New 4.8KW installation in San Diego just finished

[inetdog]

Oh, those are not conduits. They are 2.5" PVC water pipes for the solar pool heater. Yes, they look ugly, but I don't think there're many ways to route them, because of water and size.

That attic vent is in exactly the wrong place, then. Too bad.

[thejq]

The bottom two photos of your neighbor's house, that's gotta be the nastiest conduit job I've ever seen.

Oh, those are not conduits. They are 2.5" PVC water pipes for the solar pool heater. Yes, they look ugly, but I don't think there're many ways to route them, because of water and size.

[control4userguy]

The bottom two photos of your neighbor's house, that's gotta be the nastiest conduit job I've ever seen.

[jff6791]

The SolarEdge + LG NIC panels seem to be a great option here in North County/Coastal (pricing is great too).

I have 16x 295 LG panels and the 5000SE inverter. The inverter is in the garage in San Marcos, and does not get too warm at all.

The one gripe I have with the inverter is with the CAT-cable opening at the bottom of the housing does not allow for a crimped RJ-45 to pass through, yet the connector inside is RJ-45. I had to push some CAT-6 into the punch-out and then crimp the end....they should instead just have a Keystone-type jack where you can just punch down 568b. Weird design choice.

I have one of their 7600 inverters and the installer was able to get the Cat5 molded jumper I supplied in there somehow. One thing to check when they set up your monitoring user account: make sure your access level is higher than just "Account Site Viewer" - otherwise you miss out on the Charts, Reports and Alerts features. The Charts function is a powerful tool for checking clipping activity since you can graph power out and DC voltage together.

[thejq]

The SolarEdge + LG NIC panels seem to be a great option here in North County/Coastal (pricing is great too).

I have 16x 295 LG panels and the 5000SE inverter. The inverter is in the garage in San Marcos, and does not get too warm at all.

The one gripe I have with the inverter is with the CAT-cable opening at the bottom of the housing does not allow for a crimped RJ-45 to pass through, yet the connector inside is RJ-45. I had to push some CAT-6 into the punch-out and then crimp the end....they should instead just have a Keystone-type jack where you can just punch down 568b. Weird design choice.

Hi neighbor. Yeah I tried the CAT 5/6 cable. You really have to push it through. So for now I will live with Zigbee. One day I will have time to run the cable from the garage to my switch panel. I'm surprised that SolarEdge uses Zigbee. I'd imagine WiFi is a much cheaper option since most homes have WiFi nowadays. Even if they bundle a wireless router, the combo is still cheaper than the Zigbee gateway + client kit (retails for around $250). Anyway, there must be other reasons.

So have you taken the cover off your SE5000 and looked inside? I'm just curious what the differences are between SE6000A and SE5000A. I have a picture of mine a posts above.

[haizman]

The SolarEdge + LG NIC panels seem to be a great option here in North County/Coastal (pricing is great too).

I have 16x 295 LG panels and the 5000SE inverter. The inverter is in the garage in San Marcos, and does not get too warm at all.

The one gripe I have with the inverter is with the CAT-cable opening at the bottom of the housing does not allow for a crimped RJ-45 to pass through, yet the connector inside is RJ-45. I had to push some CAT-6 into the punch-out and then crimp the end....they should instead just have a Keystone-type jack where you can just punch down 568b. Weird design choice.

[J.P.M.]

J.P.M., thanks for the point of reference. FYI, my orientation is 230 az and 18 tilt which is SW facing. The installer told me for coastal area, it's the best direction (somewhat contrary to PVWatt). It allows for max capture of the afternoon sun with very little cloud.

Yes, when I said "hot", it was the heat sink. The top cover was warm, but the heat sink was definitely hot. I was thinking of installing two computer case exhaust fans with 5V power supply on a timer. They are cheap, durable and quiet.

Also, my per panel output was consistently above 250W during the day. eg. more than 3 hrs today (before the storm cloud moved in). At one point around 2:30PM, most of them reached above 290W, and one above 300W. So if you want to get the LG300s, don't bother with Enphase m250. Get either Solaredge P300s or no optimizer/micro at all, otherwise you will be clipped big time.

I wouldn't take too much issue, if any, with that azimuth. The output will begin the seasonal roll off dropping this time of year in a more noticeable way in the next week/2. I'd est. the m250's clipping will cost a few % output/yr. but not a super amount. Still - no shade problem - ->> string inv.

[thejq]

J.P.M., thanks for the point of reference. FYI, my orientation is 230 az and 18 tilt which is SW facing. The installer told me for coastal area, it's the best direction (somewhat contrary to PVWatt). It allows for max capture of the afternoon sun with very little cloud.

Yes, when I said "hot", it was the heat sink. The top cover was warm, but the heat sink was definitely hot. I was thinking of installing two computer case exhaust fans with 5V power supply on a timer. They are cheap, durable and quiet.

