What's with all the new SolarEdge SE7600H-USSNBBL14 Hub Inverters for sale at eBay?

[CharlieEscCA]

I've got a five year old SolarEdge system professionally installed system on my house (PTO Jan 2020) that is the regular (non hub) SE7600-US HD Wave model. No current plan for batteries as with SDGE NEM 2.0 my true up is only minimum daily charge and non bypassable charges. Sure, a battery can save the majority of non bypassable charges, but at about $150 over an entire year, the cost of batteries would not be recouped in my remaining years on this planet.

However, with our multi day public safety shut-offs due to wildfire risk where I live (I've only had warnings, not affected thus far), I'm in the process of setting up to use a portable 240v inverter generator which will be used for whole house backup (can run all but A/C, can do without that). Thanks to Capital One Shopping cash back, a dual fuel (I will only run propane) 6,500 starting watts with 5,500 running watts on propane has been bought for $685 plus tax. Add in about $180 in cables and parts to get the generator far enough away from the house and able to connect properly to my house. I'll skip the cost of running a propane feed from my house's 500 gallon propane tank (only use 250 to 300 gallons all year - didn't know what this new house would need as it's bigger with two propane furnaces, two propane tankless water heaters, two propane linear fireplaces, propane dryer, propane gas range) location to where the generator will be used. Instead, I'll purchase two 40 lb propane tanks for use with the generator.

I just happened to be looking at the SolarEdge inverter product pages, and then when searching for the SE7600H inverter prices and came across new hub versions being sold on eBay both in auctions (one seller) and many buy-it-now in the $400 and less price range. Most are new in box, sealed. I'm guessing there probably is no warranty.

It almost has me wonder if I should spend $400 give or take to have a backup inverter. But since I have 7 years left on my 12 year warranty, I don't think it makes sense to spend any money on a "spare".

But just curious, where did all these inverters come from? Who went bankrupt? It looks like there are 150 or more for sale. Most sold items are mid December and after.

Comments? Thoughts?

[CharlieEscCA]

Looks like I can get the non hub version local pickup (28 miles away) for $299. And there are P320 optimizers brand new for $15. How stable is SolarEdge? Warranty is only as good as them being in business. For $15, wonder if grabbing a several replacements makes any sense.

For the record, zero issues. Total generation (MWh) for the 28 optimizers are 2.67, 2.68, 2.69, 2.69, 2.70, 2.70, 2.71, 2.72, 2.74, 2.75, 2.75, 2.75, 2.76, 2.76, 2.76, 2.77, 2.77, 2.78, 2.78, 2.78, 2.78, 2.79, 2.79, 2.79, 2.81, 2.81, 2.83, 2.83 with a calculated standard deviation of ≈0.0458 - so all operating great.

[Mike 134]

Looks like I can get the non hub version local pickup (28 miles away) for $299. And there are P320 optimizers brand new for $15. How stable is SolarEdge? Warranty is only as good as them being in business. For $15, wonder if grabbing a several replacements makes any sense.

For the record, zero issues. Total generation (MWh) for the 28 optimizers are 2.67, 2.68, 2.69, 2.69, 2.70, 2.70, 2.71, 2.72, 2.74, 2.75, 2.75, 2.75, 2.76, 2.76, 2.76, 2.77, 2.77, 2.78, 2.78, 2.78, 2.78, 2.79, 2.79, 2.79, 2.81, 2.81, 2.83, 2.83 with a calculated standard deviation of ≈0.0458 - so all operating great.

Good question look at Sears once upon a time a mail order giant!! Ironically mail order killed them.

[J.P.M.]

Charlie:

No more than FWIW but given how manufacturers are dropping like flies, I'd buy the inverter now as well a couple/3 panels if you can get them.

Back story: I bought an identical Power One (rebranded Sunpower) inverter to backup my 11+ year old string inverter about 6 years ago from Solar Cowboys and it sits in my garage still in the box. I figured it as some form of cheap insurance. If nothing else maybe I'll get some spare parts out of it.
I've also got 4 gently used Sunpower SP 327's to match what's on the roof if/when needed.

Best Regards,
J.P.M.

[J.P.M.]

I've got a five year old SolarEdge system professionally installed system on my house (PTO Jan 2020) that is the regular (non hub) SE7600-US HD Wave model. No current plan for batteries as with SDGE NEM 2.0 my true up is only minimum daily charge and non bypassable charges. Sure, a battery can save the majority of non bypassable charges, but at about $150 over an entire year, the cost of batteries would not be recouped in my remaining years on this planet.

However, with our multi day public safety shut-offs due to wildfire risk where I live (I've only had warnings, not affected thus far), I'm in the process of setting up to use a portable 240v inverter generator which will be used for whole house backup (can run all but A/C, can do without that). Thanks to Capital One Shopping cash back, a dual fuel (I will only run propane) 6,500 starting watts with 5,500 running watts on propane has been bought for $685 plus tax. Add in about $180 in cables and parts to get the generator far enough away from the house and able to connect properly to my house. I'll skip the cost of running a propane feed from my house's 500 gallon propane tank (only use 250 to 300 gallons all year - didn't know what this new house would need as it's bigger with two propane furnaces, two propane tankless water heaters, two propane linear fireplaces, propane dryer, propane gas range) location to where the generator will be used. Instead, I'll purchase two 40 lb propane tanks for use with the generator.

