SolarEdge (SE) tech support sucks, beware. (long thread)

[Yachtsman]

I began looking at a solar system with battery in November 2021 & finally settled on a system in jan 22 with install planned initially for April which then moved to mid May. Like many others on this & other PV forums I initially planned getting a system with a PW2.
Ridiculously long non guaranteed delivery times for the PW2 steered me toward alternative systems.
I eventually settled on a SolarEdge system consisting of 4.8kWh panels with optimisers, SolarEdge 5kWh hd wave hybrid inverter/ EV charger & 10kWh battery. I’m not interested in off grid support for power failures but this could be added if necessary in the future.
Ignoring the minor tribulations for lack of stock & moving installation date the installer/supplier has been really good, always available & quality installation, so no complaints.
The SolarEdge system has a versatile configuration for hourly hour, day by day, week by week, month by month & season set up, consisting of a number of profiles.
This is where the problems started. I’d downloaded the manual for setting the various profiles & worked out what was required, then discovered you don’t set the profiles yourself, your installer or tech support do.
Simple really, solar runs the house, excess to the battery then EV/ water heating etc. when solar not available the battery runs the house.
In winter months charge the battery using off peak TOU energy.
Hopefully reducing export to a minimum and import peak rate to zero.
Initially (late May) all excess went to the grid & ignored the EV so a call to tech support.
A WhatsApp chat commenced with me explaining which profiles I wanted & bingo 2 days later a working system, so I thought. Lots of solar energy, a full battery & house running smoothly.
The evening prior to a weekend away on the south coast I scheduled the EV to fully charge by 10.00 am the following morning ready for departure.
The schedule didn’t happen & my EV was still at 62%. Not a disaster but very annoying. Scheduling the the tesla app has never failed in over 18 months, the first via SE, failed.
I initiated a manual charge to discover that the SE battery was also discharging into the EV, not what I expected or wanted.
On my return I also noticed that between midnight & 6am the house ran off the grid not the battery, consuming just under 2kWh, half peak & half off peak.
Another WhatsApp chat revealed the SE battery will always discharge when using EV boost charge, ok I’ll live with that now I know.
The night time grid consumption was due to an incorrect time setting for the profile, yes fairly obvious so I again detailed the profiles I needed.
So two days ago I finally received a email at 08.05 confirming my summer and winter profiles were now correctly set up. Excited I opened the app (08.11) to find 68wh generated & now ZERO output, battery at 97%.
Another whatsapp call, responded to 4 hours later & another hour + checking the system they tell me my inverter looks like it’s failed & I should contact my installer to arrange a warranty replacement.
So no SolarEdge generated power, no EV charging & days of perfect sunny days to come.
My installer ( most apologetic) ordered a replacement inverter (estimated 2-3 week delivery) + installer availability.
I got back on to SE support explaining I now had no way of charging the EV, what were they giving to do.
A couple of hours later a email asking me to try a charge which worked, so not a total disaster.
Although a long thread I have spared you some of the detail as this fiasco has been going on throughout June, July & August.
Simply put, the system when working is very good but tech support is almost none existent in terms of their ability to get things right. I suspect untrained staff who don’t understand the system they are supporting.
SO BEWARE if purchasing a SolarEdge system.

 

[maigrait]

I have a se system. 2 inverters and 10kw battery. I have zappi charger. I was warned off the se hybrid charger by installer.

Ill admit the profile setup being site (your house) wide and having to be via installer a pain as limited flexibility. I got two basic profiles setup. Winter charge from cheap leccy overnight then charge battery with excess, use as necessary. Summer charge with excess and use as necessary.

It works flawlessly and has done for 4 years. For me sounds like your installer must take some of the blame here and they should deal with you and se.

 

[Yachtsman]

I have a se system. 2 inverters and 10kw battery. I have zappi charger. I was warned off the se hybrid charger by installer.

Ill admit the profile setup being site (your house) wide and having to be via installer a pain as limited flexibility. I got two basic profiles setup. Winter charge from cheap leccy overnight then charge battery with excess, use as necessary. Summer charge with excess and use as necessary.

It works flawlessly and has done for 4 years. For me sounds like your installer must take some of the blame here and they should deal with you and se.

