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Terrible Signature Solar / EG4 18Kpv Experience - Returning and Replaced with Sol-Ark 15k

Will Prowse said:
My friend who is @HighTechLab just installed it actually. He has a lot of experience with sol ark for some years now. I need to run across town with my camera. I haven't had a single minute to myself in the last few days, or I am on camera for hours. But I need to head over there.

I am pretty dang surprised sol ark didn't send one out after all these years. Sounds entitled, obviously, but every single company sends me out 3X of every new product they have. I have piles of products. I just give them all away to forum members at this point.

I really do not see any benefit of the sol ark over 18K unless I am a beginner and need setup help. And I have never had a bias toward either. I am pretty ignorant to the workings of the sol ark. I make more money selling sol arks. But 18K packages with server racks are the best bang for your buck.

I link to all products too, so I don't care what my viewers buy. It is up to them. I just aim to make useful information to help others know what is out there, and hopefully they use my links so I can pay myself.

But I still do get complaints about sol ark from people. I even had a few people say that their customer support is awful.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply and info. I’ve been curious about the follow up on that second video and when it might get posted.
I have watched a ton of your videos and you’ve taught this old dog some new tricks. ?
I’m familiar with Dexter, seen some of his YT as well.
I’ve had my dual 12-K’s since early 2020. At that time Sol-Ark, to me, was a great option. However, I was brand new to the solar world in 2020. I’ve had a few issues along the way, but for the most part, things run smoothly.
Sol-Arks customer service has been very hit or miss. I get the impression they are above some of the DIY stuff. I’ve emailed twice in the last two days with inquiries about something I wanted to try. They seem very stern, inflexible in their policies and not interested in even trying to accommodate my request. Despite the fact I was asking about a third 12-K. ?

Maybe in a few years, we’ll see how the reliability of the 18K plays out. I’m off grid totally, so power on, is a must for us!!!
 
GOO5E said:
Is the software difference significant? That’s how I read this but wanted to clarify.
Separately, for someone not grid tied, with a similar AC output do you find the 18kpv still a significant upgrade to twin 6500ex?
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Software on both Sol-Ark and EG4 are rather boring, I agree with Will, it could be modernized a bit. I’d give the edge of the online platform to EG4 for sure. It “looks” cooler.

I would personally 100% say the 18k is a much better decision than the twin 6500 setup. I really can’t think of a reason other than upfront cost to go with the 6500’s
 
GOO5E said:
with comparable VOC limits and AC output and no grid input what are the benefits to the 18 in your mind?
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First and most obvious answer would be less idle consumption.

Second I would say that even though my experience was less than stellar, I fully believe the 18k is a significantly better, more advanced piece of equipment than a pair of 6500s will ever will be. Physically they are in different worlds.

No question there are also hidden costs in a twin inverter setup as well. Wiring, disconnects, that stuff adds up.

I suppose another important argument would be legality and certifications.

I’d be 18k all day on this one.
 
Markus_SignatureSolar said:
After looking into this you did not export. Your load is greater then what it says it exported at the time.

The engineers also looked into this and verified.

This problem happened because zero export and grid peak shaving were both active and fighting each other.

I am sorry for being rude I hope this helps everyone in this matter.
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Forgive my possible ignorance, but just because he had a load higher than export doesn’t mean he wasn’t exporting. Is the load your referring to being covered/supplied by the inverter? If so then the inverter can still export while doing so. If the load that you say is greater was the amount he was using from the grid at that time then yes backfeed couldn’t occur..
EDIT: I see this was basically already covered by @cs1234 post 338
 
Will Prowse said:
Yeah good points you're making. I agree. And if I want to make videos with criticisms against these companies, I need to have hard evidence and verification of data. It could still be a hardware issue and the data logs could be incorrect. Imagine if a bad ct is causing this entire issue and no one has spent five seconds just to check. This remote management of software implies there are no hardware faults and I am trying to figure out what is wrong with the system.

I always feel obligation to share any issues I seen here on the forum with my YouTube audience because I want to expose whateher issues these products have. And I can't do that without hard evidence and decent testing.

And to assert a claim for which there is no evidence makes my job tough. And I still do not understand why people are contacting eg4 for support instead of luxpower. If I have an issue with sol ark I'm calling Sol ark. I wish we could see what luxpower has to say here.
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@WindWizard explained perfectly how you could recreate the OPs exact situation. You know the firmware update OP had a problem with. It’s not criticism if the inverter works like it should. You could simply say what update to use and which not to use to avoid the problem. Could end up saying it’s all figured out now and working well. i know a lot of people would watch the video..
 
Watts Happening said:
Software on both Sol-Ark and EG4 are rather boring, I agree with Will, it could be modernized a bit. I’d give the edge of the online platform to EG4 for sure. It “looks” cooler.

I would personally 100% say the 18k is a much better decision than the twin 6500 setup. I really can’t think of a reason other than upfront cost to go with the 6500’s
Click to expand...
Thanks for that....and thanks for push through this and continuing to be as objective as possible. I am in a unique position of possibly replacing both my Eg4 6545 with the 18k. I don't have a need for grid tie and really believe based on feedback this is the way to go
 
Will Prowse said:
My friend who is @HighTechLab just installed it actually. He has a lot of experience with sol ark for some years now. I need to run across town with my camera. I haven't had a single minute to myself in the last few days, or I am on camera for hours. But I need to head over there.

