Balcony solar PV

[Tay]

Alas, my microinverter isnt fairing so well, we had a pretty good PV day today. the batteries were fully charged by 13:00 so I decided to swap them back to the micro inverter to see how it faired against the Bluetti, both panels are effectively side by side fractionally differant angle but not enough to really skew the results much.

The Bluetti showed both panels offering up a total of 380-400w, I utilised my new DC isolators and plugged in one panel to the micro inverter and one to the Bluetti and had a bit of a shock, I've left the time on the phone to show the comparison...

Seems the inverter was only showing around 90w compared to the Bluetti showing 160w odd, I understand that the efficiency should be significantly better on a £1k device compared to a £200 device but thats quite a margin. I'm looking at raw input not the inverters efficiency..seems somewhere the MC (Micro inverter) either isnt recording the voltage/current correctly or something isnt right.

I've decided to cut my losses and send it back. the app is so flakey then I had to restart it 4-5 times to even detect the device after it was showing a constant blue light just to detect it, then the updates seem intermittent at best, this is either the app or device but given this is essentially a plug and play device its been anything but. Initially I had assumed it was just me, but the DC isolators make swapping stuff over so easy now I've made some 1m cables that take a coupla of secs to swap now and dont need to faff about turning off the inout to the Bluetti to swap out the PV.

I suspect that this is the price you pay for poor qc'd, cheap as chips kit..maybe I'm doing it an injustice but I'm tempted to see something a little more grown up working, maybe the enphase or something like that, I'm just not sure if you need all the other paraphernalia to make it work.

Notes:
It could be that not all the PV inputs are equal - I only had a single panel on some inputs I'd not used previously.
The cables were different but I cant see THAT much being lost (Both sets were 6mm)

Shame, this had great potential

[Joeboy]

Alas, my microinverter isnt fairing so well, we had a pretty good PV day today. the batteries were fully charged by 13:00 so I decided to swap them back to the micro inverter to see how it faired against the Bluetti, both panels are effectively side by side fractionally differant angle but not enough to really skew the results much.

The Bluetti showed both panels offering up a total of 380-400w, I utilised my new DC isolators and plugged in one panel to the micro inverter and one to the Bluetti and had a bit of a shock, I've left the time on the phone to show the comparison...

Seems the inverter was only showing around 90w compared to the Bluetti showing 160w odd, I understand that the efficiency should be significantly better on a £1k device compared to a £200 device but thats quite a margin. I'm looking at raw input not the inverters efficiency..seems somewhere the MC (Micro inverter) either isnt recording the voltage/current correctly or something isnt right.

I've decided to cut my losses and send it back. the app is so flakey then I had to restart it 4-5 times to even detect the device after it was showing a constant blue light just to detect it, then the updates seem intermittent at best, this is either the app or device but given this is essentially a plug and play device its been anything but. Initially I had assumed it was just me, but the DC isolators make swapping stuff over so easy now I've made some 1m cables that take a coupla of secs to swap now and dont need to faff about turning off the inout to the Bluetti to swap out the PV.

I suspect that this is the price you pay for poor qc'd, cheap as chips kit..maybe I'm doing it an injustice but I'm tempted to see something a little more grown up working, maybe the enphase or something like that, I'm just not sure if you need all the other paraphernalia to make it work.

Notes:
It could be that not all the PV inputs are equal - I only had a single panel on some inputs I'd not used previously.
The cables were different but I cant see THAT much being lost (Both sets were 6mm)

Shame, this had great potential

There is mention online about these units (WMC) no outputting what the should and also not being great at ramping up after shading. Not what ye want really. I can defo recommend the Hoymiles unit. It's just getting the job done with no hassles. It's chucking out anything from a half to .6 of a kW any time,the sun offers.

Sorry you got WMC'd, Amazon refund then?

For posterity, the extra £100 I paid to go Hoymiles was instantly apparent in design and unit weight compared to WMC.

[nowty]

I note that both the cheapo ones Joeboy and Tay bought always seemed to be operating at a very low voltage and high current. Makes me think they don't even have a Max Power Point Tracker (MPPT) or at least have a very poor one. Probably no current limiting either hence Joeboys flameout.

