It (was) alive!

[J.P.M.]

Hi, I am new into the PV world with my system installed in mid May '19 with an SE3800H-US. Only days into June this year the inverter stopped working with error code 18xBC. SolarEdge and the local installer claimed they would send out an inverter. By end of June, with 0 Return on this new Investment and NIL production of all that I paid for in full, the local installer came back and said they hadn't even sent it yet. I had been contemplating legal action with a call of documentation to my local attorney when suddenly it finally came in and the [always busy] installer finally came down to replace.

To our suprize he claimed they must have changed it, there is not even a LOCAL DISPLAY readout on it anymore. It is completely blank white panel. For [installers only] they offer some local wifi SetApp which takes about 49x times as long just to see local AC output, error codes, and if all the optimizes are latched up and communicating. Pretty dissapointing as I like just the simple local readout and this is not what I had orig. purchased. I have my complaints as well about the local installer which I will reserve for now and the one "focal woman" whom is not the most customer service oriented person to deal with: I feel if I had not brought up the error code this would never have been noted and now, they make it even more inconvenient with the absent display. The inverter is installed indoors in a basement (controlled climate) so not an issue of weather/elements/water ingress.

Anyone else seen this new blank face updated inverter version?

Another (non)happy SolarEdge customer.

[solarix]

I installed a couple dozen SolarEdge systems about 7-8 years ago and have had to replace about half of them since then. This was their earlier stuff and it was all covered under warranty - even our service work, but this is an unacceptable failure rate and I do not use this brand anymore.... Don't feel bad, in our high Arizona heat, I don't use Enphase either.

[ButchDeal]

Hi, I am new into the PV world with my system installed in mid May '19 with an SE3800H-US. Only days into June this year the inverter stopped working with error code 18xBC. SolarEdge and the local installer claimed they would send out an inverter. By end of June, with 0 Return on this new Investment and NIL production of all that I paid for in full, the local installer came back and said they hadn't even sent it yet. I had been contemplating legal action with a call of documentation to my local attorney when suddenly it finally came in and the [always busy] installer finally came down to replace.

To our suprize he claimed they must have changed it, there is not even a LOCAL DISPLAY readout on it anymore. It is completely blank white panel. For [installers only] they offer some local wifi SetApp which takes about 49x times as long just to see local AC output, error codes, and if all the optimizes are latched up and communicating. Pretty dissapointing as I like just the simple local readout and this is not what I had orig. purchased. I have my complaints as well about the local installer which I will reserve for now and the one "focal woman" whom is not the most customer service oriented person to deal with: I feel if I had not brought up the error code this would never have been noted and now, they make it even more inconvenient with the absent display. The inverter is installed indoors in a basement (controlled climate) so not an issue of weather/elements/water ingress.

Anyone else seen this new blank face updated inverter version?

It sounds like the installer did not report the problem correctly or at all to SolarEdge or maybe used a used inverter in the first place...
They then got a new replacement which is not the same model.
They should hook it up to the internet for you so that you can monitor it remotely via the internet though.

[Gworkhorse]

Follow up: The SE3800H-US inverter was replaced under warranty 11/30/18. Step down in CPU revision to 3.2221 from 3.2228. Curiously, the DC disconnect box came with a "SE-RGMTR-1D-240C-A" single phase revenue grade meter hooked up to RS485-1. I no longer have the day/month/year/toral readout, it got replaced by "production meter"/status/power/energy. Can't find anything about that SolarEdge meter model online and why this was added. Higher accuracy? (I own the PV system, so who cares?)

Hi, I am new into the PV world with my system installed in mid May '19 with an SE3800H-US. Only days into June this year the inverter stopped working with error code 18xBC. SolarEdge and the local installer claimed they would send out an inverter. By end of June, with 0 Return on this new Investment and NIL production of all that I paid for in full, the local installer came back and said they hadn't even sent it yet. I had been contemplating legal action with a call of documentation to my local attorney when suddenly it finally came in and the [always busy] installer finally came down to replace.

To our suprize he claimed they must have changed it, there is not even a LOCAL DISPLAY readout on it anymore. It is completely blank white panel. For [installers only] they offer some local wifi SetApp which takes about 49x times as long just to see local AC output, error codes, and if all the optimizes are latched up and communicating. Pretty dissapointing as I like just the simple local readout and this is not what I had orig. purchased. I have my complaints as well about the local installer which I will reserve for now and the one "focal woman" whom is not the most customer service oriented person to deal with: I feel if I had not brought up the error code this would never have been noted and now, they make it even more inconvenient with the absent display. The inverter is installed indoors in a basement (controlled climate) so not an issue of weather/elements/water ingress.