Hi,
They are the two profiles I’ve been trying to get tech support to do, primarily because they should know the system better than any installer and my installer is in a state of disarray with enquiries, lack of stock & site surveys etc, so it made sense to me to get tech support to do the job.
I admit I’ve given them a lot of stick for slow response, not understanding the two simple scenarios & getting it wrong at each attempt.
Maybe they…….
To add insult I’ve now received a email from tech support saying I haven’t replied to them in 3 days so they are going to close the case.
The inverter failure was Wednesday I spent something like 4 hours on & off communicating with them, so obviously their ar…se doesn’t know what their elbow is doing.

 

[Dilly]

Hi,
They are the two profiles I’ve been trying to get tech support to do, primarily because they should know the system better than any installer and my installer is in a state of disarray with enquiries, lack of stock & site surveys etc, so it made sense to me to get tech support to do the job.
I admit I’ve given them a lot of stick for slow response, not understanding the two simple scenarios & getting it wrong at each attempt.
Maybe they…….
To add insult I’ve now received a email from tech support saying I haven’t replied to them in 3 days so they are going to close the case.
The inverter failure was Wednesday I spent something like 4 hours on & off communicating with them, so obviously their ar…se doesn’t know what their elbow is doing.

I sense a terse reply in the making

 

[Yachtsman]

I sense a terse reply in the making

Oh yes Dilly, the terse reply went by return.

 

[Sixer]

I have a se system. 2 inverters and 10kw battery. I have zappi charger. I was warned off the se hybrid charger by installer.

Ill admit the profile setup being site (your house) wide and having to be via installer a pain as limited flexibility. I got two basic profiles setup. Winter charge from cheap leccy overnight then charge battery with excess, use as necessary. Summer charge with excess and use as necessary.

It works flawlessly and has done for 4 years. For me sounds like your installer must take some of the blame here and they should deal with you and se.

@maigrait How does the zappi display your SE Battery? I have just had the same setup installed and was expecting to be able to see it all nicely in the myenergi app.

SE need to provide the ability for home users to set their own battery charging profile. Another gotcha after purchase from SE together with the inability to modify your own Wi-Fi password on the SE equipment.

 

[vincentkerazzi]

To the contrary, when my inverter on my system stopped working, I found SolarEdge far easier to deal with than Tesla. I couldn't get anyone at Tesla to respond to me through any medium, and the phone number on the breaker box was disconnected. SolarEdge actually answered, and explained it would be a few weeks, but they'd give me a tracking number as soon as they had a replacement. They did exactly that. Shipped it directly to me. I finally drove to a Tesla service center and sat on someone's desk until they connected me to someone in the Solar division to install the new inverter.

 

[Yachtsman]

@maigrait How does the zappi display your SE Battery? I have just had the same setup installed and was expecting to be able to see it all nicely in the myenergi app.

SE need to provide the ability for home users to set their own battery charging profile. Another gotcha after purchase from SE together with the inability to modify your own Wi-Fi password on the SE equipment.

I totally agree with that sizer, I’m in the same boat. I’ve been trying for 2 months for SE to set my profiles correctly & now the inverter has failed after only 12 weeks operation.
I’m in the middle of a 3-4 week wait for a replacement.

 

[Jay Gatsby]

@Yachtsman Wow ok so the end uses of a SE Home battery can't set up their own battery profiles...you need SE support or a dealer to do that?

Am I understanding this correctly?

 

[Yachtsman]

@Yachtsman Wow ok so the end uses of a SE Home battery can't set up their own battery profiles...you need SE support or a dealer to do that?

Am I understanding this correctly?

Absolutely, tech support tell you it’s the installers responsibility but my installer (who has been excellent) is tearing his hair out with enquiries, chasing non existent stock & doing site surveys. Realistically doesn’t have the time & doesn’t understand the system as well as tech support, allegedly.
While talking (arguing) to tech support I suggested he set my profiles while dealing with me it’s only a minutes work, his answer, contact your installer.
The system is very very good & so is the app, but support stinks. If my replaced inverter fails again I’ll be selling the battery & ripping out everything necessary & replacing with something else. The cost will not bother me, but it will others, thats why I’ve posted on here.