I am pretty dang surprised sol ark didn't send one out after all these years. Sounds entitled, obviously, but every single company sends me out 3X of every new product they have. I have piles of products. I just give them all away to forum members at this point.

I really do not see any benefit of the sol ark over 18K unless I am a beginner and need setup help. And I have never had a bias toward either. I am pretty ignorant to the workings of the sol ark. I make more money selling sol arks. But 18K packages with server racks are the best bang for your buck.

I link to all products too, so I don't care what my viewers buy. It is up to them. I just aim to make useful information to help others know what is out there, and hopefully they use my links so I can pay myself.

But I still do get complaints about sol ark from people. I even had a few people say that their customer support is awful.
Click to expand...
Yeah, it has just been chugging away flawlessly. I do not have any time-of-use rates, 1:1 net metering. After NV Energy screwed us by jacking up our rates this year, I decided that I'm going to grid-charge at full speed from 5PM to 7PM, the same time Jarrett and I get home and plug in both of our EV's. Then we run on battery at night and let the solar run the big loads during the day.

Only 2 issues I had is our 20 year old main breaker was tripping prematurely (also didn't help it's on the sunny side of the house at 5PM. Changed that out and now I can run a solid 180-190a from grid without tripping it...and the second issue is I only have enough PV for 1/3 of our usage...we at about 200kWh per day right now.

sorry to make this thread further off topic.
 
HighTechLab said:
Yeah, it has just been chugging away flawlessly. I do not have any time-of-use rates, 1:1 net metering. After NV Energy screwed us by jacking up our rates this year, I decided that I'm going to grid-charge at full speed from 5PM to 7PM, the same time Jarrett and I get home and plug in both of our EV's. Then we run on battery at night and let the solar run the big loads during the day.

Only 2 issues I had is our 20 year old main breaker was tripping prematurely (also didn't help it's on the sunny side of the house at 5PM. Changed that out and now I can run a solid 180-190a from grid without tripping it...and the second issue is I only have enough PV for 1/3 of our usage...we at about 200kWh per day right now.

sorry to make this thread further off topic.
Click to expand...
Similar to our NV Energy scenario. If I remember correctly from your install video, your house had solar when you bought it correct?

I only ask because I continually hear how terrible the net metering/solar agreements are to deal with as a homeowner. Almost seems advantageous to buy a previously permitted home just to skate by.

Our rate increases over the last year have been substantial, I imagine many Nevadans are struggling. Being that we didn’t have a net metering agreement I opted for the time of use plan which apparently has another option for time of use + net metering (no idea what that looks like).

NV Energy is so good at what they do that I’m ~6 months into this agreement and still going back and fourth on who owes who. They magically generated a new account for me during the process, then back billed for the new rate, which should be cheaper but then said we owed more, it’s been a wild ride.

This has driven me to not seek a net metering agreement but I wish I could change that in an easy way. Permitting through the city seems to make the most sense, then reach out to them and talk about whatever agreement they want to offer.
 
xtrorion said:
Thanks for that....and thanks for push through this and continuing to be as objective as possible. I am in a unique position of possibly replacing both my Eg4 6545 with the 18k. I don't have a need for grid tie and really believe based on feedback this is the way to go
Click to expand...
You’re welcome!

I don’t think you’d go wrong with the 18k in your scenario, it’s a darn nice unit, they’ll get the software sorted sooner or later
 
Watts Happening said:
Software on both Sol-Ark and EG4 are rather boring, I agree with Will, it could be modernized a bit. I’d give the edge of the online platform to EG4 for sure. It “looks” cooler.

I would personally 100% say the 18k is a much better decision than the twin 6500 setup. I really can’t think of a reason other than upfront cost to go with the 6500’s
Click to expand...
The EG4 6500EX and the MPP LV6548 don't backfeed to grid.

Isn't that the problem you were trying to avoid?

I will say the LV6548's I have are working flawlessly. I couldn't say the same for the 6500EX's as those had problems.
 
Zwy said:
The EG4 6500EX and the MPP LV6548 don't backfeed to grid.

Isn't that the problem you were trying to avoid?

I will say the LV6548's I have are working flawlessly. I couldn't say the same for the 6500EX's as those had problems.
Click to expand...
Very true, they don’t backfeed, I missed that point!
 
Yeah this thread is very off topic ? I don't want to lock it because people will think I'm censoring them. But it's so off topic it makes me cringe. Not sure how to proceed. I wish I could run a poll here in the thread
 
Last edited:
HighTechLab said:
how off topic can we get? @Will Prowse
Click to expand...
I think much of this is relevant.

If one doesn't want to backfeed the grid, then using an off grid inverter or using the 18Kpv as an off grid inverter is an option. Why purchase the 18Kpv if it is intended to be used off grid? It's loaded with features that favor having grid connected but someone would pay for features not being used.
 
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