This panel can put out close to 100 watts ru-vid.comUgkxOqI2yqX0XVrhR2BMJciTWrHJpG8FhJyg when positioned in the appropriate southernly direction, tilted to the optimal angle for your latitude/date, and connected to a higher capacity device than a 500. The built in kickstand angle is a fixed at 50 degrees. Up to 20% more power can be output by selecting the actual date and latitude optimal angle.The 500 will only input 3.5A maximum at 18 volts for 63 watts. Some of the excess power from the panel can be fed into a USB battery bank, charged directly from the panel while also charging a 500. This will allow you to harvest as much as 63 + 15 = 78 watts.If this panel is used to charge a larger device, such as the power station, then its full output potential can be realized.
Love this guy. Joe breaks it down into chunks that the average person can understand. Very professional and concise. We installed solar in 2012 with the Enphase microinverters and are now looking to add battery backup to mitigate the occasional power outages.
I am an Enphase early adopter and they are giving me a great...just about 1/2 price...deal on an upgrade to my micro-inverters. I also think it's really important to not underestimate their product support. We have helped many other people in the neighborhood get started on Enphase solar and their support people...mostly in Idaho, I think...are incredibly nice and patient. They will simply stay with you until you get your problem solved. One more thing. We helped a woman install a 7.0 KW system on her row house in West Philadelphia that used Enphase IQ7+ micros. A month or so after the system started operation, many of the inverters stopped working. Turns out the local utility was having a transformer problem in the neighborhood. The line voltage was spiking above 255 V. The inverters were self-protecting. Enphase was able to set them to accomodate the higher voltage without voiding the warranty. A little while later, the transformer failed completely. Before it did, I measured 279V at the main breaker on this house and several adjoining houses. Now that the voltage is back to normal, the system is working at full capacity with no problems and the 25 year warranty is still good. That's good engineering...and a good company.
Joe, Well said- I am an owner of a solar company in Texas and I really appreciate your clarity around these technologies. Homeowners find great value in clear spoken explanations.
These head to head videos are great. Could you do a video that compares all the home energy storage systems you've put up against the powerwall 2, just a recap and score of them all? I like your metrics but could you touch on which hybrid system paired with an existing home solar array would provide the best combination of continuous AC power to the home paired with the most capacity. Then touch again, touch on price of the unit and complexity of the install.
The Tesla App makes the whole project easier to understand... I show folks a daily graph with all the aspects (PV, House, Grid, Battery), and I think it makes sense quicker... you might want to give this a go... I'd be especially curious about what sort of User Interface Enphase will have. We've got their inverters with the Powerwall (yes, we had to wait 2 years ;-). Here in the home of the "killer utility" (CA).
Enlighten app by Enphase is so awesome. Like Joe was saying, because Enphase battery system uses Enphase microinverters on the roof, their app shows module level power being produced. You got a tree causing shade on some modules? You can see it on your app. Not to mention the battery, house and grid monitoring. -An Installation designer
Tesla uses 1 inverter so when it goes down your screwed where enphase uses one on every panel and 12 in the battery meaning if one goes down you keep producing power
Gotta say it hasn't been without its share of issues. Enphases ensemble system is new and we have had problems. They have been worked out but early adopting showed enphase still had things to work out. Hopefully they will come down in price. I still believe in the product and have many more on the books yet to be installed.
@@charlesaguirre5916 Good info Charles, I’ve been through the online training. Hoping to add a 10 and the smart switch to my array here in Florida. Not sure Enphase will allow me to commission it without having a battery install under my belt. Sounds like they’ll want pictures or somehow verify my install.
How many Powerwall installation vs enphase installations have you done? I haven't heard of any recalls done by Tesla. The whole review appears to be very subjective and biased.
Big time. Unless someone is familiar with these systems, they may not understand any actual differences- and if they matter to the average consumer. For example, he talks about how Enphase technology will allow to to capture more solar energy than Powerwall during a grid down scenario. He says Tesla PV output is either “all on” or “all off”. My system was installed a couple months ago and I haven’t found that to be true. I can clearly see once the battery is charged the solar will ramp down then back up as needed in increments- according to the homes load requirements. Not just full blast or nothing. Maybe he was specifically talking only about Powerwall2. Powerwall+ is the newest generation and I love it
There is this new technology where you can search the internet and had you used it then you would know there have been several tesla power wall recalls. Sad you are so negative on a superior product
I have a 4 year old solar with Enphase micro inverters. When I checked with Enphase, they said I had to upgrade the inverters and buy a new envoy. I can’t remember but it seemed expensive. For that reason, I got two power wall 2’s. I had them about a month and have been really happy so far. If I was looking today, I would call your company, you seem very informed on your products
I like the system and app. I haven't had a power outage yet and a year after getting the battery, my energy company voluntarily implemented net metering. So the battery is charged forever waiting for an outage.