 

[Jay Gatsby]

So @Yachtsman you'd go to a Powerwall 2 then next time?..
Where the battery settings and changes you want to get everything working on the fly (and as your system changes with the sun and yr power needs adapt) can be done by YOU the home user.. via the Tesla app? Is that what you are saying?
Seems a no brainer. I hate locked in systems to the installer. Been there done that - had the exact same issue years ago with Control4

 

[Yachtsman]

So @Yachtsman you'd go to a Powerwall 2 then next time?..
Where the battery settings and changes you want to get everything working on the fly (and as your system changes with the sun and yr power needs adapt) can be done by YOU the home user.. via the Tesla app? Is that what you are saying?
Seems a no brainer. I hate locked in systems to the installer. Been there done that - had the exact same issue years ago with Control4

Hi, I initially wanted a PW2 but the delivery time was late this year with no guarantee of meeting the delivery date, so I looked at alternatives.
In theory & practice if the system is spec’d correctly inc the battery capacity to meet you house needs you shouldn’t need to change things depending on the weather. A summer & a winter profile are all that is needed it should be 95% there every day.
My system has worked (although the profile timings were wrong) well, running the house from solar when available & if not the battery. Excess solar first to the battery then to the EV (or anything else you choose).
Due to the profile timings being wrong irptbwould switch to discharging the battery into the grid & running the house off peak.
It was so stupid I couldn’t believe it & spent several weeks trying to get them to change it, then disaster the inverter failed. I suspect not I think they screwed it & they won’t look any further.

 

[Jay Gatsby]

Hi, I initially wanted a PW2 but the delivery time was late this year with no guarantee of meeting the delivery date, so I looked at alternatives.
In theory & practice if the system is spec’d correctly inc the battery capacity to meet you house needs you shouldn’t need to change things depending on the weather. A summer & a winter profile are all that is needed it should be 95% there every day.
My system has worked (although the profile timings were wrong) well, running the house from solar when available & if not the battery. Excess solar first to the battery then to the EV (or anything else you choose).
Due to the profile timings being wrong irptbwould switch to discharging the battery into the grid & running the house off peak.
It was so stupid I couldn’t believe it & spent several weeks trying to get them to change it, then disaster the inverter failed. I suspect not I think they screwed it & they won’t look any further.

wow that is a bad fail on their part.. All I want to do is not use hi cost peak power from the grid (use battery instead if enough power is available) between 3pm at 9pm. So that sort of thing is easy to set up "and forget".. ? So confusing all this stuff until you live it in real terms on site..

 

[AlexP]

My installer ( most apologetic) ordered a replacement inverter (estimated 2-3 week delivery) + installer availability.

My SolarEdge inverter failed too but they quoted 4-6 for shipping the replacement.

 

[Yachtsman]

My SolarEdge inverter failed too but they quoted 4-6 for shipping the replacement.

When was that Alex?

 

[AlexP]

When was that Alex?

I first noticed that the system was not producing energy in early July. My original installer went out of business so it took a couple of weeks to deal with a new installer. Once they came out in late July they figure out that it was the inverter and that it would need to be replaced. The installer told me that SolarEdge quoted him 4-6 weeks for delivery of the new unit. I called SolarEdge and they told me that the RMA was only approved on August 2nd. and they still did not have a date for the shipment of the replacement.

 

[maigrait]

@maigrait How does the zappi display your SE Battery? I have just had the same setup installed and was expecting to be able to see it all nicely in the myenergi app.

SE need to provide the ability for home users to set their own battery charging profile. Another gotcha after purchase from SE together with the inability to modify your own Wi-Fi password on the SE equipment.

You can't display a DC battery status as there is no hook in myenergi to show it - the solaredge battery system is tightly coupled to the inverter via a DC connection so there is no ability to put on a CT clamp.

I have two harvi's (mainly due to cable positioning and length). One sits in the main electrical meter in/out - recording main excess energy. One sits on the output of the two inverters into the fusebox. I can have one clamp on one inverter ac output and one on the other. Then setting this up on the myenergi side I have it set as generation and battery+generation (or something like that) - it doesn't save the settings but at least I can see how much power is going into the house POST the battery being charged.

To see if the battery is charging/state - I still go via the solaredge site/app.

You can setup Home Assistant / Home Bridge / Whatever - quite a lot of those have solaredge api bridges/sensors - that you can use to get your stuff in one place. Home assistant also can do myenergi.

When you've had the stuff for a while, you just let it get on with it and check in now and again. The battery is charging as much as it can in the day so I just leave it at it. So I don't mind looking in a few places for the info.

 

[Yachtsman]

I first noticed that the system was not producing energy in early July. My original installer went out of business so it took a couple of weeks to deal with a new installer. Once they came out in late July they figure out that it was the inverter and that it would need to be replaced. The installer told me that SolarEdge quoted him 4-6 weeks for delivery of the new unit. I called SolarEdge and they told me that the RMA was only approved on August 2nd. and they still did not have a date for the shipment of the replacement.

