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Found a video of a Growatt 12kw disassembly, and guess what I noticed on the control board:
Sad but true. The same thing is seen in the Growatt LF inverters I've had my mitts on. I really doubt there is a Chinese LF inverter out there that isn't just another clone at heart. As far as I can tell though Growatt do actually make the ones I've seen.
I use surge protector for the whole house and a surge protector for the heat pump . Do they use surge protector in Australia ?
Not all that common really. I live on the coast in QLD Australia in sugar cane country. There's a fair bit of lightning in storm season and we've recently had some pretty intense storms statewide including 16cm size hail (yep, that's chunks of ice over 6" hurtling out of the sky...) just north of me.
Usually whole house protectors won't prevent serial ports being fried. The best approach is to have fast protection on the wires to clamp them and proper opto or magentic isolation with decent clearance on the boards. The two LF inverters that had fried serial ports were likely caused by induced voltage / current on long unshielded runs of multiwire cable. The inverters were both on cane farms up the valley and were installed by the same company in the farm's tractor shed with comms run back to the house. I don't know why they didn't do it wirelessly.
I did see a USA bsed youtuber grizzling about his Growatt 48V 5kW inverter/charger going bang, but to be honest intuition says it was a fake based on where he bought it.
I didn't realize there were fake Growatt inverters. Assume you are talking about people buying from Alieexpress or similar places?
Also, since you've worked on some and if you don't mind my asking, what do you think the real running wattage limit of a 12kw lf growatt is?
Yes, aliexpress etc. Can't really say what their practical power limit would be as I didn't pay attention to the inverter proper and didn't do any real testing with them as they did actually work, it was only the serial interface that was dead. The high current DC wiring didn't look out of place for the current though, 48v.
Other review on youtube say it is impossible to run 12kw continuous because the current limit will shut down at 8kw .
Can you provide a link to this review?
Can you provide a link to this review?
The youtube of DavidPoz say why is it not powering my house well . Growatt shut down at 8kw and Solart shut down at 9kw . This save the FETs from blowing up with current limit protection . Powerjack rev 11.1 control board has current limit and also shutdown so I change the DIP switch . AveRage Joe later video say he not try run his Solart to 12kw because he do not want to know what will happen but wiil try in later video .
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reading through the comments on the video...looks like Sol-Ark isn't all they're cut out to be.
Not only is it only a ~9kw inverter, it can't handle imbalanced loads (GS can, limited by the transformer temperature).
AND...it's Made in China. I was under the impression Sol-Ark was a U.S.-manufactured inverter, but it isn't.
Hmm...maybe I'd better get back to work on that GS 12kw inverter....
Hmm...maybe I'd better get back to work on that GS 12kw inverter.
The GS 12kw will be the first and only !2kw to run continuous in youtube if it work . A person on youtube try with mosfet that cost 900 dollars each but quit after losing many thousands of dollars . It may need a large transformer core and copper wires .
AND...it's Made in China. I was under the impression Sol-Ark was a U.S.-manufactured inverter, but it isn't.
You aren't the only one. I thought it was a USA product too.
The GS 12kw will be the first and only !2kw to run continuous in youtube if it work . A person on youtube try with mosfet that cost 900 dollars each but quit after losing many thousands of dollars . It may need a large transformer core and copper wires .
Well, the FET drive has been solved on the GS 12kw...at least right now, the question is whether the transformer core is up to the task of handling a full 12kw. Got the inverter readout recalibrated, and awaiting another 12kw hour-long load test to see if the transformer temperature stabilizes at a reasonable number.
If not, we'll have to try a (significantly) higher-cost core, see if it can handle the power requirements. Wire is adequate, FETs more than adequate...just the core at the current time.
A person on youtube try with mosfet that cost 900 dollars each but quit after losing many thousands of dollars .
You pique my interest, what's the link?
You pique my interest, what's the link?
EVTV Motors Jack Rickard paid someting like 60000 dollars to have one person try and gave up and return what money is left . Jack was doing one video a week before he passed and I have to look for it . I will post when I find it as his video is sometime 2 hours long .
Would be interesting to see the clip, I can't imagine paying someone 60k to fix an inverter and the result is they just tried fitting exceptionally over rated FETs. Heck, the person that was paid the 60k could hire an engineer to fix it, and still pocket 10k.
Sol-Ark-12k-P. OK. Someone that doesn't actually read the specs might just go, derp, 'I willz buy it coz it does 12kW as it has 12k in the model number!!' but if they bothered to check the product material it clearly says the inverter is rated at 9kw at 240V, 4.8kW at 120V and while in bypass mode the unit can carry 12kw at 240V and 6kw at 120V through from the grid to the output.
I'm all for good quality products but equally it doesn't hurt to read the manual etc before slapping down 'thousands' on something.
I'm all for good quality products but equally it doesn't hurt to read the manual etc before slapping down 'thousands' on something
Close to 8000 dollars with tax and installation .