Hey everyone! I'm new here and could really use some assistance. I've been left to manage my solar system after the installer went out of business. I'm an electrical engineer, so I understand circuitry and the safety precautions needed when dealing with high voltages, but I'm stuck.
I have a solar setup with 28 panels—12 in one cluster and 16 in another. The clusters feed into two wires leading to a SolarEdge HD Wave inverter. The panels appear to be from both Silfab and Jinko, and there's a collection box on the roof under each panel before the wires go down to the inverter.
Recently, my inverter started reporting "not producing" faults. After chatting with SolarEdge, they sent me a replacement inverter without much hassle. But after installing the new unit, I'm facing the same problem. I measured the voltages, and while there's power at the line side, I only see 16 volts DC coming from the roof before and after the breaker, which matches the inverter reading. This makes me suspect that the problem might be on the roof—perhaps with the power optimizers or something else? 28 panels stopped producing all at once feels unlikely.
I'm looking for tips on how to troubleshoot this efficiently. Living in Florida, it's hot up there, so I want to plan my trips up to the roof carefully. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!
2 Answers
It sounds like a tricky situation! Usually, if the optimizers are disabled or inactive, they can give a mere 1V. It might be that they aren't getting the signals they need to work, which could mean the signal device inside your system isn't functioning properly. Tracking that device down could be your next step. It’s often built into the SolarEdge inverters, but checking the status might be different depending on your setup.
Have you gone through the commissioning process again after your inverter swap? You might need to log into the app, scan the new inverter’s QR code, and run through the setup to connect everything properly. If you're getting only 16V from 26 panels, there might be an issue with your wiring unless the panels are wired in parallel. It could be worth testing each string individually to see what voltages you're getting from each one.
Thanks for the insight! I’ll look into that.