Anyone else seen this new blank face updated inverter version?

[TundraLu]

How did this turn out? I am getting the same error on my SolarEdge HD Wave 10k. SolarEdge is remoted into it now as I write this.

I had the same thing happen to me on a 11 month old 7600HD Wave. Tech support is escalating to Level 2 for me.

[qweiczz]

How did this turn out? I am getting the same error on my SolarEdge HD Wave 10k. SolarEdge is remoted into it now as I write this.

[ButchDeal]

Follow up: The SE3800H-US inverter was replaced under warranty 11/30/18. Step down in CPU revision to 3.2221 from 3.2228. Curiously, the DC disconnect box came with a "SE-RGMTR-1D-240C-A" single phase revenue grade meter hooked up to RS485-1. I no longer have the day/month/year/toral readout, it got replaced by "production meter"/status/power/energy. Can't find anything about that SolarEdge meter model online and why this was added. Higher accuracy? (I own the PV system, so who cares?)

If you are in the north east you can use it to get SRECs

[SJJ]

Follow up: The SE3800H-US inverter was replaced under warranty 11/30/18. Step down in CPU revision to 3.2221 from 3.2228. Curiously, the DC disconnect box came with a "SE-RGMTR-1D-240C-A" single phase revenue grade meter hooked up to RS485-1. I no longer have the day/month/year/toral readout, it got replaced by "production meter"/status/power/energy. Can't find anything about that SolarEdge meter model online and why this was added. Higher accuracy? (I own the PV system, so who cares?)

[SJJ]

My 8 month old SE3800H-US failed with error code 18xBC ("HW ERROR") three days ago. The day before it was fine, the next day no production. I got assigned a case number from my installer and are waiting to be contacted within 24h (that was 40h ago). I did not find any description online regarding this error code. Does anybody know more about it?

[Lvb]

When I had one of my optimizers fail, I asked my installer how many they had replaced for customers, and they told me I was the first since they started installing them 2 years before. I asked them how many Enphase micro-inverters they had had to replace, and they said they typically replace about one per week. YMMV.

Did u ask them which Enphase model? Cause pre-IQ series enphase was bad, but with the new iQ series, i heard it's much better

[jpoet]

just got my PV installed this week, good thing I decided to go with Enphase IQ7X instead of SE. Your post really assured me that I made a right decision

When I had one of my optimizers fail, I asked my installer how many they had replaced for customers, and they told me I was the first since they started installing them 2 years before. I asked them how many Enphase micro-inverters they had had to replace, and they said they typically replace about one per week. YMMV.

[Lvb]

Around noon yesterday, my POCO installed the REC meter and gave me approval to use my solar array. I got almost half a day of production out of it before my SolarEdge SE5000H-US inverter faulted with error code 18xBC. SolarEdge support initially thought a firmware update would fix it, but they finally concluded that the inverter needed replaced. SolarEdge is going to "expedite" a replacement.

The SE5000H-US reports a DC voltage of 430, sits there for a few seconds, then spits out that error and declares that the DC voltage is unsafe. The inverter would then reboot. It was stuck in that loop until we turned it off.

Hopefully Monday I can post that it is alive.

just got my PV installed this week, good thing I decided to go with Enphase IQ7X instead of SE. Your post really assured me that I made a right decision

[jpoet]

The replacement inverter has been problem free for over a year now. I did have one of my optimizers go bad, back at the beginning of the summer, buy my installer came out immediately and replaced it. Overall I am very pleased with this setup.

[KE3JU]

How did this turn out? I am getting the same error on my SolarEdge HD Wave 10k. SolarEdge is remoted into it now as I write this.

[jpoet]

My installer told me they have a SE5000H-US "at the shop", that they can probably swap me for. Then, they just have to hope the new unit from SolarEdge shows up before they are due to install the "on hand" inverter at the other customer's site. They have not installed my consumption meter yet, and were planning on doing that on Monday. They might be able to come out tomorrow and swap the inverter, but the meter will have to wait until Monday.

Over all, I have been pretty happy with my installer. They did drill more holes in my roof than I liked, but they proved to me that my trusses where not a uniform distance from each other, and that was causing the misses.

I have not paid my installer the 2nd half of what I owe them yet. They wont be getting that until this setup is stable for at least a couple of days!