This is my 3rd Joe video and the one that made me subscribe to his channel. Just like Hans Schweikert has said; Joe breaks it down in a way that makes it easy to understand and comprehend. I installed Enphase microinverters in December last year (2021) and yet to think about a battery option. They are still expensive in Australia.
Thanks for this. I'm glad I made the right decision to install Enphase for my battery back up (with preexisting M250 microinverters on my 5 year old solar panels). I am very pleased with the performance of the system and the mobile app's ease of use. I'm beginning to realize that to be completely self sufficient, I'll probably need a couple more panels and/or a little more than my 10kwh battery as, the Enphase app is telling me I'm about 84% self sufficient here in the Summertime in California. My only remaining issue is I don't know whether I'm legally obliged to tell PG&E about my new system. I'm currently on a very favorable NEM TOU rate schedule and I really don't want to have to change that.
As long as the battery is installed on your side of the electric meter, I would think there is no requirement to tell PG&E. You still want to make sure everything is permitted and inspected so that you home owner's insurance covers any claims that may arise due to the battery install.
@@SolarSurge thanks for replying. Good to know and yes it is installed on my side of the meter. The new MSP and battery installation has been inspected and permitted by the city.
How does the PWR Generac Cell battery compare to these battery, how will you rank them from a scale 1-10? I have the Generac battery. Thanks in Advance.
I have an enphase solar array, but installing Tesla battery now. After 3 times trying to have a meeting with the enphase sales rep who cancelled each planned call, I gave up and went with what my local solar installer recommended. Tesla almost half the price even with a $1000 discount from enphase....
Joe, nice presentation. One minor thing. California's off peak rate are 2X the national average. Californians pay 28 cents per kilowatt hour compared to a national average of about 14 cents.
Tesla Powerwall owner here. I agree with most of your points (particularly Tesla's abysmal customer service/response time), but at 3:00, you say that with a Powerwall "You could be throwing half your solar energy away", which is true, but it's also true for your batteries. If your batteries are full, and your solar can produce more than the house currently needs, you're going to have to throw away all that (potential) energy. There's no where else for it to go. However you're right about the Powerwall's microcycling - I see that and it bugs me when it happens, but it only happens when I'm off grid and can't dump the excess energy onto the grid.
I think how important this would be, would be dependent on how much you lose power. If you regularly lose grid power then you would be more concerned with squeezing every watt possible out of a system by having micro-inverters that work with your battery storage system. However if you don't regularly lose grid power and mainly use your battery storage for TOU shifting then this will be less of a concern. Of course neither system, Powerwall or Enphase would seem to be good fit for retro-fit installation if you already have solar installed. Well the Powerwall would have been a good fit except Tesla decided to no longer sell them that way.
Hi Greg and thanks for writing in. I think the Enphase battery is a great choice for retro-fit for existing Enphase owners on the IQ7 platform. Tesla Powerwall will no longer be available to Enphase customers anyway.
The reason Encharge Battery is better than Tesla PowerWall in controlling the solar panels is not because AC-coupling, in fact, I believe both battery systems are AC-coupling system. Encharge actually has built-in IQ8 micro-inverter inside that does AC/DC conversion to/from battery as well. It's because that both battery and the solar panel has same IQ8 micro-inverter that can talks to each other using same proprietary protocol made by Enphase. Try to put an Encharge battery with solar panels with SolarEdge string inverter and see how that will work.
At my house I have two systems. One is a 10-panel system with Enphase IQ microinverters. The other system is 27 panels with SolarEdge inverter and StorEdge that I had installed at the same time for a future battery installation of LG batteries. Of course when that time came it didn't work out because of the limitations of having a critical loads panel with very little capacity. It looks like this Encharge system would only work with my older setup so I'm not sure it would even help with outages or peak shaving.
Looking at Texas residential Solar with Sunrun and Enphase products and am an investor in both. Found this and associated videos from you really informative as a consumer.
Glad they are helpful. We are happy to help you with either of these battery options for Texas. I recommend to take a look at the Generac PWRcell Vs Enphase battery video before making any commitment.