I just happened to be looking at the SolarEdge inverter product pages, and then when searching for the SE7600H inverter prices and came across new hub versions being sold on eBay both in auctions (one seller) and many buy-it-now in the $400 and less price range. Most are new in box, sealed. I'm guessing there probably is no warranty.

It almost has me wonder if I should spend $400 give or take to have a backup inverter. But since I have 7 years left on my 12 year warranty, I don't think it makes sense to spend any money on a "spare".

But just curious, where did all these inverters come from? Who went bankrupt? It looks like there are 150 or more for sale. Most sold items are mid December and after.

Comments? Thoughts?

Charlie: I suppose I could look this up from old posts but what was the startup date for your system ? I think our systems' sort of long term per installed STC kWh performance is about equal but I'd need your startup date to confirm. Details later on why I'm curious.

Thanx in advance,

J.P.M.

[CharlieEscCA]

Charlie: I suppose I could look this up from old posts but what was the startup date for your system ? I think our systems' sort of long term per installed STC kWh performance is about equal but I'd need your startup date to confirm. Details later on why I'm curious.

Thanx in advance,

J.P.M.

First date of operation was 1/29/2020. I have 28 Axitec 310 watt panels.

[J.P.M.]

Charlie:
Thank you.

From your info, our two array's seem to be putting out pretty close to the same amount of electricity on a per installed STC kW basis.

My array's output for that period was 45.16 mWh or ~ 1,726 kWh average per year per installed STC kW between years 7 and 11 of its life.
Overall, I estimate by data readings and several hundred measurements of instantaneous output and other parameters on a cleaned array and its panels that my average annual loss from panel deterioration is about 0.0020 of STC output/year (or about 10 or so STC W/yr) on top of a first year burn in loss of about 0.031 of STC output (About 162 STC W after year one).

Your array seems to have produced something 77.15 mWh or 1,777 kWh average per year per installed STC kW over the same calendar 5 year period.
Your data is helpful to me as a nearby comparison over the same time period.

Given that my array is going on about 7 years older than yours, I'd call that about a wash.
BTW, I still hose mine down about 1X/month when it doesn't rain.

I started out in 2013 with a Sunpower design because I had a woodie to see and prove to myself whether or not Sunpower lived up to its always and loudly shouted claim of being the "most efficient".
I suspected that the claim was B.S. and proved it to myself over the years by enough data collection and testing to prove (at least to myself) the claim to actually be B.S.
I already knew that the Sunpower stuff, while good quality, was no better quality than other known stuff but generally about 20-25% more expensive up front for no real performance advantage.
So, I spent about 25 % extra to satisfy my curiosity/collect some data that was probably an embarrassment to Sunpower.
Seeing as how they're now out of business I suppose it matters squat. But I did have fun and learned some stuff.

Some info for readers: Charlie and I live about 5 or so crow flight miles apart in north county San Diego. I believe I can see his house from my kitchen if I use binoculars.
Our weather and day/day sunshine are very similar in one of the better solar climate in the U.S.

Regards,

J.P.M.

[CharlieEscCA]

I've hosed down my array on garage roof, using a 10' step ladder, probably a total of four or five times. I've always had excess generation of kWh, so I've been less motivated to do it more regularly. My excess last year was a bit more than 1700, paid out at about $0.049 per kWh.

This is with two plug in hybrid cars where my charging covers probably 85% of my miles driven, and my wife's charging probably covers 50 to maybe 60% of her driving. For our use case, the plug in hybrids have been perfect in that charging only costs the loss of excess kWh payment and some NBC amounts. First year with the vehicles I would try to charge at 1 am for off peak - now I try to charge when the suns out because I end up with $700 or more NEM credit at the end of the year that resets to $0 - so I'm not paying too much attention to peak usage anymore. I do track where I stand (spreadsheet with everyday production and use by TOD periods) and could change behavior if I'm off track and would have costs beyond NBC and daily minimum charges.

Back to my concern with SolarEdge, they have lost over 1.3 billion dollars in their first 9 months of their fiscal year. Their year end results come out in two days. There quantity of inverters and optimizers sold in first 9 months of fiscal year 2024 vs 2023 ard down 80 percent! This does not bode well for warranty nor spare parts availability. While my array will operate without a cloud connection to SolarEdge, I'm not sure I can provision a replacement inverter or optimizer without SolarEdge servers to process a login to their SetApp phone app. I'm trying to investigate this as this affects whether buying a spare inverter makes sense. I don't need parts I can't use if they are not in business.

[J.P.M.]

Back to my concern with SolarEdge, they have lost over 1.3 billion dollars in their first 9 months of their fiscal year. Their year end results come out in two days. There quantity of inverters and optimizers sold in first 9 months of fiscal year 2024 vs 2023 ard down 80 percent! This does not bode well for warranty nor spare parts availability. While my array will operate without a cloud connection to SolarEdge, I'm not sure I can provision a replacement inverter or optimizer without SolarEdge servers to process a login to their SetApp phone app. I'm trying to investigate this as this affects whether buying a spare inverter makes sense. I don't need parts I can't use if they are not in business.

Not being political and I won't comment on the possible future or start an argument or act like chicken little beyond expressing the belief that he the future does not auger well for alternate energy, at least not for the next few years.
Stock up on spare parts now.
More cheap insurance.