4 ms·

I have posted this before, but I am hiring at Enphase. [1] [2] I am building an architecture to move electrons at the same efficiency with which we move bits.

I have posted this before, but I am hiring at Enphase. [1] [2] I am building an architecture to move electrons at the same efficiency with which we move bits. This enables microgrids. Microgrids enable decentralization and networking. Decentalization and networking enables diverse prime movers competing on price. Price competition enables sustainable energy. If that's interesting, get in touch. [1] https://enphase.com/ https://enphase.com/ [2] https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ENPH?p=ENPH&.tsrc=fin-srch https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/ENPH?p=ENPH&.tsrc=fin-srch

api 5y ago
That's a good place to work since it seems to get less attention. It's clear that getting as many things as we can on the grid is part of the solution since the grid is easier to transition to non-carbon energy than a bunch of mobile engines, but the grid is a lot less efficient than it could be.
Syonyk 5y ago
> I am building an architecture to move electrons at the same efficiency with which we move bits. I'm not sure how to interpret that... I don't think the internet is particularly power efficient at moving things around. It uses an awful lot of energy to deliver unwanted crap for the most part... and I'd rather not have my electricity use data collected for big data analytics in the bargain. I'm not a particularly huge fan of Enphase, though. You've been promising IQ8 for years now (3?), delaying plenty of installs by people who are waiting for the islanding capability promised, but never actually delivered. And the NEC 2017 changes to rapid shutdown requirements seem very, very suspiciously lined up with exactly what Enphase offers (per panel electronics), while offering no practical benefits to firefighting safety (a damaged array cannot be assumed to be anything sane regardless of how it's wired). I've heard a number of people who do solar for a living claim that Enphase had their fingers in that particularly annoying requirement, which makes many otherwise simple rooftop installs far more expensive. And, despite that, microinverters are no cheaper than doing optimizers and string inverters - I've done some system design with Enphase parts vs Sunny Boy inverters and Tigo optimizers (which gets me the same thing, except that with the Sunny Boys and Tigo you do actually get grid down power), and the costs are nearly identical. Just, the Enphase system is less capable (with "Wait for IQ8, it'll be awesome!" being nearly as believable at this point as Tesla's totally legit self driving cross country trip in... was it 2018 they were supposed to do that?).
- specialist 5y ago
  Was there a nice way to make your point? "Hey u/malchow! So much need for better microinverters. Is your IQ8 on track for 2021Q3 release? How will it stack up against Acme Power's μInverter XT?"
  - Syonyk 5y ago
    Except I don't think microinverters are a good solution to almost any problem except that one that Enphase was involved in creating, the module level rapid shutdown requirements in NEC 2017 - which rather radically increase the number of connections in array, and those increased connections counts do cause problems. Enphase has been promoting the IQ8s since 2017, and it's a constant refrain in various solar places of "Yeah, I'm going to hold off putting solar up until the IQ8s are out," which is consistently "Oh, about 6 months away." Same as it's been for the past three years. When a company is consistently deceptive like this, at the literal expense of preventing cheaper solar systems (it's about $0.25/W difference in materials plus whatever the additional labor is), I will ask direct questions of their representatives. I'm interested in boosting solar. Not Enphase's corporate profits.
    - specialist 5y ago
      I guess I was triggered by the tone, which initially felt ad hominen. > I'm interested in boosting solar. Ok, thanks. I think I get it. Me too. I definitely want to hear solutions (those Sunny Boy inverters and Tigo optimizers you mentioned). And legit criticisms are very useful. Peace.
      - Syonyk 5y ago
        I won't argue with you too much on tone, and will try to keep it a bit more technically grounded next time. The NEC 2017 rapid shutdown changes from NEC 2014 (basically, per panel to less than 80V, as opposed to array boundary shutdown) significantly increase cost and complexity in an array, and add a lot more failure points on the roof. You can now no longer do a roof mount system on a totally unshaded roof without the per-panel equipment, and that's a very real cost increase for systems. For a while, if you had a rooftop system and NEC 2017, there was no way to use the Sunny Boy backup outlets - because they require solar power, and after a rapid shutdown event (which is indistinguishable from a grid failure, from the point of view of the inverter), there was no power left to bring anything online. However, there's a tech note floating around that explains how to do it: https://www.stellavolta.com/blog/technical-note-sunny-boy-us41-secure-power-supply-operation-with-ts4ro-853513/ https://www.stellavolta.com/blog/technical-note-sunny-boy-us... You can provide voltage to the controllers in the inverter externally, though, and have it "open up" the Tigo modules (which handle shutdown among other things) so it can run standalone with the grid down and power the backup outlet. For a rooftop solution, I think this is probably the sweet spot at the moment, and having done the math on it a while ago, the cost to do Sunny Boy and Tigo optimizers is within a rounding error of the cost of doing the same thing with Enphase microinverters. So, despite having a good bit more hardware, the cost is magically the same. Whatever claims Enphase is making about their cost effectiveness doesn't seem to match the reality, where I can adjust panel capacity vs inverter capacity to fit the system requirements (vs microinverters, which only come in one or two capacities, and if you want something else, well, lol, nobody else left in business so deal with it). I'm actually a far bigger fan of ground mount solar (which is what I've built for my home - 15.9kW of panel, currently producing about 90kWh/day and producing from sunrise to sunset because most of the panels are east-west facing), and am working with some other people locally to figure out some ways to stamp out "homeowner installed" ground mount arrays that are a basic set of plans and equipment lists. Doing that, we can do solar for $1.25/W or less, which is a huge, huge savings over standard residential solar, which is $2.50/W or more (Tesla claims to come in lower, but won't touch anything the slightest bit complex and it's unclear if they're actually profitable doing that or just trying to drive other companies out of business with venture capital). None of this makes me particularly popular with the local solar installers, because I'm far, far more interested in getting cheap solar built out than ensuring the installers have their tidy profits and commissions. I got a couple quotes a few years ago around $4/W for a basic roof mount system, and that's just disgusting.
johnjj257 5y ago
What architecture are YOU building aren't you a lawyer? Consider using the royal we especially around the real architects

