Using the SolarEdge App, how to tell if you have as bad optimizer, Panels?

[SolarBob]

Got permission to look at the SolarEdge App from Tesla. On the layout selection it shows all my panel, optimizers.

I have several on one of the inverters that have not produced any solar in over a month, 0.

Using the app how do I tell if I have a bad panel, a disconnected panel.

I have two panels with 0 production in the last month, and 1 panel with 1kwh production.

Comments,

Thanks

 

[SolarBob]

Looking at the daily production I show some production on Inverter 1, however, when I run playback the panels always are shaded, and I do not see what panels on that inverter are producing energy.



How can that be. Tesla tells me all is right with the panels.

Are those panels on inverter 1 functional?

How do I know if they are even connected to the inverter????

 

[charlesj]

Are all your panels facing in the same direction? If inverter 1 panels are facing west you will not see much at that AM time grab.
That inverter 2 and panel with 0 production is suspect. Did you ask Tesla why there is 0?

 

[jjrandorin]

Are all your panels facing in the same direction? If inverter 1 panels are facing west you will not see much at that AM time grab.
That inverter 2 and panel with 0 production is suspect. Did you ask Tesla why there is 0?

Tesla is unlikely to even acknowledge any data at all from the solaredge app, so if this OP is calling tesla and saying "I see in the solaredge app.... " at that point they will shut down and likely repeat the mantra "we do not support data from the solar edge app, on our side everything looks fine".

 

[charlesj]

There you go OP, need to discuss this with Solar Edge?

 

[jjrandorin]

There you go OP, need to discuss this with Solar Edge?

The problem there is that solar edge is not the installer, tesla is. This is one reason why tesla likely seems to discourage people getting solar edge access, as they will not act on anything reported in there.

Poster mjptech posted all the "grilling" questions that tesla asked, and the fact that tesla made him confim that (basically) we will not act on any discrepancies in this data unless it is collaborated by our own". So, anything the OP is seeing in the solar edge app, to tesla is: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Finally, after months since install and over a year since I first reached out to get solar... got PTO yesterday... I asked for SolarEdge monitoring access, and it seems like the grilling is insane.. Would be easier to have a web request form than this

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My response to those two questions... and then...

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Yes

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Yes

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Yes

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Not done yet...

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But wait.. one last...

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[Flick75]

Are those panels on inverter 1 functional?

How do I know if they are even connected to the inverter????

If you have the none display type SE inverters you can use an app called "setapp". It's the installers app to commission and diagnose problems with your inverter and/or optimizers. Anyone can register as an installer if you have an email address. I'll caveat all this by saying do this at your own risk. When you use setapp you have full access to all settings for your inverter. The two menus you would be interested in looking at would be the "maintenance" and "information" menu. I have linked some setapp information below. It's very informative.

SetApp

Effortlessly activate and configure your inverter via SetApp mobile app for smartphones. Simplify installation and control. Learn more now.

www.solaredge.com

Inverter Status and System Performance Indications | SolarEdge US

Your inverter has a switch and three colored LEDs that indicate information such as performance and errors. Learn what they mean. | SolarEdge US

www.solaredge.com

https://www.solaredge.com/sites/default/files/solaredge-setapp-faqs-eng.pdf

On a side note, I just lost one of my inverters yesterday to Vcap21 surge error. The inverter shows a -1 Kohm isolation status and won't produce. I posted a few months back that I bought a spare inverter on ebay. Lucky for me I was able to install the spare inverter in my system and it's fully up and running. I'm going to call my third party installer tomorrow to schedule a "diagnostic" with them. I of course will reinstall the original inverter with it's fault for them to look at. It only takes me about 20 minutes to swap it out. I'm not sure what their turn around time will be as this is my first warranted item that has failed on my system since installation last July 2020.

 

[charlesj]

The problem there is that solar edge is not the installer, tesla is. This is one reason why tesla likely seems to discourage people getting solar edge access, as they will not act on anything reported in there.

Poster mjptech posted all the "grilling" questions that tesla asked, and the fact that tesla made him confim that (basically) we will not act on any discrepancies in this data unless it is collaborated by our own". So, anything the OP is seeing in the solar edge app, to tesla is: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Boy, am I glad I installed my system and Enphase has no problem helping when I need it.

Now I am wondering what Tesla warranty is on the OPs system as it seems to be brand new.

 

[Vines]

Boy, am I glad I installed my system and Enphase has no problem helping when I need it.

Now I am wondering what Tesla warranty is on the OPs system as it seems to be brand new.

It is a classic move by installers and some manufacturers to not allow the customer to see the panel by panel monitoring. The primary reason, is that they don't want a ton of service calls, so if the customer cannot see the problem, there is no problem...right?

I do not agree with this approach, because if the customer isn't looking out for their system, then who is? We cannot reasonably expect that Tesla is looking over a huge number of installed systems.

 

[darhall993]

It is a classic move by installers and some manufacturers to not allow the customer to see the panel by panel monitoring. The primary reason, is that they don't want a ton of service calls, so if the customer cannot see the problem, there is no problem...right?

I do not agree with this approach, because if the customer isn't looking out for their system, then who is? We cannot reasonably expect that Tesla is looking over a huge number of installed systems.

