They discontinued the Conext line. Mo more XWs On Fri, Feb 14, 2025 at 9:45 AM Glenn via RE-wrenches < [email protected]> wrote:
> Whoa, what did I miss? > How is Schneider out of the picture? > > -Glenn > > On Feb 14, 2025 12:28, Michael Morningstar via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > I think I have seen or heard of issues and failures with all of the Li > batteries at this point. Even my favorite, Discover. So then, what is most > important to me is good tech support and customer service. Discover has > been awesome. Midnite has been great too. Discover is releasing a > 16kwhr battery very soon. Most of my OG systems for several years have been > Schneider/Discover. With Schneider out of the picture, I started using more > Victron equipment with Discover batteries. Now there's the Midnite AIO and > Powerlo16s. I've done several GTBB systems and like that combo for that > application. Bill's post reminded me of the Rosie/Barcelona. I'm wondering > what the pro's and cons are between the AIO and R/B for off-grid. Not many > choices left these days > > On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 6:47 AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > I didn't initially realize they have the Powerflo16 outdoor > wallmount battery. I see you can get that capacity with it now. It's > disappointing that the stackable 5kWh Powerflo5 is limited to 80kWh (also > 16 units). Most of my clients build dedicated battery/inverter buildings > and need massive capacities to run their properties. I am trying to wrap my > head around how a multi-inverter Midnite AIO might be able to take > advantage of multiple un-paralleled battery banks to get around this > limitation. I'm waiting on a call from a Midnite rep to discuss this and > other questions I have. > > Jason Szumlanski > Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group > NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) > Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 > Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 > > > On Thu, Feb 13, 2025 at 9:00 AM Amos Post via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Jason, > > It looks like the limit to Midnite PowerFlo is 257kwh. > (16.076kwh/unit*16units in parallel). > > Best, > Amos > > > Amos Post > Integrity Energy > W 802.763.7023 > C 802.291.2188 > ienergyVT.com <http://www.ienergyvt.com> > Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/integrityenergyllp?ref=hl> > > On Feb 12, 2025, at 5:22 PM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Thanks for the feedback, Lou. > > Yep, they all seem to be borrowing the "delay and deny" tactic from the > insurance industry. It's an epidemic. Solar module manufacturers are doing > this, too (I'm looking at you, REC and Silfab, who have given me the D&D > treatment on two clear-cut warranty issues recently). I will continue to > give Enphase kudos for having readily available and mostly competent > customer service reps and a refreshingly liberal warranty process, > especially if you are experienced and know how to work the customer service > reps correctly to lead them to the right answer. > > Regarding the firmware issues on inverters and batteries, I have high > hopes for Midnite's AIO and MNPowerflo, given their claims that firmware > updates are tested, simultaneous, and seamless. This is a far cry from > Sol-Ark's new policy of refusing to do firmware updates unless a technician > is standing by on-site. It sounds like Midnite is listening, and the rest > are content with accepting mediocrity and pushing issues onto installers. > > And don't get me started about HomeGrid's pathetic app and registration > process... That little Gen 3 WiFi antenna gives you such high hopes, only > to end in huge disappointment. The app doesn't even seem to work. > > Jason Szumlanski > Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group > NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) > Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 > Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 > > > On Wed, Feb 12, 2025 at 1:08 AM Lou Russo via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > The current trend of manufacturers resisting issuing RMAs is concerning. > The amount of work they want us to do to confirm their problem is > staggering (Looking at you SolarEdge). With that said, we only have 7 > systems with HomeGrid batteries. We have had only one issue with them and > it was firmware related. Unfortunately their firmware upgrade process is a > total kludge so much so that like Jason, I just let them take over my > laptop and let them handle it. It really made me appreciate Discover's > software and firmware update process. We have a lot of Discover batteries > out there and like the EG4s you can just shut off the bad battery and move > on. In addition, if you have a battery module that is "dark start low" you > can actually "charge" it (it's more like spilling electricity) from a good > battery in the stack by turning off all the loads and charging sources > (i.e. the inverter) and all the battery modules except one good one and the > bad one. After you get the low one to a decent state of charge you can fire > everything up and put a good balance charge on the entire stack. I have > found their support to be great as well. They also just took their remote > battery monitoring out of beta so now you can see battery info directly > online. Which is nice. I am a big fan of having redundant monitoring so we > can "trust but verify" the data being reported by the various components. I > am still bummed they ended production of the 42-48-6650, the build quality > was ridiculously good. I am little leary of their replacement, > the 48-48-5120, but it seems to be doing fine in our installs. It has only > been a year or so, so the jury is still out. But all the same features I > described above apply. > > Aloha, > > Lou Russo > Owner > [email protected] > Office - 808 345 6762 > Spree Solar Systems LLC > CT-34322 > > > > On Tue, Feb 11, 2025 at 4:18 PM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > For what it's worth, they haven't