api 5y ago

That's a good place to work since it seems to get less attention. It's clear that getting as many things as we can on the grid is part of the solution since the grid is easier to transition to non-carbon energy than a bunch of mobile engines, but the grid is a lot less efficient than it could be.

Syonyk 5y ago

> I am building an architecture to move electrons at the same efficiency with which we move bits. I'm not sure how to interpret that... I don't think the internet is particularly power efficient at moving things around. It uses an awful lot of energy to deliver unwanted crap for the most part... and I'd rather not have my electricity use data collected for big data analytics in the bargain. I'm not a particularly huge fan of Enphase, though. You've been promising IQ8 for years now (3?), delaying plenty of installs by people who are waiting for the islanding capability promised, but never actually delivered. And the NEC 2017 changes to rapid shutdown requirements seem very, very suspiciously lined up with exactly what Enphase offers (per panel electronics), while offering no practical benefits to firefighting safety (a damaged array cannot be assumed to be anything sane regardless of how it's wired). I've heard a number of people who do solar for a living claim that Enphase had their fingers in that particularly annoying requirement, which makes many otherwise simple rooftop installs far more expensive. And, despite that, microinverters are no cheaper than doing optimizers and string inverters - I've done some system design with Enphase parts vs Sunny Boy inverters and Tigo optimizers (which gets me the same thing, except that with the Sunny Boys and Tigo you do actually get grid down power), and the costs are nearly identical. Just, the Enphase system is less capable (with "Wait for IQ8, it'll be awesome!" being nearly as believable at this point as Tesla's totally legit self driving cross country trip in... was it 2018 they were supposed to do that?).