Totally agree with @Vines the SolarEdge app access has been invaluable for me, I’ve had squirrels chewing through cabling, a utility transformer that was misbehaving, actually had one optimizer that failed after 2 years, had 2 panels that didn’t pair after a larger inverter installed after a PV expansion. All of these issues would have been impossible to detect with data from every panel and the SolarEdge app. I am a numbers guy, so I love to check the performance and track YOY results. Trust but verify!

 

[Flick75]

We cannot reasonably expect that Tesla is looking over a huge number of installed systems.

Excellent point and I'm sure that's why Tesla has not noticed me charging my PW's ,at will, from the grid on poor solar days for the last 5 months.

And no @jjrandorin, I'm not on some crusade again. I'm just illustrating the point that @Vines is making that Tesla is not looking at everybodys installed system given the huge number of installed systems.

 

[Vines]

Excellent point and I'm sure that's why Tesla has not noticed me charging my PW's ,at will, from the grid on poor solar days for the last 5 months.

And no @jjrandorin, I'm not on some crusade again. I'm just illustrating the point that @Vines is making that Tesla is not looking at everybodys installed system given the huge number of installed systems.

Thats not the kind of thing Tesla would check unless there was a warranty issue. If there was a warranty issue, then they would look at the mothership data at how you used it.

Charged from solar PV energy, the battery has an unlimited cycle count. However when grid charged that is 37.8 MWh total throughput.

Like you say, Tesla isn't looking over shoulders for average systems. It's only when it might cost some significant money that they might look at the time of day compared to solar PV output expected, or look through social media posts and see issues like this. Mostly they have a lot else to worry about.

 

[cobra]

Excellent point and I'm sure that's why Tesla has not noticed me charging my PW's ,at will, from the grid on poor solar days for the last 5 months.

And no @jjrandorin, I'm not on some crusade again. I'm just illustrating the point that @Vines is making that Tesla is not looking at everybodys installed system given the huge number of installed systems.

Nice.

How hard is that to setup for the PWs? I understand the warranty issue, but I can see wanting to do this in a few cases where storm watch doesn't activate in your area when you want.

 

[charlesj]

... Tesla is not looking at everybodys installed system given the huge number of installed systems.

Too bad there is no protocol of some kind set up that the computer system at tesla could automatically monitor and when the program calls out a problem
with a system, humans are notified.

 

[Vines]

Too bad there is no protocol of some kind set up that the computer system at tesla could automatically monitor and when the program calls out a problem
with a system, humans are notified.

Service costs money and Tesla Energy is not smashing numbers yet.

At this point they want to reduce the service calls as much as possible. Customers already wait a long time for Tesla Energy service, so what is the incentive.

Tesla is the low-cost leader, so it makes sense you don't get those premium services with them at least not yet. If and when the service quality causes some loss of business, Tesla will address that then.

 

[Flick75]

Nice.

How hard is that to setup for the PWs? I understand the warranty issue, but I can see wanting to do this in a few cases where storm watch doesn't activate in your area when you want.

It's not very hard at all, but it does require some basic knowledge and understanding of how the TG works and how to get in to it. I'm not going to go in to detail in this forum on how to do it. If you're interested in more information on how to do this please PM me.

 

[BGbreeder]

I would suggest that what @charlesj is proposing is actually pretty low cost given that Tesla is already collecting the data, especially compared to having warm bodies answer phones, but that is just me.

Enphase does it on a panel basis, and seems to use it pretty successfully as a customer goodwill generator.

All the best,

BG

 

[charlesj]

I would suggest that what @charlesj is proposing is actually pretty low cost given that Tesla is already collecting the data, especially compared to having warm bodies answer phones, but that is just me.

Enphase does it on a panel basis, and seems to use it pretty successfully as a customer goodwill generator.

All the best,

BG

Yes, they are already collecting all sorts of data. Updating the software could be/maybe just a one time investment.
But, as @Vines is saying, don't think Tesla wants more service calls because of better data collection and sorting out trouble.

 

[Vines]

I would suggest that what @charlesj is proposing is actually pretty low cost given that Tesla is already collecting the data, especially compared to having warm bodies answer phones, but that is just me.

Enphase does it on a panel basis, and seems to use it pretty successfully as a customer goodwill generator.

All the best,

BG

I agree the data is very low cost, and really should be part of standard practice. The issue is that now the customers would see every down panel, and Tesla neither promises a yearly generation, nor gets paid more for your generation. The only reason Tesla have to alert the customer then make these repairs, assuming the customer doesn't realize anything is broken as a goodwill gesture.

As it stands, Tesla is happy to let sleeping dogs lie.

 

[BGbreeder]

I agree the data is very low cost, and really should be part of standard practice. The issue is that now the customers would see every down panel, and Tesla neither promises a yearly generation, nor gets paid more for your generation. The only reason Tesla have to alert the customer then make these repairs, assuming the customer doesn't realize anything is broken as a goodwill gesture.

As it stands, Tesla is happy to let sleeping dogs lie.

I agree with your assessment of Tesla.

I think it also fits with the "Us against the world" mentality that avoids talking to the press or communicating with customers. It isn't what I would do, but it is hard to fault Elon on having a successful strategy, at least in the short term.

As an owner of a solar system, I would find it a significant disadvantage not to know how my system is doing. Rather like a tire pressure management system on a car; it is nice to know that the front right is currently losing pressure and that I should pullover now before it blows out. As you wrote, it probably ought to be a standard feature of all solar systems, but isn't yet.

"You pays your money and you takes your choice..."

All the best,

BG