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SolarEdge HD Wave SE10000H Failure - Tesla Repair Time Estimate

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After reviewing previous threads, I didn't see much on the expected repair timeline for a SolarEdge HD Wave inverter failure. Mine died last Wednesday, August 4th. Perfect timing for a tropical storm headed our way this weekend. Inverter was installed in April 2019.

Any recent experience with how long it takes SolarEdge and Tesla to get a new inverter installed? I'm being told 4-6 weeks which seems to be a ridiculously long time to not produce solar, and more importantly, recharge my Powerwalls in case of a power outage due to tropical storms.

Thanks.
 
After reviewing previous threads, I didn't see much on the expected repair timeline for a SolarEdge HD Wave inverter failure. Mine died last Wednesday, August 4th. Perfect timing for a tropical storm headed our way this weekend. Inverter was installed in April 2019.

Any recent experience with how long it takes SolarEdge and Tesla to get a new inverter installed? I'm being told 4-6 weeks which seems to be a ridiculously long time to not produce solar, and more importantly, recharge my Powerwalls in case of a power outage due to tropical storms.

Thanks.
Reading suggest the faster way is to contact SE directly for support and have them ship the unit to you then schedule Tesla to come out to swap the unit. Than to wait for Tesla to get order replacement stock
 
Read through this thread, for the advice the OP received in it. It seemed like he was returned to service pretty fast by going directly to solar edge who could verify the issue and send the inverter directly to him for tesla to install:

 
Yeah, I tried that and SolarEdge quickly referred me back to Tesla since they had opened a case with them. All I could get from SE was they approved the RMA and had not shipped the inverter yet. SolarEdge would not give me a timetable for shipment. Back to Tesla today gives me the canned "4-6 weeks" answer. Seems I'm stuck in limbo between the two companies canned responses.
 
Mine died last Wednesday, August 4th. Perfect timing for a tropical storm headed our way this weekend. Inverter was installed in April 2019.

Back to Tesla today gives me the canned "4-6 weeks" answer

And for this very reason this is why I bought a spare brand new solaredge 7.6 kW se wave inverter from fleabay. I paid $1100 with shipping for it. I have two 7.6kW SE inverters for my system. Mine was a third party installer and not Tesla.

I registered myself as a solaredge installer which any home owner can do. I went in through setapp and took screen shots of all the pages and now have a good understanding of how the inverter works and how to change the settings. I then installed the new spare inverter in place of one of my working inverters. I updated the firmware, configured it based on previous screenshots and let it run for a full day. The tesla app saw normal generation just fine. The SE monitoring however did not because I don't have admin access to my solaredge monitoring account to change the serial number out. I don't really care as long as I have two working inverters until a replacement arrives.

FYI, the SE inverter can be split and you only have to change the top portion of the inverter out. There's actually two metal clips that hold the top and bottom together. Then you only have to unscrew with a screw driver 5 wires and then undo the comms line. It took me a half hour to change it out. No need to mess with the bottom wiring at all.

The big picture here is if you're a DIY'er and don't mind spending some of your time and money on your own spare inverter, then this will solve your issues if you have a failed inverter until a replacement inverter gets to you in however many weeks it will take to get there. TBH, it's not very cost effective but if you feel you must have your system up and running then it's probably your best option.

Just my .02 cents.
 
UPDATE: Talked with SE again this morning. RMA approved on 8/7. Replacement inverter has not shipped yet. Support Rep said that he was told it takes 5-7 business days to ship. It's been 5 business days as of today. Should ship early next week to Tesla Energy in Orlando, 90 minutes from my location. Told me, if I'd like, to check back with them about mid-week next week.

If it's informative, I'll keep updating progress for others to gauge should they have issues.
 
If it's informative, I'll keep updating progress for others to gauge should they have issues.

If you are up to updating us on it, I think there is value there, for sure. Thats how we found out that people could contact SE directly, speeding up the process some. More data points are better, for something like this, in my opinion anyway.

Of course, this is if you are up to it / feel like it.
 
Good luck on hurricane coming through soon. Timing sucks for the inverter to go out now. We have a SE inverter and wondering if people’s units that are failing are located inside or outside the garage. We had ours installed inside our garage, opposite side of outer wall, and wondering if cooler location would prolong it’s life. Also curious if you hear from SE/Tesla what failed on it/reason for failure.
 