I once bought a couple of these which were supposed to be MPPT Charge Controllers. They definitely were not MPPT and I too experienced the magic smoke within hours.

[Joeboy]

I note that both the cheapo ones Joeboy and Tay bought always seemed to be operating at a very low voltage and high current. Makes me think they don't even have a Max Power Point Tracker (MPPT) or at least have a very poor one. Probably no current limiting either hence Joeboys flameout.

I once bought a couple of these which were supposed to be MPPT Charge Controllers. They definitely were not MPPT and I too experienced the magic smoke within hours.

Mmmmn, green gold, classy! Hard not to chase the dream.

[Tay]

There is mention online about these units (WMC) no outputting what the should and also not being great at ramping up after shading. Not what ye want really. I can defo recommend the Hoymiles unit. It's just getting the job done with no hassles. It's chucking out anything from a half to .6 of a kW any time,the sun offers.

Sorry you got WMC'd, Amazon refund then?

For posterity, the extra £100 I paid to go Hoymiles was instantly apparent in design and unit weight compared to WMC.

returns already arranged, I did factor this in, hence I opted for the Amazon slightly more expensive version, as they have; for the most part; decent returns policy, I told them to drop the cash into my amazon account as I fully expect to use the cash for something with them, this also makes things go smoother, shame my local postie is closed today/tomorrow ^^ - Monday it is then the cash usually gets. freed up instantly.

The unit works, and I saw results when using the upper most MC4 connectors, as I routed the mains cable around the back on my table I used the lower left input, maybe that was the issue, but, at that point I cba anymore.

[Tay]

I note that both the cheapo ones Joeboy and Tay bought always seemed to be operating at a very low voltage and high current. Makes me think they don't even have a Max Power Point Tracker (MPPT) or at least have a very poor one. Probably no current limiting either hence Joeboys flameout.

I once bought a couple of these which were supposed to be MPPT Charge Controllers. They definitely were not MPPT and I too experienced the magic smoke within hours.

I guess I did one better as I ddint see any indian smoke signals, but I think I was just looking for a reason to send it back before I got that !!

However, the crap app and manual and lack of mains cables was sufficient, I dont like sending things back just for the hell of it, but this connects to the mains and lots of power is involved, I dont want my cheapness to cause an accident.

[Tay]

For posterity, the extra £100 I paid to go Hoymiles was instantly apparent in design and unit weight compared to WMC.

I doubt the cash will sit in Amazon long before it starts burning a hole in my pocket.

[Tay]

I note that both the cheapo ones Joeboy and Tay bought always seemed to be operating at a very low voltage and high current. Makes me think they don't even have a Max Power Point Tracker (MPPT) or at least have a very poor one. Probably no current limiting either hence Joeboys flameout.

I was tempted to violate the warranty and see what was in there purely out of curiosity, and run it passed an electronics guru I know to see if he thought it should do the trick or whether it was a nasty little deathtrap - alas, I erred on the side of caution and reason and frankly want my cash back.

If only I listened to what I tell other people about the interwebs.. If stuff is too good to be true it typically is.

I'd like to test the temps on a enphase though - they seem happy enough to put a 25 year warranty on their gear.

[Joeboy]

This is the Hoymiles HMS800



If used as a standalone unit a lead can be bought online to make it an easy hookup.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0C6PX ... asin_title

[Fueltheburn]

I too went with the Hoymiles HMS 800. I did this mainly because the older HM and MI do not support a high current panel. The HMS supports 13A where the HM and MI are 11.5 and 10.5A respectively - so on a bright day I would likely fry the earlier units with the Canadian solar 405w panels @13A.

I am looking to bolster my winter production with a couple of panels currently sitting dormant. Better to use it and then sell on the Hoymiles once the big system is in place. I was close to going for the HMS 1600 and only using 3 inputs over the winter but the resale of the HMS 800 is arguably more useful.

Once I am back on land I will be setting up a 2 panel ground mount in a South West orientation to catch the afternoon sun when more folk are at home.