Also, my per panel output was consistently above 250W during the day. eg. more than 3 hrs today (before the storm cloud moved in). At one point around 2:30PM, most of them reached above 290W, and one above 300W. So if you want to get the LG300s, don't bother with Enphase m250. Get either Solaredge P300s or no optimizer/micro at all, otherwise you will be clipped big time.

[J.P.M.]

The system has been running for 2 days now. The production was higher than I expected for a 4.8KW. PVWatts thinks for September the production should be 583KWh (0.9 derate) or 19.4KWh/day. But my last two days' average was around 29.x KWh/day, granted the weather was good. So far over-sizing to SE6000A didn't seem to be a problem. Anyway, just for kicks, here is my public site.

http://monitoring.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/public?name=Carlsbad%204.8k

BTW, I had the inverter installed in the garage which has wood roll up doors, so the inside doesn't get too hot. But the inverter is hot to touch during peak operation. Is it normal? Should I install an external fan (on a timer)?

Your system's performance may be higher than you expected. I'm not that surprised.

More FWIW stuff (and maybe make you happy you bought what you did): A 5.23 kW Sunpower system in zip 92026 (mine), 18 deg. tilt, 195 az., 11 mo. old, not cleaned since 06/21/2014: 09/05, 31.04 kWh, 09/06,29.67 kWh., both sunny & hot. 09/07, ~ 70% sun, & hot, 24.28 kWh. Even though a VERY short measurement period, perhaps more anecdotal evidence that most decent panels, including S.P. & LG, produce similar output.

My max. amb. temp. at the array was about 91F. max. on 09/05 and about 98F. max. on 09/06. The roof amb. temp. runs about 5 to 8 deg. F. hotter than surf. (ground) amb. temp., depending on wind and irradiance. The array runs as much as about 40 F. to about 46 F. hotter than the roof amb., again depending on wind and irradiance.

I suspect (SWAG) your ambient temps. in Carlsbad may be something like 15 -25 deg. F. less, with your array temps. lower as well, and your inst. and day long irradiance levels a bit lower than inland, particularly in the A.M., perhaps evening out that temp. advantage some.

As for the inverter, my rebadged 5kW Power One is, like yours, in the garage. The heat sink temp. runs about 135F. to 145 F. peak. at about 1300 hrs. this time of yr. on sunny days. That's the heat sink. the exterior is warm but not untouchable.
I gerry-rigged a window fan under my inverter to see what the result(s) might be. It lowered the inverter heat sink temp. by about 20 deg. F. under full sun conditions, but had no effect on performance that I was able to measure.

I'd check the manual for guidance and call the installer if you still have concerns about the inverter or anything else.

Thanx for the info.

Enjoy.

[thejq]

The system has been running for 2 days now. The production was higher than I expected for a 4.8KW. PVWatts thinks for September the production should be 583KWh (0.9 derate) or 19.4KWh/day. But my last two days' average was around 29.x KWh/day, granted the weather was good. So far over-sizing to SE6000A didn't seem to be a problem. Anyway, just for kicks, here is my public site.

http://monitoring.solaredge.com/solaredge-web/public?name=Carlsbad%204.8k

BTW, I had the inverter installed in the garage which has wood roll up doors, so the inside doesn't get too hot. But the inverter is hot to touch during peak operation. Is it normal? Should I install an external fan (on a timer)?

[J.P.M.]

Wow, just got the SDG&E's authorization letter (via email) to operate. So it took only 3 days (09/02 - 09/05) to pass city inspection, enable net metering and receive the authorization letter. They must have really gotten the process greased. Unfortunately I'm stuck at work. Have to wait until tomorrow to try it.

Congrads.

[Bikerscum]

Will do, thanks.

[thejq]

I'd really like to see the insides of the 5k & 6k compared.

Here is the inside of SE6000A. When you get your SE5000A, we can compare.
IMG_5433.JPG

[thejq]

Wow, just got the SDG&E's authorization letter (via email) to operate. So it took only 3 days (09/02 - 09/05) to pass city inspection, enable net metering and receive the authorization letter. They must have really gotten the process greased. Unfortunately I'm stuck at work. Have to wait until tomorrow to try it.

[thejq]

Me too. Solaredge puts out so much conflicting information on this. They recommend overdriving the inverter 125%, it's even the default in their design software. When you derate the panels to .85 in the settings, you can use a 3.8k inverter on that system with no clipping.

On my 6k system I specified a 5k inverter. The max output of it is 5400, max input is 6200. If I only derate to.9 that's exactly 5400.

The 6k inverter is the ONLY one in their lineup that can't be over driven for some reason. I'd really like to see the insides of the 5k & 6k compared.

I'm sure the SW doesn't factor in expandability. So for the same system, the one with less cost is recommended. The fact that they only differ by about $30, I'd bet there's no big difference in design. Probably just bigger capacitors, thicker coils etc. So performance wise they "should be" similar if not exact. When I get home I can take a picture of the inside. When you get your SE5000A, we can compare.