"Schneider's on Line 1 Asking For You..." Am I in Trouble?? 

Thanks David! That means a lot coming from you!

Here's a quick reference design guide that breaks it down depending on what you want to do. solar.se.com/us/en/quick-reference-design-guide/ Lots of info on Schneiders website, but it does get a little complicated!

@@benssolarandbattery Thanks for that too! Somehow I missed that page.

The Schneider Conext 100/600 are the best MPPT for simplified installation and you can run 10 panels in series up to 600 watts each. Victron will keep sending code 33 in the winter when the voltage reach 251 volts and it won't charge the batteries until voltage drop below 250 volts.

I run the small 4048 to start my 1hp well pump & it does fine. But ive heard they have huge transformers in these things . Def feels it when you have to lift them up & hang them on the wall.

@@thhillbillyinventor105 Any idea your inrush current on your pump. Mine being 37a and 204v, I'm looking at approx 9000 watts to start. Don't think the 4048 can take that hit, but would save me A LOT if it does indeed work.

@@cgutowski471 With my current setup . The batteries trip before the inverter does . Max current the single Ufo can handle is 100 amp. My deep well pump is 1 hp. I tried it with my 2 hp pool pump and the batteries tripped . So I'm not really sure what the inverter can push on startup. I plan to test more when I get the other two batteries on it.

My Sol Ark 12k works fine with my 3/4hp deep (550’) 240v well pump., which has a pretty hefty surge load.

@@NeverTakeNoShortcuts That's awesome. Do you know the inrush amps of the pump. If more than 37a (~9000w) you may have me sold on Sol-Ark.

What’s the current system you came up with in lieu of Schneider?

I purchased a full house solar system in Oct 2020 from a solar installer with many years of experience with this system. The electronics were all from Schneider Electrical and included two inverters and charge controllers and associated equipment. After two years the system began to experience numerous failures to included getting stuck in a loop, cycling the power on to the house several times before resetting on a number of occasions. The system also frequently shut down requiring me to reboot the system with error codes that made no sense such as fused relays. The system finally completely failed. Despite numerous service calls from the installer over the space of a year and many wasted hours they were unable to get the system to work and would not continue to support it. I replaced the system with a Solar Arc 15. I have made numerous attempts to reach out to Schnider to address this problem and cannot get an answer from their customer support center. The phone rings for an hour and just disconnects. The system is still under the five-year warranty. I went with Schneider equipment with the belief that this established company would be a safe bet, instead it has turned into a living nightmare. I want to return the system to Schneider for a full refund. Since I wrote this several days ago and mailed them a copy they remain nonresponsive.

I'm working on it! Will be at least another couple weeks though, sorry.

@@benssolarandbattery I know it’s a spare time project for you. i just appreciate you taking the time to do this and record it so we can make fact based informed decisions.

Glad to hear it! Sounds like a great system you have there.

@@benssolarandbattery Yeah, that inverter was actually designed by Xantrex before Schneider Electric bought Xantrex. Schneider had some teething issues after they bought Xantrex that many people weren't happy with. Poor support (compared to what Xantrex used to be). They changed the firmware in the inverter to make it a 6848 without changing one single component in the chassis, and just updated the duty cycles compared to what the XW6048 is. I don't know how they managed to do it, but they screwed up the firmware update. We got tricked into buying their ComBox, which allowed firmware updates without the old gateway. Thankfully, since our 6048 was working fine I never upgraded the firmware to their buggy version. Then our ComBox quit working, but they discontinued that and went with Insight Home (or whatever they call it). No way we were gonna spend another $400 on that and since we had a SCP anyway I just threw the bricked ComBox in the garbage. So yeah, they had their share of problems after buying Xantrex. Hopefully they got it all in one pile now but I've heard their SW-series inverters have a high failure rate. The original Xantrex SW-series was designed by the guys at Trace (who later started up Midnite Solar). Those old Trace/SW inverters are regarded far and wide as one of the best off-grid inverters ever built by the human race, and there's many of them still in use after 30 years. Those are the same guys that designed the original XW before they left Xantrex and started up Midnite Solar. So the XW is not actually a Schneider Electric design.

I can hear mine through my garage wall too... I think it's normal?

No, they're definitely phasing them out.

@@benssolarandbattery Schneider def needs to have some of those accessories in the unit instead of having to buy so much extra. I use the 4048 & every little thing is an accessory to purchase .

Only one Conext-scp is needed for multiple units which is a better option to keep the price down.

From a different perspective it could be considered an advantage because you only need to get what you actually need. Although they should offer it preassembled.

I mean, the Sol-Ark definitely has the advantage there being only 1 piece. But as pointed out, you only buy what you need with the Schneider, and it's easily added on to.

Here is a channel that has a large multi Schneider system . 5th Journey Off-Grid Homestead

TY, i have watched almost all of their videos.

I'd assume the input breaker would trip if something in the inverter shorted to ground.

Yes, it's in there behind the boards. You should be able to find a cutaway picture somewhere on the internet.