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Good luck on hurricane coming through soon. Timing sucks for the inverter to go out now. We have a SE inverter and wondering if people’s units that are failing are located inside or outside the garage. We had ours installed inside our garage, opposite side of outer wall, and wondering if cooler location would prolong it’s life. Also curious if you hear from SE/Tesla what failed on it/reason for failure.
Mine is outside on the north side of the house. Should stay cooler there than in the garage which can get to 100 degrees since it faces west. My error code is 18xB7. I’ll have to ask if they know the specific reason for failure.
 
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Mine is outside on the north side of the house. Should stay cooler there than in the garage which can get to 100 degrees since it faces west. My error code is 18xB7. I’ll have to ask if they know the specific reason for failure.
That’s a voltage surge failure. I couldn’t get SolarEdge to tell me exactly why mine failed with that code a few months ago (same exact mode as yours) but definitely a component failure their is no coming back from, I would bet on some capacitors.
 
After reviewing previous threads, I didn't see much on the expected repair timeline for a SolarEdge HD Wave inverter failure. Mine died last Wednesday, August 4th. Perfect timing for a tropical storm headed our way this weekend. Inverter was installed in April 2019.

Any recent experience with how long it takes SolarEdge and Tesla to get a new inverter installed? I'm being told 4-6 weeks which seems to be a ridiculously long time to not produce solar, and more importantly, recharge my Powerwalls in case of a power outage due to tropical storms.

Thanks.

Just curious. Did Tesla notify you that you had a failed inverter or did you find out on your own? According to the post below, Tesla knows EVERYTHING that happens with their products so I would hope that Tesla was the one that notified you that your inverter had failed.

Since it is clear Tesla records EVERYTHING that happens with the products.
 
Just curious. Did Tesla notify you that you had a failed inverter or did you find out on your own? According to the post below, Tesla knows EVERYTHING that happens with their products so I would hope that Tesla was the one that notified you that your inverter had failed.

Sure, tesla knew it failed. That doesnt mean that they are prompt in reporting it, contacting a user about it. We all know tesla has customer service issues. Whenever the OP contacted tesla, they would be able to tell the exact time the inverter stopped reporting in / generated that message, either now, or if asked about it 12 months from now they would still be able to tell you that information.

I am in contact with tesla right now about the status of my powerwalls when they were installed, which was January 2020, and they have information from then about battery status etc.

If you dont like the idea of tesla knowing everything that goes through your system, you likely should do what a couple people here have done and not use the tesla app, and actively block it.

I believe one user who has done that is @Sylvia Else , whom you could PM to find out more about that, if you are interested.
 
Getting back on topic, I've noticed something after about a week with no solar to charge Powerwalls. When I lost solar on 8/4, I changed my customization to Back-up Only to preserve whatever battery I had in case of a power outage. My reserves were around 94% at that time. After seven days of no solar, my back-up percentage had dropped to about 87% in the app. Everyday since then, I've noticed my back-up percentage has been increasing slowly. Tonight in the app, it shows my reserve percentage is 91%. I was losing about 1% per day, then after a week, I've been gaining about a .5% per day. And the gains have been overnight. Gaining power when the sun goes down, losing power when the sun is up. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this is happening. All I can say is "very interesting".
 
Getting back on topic, I've noticed something after about a week with no solar to charge Powerwalls. When I lost solar on 8/4, I changed my customization to Back-up Only to preserve whatever battery I had in case of a power outage. My reserves were around 94% at that time. After seven days of no solar, my back-up percentage had dropped to about 87% in the app. Everyday since then, I've noticed my back-up percentage has been increasing slowly. Tonight in the app, it shows my reserve percentage is 91%. I was losing about 1% per day, then after a week, I've been gaining about a .5% per day. And the gains have been overnight. Gaining power when the sun goes down, losing power when the sun is up. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this is happening. All I can say is "very interesting".
Does the app offer any clues - that is, does it actually show any energy being transferred to or from the PWs? The 1% daily loss is not surprising and is consistent with the range of known losses for an otherwise-idle PW to maintain operation, so I would not expect to see imports/exports on the app related to that. But if it is really going up, there should be something in the app indicating a transfer of energy to the PWs. Otherwise, it seems likely a weird bug in how Tesla is calculating the percentage (not that I have a good reason why.)
 
This may offer some clue. It shows some leakage from the grid back to the Powerwalls. It also shows some leakage from solar even though the inverter is fried. I've also noticed that the system_status api shows the nominal energy remaining is going up at night and down during the day. More up than down.
 

