The Enphase vs Hoymiles Show Down - Technical Review
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 21 ส.ค. 2024
- For a long time in the Australian solar industry, there's only been one name worth mentioning as far as micro-inverters are concerned, Enphase. But for the last 12 months, a new name has started making waves... This new name.... Hoymiles. In typical fashion, we got a couple in and began testing... If you're considering micro-inverters for your upcoming solar install, you won't want to miss this video. If you're in SE QLD... head over to our website to organise a quote. www.mcelectric...
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Featuring - Mark Cavanagh
Editing/Visual FX - Elliot Moss
Thanks for this comparison. Basically I recently installed Hoymiles-1800W micro inverter . I was able to decrease the temperature from 46degrees to 29 degrees by adding 4 12V fan. For the internet monitoring, I bough a simple DTU key 35 euros to track it.
Oh nice! Got to love a bit of a hack, especially fan cooling!
Thanks Mark for a thorough and insightful review.
Amazing how successful Enphase Microinverters are around the world. Several companies only!! install Enphase Microinverters here in Australia.
Yeh, really reliable product. We actually don’t use them any more. Here’s why! th-cam.com/video/TqOw43-hbjc/w-d-xo.html
Mark, it seems a lot of your discomfort with Hoymiles is that they have not proven themselves over time. I'd rather you say that than give a slanted review. Also, should have highlighted some benefits (at least in the US) of Hoymiles: max continuous power of 480W (HMS-2000-4T-NA) versus 380W for Enphase (IQ8H-240), and higher branch circuit current with 10AWG than the smaller 12AWG used with Enphase. Unsure if I will choose Hoymiles or not, but I'm very glad Enphase has a strong competitor to push them especially in for support of the new higher power panels.
My bigger concern was the temperature it was running at. But the fact that they have not proven themselves over time is also a legitimate concern given they run so hot. But, each to their own.
@@mcelectrical Who cares if the inverter runs 10C hotter, if it is built to handle it and still performs. You're still saying that you expect them to fail. My first install with Enphase had 3 of 18 inverters fail in the first five years (certainly they have improved or they would be out of business). If you read Hoymiles documents, they say they expect the 4-in-1 inverters to run hotter due to the higher energy densities and have built them accordingly, including derating the output at extreme temps. So, you are either saying you are unaware of Hoymiles design (search hoymiles high temperature) or you don't believe them.
It’s more that I am skeptical. I don’t believe much of what I read from a manufacturer, I test it and give my opinion. Sometimes I’m wrong. Time will tell.
about the pricing hoymiles is like almost 40 to 50% cheaper, it is also interesting that can you share the 6months of the testing, how about the generation power between two brands in the same conditions? is that a lot of different?
@@markcavanagh hmmm, as we have test in our lab, seems the production under same shading conditions should be less then 1%, about your reply any database to support this 5 percent comment?
@@markcavanagh 5% is way too much, i also would like to know where is it come from. For distributors, before choose a brand, they might need to think about the product reliability and also concern the profit and cost-effective which is also hoymiles pursue. about the DTU warranty we will make a change from 2022. your video is very great that we do thankful about what you comment, enphase product is great and also it is what we are trying to get close.
Hi Mark, thanks for your detailed comparison, whenever you do the AFCI video please share some details with us about the importance of the distance of the DC circuit, since I´ve heard that manufacturers say that the closer the better for the AFCI efficacy since with longer wires noise can build up in wires and confuse the AFCI or make it numb for arcs but they lack to share a distance / efficacy graph or guide. Thanks again !
Well depending on the electronics quality 70c isn't an issues, even 100c can be no problem if the components are of good quality - so that a relatively mood point without doing a teardown and look what is actually inside
I just found a teardown video of a Hoymiles inverter, by another Australian fellow: th-cam.com/video/_H4IP_iEzWw/w-d-xo.html
Just upgraded 11 yo solar to LG/Enphase. I do like the panel monitoring, but Enlighten is very light on information. I agree, an instantaneous power meter should be standard in Enlighten, as too, additional basic information like array size, temps, voltage etc. My old Aurora inverter was able to display instantaneous power production, why not Enphase? My new system did not need micros, but for me, it was a personal choice. The IQ8 family of micros will have models to suit multi panel connection.
I only have Hoymiles converters never had a problem now the over heating of my 1500 model I resolved with a 10 $ Fan whitch is connected to a temperature switch , problem resolved !! Now I’ll buy the 2000 model whitch can handel 4 panels of up to 680w each ! Not bad !
That’s pretty cool - pardon the pun. It’s crazy how good an external fan works. I’ve tried it with my son when is raspberry pi was struggling, and laptops when they struggle. Effective Cooling is such a big problem. Love that you solved it!
I solved it as well with 4 fan 12V each. Decreased the temperature from 46 to 29 ! . Hoymiles 1800W
What about AP Systems Microinverters? I've had good success with those with just a few failures on over 30 installations. Do you have any data about how they handle split cell panels? I mean, how is their MPPT tracking algorithm?