Hi Sir, Enphase was a bit late to the game compared to lets say theTESLA Wall and Generac Wall. I think you need to include Generac in the comparison to give a well rounded comparison especially since at least here in Canada, Home Depot carries generac equipment and thus highly visible. [ EDIT: Found the Generac vs Enphase video LOL ] Overall, the problem for most of us is that the $$cost is TOO high as the volume is simply not there. So the question for me becomes, when will the price volume point makes sense for the homeowner to make that additional investment. Thus glad enphase is playing the game and my sense is that many companies in the solar realm are developing similar products and thus in the end, prices should drive down. My solar installers echo your comments about the quality and support of enphase products.
@@Robert-cu9bm They can do a huge number of micro cycle with little ill effect. The battery life is determined by the cycle count and depth of discharge. For example, you can do almost 25 times as many 10% cycles, as 80% cycles. So the batter will last 3x as long given the same amount of total power charged and discharged over it life.
So if it uses internet or cellular tech to communicate, what if grid, internet, cellular are all down. Can you have a grid tied system and still use the battery to power critical loads then?
Doesn’t the solar production go back to the grid ? Once the Powerwall + is full? I haven’t notice my system tapering off or stoping. I’m new to solar. Only a month after install.
I’m not sure Tesla’s announcement is what you are interpreting it as. Elon stated that Tesla Solar and Solar Roof will only be sold with Powerwall. You can no longer buy Powerwall as a standalone product nor can you buy solar without a Powerwall. However, certified installers are still ordering and receiving large numbers of Powerwalls this spring to support their own solar installs. I don’t think Tesla has cut off their certified solar installers.
sorry fella, there absolutely is a way for an ac coupled battery system to regulate solar generation. by frequency ramping and a solar inverter that has a decent frequency control.
So, Tesla is 10 year unlimited cycle warranty, but Enphase is 10 year 10k limited cycle warranty, yet you say Enphase warranty in this respect is still better!! I've watch several of your videos now, its clear you have a distinct bias towards Enphase or other products and don't like Tesla products. Could it be Tesla have not licensed you to sell their products? We have 29 solar panels with Enphase micro inverters coupled to 2 X Tesla Powerwall 2's using 'time of use' grid charging and the system works great. Software and automatic algorithms all work very well. In my view, the Tesla PW2's overall are still the best value, best performing batteries available and I'm not on sales commission!
Now that you can only buy the PW with Tesla panels, I’d say you have a moot point. Take it all from Tesla or nothing and I need more output than their 340w panel because I’m area constrained.
Joe delivers very clear, understandle videos...and if live in the States I would use his company. There was only one thing which left me unsure about the Enphase products and that is only if I understood Joe correctly. Two Questions: I'm not sure whether Enphase is available in UK? Did Joe say the Micro Inverters are on the roof wth the Panels? This would concern me in the UK as althought our weather does not compare to the USA's we do have days and days and often an entirely wet winter...bear in mind that nowhere in the UK is more than 72 miles from the sea so in storm conditions that rain is corrosive and therefore corrosive for most metals. I live on the UK's south coast and you would be lucky for a satelite dish to last 5 years and very often far less.
This is outdated information. The new Tesla Inverter had a software change recently that *does* throttle solar output when the battery is near fully charged.
This also depends on the solar inverter used in the system. Older inverters are only on/off when AC frequency out of range, and some may need configuration to do curtailing based on frequency shift amount. But this will work with most newer inverters. Only sideaffect about all this is that your household devices that sync time from AC line (microwave, range, bedroom clocks, etc) will have the time incorrect depending on how long the solar needs to be limited - due to the AC frequency shift to accomplish. If this happens daily in off-grid, not ideal. Not a big deal for outages though.
Now imagine if this review was based on objective independant review, where the Ytuber doesn't actually profit from recommending you the Enphase product, he just happen to be selling.
But from what I can tell, the Tesla Powerwall 2 has a way higher LRA startup capability than an Enphase IQ10. Important if you're trying to back up heavy motor loads. Am I correct in saying this?
My new Tesla Solar / Powerwall system sends the solar power to the grid when the batteries are fully charged and the solar output exceeds my homes electrical need at the time. Not sure what he is talking about. I have a Net metering agreement with my power company, solar energy would never be wasted even without a Powerwall
Hi, did you ever interest in "victron energy multiplus-ii" product? It's also very interesting inverter/charger with power assist and blackout functionality. Can be also retrofit to existing PV system and can "bring to live" PV system during blackout, also can control PV power by frequency shifting. Advantage of this product is that you can choose battery capacity/type/brand by yourself ;-)
Great Channel! Thank you for the info, as I have started to research solar for my house, you have been the biggest source of info I have used. Can you do a Sunvault vs Encharge (batteries, software, etc)? Also, will your Georgia installed go to Chattanooga, TN?
