GoodWe inverter problems

[Jason W]

I own and operate a small solar design and installation business in Portland Maine and have been in the solar industry since 1999. I am sharing this story about GoodWe in the hopes that I can help other solar installers avoid what I have gone through with GoodWe's faulty inverters. My story is a bit long but it is worth reading if you are concerned about the reputation of your company with respect to the products you sell. The synopsis is this:

• The MS-US inverters inject high frequency waves into the AC output when running at full power, likely due to poor quality filtering on the PWM hardware. This can cause AC breakers to blow if you have more than 4 inverters on the same service.
• The DC arc fault detection algorithm remains a significant concern with the MS-US model.
• The inverter has faulty firmware that causes it to go to zero production if amperage gets higher than about 14 amps per string. You will only detect this if you have multiple units on the same site as it can look like the impact of passing clouds if you only have one unit.
• Power factor cannot be set in the SolarGo app—it has to be done by GoodWe tech support remotely
• The upper end of the MPPT tracking range was moved down from 550 volts to 500 volts because of problems with inverters in the field. At this rating it is impossible to get close to 160% DC oversizing as they claim in the spec sheet without significant operational impacts.
• The internal cooling fan, which was never mentioned in the original spec sheet (now listed in the updated spec sheet), is very loud and cycles frequently.
• The units have very low quality WiFi transponders that frequently lose connection and will send annoying alarms on a random basis—won’t send it every time so it is unreliable.
• The SEMS portal data cannot be trusted to update regularly.
• If you have a serious problem with a GoodWe inverter you will be transferred to dealing with “headquarters” which will be difficult unless you speak Chinese. They will also use the time difference between the countries and “Chinese Holidays” as excuses for their delays in solving problems.
• The U.S. Division of GoodWe has very little authority to solve technical problems and no authority to approve things as simple as an inverter RMA so you may be thinking you are dealing with a U.S. company when you buy their product but in fact the U.S. Division is under-resourced and is required to consult with headquarters in China for most important customer support functions.

If you go to the attached documents you can get all the details that support my assertions listed above

 

[ggunn]

I own and operate a small solar design and installation business in Portland Maine and have been in the solar industry since 1999. I am sharing this story about GoodWe in the hopes that I can help other solar installers avoid what I have gone through with GoodWe's faulty inverters. My story is a bit long but it is worth reading if you are concerned about the reputation of your company with respect to the products you sell. The synopsis is this:

• The MS-US inverters inject high frequency waves into the AC output when running at full power, likely due to poor quality filtering on the PWM hardware. This can cause AC breakers to blow if you have more than 4 inverters on the same service.
• The DC arc fault detection algorithm remains a significant concern with the MS-US model.
• The inverter has faulty firmware that causes it to go to zero production if amperage gets higher than about 14 amps per string. You will only detect this if you have multiple units on the same site as it can look like the impact of passing clouds if you only have one unit.
• Power factor cannot be set in the SolarGo app—it has to be done by GoodWe tech support remotely
• The upper end of the MPPT tracking range was moved down from 550 volts to 500 volts because of problems with inverters in the field. At this rating it is impossible to get close to 160% DC oversizing as they claim in the spec sheet without significant operational impacts.
• The internal cooling fan, which was never mentioned in the original spec sheet (now listed in the updated spec sheet), is very loud and cycles frequently.
• The units have very low quality WiFi transponders that frequently lose connection and will send annoying alarms on a random basis—won’t send it every time so it is unreliable.
• The SEMS portal data cannot be trusted to update regularly.
• If you have a serious problem with a GoodWe inverter you will be transferred to dealing with “headquarters” which will be difficult unless you speak Chinese. They will also use the time difference between the countries and “Chinese Holidays” as excuses for their delays in solving problems.
• The U.S. Division of GoodWe has very little authority to solve technical problems and no authority to approve things as simple as an inverter RMA so you may be thinking you are dealing with a U.S. company when you buy their product but in fact the U.S. Division is under-resourced and is required to consult with headquarters in China for most important customer support functions.

If you go to the attached documents you can get all the details that support my assertions listed above

Thanks for the warning.