said anything about internet > connectivity on these two systems I'm dealing with right now, and they are > both Gen 3. > > One site has a bunch of firmware discrepancies, and this is the site with > one module that has all cells low voltage. Not sure if it's even > recoverable. It's sitting at 39V. > > The other site has all the same firmware. This is the one I went to today. > One of 16 modules (2 full stacks) has one of 15 cells internally that is > low voltage. To me, that's a clear warranty swap situation, but customer > service wasn't having it. Disassemble the battery and charge it? That's not > a solution. It has been escalated. We will see what happens. > > Clearly we should be able to take these back to the shop for diagnostics > at a minimum and get them RMA'd. Requiring the purchase of a Windows laptop > and a battery charger is not ideal for sure. > > The only good thing I can say is customer service took over my PC today > remotely and ran diagnostics after installing the required software (which > isn't a fast process). I was expecting them to say, "yep it's toast and > we're sending you a new one, valued customer." > > No such luck. > > Jason > > > On Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 6:48 PM Tyrone Houck via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Yep. And the 10 year warranty is only good if connected to the internet. > Firmware update of every module is crucial or else there will likely be > imbalances. You may be able to address it as 1 and shut of the others and > charge it through the bus but if it's cell voltage is too low it may be an > rma situation. I have had similar issues especially with gen 2. Zero issues > yet with any gen 3 modules but the internet thing really struck a nerve as > they only just recently got their internet monitoring functional.. having > to go back to every site is a serious pain just to ensure what should be a > basic warranty. Best of luck and feel free to contact me offsite if you > have any other questions I might be able to help with. > Tyrone Houck > Oregon Solarworks LLC > CCB #204937 LRT #076 > 541-787-1366 > [email protected] > > > > On Tue, Feb 11, 2025, 3:36 PM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Wrenches, > > I am regretting some HomeGrid Stack'd off-grid installations right now. > There is a major flaw in the way these function in an error state. For > those of you that don't know, these 48V batteries are stacked with a single > BMS on top, covering up to 8 batteries below. Each battery module has a > circuit breaker and dip switches to identify the battery communication > number and location in the stack. Each BMS can be paralleled to additional > stacks with communication cabling. > > The issue is when one battery module goes into an error state. What will > happen is that battery stack's BMS will recognize the error, and then shut > down the whole stack. This cascades to the other stacks and the system > shuts down - fails to deliver 48V at the output terminals on the BMS of any > stack. > > That is annoying, but what's even more problematic is you can't just shut > off the offending battery to bypass it. You need to physically change all > of the dip switches to bypass it and then reprogram the BMS to re-recognize > the new module count (after taking it out of parallel). This is all very > time consuming and requires the inverter system to be shut down. Even if a > battery is not in an error state, you can't just turn it off. The whole > system goes haywire. > > Once you have it bypassed, you can hook up a RS-232 cable (Mac users need > not apply) and use their software to gather diagnostics. Customer service > will then want to do additional diagnostics with the battery in the stock, > but that is not reasonable in and off-grid system where uptime is critical. > One of the faulty modules I am dealing with was diagnosed as one of 15 > cells with low voltage. The "solution" is to take it out of the stack and > charge it to 100% with an external charger. > > By the time I'm done with all of the diagnostic nonsense, I can almost pay > for a new battery with the lost labor. Isn't the whole idea for this not to > happen with balancing done automatically? It was suggested to me that it > didn't get charged to 100% often enough, and that is why it happened. That > isn't an acceptable reason for failure in an off-grid system. > > I hate to say this, but EG4 has a far better 5kWh solution in this > respect. Each module has it's own BMS. When one fails, you can simply turn > off the circuit breaker and everything else continues to work. In fact, a > fault in one BMS doesn't take out the whole stack or stacks of battery > modules. > > Back to HomeGrid. When this happens, in my mind this is an automatic RMA. > They should be replacing these, no questions asked. Especially at almost > twice the price of EG4. They actually want me to disassemble the case of > the battery and charge it with an external charger (which I don't have) > directly from the terminals that are internal to the battery case. Totally > unacceptable. Whatever is inside that case is their problem in my opinion. > > I am not selling anymore HomeGrid until I get satisfactory resolution to > these issues. EG4 isn't perfect, but I have actually had pretty good > success installing some that I sold and quite a few that consumers > purchased directly. And at almost half the price, it's easier to eat the > cost of a battery here and there for customer satisfaction. > > Anyone have similar issues with HomeGrid? > > Jason Szumlanski > Florida Solar Design Group > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. 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When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. 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When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > > > > -- > > Michael Morningstar > > > Morningstar Electric Inc > > PO Box 1494 > > Mount Shasta, CA 96067 > > 530-921-0560 > > CSLB 1116835 > > [email protected] > > > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. 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