EG4 new AIO rated 12K output and 18kPV aka "EG4-18Kpv-12LV"

[EastTexCowboy]

The HVAC is hungry on these hotter days. I need to invest in some mini splits eventually.

You definitely do. I'm amazed at the difference in consumption, plus it keeps the house consistently cool even when we were having crazy heat. With the garage added we're cooling something around 4000 sq ft and the total usage, grid plus solar, is at least 20% lower. I have one two-ton unit still on the grid, dryer, ovens, and a few minor things and the bill for June was $84.00. I'm loving it.

 

[adamantium]

Thanks, I would be in pretty much the same position if I chose the Schneider too I suppose.

I believe the Schneider unit you are talking about is limited to 25A not 50A. That's because its a 6KW inverter not a 12KW inverter. You would need two in parallel to compare.

 

[Rusty959]

It's been quiet around here again.

I've finally got my system signed off by the county and Duke. Thanks Duke for taking 4 times longer than advertised. I also spent a week in the hospital bringing home our first baby, but that's neither here nor there.

I'll make a build thread and a video "soon", but here's what my setup looks like.


Guts of the transfer switch and raceway


Possibly the most annoying thing about my install is my building department insisted on separation of my battery cables from the AC lines. My understanding is this isn't required with current code with certain restrictions of insulation ratings but everything's an interpretation, so I just used some metal clad liquid tight which gives me more flexibility in moving my battery cabinet anyway.

I've got it all wired up with my Emporia, and was happy to find I could access the connection from the inverter that taps into the 200A connections so I could have a real CT from my Emporia showing solar generation still. I could have also put one on the EPS side, but didn't want to give up a CT for that. When off grid the power comes from different wires in the 18kpv so I couldn't monitor both. Off grid the power just shows up in the balance on Emporia. The only mildly annoying thing is I needed to source some extension cables for the CTs and the 200a CT is a different size than the branch CTs.

I should get some better images of the construction of my battery cabinet, but here's a "finished" picture. I got ahold of a free cabinet that can hold 10 batteries, so decided to do this over the one EG4 distributes. I regret this. Turns out all the pieces you need to buy to convert it right adds up to about the same cost in the first place, ignoring how you can frequently get the pre built unit included with enough batteries. The difference of holding 10 vs 6 when I only have 3 right now anyways means I just have a lot of wasted space.

 

[TK1979]

It's been quiet around here again.

I've finally got my system signed off by the county and Duke. Thanks Duke for taking 4 times longer than advertised. I also spent a week in the hospital bringing home our first baby, but that's neither here nor there.

I'll make a build thread and a video "soon", but here's what my setup looks like.

View attachment 158078
Guts of the transfer switch and raceway
View attachment 158079

Possibly the most annoying thing about my install is my building department insisted on separation of my battery cables from the AC lines. My understanding is this isn't required with current code with certain restrictions of insulation ratings but everything's an interpretation, so I just used some metal clad liquid tight which gives me more flexibility in moving my battery cabinet anyway.

I've got it all wired up with my Emporia, and was happy to find I could access the connection from the inverter that taps into the 200A connections so I could have a real CT from my Emporia showing solar generation still. I could have also put one on the EPS side, but didn't want to give up a CT for that. When off grid the power comes from different wires in the 18kpv so I couldn't monitor both. Off grid the power just shows up in the balance on Emporia. The only mildly annoying thing is I needed to source some extension cables for the CTs and the 200a CT is a different size than the branch CTs.

I should get some better images of the construction of my battery cabinet, but here's a "finished" picture. I got ahold of a free cabinet that can hold 10 batteries, so decided to do this over the one EG4 distributes. I regret this. Turns out all the pieces you need to buy to convert it right adds up to about the same cost in the first place, ignoring how you can frequently get the pre built unit included with enough batteries. The difference of holding 10 vs 6 when I only have 3 right now anyways means I just have a lot of wasted space.
View attachment 158080

@rusty Nice looking at up!

 

[G00SE]

I believe the Schneider unit you are talking about is limited to 25A not 50A. That's because its a 6KW inverter not a 12KW inverter. You would need two in parallel to compare.

If I’m not mistaken it has 2-30a outs as it can surge for 30min at 8500 and 1min constant at 12k

 

[Nobodybusiness]

It's been quiet around here again.

I've finally got my system signed off by the county and Duke. Thanks Duke for taking 4 times longer than advertised. I also spent a week in the hospital bringing home our first baby, but that's neither here nor there.

I'll make a build thread and a video "soon", but here's what my setup looks like.

View attachment 158078
Guts of the transfer switch and raceway
View attachment 158079

Possibly the most annoying thing about my install is my building department insisted on separation of my battery cables from the AC lines. My understanding is this isn't required with current code with certain restrictions of insulation ratings but everything's an interpretation, so I just used some metal clad liquid tight which gives me more flexibility in moving my battery cabinet anyway.

I've got it all wired up with my Emporia, and was happy to find I could access the connection from the inverter that taps into the 200A connections so I could have a real CT from my Emporia showing solar generation still. I could have also put one on the EPS side, but didn't want to give up a CT for that. When off grid the power comes from different wires in the 18kpv so I couldn't monitor both. Off grid the power just shows up in the balance on Emporia. The only mildly annoying thing is I needed to source some extension cables for the CTs and the 200a CT is a different size than the branch CTs.