Hi Mark, loving your vids. Can you explain what you class as "heavy shade" please? We have full sun from 10:30am -3pm in the summer but shaded by trees at all other times. Not sure whether to go microinverter or string inverter????
Thank you for the very informative video, great review. I have been wondering how Hoymiles perform in-field ever since I started seeing their content online this past year.
Regarding the warranty documents and Australian Consumer Law: I think a lot of these PV manufacturers try to write as few warranty documents as possible (one document per series of micro inverter or product) and since Australia is one of several global markets they may not be required to cover labor in other parts of the world? But as you correctly pointed out, our consumer laws here supersede these warranty obligations.
@@markcavanagh Yes you are 100% right. Lawyers are expensive and bill by the 15min. Lawyers write/review the warranty docs. I used to work at Q CELLS and Solar Edge, both their legal teams are based overseas (Korea and Israel HQs). Getting them to write anything, would take a while and have to go through several layers of approval before they could even see it. Local/Aussie engineering teams advise the lawyers who edit the final versions that get published
@@markcavanagh yeah great video, I've seen that one too. At the end of the day your (MW) volume speaks volumes at Q CELLS mate. I have some good memories from the Launch events we did back in 2019. Good on you and well done for pushing and getting them to budge AT ALL!
@@markcavanagh yes it was and QLDers were the luckiest ones that got treated to a very nice dinner. FYI the Sydney and Melb Launch events we had canapes and drinks only and it was a stand up event
Great review. Looking at the tech specs Hoymiles look relatively decent, but your test results on operating temp worry me greatly.
Hey Brandon, the temps shouldn't, I've installed many Hoymiles Systems and they operate fantastically even in high heat, where I am in Alberta Canada we saw temps exceeding 40C with R-Humidity exceeding 90% and the HM 1500NT only reached an operating temperature of 49.1C which is well below the thermal degradation point of electronics (80C), they actually have the lowest failure rate of all inverters in the entire industry! I've used them on systems from as small as a 8 panel 3kW system all the way up to a 396 panel 146kW ground mount system. They kick the ever living crap out of enphase for price, quality, and longevity which has been a huge issue with enphase this past year.
@@stephenholthe, thanks for chiming in with your installed experience. How long have the systems been operating? I like the feature set of the Hoymiles, don’t get me wrong on that. I didn’t know Alberta gets as hot as that in summer temps (that is comparable with Queensland, Australia).
@@ahbeng888 Some are about a year old, others two and a few more are about to hit year 3. Previously I was installing AP inverters, and once we switched over to the Hoymiles devices, we never looked back! I even have customers who are switching the inverters on their systems to the Hoymiles devices! Like I said, last year we had the hottest summer in our province and arguably all of Canada, and the devices have shown no signs of internal defect or degradation from the heat! Some are ground mount and others are roof mounted systems, some are on metal roofs and others are on asphalt shingles!
@@stephenholthe Are you the same Stephen Holthe that works for Hoymiles? The operating temperatures you've quoted are vastly different from the temperatures we've seen in our testing, which are from the Hoymiles monitoring platform itself.
😂hoymiles has up to 4 pv inputs but you don’t talk about that! Hoymiles goes up to 2kW but you forgot all of this 😢😢😢
Trying the hoymiles for the house but cheating a bit. Have a central location for my inverters so access is better and can ensure good ventilation and some shading. Got to do a bit more research but looking at the 1600 watt micro in with 3 of them running in series.
Ah nice! Fun the things you can do with a bit of DIY!
An Internet connection is required? This is news to me. A warranty requirement for a continuous Internet seems ridiculous to me. No real-time monitoring system should require this. Especially for a piece of power electronics. Who else requires this? I am going to keep this in mind as I continue to evaluate solar options.
One more point I heared of: hoymiles make it Easier to add batteries.
well, I really think you don't understand how the bypass diode works in a shading condition.
From my knowledge enphase has a 25 year warranty why is it 12 here?
In the USA it comes standard as 25 years. In Austria it is 10 years. I’d hazard a guess it it because Australian Consumer law is stricter about warranties and Enphase has to also pay for labour to replace the unit.
What? Show us how the Enphase engage the diode?
Hey Mark is that new tigo video far away from release ?
Hi Steve, the video is a little while away yet, but we just published the blog version today. This is the URL for that one. www.mcelectrical.com.au/tigo-optimiser-recall/
Can't be true that there can be difference on shaded solar panels and power produced based on microinverter manufacture. The same electrical rules for both and if panels used for tests are the same, results should be almost the same for any of microinverter. The only difference is solar electrical production start current that is different on model basis.
I don't see why different brads of micro-inverters wouldn't work differently. Two key variables would be operating temperature based on design, and the MPPT algorithm.
I was wondering this myself, but do see that MPPT algorithm could drive a different results. Very disappointing that Mark had hard numbers of the actual difference but did not state them. This exclusion makes this video feel a bit slanted.
Solar micro inverter vs string inverter
I did that too! th-cam.com/video/TqOw43-hbjc/w-d-xo.html
🇷🇸🇷🇸🇷🇸
Could you provide data before making such claims ?
Which claim in particular? Sometimes claims can be made from experience. Not forcing you to take my advice.