Has anyone had any experience (good or bad) with these Ensupra 550W grid tie inverters? I see them for sale on eBay but don't see much written about them online yet. Perhaps they are newer and have not been out as long as some of the other brands. http://cgi.ebay.com/ENSUPRA-GRID-TIE-INVERTER-550W-SOLAR-WIND-1-DAY-SHIP-/170572462847 I found a spec sheet on the ensupra.com site: http://www.ensupra.com/online/templatemedia/all_lang/resources/SW550-12+Spec.pdf
No I have not tested. What are you using it for? If wind I would not. Use a Sun G wind rated GTI as we have tested them and they are proven. All of their quilities are listed throught this forum. I have tested inverters like these and they all failed with a wind turbine. Please again read thru the forum on ther GTI inverters. After you have read the information we have posted please let me know if i can further help. Hope this helps. Larry
I own one and it is very nice..maxs out around 460 watts though but way better than the power jacks that max at about 1/2 rated watts. I own the old silver 500w ensupra and one of the new black 550w models..Definate thumbs up...
Thanks for the feedback bluejay. Glad to hear it! Larry, I did read a lot about the SUN inverters here for wind, but I saw them being used as batteryless. I don't want to use it in the typical batteryless way. I want to use for wind with battery bank. It seemed to me I read that someone asked the SUN factory, and they said don't hook them up to a battery bank directly. I noticed that the Ensupra specifically stated they can be hooked to a battery bank.
Thank you for making your intentions more clearer. I applogize if i missunderstood you. You can use battery clamping or install a switch to go from GTI to the batteries if you would like. There are many ways of wiring them but only a few methods from what i know have extensivley been tested and work. I know from my own personal experiences that the only one that worked was the Sun G. Hopefully someone will post more detailed information and test resullts on this newer inverter.
I just bought one April 7th. Its wired to my 24 volt batteries, and runs 24/7. At 25 volts it puts out around 60 watts, at at 30 volts 290-300 watts. I have the Silver one. Since it works, I opened it up. It has three of the big caps and three transformers. I'd buy another one.
Let me update my post here. On Nov 03,2012 and 78kwhs later it died. Can't be from the heat, its around 40 degrees in the garage. At .13 cents a kw, I'm still out about a hundred bucks from the purchese price. Looks like in the long run, the Enphase M190's should have been my first purchase, then I'd be ahead of the saveing a buck game. Just a note....it never put out more than 350 watts, I didn't want to work it too hard.
I agree Ecar, Enphase is hands down the way to go for a solar grid tie system. The China inverters at best are only good for wind IMO.
I don't have experience with Ensupra brand, but I bought a couple 1000w Sun cheap Chinese inverters and they are working, but I have an issue, I'm not sure if it's with the inverters or something else, I hoping you guys can help me out. I have 4 x 190w solar panels wired in parallel, I connected each panel one at a time to verify the panels are all putting out good power, at the time of day I tested them I was getting about 1.4a output from the GTI. After verifying all the panels work correctly I then proceeded to connect them all in parallel thinking that 1.4a x 4 would give me about 5.6a of current out of the GTI, however instead only got about 4a out of the GTI. Any ideas why that is? Here is a video I just made of it -> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lNL6rBvITk
Hi Tim, seen your vid mayeb i can help? Are all your panels facing the same tilt degree regarding long. and lat settings? Was that power produced by the panels at full solar noon? Meaning that was your best sunlight for them to make power? You are looking for a total of 6 amps let's say for round numbers. Have you considered the efficiancy factor? China GTI's are only about 70-80 % efficiant so 4 amps is about right. I assume your Sun G 1kw GTI is a 22-60vdc input. I am not sure what volatge your panels are? Try runing the panels at a higher voltage, maybe two in series then in parallel to the inverter for two strings of two. Just do not have the OCV exceed 60vdc. Hope this helps
The power produced by these was observed about an hour from full solar noon. 3 of the panels are oriented identically one of them is oriented perpendicular to the other 3 on a slightly steeper slope (~5 degrees). They are identical panels though, 37v (w/load) so running them in series is not going to work, as you noted the voltage range for this GTI is 22-60vdc so it would fault. I know these Chinese GTI's aren't very efficient but I was not expecting only 71% efficiency. Any recommendations for highly efficient 1000-1500w GTI that works over 120v - I've only found 240v GTI's in that lower range?
Ok i figured you could not run them in series. Yeah the China GTI's are ok on the low end but on the high end they really drop off. My best recomendation is Enphase but they are 240v. Why not run 240v? Is it not available for you set up location? You can check out SMA Sunny Boy inverters as the UL ones are way more efficiant but finding a 120v low wattage one may be hard. Running 240 volt gives a better balanced solar system as you may know. I know their have been all kinds of inverter companies coming out of the wood work that are UL/95% efficiant. Right now it's hard to keep up with so many of them. Maybe you can goolge a few for ideas and we can discuss them?
Thanks for the response, the reason I want to avoid 240v is because I want to leverage the existing electrical connections and not run new ones. I have the panels on top of my pool-shed which already has AC electrical for the pump so it's very easy to connect into it. If I need to jump to 240v that would mean I'd have to run 150' of new wiring - a lot of work, cost, permits, etc. I'd rather not have to go through if I can avoid it. I'll search around and see what I can find out, if I find something I'll post it.
Got ya. Well to start with from what I know SMA makes a 700w 120vac output version. Please let us know what ya find. Thanks
