quattro are drama free. I buried and conduited/sealed all my cabling and had zero issues. Added bonus: if you use them with a CCGX and are comfortable with MQQT and/or Python there is literally nothing you can't control, automate or visualise with them. The CCGX itself is arm + linux and mostly open sourced https://www.victronenergy.com/live/open_source:start https://www.victronenergy.com/live/open_source:start The downsides are: 1) price but imho you get what you pay for many times over. 2) veconfigure for the multiplus itself is windows only, but runs fine in Wine on Linux and Mac
lakisy 8y ago
We bought our solar panels from Solar Edge.It's a 4.5-5 KW system We are in our forth year. I've done nothing to it, no maintenance. It just works. Every now and then it rains and that cleans up the panels enough.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

secabeen 8y ago

I have an Aurora PVI-6000-OUTD-US that's been pretty solid. I've also heard good things about the Sunny-Boy inverters. One thing I like about my Aurora is that there is a linux command-line tool that can pull data from the inverter over serial. I pull data from mine every 5 minutes into text files on my home server.

throwaway5752 8y ago
Thank you. I have a SolarEdge currently... after two bad units (to their credit, under warranty) the third has been solid for a long time. I have heard mixed things about microinverters, and my installation has developed partial shading over time (damn trees!) so that's something else I've looked at.

Nanzikambe 8y ago

Victron's Multiplus and Quattro are drama free. I buried and conduited/sealed all my cabling and had zero issues. Added bonus: if you use them with a CCGX and are comfortable with MQQT and/or Python there is literally nothing you can't control, automate or visualise with them. The CCGX itself is arm + linux and mostly open sourced https://www.victronenergy.com/live/open_source:start https://www.victronenergy.com/live/open_source:start The downsides are: 1) price but imho you get what you pay for many times over. 2) veconfigure for the multiplus itself is windows only, but runs fine in Wine on Linux and Mac

lakisy 8y ago

We bought our solar panels from Solar Edge.It's a 4.5-5 KW system We are in our forth year. I've done nothing to it, no maintenance. It just works. Every now and then it rains and that cleans up the panels enough.