Brendan Conoboy's posts

Posted by Brendan Conoboy on Oct 30, 2008 07:13 pm

#1 -  Renewable Energy > Technical Discussion: Other > Re: Looking for opinions on Enphase Inverters
I've also wondered about using 2 12v or 16v modules.  I would guess that as long as the combined wattage was at or under the rated maximum, it would work just fine.  Not much sense in doing it though- the sweet spot of $/W is up around 180W these days.  Maybe if you had a bunch of old 100W-120W modules sitting around, though.
 

Posted by Brendan Conoboy on Oct 30, 2008 02:40 pm

#2 -  Renewable Energy > Technical Discussion: Other > Re: Looking for opinions on Enphase Inverters
Quote from: john bodden on Oct 28, 2008  04:33 pm
The only con that I can see, and this is from my personal point of view only, is that they want you to sign up to monitor the output of the system. I don't want to have to ask someone else what the output of my system is, but perhaps other less technical people prefer that route. Its hard to tell if they are looking to make money from the sale of the product, the after sales service, or both.

Indeed, this turned me off initially, too.  I'm just getting started and was reading the EMU manual this morning.  It turns out the monitoring unit has a built in web server that will display all the vitals for each inverter.  There's even an lcd display telling you how many inverters are reporting, what the current output is, and the cumulative output.  Enphase isn't doing themselves any favors by neglecting to advertise this- sure the monitoring and alerts by a third party website is nice, but the way they're talking about it makes it seem like you have an inaccessible black box doing who-knows-what on your local network.
 

Posted by Brendan Conoboy on Oct 30, 2008 02:36 pm

#3 -  Renewable Energy > Technical Discussion: Other > Re: Looking for opinions on Enphase Inverters
Quote from: Elaine Daley on Oct 28, 2008  02:32 pm
One of the solar companies that we are considering has recommended Enphase Inverters on each of the panels.
Does anyone have any experience or opinions about these inverters? pros or cons? Thanks.

I'm currently doing a DIY install in Albuquerque, NM with 9 of them to start.  Shading resiliency and troubleshooting isolation really sold me on the system.  I'm keeping a running blog of my progress- just google for "duke city solar" periodically and you'll see what's new with my install.

The EMU is interesting- I'll reply to the fellow below with more about it.
 

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