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Solar system... no technical support, no service...

Last activity 26 April 2018 by PalawanBob

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PalawanBob

I have a solar system on the roof that is mostly sitting there, doing nothing.
My inverter broke down after only one year of use and it's impossible to get parts from China.
The MOTOLITE DEEP CYCLES are real trash that keeps going bad every 9 months.
Any suggestions...!!!????

Heavyoil3616

Yes, move to Lithium batteries, they are available here in Mindoro. More expensive but definitely worth it.

Solarguru

Get Gel  Solar Battery !!

samangelevski

We are talking about Philippines here, as I remember when it was the first solar  systems, many many problems with it, but they got them all fixed now and runs perfect, now in Philippines the technology is as you call it new, but not in real sance, most of what they have and what i have seen is old technology, they have long way to go yet, but if other countries dump their rubbish here Philippines will have to wait another thousand years, it is shame they do not let Philippines grow, but again Philippines Government is to blame for this.there is no standards here and no wonder everything gets dumped here no matter works or not just send it to Philippines, sale it cheap and people will buy it, this is people's mentality here any thing cheap is good..

Silvercobra

I will first ask you some questions.

1- how many watts is the inverter rated at?
2- what is the total loading on the inverter?
3- does the inverter power up?
4- when powered up is there any burning smells?
5- what happened when it died ie. thunderstorms, an appliance failed?
6- have you checked for correct polarity of dc connection and is the voltage within the inverter range?
7- have you opened it up to see any obvious internal damage?
8- do you have any electronics background knowledge or experience?

samangelevski

Hi Silver no I do not have or am I not an expect in Solar Systems, I do know how they work and what is needed, I have one installed back home in 2012, it is 3kw, but our systems run on the grid, it is what they call buyback, you sale to them first then you buy your power from them, kind of all bull to me but this is the system we are allowed in the big Cities, this changers if you live in country, country people can have full system independent from the Grid, but they will have to run 5Kw and use lots of batteries for the System, the biggest problem is the batteries, can never match requirements of what is needed for one household, I have seen some people need small generator when they have to run washing machine, as batteries will not do the job, and I think we can have up to 5kw but no more, Inverters start from 1.5kw,2kw,3kw,up to 5kw max, Inverters never power up or down they only shut down by user if  need to, there should not be any burning smells, but if there is must be some kind of problem, as with any electrical appliances, we had many thunderstorms and extremely strong winds, but there was no damage or anything at all that did go wrong.
The very best is to run every thing in house on DC, 12V, there are lots of things on the market to run on 12V, TV's, fridges, AirCons, (AirCon on Solar) Washing Machines, lights we all know run on 12V for very long time now, but we can have hole house running on 12V, that will be absolutely best for everyone, there is technology on 12V appliances, but at the moment very expensive, because people not buying as much,  you can buy fridge that will run on 240V 12V or Gas, all three, so if your 240V power is out use Gas, but you know all this Silver
I believe soon we will see most things will run on a solar systems. I HOPE SO
as the way we generate power in the world is outdated, Soler is the way of future, we have Sun but we do not use its power.

das75

Not familiar with the batteries but shouldn't be a problem to replace invertor/charge controller.

Ratliffld

Hey bud I’m Larry I just moved to Davao a few months ago from California. I had a solar Company up there for 6 years. I know quite a lot about solar 😎. Maybe I can help.  I am retired military and decided to fully retire this year. Life is too short. Lol.   I don’t know how technically savvy u are but.  Solar systems are pretty straight forward. Not too complicated.   Do you have 1 string inverter or do you have many micro inverters it sounds like it’s a string inverter but want to be sure.

LemSaDipolog

Hello from Dipolog City;;

Information is not difficult to obtain, thank you web search and basic DC electronics knowledge.  However Suppliers, especially in Mindanao, are  as per Samangelevski,

"most of what they have and what i have seen is old technology, they have long way to go yet, but if other countries dump their rubbish here Philippines will have to wait another thousand years, it is shame they (the government,,me) do not let Philippines grow, but again Philippines Government is to blame for this" Especially the  home grown business protectionism.

This adds up to a real shame given the cost and reliability, respectively very expensive and well you know.  Here the utility is aka the prince of darkness, owner of candle concession........  A real shame, solar starts to have a reasonable payback period in this equatorial paradise.

Cost saving suggestion, as batteries are a large percentage of the system cost, use the electric company as your battery backup, size your system to supply the neighbor and use his payments to offset your costs when using the grid...

PalawanBob

Sorry for late reply.
The BMS, LiFePO4, 50A are very expensive. Here in Palawan, they go for P60000 each.
Quality? Yes. But the price is unreal.
Just for comparison, you can buy 8, MOTOLITE, 100A, for that price but they last 2 years only.
My real concern is the inverter.
Chinese are NOT selling spare parts....!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ?????????? 
You can buy a new inverter but no spare parts.
I wonder if anyone else here has experienced this with their inverter.
Two years ago, it cost me P32k to buy the 5000W, 48V inverter and it would cost me less than P5k to replace the broken part but instead I had to buy a cheaply priced (but fairly well made 12kw, 72kg monster) China made, second hand inverter that a disgruntled local seller here didn't want to keep any longer. The ONLY reason why I bought it, is because it came with a spare power supply board.

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