I should get some better images of the construction of my battery cabinet, but here's a "finished" picture. I got ahold of a free cabinet that can hold 10 batteries, so decided to do this over the one EG4 distributes. I regret this. Turns out all the pieces you need to buy to convert it right adds up to about the same cost in the first place, ignoring how you can frequently get the pre built unit included with enough batteries. The difference of holding 10 vs 6 when I only have 3 right now anyways means I just have a lot of wasted space.
View attachment 158080

Congratulations on your new Solar and New Child!!
Solar looks great.

 

[rakitejada]

I have to share my initial reaction with you guys:

- Pretty simple and with a LOT of space to work and connect (please be careful and hire an electrician if you are not familiar with electricity)
- It is impressive size wise, build quality, feels like a beast.
- Ive only had it installed for 3 days, but its been quite a surprise how its so silent up until around 5kW it feels like its off
- i have 6 lifepower4 installed, but only ran one 2awg cable i have to install the second one today.
- i recommend lifting and installing the inverter and batteries with at least 2 friends (3 total)
- ill try doing some load testing to push it to 12kW, i reached 10.5kW but i got my 48amp ev charger today which alone will draw 11.5kW so thatll be quite the test

Im so happy i decided to take the leap and got this amazing inverter

Have a great weekend

 

[rakitejada]

9755w from Solar at 9:40am brings a smile to my face

 

[Zapper77]

30 day update.

 

[rakitejada]

Wow! I had over 48 hours enjoying the system, i decide to share my happy experience on the forum and 20 minutes later BOOM! Power outage and inverter turned off, complete house off, went into settings and looked and tested a couple of options and the one that says: offgrid output seemed to work, power back up.

Once the grid powered up again it has been bypassing and the inverter wont come on.

I tried everything and nothing worked. Its all going through the gris even though the batteries are 99% and bunch of solar available thats not being used.

I called signature solar they told me 18kpv specialists weren't available. She tried helping me out for 30 minutes and couldnt do anything.

PLEASE HELP! I need the inverter to power everything again

 

[rakitejada]

@SignatureSolarJames any help with this? I cant use all the power available from the sun thats still out nor the batteries

 

[Zapper77]

Wow! I had over 48 hours enjoying the system, i decide to share my happy experience on the forum and 20 minutes later BOOM! Power outage and inverter turned off, complete house off, went into settings and looked and tested a couple of options and the one that says: offgrid output seemed to work, power back up.

Once the grid powered up again it has been bypassing and the inverter wont come on.

I tried everything and nothing worked. Its all going through the gris even though the batteries are 99% and bunch of solar available thats not being used.

I called signature solar they told me 18kpv specialists weren't available. She tried helping me out for 30 minutes and couldnt do anything.

PLEASE HELP! I need the inverter to power everything again

What setup are you using? Critical load panel, grid assist?

What's the grid Hz rate?

 

[42OhmsPA]

Wow! I had over 48 hours enjoying the system, i decide to share my happy experience on the forum and 20 minutes later BOOM! Power outage and inverter turned off, complete house off, went into settings and looked and tested a couple of options and the one that says: offgrid output seemed to work, power back up.

Once the grid powered up again it has been bypassing and the inverter wont come on.

I tried everything and nothing worked. Its all going through the gris even though the batteries are 99% and bunch of solar available thats not being used.

I called signature solar they told me 18kpv specialists weren't available. She tried helping me out for 30 minutes and couldnt do anything.

PLEASE HELP! I need the inverter to power everything again

Disconnect the grid input and see if it switches?
Pictures of your setup and settings might be helpful in identifying an issue.

Was there an actual boom or you just used that as an expression?

 

[rakitejada]

Disconnect the grid input and see if it switches?
Pictures of your setup and settings might be helpful in identifying an issue.

Was there an actual boom or you just used that as an expression?

Im sorry I used the “boom” expression, not a proper one to use here.

I just meant something like “BAM! There it goes ?”, Murphy’s Law.

No explosion, if i turn off AC it switches to UPS mode and i charged my car at 11kW for almost an hour. Everything perfect

If i switch on AC it goes back to power all the loads through AC (inverter seems to be in stand by mode)

We tried turning everything off and on again for a general reset. But that didnt work

Everything was working fine for 2 days. But i DID update the firmware last night hummmm

 

[rakitejada]

Update, signature solar has been working for about an hour, ive seen it turn off and on, now it seems they are installing either a software or firmware. Hopefully theyll find out and fix it

 

[rakitejada]

Disconnect the grid input and see if it switches?
Pictures of your setup and settings might be helpful in identifying an issue.

Was there an actual boom or you just used that as an expression?

When i disconnect grid input it switches to ups mode. When i turn the grid back on it takes over all loads even when the battery is at 99%

 

[SignatureSolarJames]

EG4 Trade in credits??!!?? NOICE!!

diysolarforum.com

btw

 

[rhino]

Wanted to share my first experience with all of you

So was your issue fixed where it was only using grid power even when you had solar and battery fully?

 

[Luxpower_Gilbert]

So was your issue fixed where it was only using grid power even when you had solar and battery fully?

i think the power back up wasn't enabled.

 

[rakitejada]

i think the power back up wasn't enabled.

It was enabled when it didnt want to take over and handle the loads. I even turned it off, reset the inverter, turned it back on, reset the inverter: nothing