Hello,

I'm about to have much the same system installed (6k), I'm curious as to why you went with a 6k inverter for a 4.8k system?

Thanks

FWIW: My inspection happened 3 days after vendor notification of completion. SDG & E authorization letter took 10 days after that and it showed up 2 days after I called them and professionally but strenuously inquired about status. I have no idea if my curiosity about progress inspired them or not, but I've seen others in my HOA wait.

BTW: How much $$'s ?

The price difference between SE5000 and SE6000 is only $30. The same roof can fit 4 more panels. So if I get another EV, I can add 4x400W=1.6KW easily without touching the inverter at all. In terms of efficiency, Solaredge's site designer 2 says that the difference is about 2KWh for the whole year (a slight advantage for the SE5000). FWIW, I like everything under utilized for longevity.

Thanks for the tip. I will keep a tap on it. I just got the net metering application processed, and the city inspection also passed yesterday. So it's at least going. I paid just south of $3.5/W (before incentive) for the whole thing including Solaredge Zigbee communication gateway and client. The installer (a general electrical contractor) is quite reputable in SD, and has been in business for 25 yrs. So I'm quite happy with how things worked out.

Planning is all good, but wait until you see the quotation from your vendor when you needed panel addition.

PS. I'm really curious to know what the performace will be with an oversized inverter.

Thanx for the reply & info. Price sounds about in the good ballpark.

I'll be interested as others are in how it performs. I'm sure you'll be fine.

Good Luck,

J.P.M.

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.

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.

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

Will do, thanks.

Congrads.

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.



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.