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> the manufacturer states that not having it connected to the internet voids their warranty I was aware that my inverter could connect to the Internet, and pro

> the manufacturer states that not having it connected to the internet voids their warranty I was aware that my inverter could connect to the Internet, and probably would be connected to the Internet during setup, but my full intention was to disconnect it following the install. I was pretty happy that the one that the vendor gave me was poll-able from an internal Web server, so I could scrape the metrics myself. It turns out, none of this was to be. I found out about the Internet connectivity requirement for the warranty _after_ it was on my wall and producing power - and when you've spent five figures on a system with a 25-year warranty, unfortunately I had to suck up my pride and let it phone home to the manufacturer's cloud. It now sits on a separate VLAN for "untrusted" devices. What's more, I also found out that the manufacturer had intentionally removed the local web server feature, instead making it totally reliant on the cloud service for metrics. It has a laughable rate limit of 300 calls per day, which gives me roughly 5-minute granularity (I could get better granularity if I made my metrics-gathering scripts poll differently overnight, but still), and I really dislike having to reach out to a vendor for data that's produced in my own home.

IanNorris 4y ago
I see you also have a Solar Edge inverter. I had no idea about the warranty, I didn't read the ToS because I wasn't asked to agree to one.
luxuryballs 4y ago
How does this even make sense, if the power goes out or the internet goes down your warranty can be voided? At least I know what question to ask when I go shopping for these…
oliv3r 4y ago
This would obviously not fly in Europe. I have setup my SolarEdge system 4 years ago, (HDWave with an LCD) and never did I sign anything that stated 'must be connected to internet, or else', again not even possible with European warranty laws anyway, as the vendor has to prove that the malfunction occurred due to not being connected to the internet. When I was doing research on inverters and the control units, I looked into a few systems. Back then, you had either string based (Sunny boy, GoodWe was what was standard offered) or per panel inverters/optimizers. Some vendors of those setups even wanted to place an (additional) router! Maybe to ensure the wifi signal from the inverter was close, though they wanted to place it in the meetering cabinet. No way of course. Are you crazy? The Enphase control boxes where the worst, that still stick with me today. They actually setup a VPN to their mothership, and use that to be always connected, completely unacceptable of course. Just think about it, joe schmoe gets a solar setup, happily lets it connect to the internet, and then exposes his entire home network to Enphase. SolarEdge was the least worry some, as (after research) showed they have a USB/RS-232 and RS-485 internal port that can be used (https://github.com/jbuehl/solaredge https://github.com/jbuehl/solaredge) and I've been using that to scrap the data for years. I do know that with the newer HDWave (without LCD) things are a bit trickier, but should still have those RS-485 connectors, as those are needed for other purposes. Of course, I don't know what software updates broke over the years. My system has _never_ connected to the internet, and is happily humming along :) All in all, this is completely unacceptable behavior, and I'm surprised that they keep on getting away with this. Installers think its great, they show up to give you an offer, and show how great some of their customer setups are functioning, because yes, they also keep having 'full admin' access. Insane.

IanNorris 4y ago

I see you also have a Solar Edge inverter. I had no idea about the warranty, I didn't read the ToS because I wasn't asked to agree to one.

luxuryballs 4y ago

How does this even make sense, if the power goes out or the internet goes down your warranty can be voided? At least I know what question to ask when I go shopping for these…

oliv3r 4y ago

This would obviously not fly in Europe. I have setup my SolarEdge system 4 years ago, (HDWave with an LCD) and never did I sign anything that stated 'must be connected to internet, or else', again not even possible with European warranty laws anyway, as the vendor has to prove that the malfunction occurred due to not being connected to the internet. When I was doing research on inverters and the control units, I looked into a few systems. Back then, you had either string based (Sunny boy, GoodWe was what was standard offered) or per panel inverters/optimizers. Some vendors of those setups even wanted to place an (additional) router! Maybe to ensure the wifi signal from the inverter was close, though they wanted to place it in the meetering cabinet. No way of course. Are you crazy? The Enphase control boxes where the worst, that still stick with me today. They actually setup a VPN to their mothership, and use that to be always connected, completely unacceptable of course. Just think about it, joe schmoe gets a solar setup, happily lets it connect to the internet, and then exposes his entire home network to Enphase. SolarEdge was the least worry some, as (after research) showed they have a USB/RS-232 and RS-485 internal port that can be used (https://github.com/jbuehl/solaredge https://github.com/jbuehl/solaredge) and I've been using that to scrap the data for years. I do know that with the newer HDWave (without LCD) things are a bit trickier, but should still have those RS-485 connectors, as those are needed for other purposes. Of course, I don't know what software updates broke over the years. My system has _never_ connected to the internet, and is happily humming along :) All in all, this is completely unacceptable behavior, and I'm surprised that they keep on getting away with this. Installers think its great, they show up to give you an offer, and show how great some of their customer setups are functioning, because yes, they also keep having 'full admin' access. Insane.