specialist 5y ago
Was there a nice way to make your point? "Hey u/malchow! So much need for better microinverters. Is your IQ8 on track for 2021Q3 release? How will it stack up against Acme Power's μInverter XT?"
- Syonyk 5y ago
  Except I don't think microinverters are a good solution to almost any problem except that one that Enphase was involved in creating, the module level rapid shutdown requirements in NEC 2017 - which rather radically increase the number of connections in array, and those increased connections counts do cause problems. Enphase has been promoting the IQ8s since 2017, and it's a constant refrain in various solar places of "Yeah, I'm going to hold off putting solar up until the IQ8s are out," which is consistently "Oh, about 6 months away." Same as it's been for the past three years. When a company is consistently deceptive like this, at the literal expense of preventing cheaper solar systems (it's about $0.25/W difference in materials plus whatever the additional labor is), I will ask direct questions of their representatives. I'm interested in boosting solar. Not Enphase's corporate profits.
  - specialist 5y ago
    I guess I was triggered by the tone, which initially felt ad hominen. > I'm interested in boosting solar. Ok, thanks. I think I get it. Me too. I definitely want to hear solutions (those Sunny Boy inverters and Tigo optimizers you mentioned). And legit criticisms are very useful. Peace.
    - Syonyk 5y ago
      I won't argue with you too much on tone, and will try to keep it a bit more technically grounded next time. The NEC 2017 rapid shutdown changes from NEC 2014 (basically, per panel to less than 80V, as opposed to array boundary shutdown) significantly increase cost and complexity in an array, and add a lot more failure points on the roof. You can now no longer do a roof mount system on a totally unshaded roof without the per-panel equipment, and that's a very real cost increase for systems. For a while, if you had a rooftop system and NEC 2017, there was no way to use the Sunny Boy backup outlets - because they require solar power, and after a rapid shutdown event (which is indistinguishable from a grid failure, from the point of view of the inverter), there was no power left to bring anything online. However, there's a tech note floating around that explains how to do it: https://www.stellavolta.com/blog/technical-note-sunny-boy-us41-secure-power-supply-operation-with-ts4ro-853513/ https://www.stellavolta.com/blog/technical-note-sunny-boy-us... You can provide voltage to the controllers in the inverter externally, though, and have it "open up" the Tigo modules (which handle shutdown among other things) so it can run standalone with the grid down and power the backup outlet. For a rooftop solution, I think this is probably the sweet spot at the moment, and having done the math on it a while ago, the cost to do Sunny Boy and Tigo optimizers is within a rounding error of the cost of doing the same thing with Enphase microinverters. So, despite having a good bit more hardware, the cost is magically the same. Whatever claims Enphase is making about their cost effectiveness doesn't seem to match the reality, where I can adjust panel capacity vs inverter capacity to fit the system requirements (vs microinverters, which only come in one or two capacities, and if you want something else, well, lol, nobody else left in business so deal with it). I'm actually a far bigger fan of ground mount solar (which is what I've built for my home - 15.9kW of panel, currently producing about 90kWh/day and producing from sunrise to sunset because most of the panels are east-west facing), and am working with some other people locally to figure out some ways to stamp out "homeowner installed" ground mount arrays that are a basic set of plans and equipment lists. Doing that, we can do solar for $1.25/W or less, which is a huge, huge savings over standard residential solar, which is $2.50/W or more (Tesla claims to come in lower, but won't touch anything the slightest bit complex and it's unclear if they're actually profitable doing that or just trying to drive other companies out of business with venture capital). None of this makes me particularly popular with the local solar installers, because I'm far, far more interested in getting cheap solar built out than ensuring the installers have their tidy profits and commissions. I got a couple quotes a few years ago around $4/W for a basic roof mount system, and that's just disgusting.

johnjj257 5y ago

What architecture are YOU building aren't you a lawyer? Consider using the royal we especially around the real architects