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Getting back on topic, I've noticed something after about a week with no solar to charge Powerwalls. When I lost solar on 8/4, I changed my customization to Back-up Only to preserve whatever battery I had in case of a power outage. My reserves were around 94% at that time. After seven days of no solar, my back-up percentage had dropped to about 87% in the app. Everyday since then, I've noticed my back-up percentage has been increasing slowly. Tonight in the app, it shows my reserve percentage is 91%. I was losing about 1% per day, then after a week, I've been gaining about a .5% per day. And the gains have been overnight. Gaining power when the sun goes down, losing power when the sun is up. Your guess is as good as mine as to why this is happening. All I can say is "very interesting".
i would have guessed this was due to the batteries "balancing" and / or the percentage being recaculated ... i see this at times w/ the model 3 .. charge % going up after sitting unplugged
But your leakage from grid is interesting
 
In the forums I moderate, some folks get removed very very quickly, for the good of the community

I have thought about whether I should respond to this with my thoughts, because I am the most visible (but not the only) moderator for this section. Responding ends up taking the thread back off topic, but not responding just lets this comment "hang in the air" without people knowing how one of the people who has the "digital rights" to do stuff like this actually feels about it.

So, with an apology to the OP (and a request that if anyone has specific questions about what I am about to say, please PM them to me and I will attempt to address as appropriate), I thought I would give my GENERAL, NOT DIRECTED AT ANY SPECIFIC PERSON OR SITUATION thoughts on this.

===========================================================================

Most of the moderators here on TMC are volunteers, including me. I personally like helping people, and like the help and information I have received from TMC during my hunt for information, and when asked if I wanted to help out, said "sure, I dont mind helping out". Frankly, its been a lot more "work" than I thought it would be, but I do really still enjoy helping people get to information, etc.

I also feel that we dont want to create an "echo chamber" where only one sort of reply / post is allowed. We are all different people, with different opinions, and just because someone has a different opinion than mine (sometimes strongly so) it doesnt mean they dont get to have it, or post about it, should they want to.

Opinions are one thing, disruption is something else, and many times there is a subjective line between the two. its ok for someone to have opinions that are different from mine (or everyone elses), and express those, as long as it stays respectful and not disruptive. We also dont just ban someone for posts we may not like, etc. I try to be very careful in this regard, and try to take actions to de escalate something rather than just "drop a ban hammer" on them.

Also, as I have said a few times, most of the time I am posting, it is as "myself", with my own opinions, etc. I feel I am still allowed to have opinions on things, but I do work hard to separate my opinions from actions I might (or might not) take as a moderator. That might be why (for example) I dont remove a post critical of some action or other I took, as long as it doesnt cross the line of being rude or disrespectful.

In any case, I do put thought into this stuff, and understand that its impossible for everyone to be happy with every action I take (or dont take). I apologize again to the OP of this thread because I am fully aware this is completely off topic, but as I mentioned, thought about this for a while and thought it would be better to respond than to just leave the comment hanging out there without any knowledge of what I was thinking about in general terms.

As I said, if someone has specific questions they want to ask me about, please reach out to me via PM and I will try to address them, if its something that needs addressing and not just "feedback".

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Back to your regularly scheduled programing.
 
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Sure, tesla knew it failed. That doesnt mean that they are prompt in reporting it, contacting a user about it. We all know tesla has customer service issues. Whenever the OP contacted tesla, they would be able to tell the exact time the inverter stopped reporting in / generated that message, either now, or if asked about it 12 months from now they would still be able to tell you that information.

I am in contact with tesla right now about the status of my powerwalls when they were installed, which was January 2020, and they have information from then about battery status etc.

If you dont like the idea of tesla knowing everything that goes through your system, you likely should do what a couple people here have done and not use the tesla app, and actively block it.

I believe one user who has done that is @Sylvia Else , whom you could PM to find out more about that, if you are interested.

A bit off topic here but while we haven’t had an inverter failure we had a SmartMeter failure recently. Just last month we had PG&E ring our doorbell to say our meter had failed and they were here to install a replacement. First we knew about it since our Tesla App had been showing daily solar/PW/house usage. Our Blue bill from that time that showed up afterwards didn’t list usage at all, and we were told the meter while kaput still was recording and storing data that would be retrieved and generate an updated bill section in a future bill. Haven’t received that bill yet. We asked how long the meter had been out and told a few days. So yeah these guys do monitor and can tell when something is off. Hey, they came out with a replacement meter so that was quick turn around. Sure meters are more plentiful in inventory than inverters due to unit cost.