Mine stopped working 5 minutes after tech support emailed to say they had just applied the correct summer & winter profiles, that was August 10th. The RMA was approved on the 13th & SE can’t give me any idea on delivery other than there’s none in the uk, it’s my installer saying 3 to 4 weeks.
So with luck you’ll be a few days ahead of me, please keep us all posted.

 

[Jay Gatsby]

@maigrait How does the zappi display your SE Battery? I have just had the same setup installed and was expecting to be able to see it all nicely in the myenergi app.

SE need to provide the ability for home users to set their own battery charging profile. Another gotcha after purchase from SE together with the inability to modify your own Wi-Fi password on the SE equipment.

@Sixer Not having an ability for me (the home user) to set their own battery charging profile, is a total deal breaker on the SE battery...

 

[Undecided_2]

I began looking at a solar system with battery in November 2021 & finally settled on a system in jan 22 with install planned initially for April which then moved to mid May. Like many others on this & other PV forums I initially planned getting a system with a PW2.
Ridiculously long non guaranteed delivery times for the PW2 steered me toward alternative systems.
I eventually settled on a SolarEdge system consisting of 4.8kWh panels with optimisers, SolarEdge 5kWh hd wave hybrid inverter/ EV charger & 10kWh battery. I’m not interested in off grid support for power failures but this could be added if necessary in the future.
Ignoring the minor tribulations for lack of stock & moving installation date the installer/supplier has been really good, always available & quality installation, so no complaints.
The SolarEdge system has a versatile configuration for hourly hour, day by day, week by week, month by month & season set up, consisting of a number of profiles.
This is where the problems started. I’d downloaded the manual for setting the various profiles & worked out what was required, then discovered you don’t set the profiles yourself, your installer or tech support do.
Simple really, solar runs the house, excess to the battery then EV/ water heating etc. when solar not available the battery runs the house.
In winter months charge the battery using off peak TOU energy.
Hopefully reducing export to a minimum and import peak rate to zero.
Initially (late May) all excess went to the grid & ignored the EV so a call to tech support.
A WhatsApp chat commenced with me explaining which profiles I wanted & bingo 2 days later a working system, so I thought. Lots of solar energy, a full battery & house running smoothly.
The evening prior to a weekend away on the south coast I scheduled the EV to fully charge by 10.00 am the following morning ready for departure.
The schedule didn’t happen & my EV was still at 62%. Not a disaster but very annoying. Scheduling the the tesla app has never failed in over 18 months, the first via SE, failed.
I initiated a manual charge to discover that the SE battery was also discharging into the EV, not what I expected or wanted.
On my return I also noticed that between midnight & 6am the house ran off the grid not the battery, consuming just under 2kWh, half peak & half off peak.
Another WhatsApp chat revealed the SE battery will always discharge when using EV boost charge, ok I’ll live with that now I know.
The night time grid consumption was due to an incorrect time setting for the profile, yes fairly obvious so I again detailed the profiles I needed.
So two days ago I finally received a email at 08.05 confirming my summer and winter profiles were now correctly set up. Excited I opened the app (08.11) to find 68wh generated & now ZERO output, battery at 97%.
Another whatsapp call, responded to 4 hours later & another hour + checking the system they tell me my inverter looks like it’s failed & I should contact my installer to arrange a warranty replacement.
So no SolarEdge generated power, no EV charging & days of perfect sunny days to come.
My installer ( most apologetic) ordered a replacement inverter (estimated 2-3 week delivery) + installer availability.
I got back on to SE support explaining I now had no way of charging the EV, what were they giving to do.
A couple of hours later a email asking me to try a charge which worked, so not a total disaster.
Although a long thread I have spared you some of the detail as this fiasco has been going on throughout June, July & August.
Simply put, the system when working is very good but tech support is almost none existent in terms of their ability to get things right. I suspect untrained staff who don’t understand the system they are supporting.
SO BEWARE if purchasing a SolarEdge system.

SolarEdge told me that profiles will be configurable by the home homeowner this autumn. I have a battery and PV and the installer has gone AWOL. I finished the setup of the battery and some wiring myself with SolarEdge on WhatsApp.

As the installer has disappeared and I still owe them money I can’t get the system signed off.