I took a look at the various installation options on Enphase site. Microinverters are at the panels. Microinverters are within the battery box. The smart switch provides interconnection between these and the grid and possibly generator. Grid would normally be the sine wave provider to sync with when it's up. When the grid is down, which unit is providing sine wave? The smart switch? Second question is on the Enphase 10. How many can be paralleled? Couldn't find that anywhere. Thank you.
The Encharge 10 provides its own sine wave from the internal IQ8 micro-inverters inside the battery box. You can parallel up to 3 Encharge 10 units together.
If the Enphase battery is soooo Superior, then why aren't they used on a "grid scale"? I don't see a"Hornsdale Australia" with Enphase batteries. Enphase is a good battery, made from cheap iron phosphate and lithium, but the cost is outrageous for what you get compared to the Powerwall system. I'll purchase the Ensemble system when the cost is way more reasonable; right now, they're ridiculous. BTW: are Enphase batteries on backorder? probably not. The Powerwall is in very high demand and you can't get them unless you purchase solar along with it. Speaks volumes
It’s because of the name. Out of all the Solar + Battery systems we install, the Tesla is our least favorite. Specs wise, it just lacks. And that’s coming from a guy who is a huge fan of Tesla as a company.
Your first sentence is kind of silly overall. You think that because Enphase doesn't produce a type of product that it means their other product line is inferior? You may as well have said the Enphase home battery storage is inferior because the company doesn't build an electric car. Companies can choose whatever products they want to produce, and if Enphase doesn't have a grid level solution, doesn't see the value in it, or maybe doesn't have the cell supply to support it, then that's up to them. That has no bearing on the products they do offer. I'm not taking a side one way or another over who makes the superior home battery solution for the money. LFP does seem like it'll be a superior solution for home and grid storage solutions, so much so that Tesla is now stating they'll be moving to LFP cells for their grid storage solutions. It makes sense, they're cheaper and have longer cycle life. The weight penalty of LFP is the issue in EVs, but it's not a big deal in a static battery installation. As to availability, isn't that a big advantage for Enphase: You can actually buy them and have them installed? Powerwalls may be cheaper, but how long will it take to get one installed after ordering? What happens if if needs to be replaced under warranty and none are available? You can only get them with a new Tesla solar installation... so what if a person already has panels in place and just needs to add a battery?
A question about the Enphase 3kW battery. Is it enough to power my house through the night. No A/C, no pool, no heavy draw, just lights, TV, computers and fans. The Enphase 10kW is obviously better that the PowerWall2. Is the PowerWall 10kW better than the Enphase 3kW?
I can agree with you on customer service is bad with Tesla and they seem to refuse to care. But the other two items 1. slaved to meter design and 2. micro cycling, I am not so sure or rather that it might be because Tesla was previously reliant on 3rd Party inverters (Solaredge?) they were forced into suboptimal design. Now that Tesla going forward is only providing Solar + Powerwall inhouse solution (announced as of the past few days by Elon) I imagine that at least #1 technical design changes to be more optimal and they are using their own designed inverters. Not sure if this resolves their microcycling issue but they can potentially have clear path to solve long term with upgrades to mimic micro inverter capabilities, but in short term they can manage with software on how cycling would be handled.
All the benefits talked about with micro-cycling would be irrelevant though if the solar was in full sun, battery full and the excess is exported to the grid to earn money though yeah?
I love what the Tesla companies are doing, but I am currently building a home and shop in AZ and on Tesla Solar's website over the past 5 weeks I have filled out the "contact me" form three times asking to be contacted. I have heard nothing but cricket chirps. I want to know if I can put the panels on my shop or is it too far away from my home. How many powerwall batteries do I need and do they need to be installed in the shop or house? Etc. Three times for questions that will help me have the build facilitate the system. No reply, not once.
I'm afraid that's the problem dealing with Tesla. No customer service. We have great options in Arizona. Please book a call if you;d like to chat with one of our designers: calendly.com/solar-surge-sales-team/solar-consultation
Great presentation Joe! Could you address the issue of the risks and prevention of Li-ion Phosphate batteries freezing in an off-grid installation. I have a lake house in central Maine. Lead acid batteries (which suck) seem to survive well if keep charged.. What about other chemistries? Thanks in advance.
i am not sure if these backup batteries are programmable when to charge them. if they are programmable, i think they are better to be charged using the electricity from the grid during the cheapest time and use the batteries during the peak time like between 4 to 9 pm.
