Solaredge inverter reliability

[woodwater]

I got my Solaredge system installed late June 2013. The 1st inverter failed in March 2017. The replacement unit has just failed with an HW Error 18 x B6. The inverter is a HD-Wave SE3680H-GB000NNN2. It tripped the feed breaker when it totally failed.

[Afrmthabay]

@Afrmthabay It isn't. Grounded directly to bus bar.

Okay the installer opened it up my charger is grounded to main breaker bus bar

[dailo]

@Afrmthabay It isn't. Grounded directly to bus bar.

[Afrmthabay]

dailo by chance is your outlet grounded through the inverter - I

[Afrmthabay]

Hi,

The message says error code 18xB7 and says HW error.

As for the grounding when the inspector saw it was grounded through the inverter he had no problem with it but I remember he was checking for the grounding from the grounding bus bar before he saw it grounded to inverter. Mine appears to be load side. I noticed my error was not in the manual but when I called solaredge they were familiar with it

Hi @Afrmthabay,

I'm still confused by what you mean when you say, "It is wired directly to a dedicated breaker but only grounded through inverter." If your Tesla Level-2 or rapid charged is fed from a two-pole breaker in your load center (breaker box) (assuming it is 240VAC 30 or 40 amp or similar) why doesn't it have a grounding wire coming from the grounding bus bar in the breaker panel along with the two hot legs?

Just out of curiosity, how is you SE inverter wired? Load side breaker into the breaker panel? Or Line side tap between the POCO meter and the break panel main breaker?

Definitely sounds like your car charger is either causing a voltage sag, harmonic, or other issue that the SE inverter doesn't like. What was the exact error message the invert gives (perhaps I missed it in an earlier post)?

-Jonathan

[JSchnee21]

Are you still getting the same 18xB7 error message? I have't found that one in the manual. I did find 18xB2-4 (page 61)

https://www.solaredge.com/sites/default/files/se_hd_wave_inverter_installation_guide_na.pdf

[JSchnee21]

Hi @Afrmthabay,

I'm still confused by what you mean when you say, "It is wired directly to a dedicated breaker but only grounded through inverter." If your Tesla Level-2 or rapid charged is fed from a two-pole breaker in your load center (breaker box) (assuming it is 240VAC 30 or 40 amp or similar) why doesn't it have a grounding wire coming from the grounding bus bar in the breaker panel along with the two hot legs?

Just out of curiosity, how is you SE inverter wired? Load side breaker into the breaker panel? Or Line side tap between the POCO meter and the break panel main breaker?

Definitely sounds like your car charger is either causing a voltage sag, harmonic, or other issue that the SE inverter doesn't like. What was the exact error message the invert gives (perhaps I missed it in an earlier post)?

-Jonathan

[Afrmthabay]

I was producing excess so it was not increasing any costs but mainly convienence and I work at night

[dailo]

So I am wondering if me using my car charger in the daytime is causing my inverter to be damaged. I used the car charger which is a 240 volt charger for 3 months before this happened

Sorry for going off-topic, but curious why you charge during the day with NET metering? Wouldn't you be better off getting shoulder/peak credits instead of offsetting that use? I usually only charge during the day on the weekends when it is non-peak rate and doesn't really matter.

[Afrmthabay]

So I am wondering if me using my car charger in the daytime is causing my inverter to be damaged. I used the car charger which is a 240 volt charger for 3 months before this happened

[ButchDeal]

I don't have the integrated car charger, just the 7600H. I have a Tesla HPWC installed and when I was seeing the problem, as soon as I started to charge the car the inverter would throw an error. Once I stopped the charger, a few minutes later the error would clear and production would resume. It wasn't until I shut the power off the inverter and brought it back online did charging the car not trip it anymore. Happened about two weeks ago and haven't had the problem since, but I don't charge my car while solar is on all that often.

The charger is a version of the SE7600H (or SE3800H ) https://www.solaredge.com/us/products/ev-charger#/

[Afrmthabay]

or as I mentioned if your gird is providing power at low voltage already the car charge could pull it down more.
it is strange that it is grounded to the inverter. Does that mean it is also wired and pulling power form the inverter? that wouldn't be good.

It is wired directly to a dedicated breaker but only grounded through inverter

[dailo]

My car charger is simply grounded to my inverter - Solaredge mentioned something about changes in the electricity or the harmonics in the electricity changes which can trigger the fault and they have better firmware to combat that. Electrical is not my background but it does appear there is some relation. Hopefully they have a way to make it work with new firmware or anything to alleviate that. But simply grounding my car charger to inverter would not cause the fault they said but the harmonics in general could is what they told me

Interesting, I could see how firing up the charger could change the harmonics although I hope that wasn't related to your capacitor frying.

[dailo]

I don't have the integrated car charger, just the 7600H. I have a Tesla HPWC installed and when I was seeing the problem, as soon as I started to charge the car the inverter would throw an error. Once I stopped the charger, a few minutes later the error would clear and production would resume. It wasn't until I shut the power off the inverter and brought it back online did charging the car not trip it anymore. Happened about two weeks ago and haven't had the problem since, but I don't charge my car while solar is on all that often.

[ButchDeal]

My car charger is simply grounded to my inverter - Solaredge mentioned something about changes in the electricity or the harmonics in the electricity changes which can trigger the fault and they have better firmware to combat that. Electrical is not my background but it does appear there is some relation. Hopefully they have a way to make it work with new firmware or anything to alleviate that. But simply grounding my car charger to inverter would not cause the fault they said but the harmonics in general could is what they told me

or as I mentioned if your gird is providing power at low voltage already the car charge could pull it down more.
it is strange that it is grounded to the inverter. Does that mean it is also wired and pulling power form the inverter? that wouldn't be good.