I brought that up with one of their applications engineers and he agreed. Hopefully it will be sorted out soon.

I have the sw 4048 it works fine for ac coupling & solar edge . I think i have vids of me ac coupling with both of my mini splits going.

Yes, I will be AC coupling with it as well.

@@benssolarandbattery I wouldn't mind knowing your settings you use on your xw pro with the ac couple . I have about 5 kw but have to set my solar edge down when I ac couple my sw4048. Due to the grid forming inverter being a little to small

The Schneider has been doing really well. Haven't shut it down yet! The interface is clunky and sometimes you have to hit save multiple times to get it to save, but overall it's a much more solid inverter than Sol-Ark. Still no functional grid tied self-consumption mode, hopefully soon.

@@OldManLawrence I haven’t used a split phase on mine. This is my first build and it’s pretty simple. PV panels, Victron charge controllers, Battle Born Batteries, Victron inverter that goes to the grid panel. Connecting to the panel was over my head since this was my first system, and I barely understood putting it together. So I had an electrician connect to the panel. He had to completely rebuild my panel because it was a fire hazard, so many wires going everywhere in old fuses that were dangerous. Open ended wires that led nowhere. So when he rebuilt it, he just added two 50 amp breakers for solar connection. Using a small little shifter, so you couldn’t turn on the grid or you had to turn off the solar breakers in order to get the grid back on. In other words it was a switch that made sure you couldn’t make a mistake. Like I said when I first started I really didn’t know what I was doing, I just knew I wanted good components because I knew I didn’t know enough to fix a lot of issues that might come up. Mine is a 24 V system, which should be 48 V for a house. It’s probably a good thing it was 24 V, because I shocked myself numerous times. Always make sure you insulate your ground wires while using tools. 😜 I figure I’ll eventually upgrade to 48V when I get the money.

Hi Erica, I'm totally with you on the enphase battery. Cool tech, not there yet. I'm sure the 15k is great and checks all of the boxes but I have yet to install one. Install is surely simpler than Schneider. Schneider is still a very complicated product, but their tech support has improved by leaps and bounds along with their firmware.

@@benssolarandbattery For me, it's not about the tech with the enphase battery. Enphase dropped an update for their comms gateway that all but removed local access for those of us using home automation to control loads. It was a massive breach of trust. I spoke to their Chief network security officer, top engineer, and another of the top brass a few months ago. So far, they have not regained that trust. The second issue, and biggest deal-breaker for me, is the inverter being part of the battery. You size the inverter to your largest instantaneous load, and the batteries are sized for how long you need to carry that load. I live in NE Ohio, literally the 5th cloudiest place east of the Mississippi. I need a decent size inverter, but the biggest battery bank that is allowed by NFPA and my local AHJ. That just isn't possible with any of the all-in-one-box battery/inverter solutions.

I'll have to look up what you mean. I'm not well versed in this RU-vid thing yet... thanks Craig!

I believe max voltage is 600v. I'll have to double check the wire sizes... thanks for watching!

Yes, it is 600 volts for up to 10 panels in series which can be run with a minimum gage of 12awg and 15a breaker but 10awg are preferred or 8awg for long runs.

@@neliosamch3195 Sweet! This could work for the project 🌄 thank you!

@@meganwinters5163 If you buy only the MPPT you will need the Conext-SCP for setting it up otherwise the factory setting may not be the best for your batteries.

@@neliosamch3195 thank you again, so very much appreciated 👍

Thanks for the feedback! I'm looking into a good mic to keep it consistent.

They've definitely improved significantly in the last year. Like you can call them and they answer the phone immediately!

ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-z3U_Y0DIqZw.html

Transformer is in the back!

@@benssolarandbattery I'm leaning towards that brand...but....it'll be my first venture into this..and in wanna be grid tied...ugh

Sounds like an issue with your outback charge controller. I'd start by turning it off and back on again. There are plenty of facebook pages and forums that cover this kind of stuff.

Thanks @@benssolarandbattery

Is the XW still running? If it shut down, that would do it. As far as tech support goes, they may be be off for a few days or short staffed during the holidays like the rest of us. They've been good recently though.

@@benssolarandbattery can hear the inverter running when i turn the dc breaker on. Voltage present at inverter lugs . No lcds tho. Only the midnite classic mppt has lcd.. could this be a xanbus issue? Although the bts seems to work.

A little context here is PEG solar went bankrupt few years back which originally installed it. Customer has had a terrible time and bought new batteries and had my company install them @ crown supplied values. And schneider electricngot a very detailed list of voltages and values with pictures, only to tell me to take a video of me doing it.. im jumping threw hoops it seams on a discontinued xw from 2015

Hahaha! They should make those! I was attempting to not destroy my back...

@@benssolarandbattery You keep at that job and eventually you'll find yourself trying to figure out how to get socks on w/o bending over! Had a pole barn business in my 20's and 30's until I got smart..finished my degree at RPI and got a desk job in my old age..I still think age 36 was too late to get out of the trades because I still have disc issues in my back.Be careful..plan and think about your future health!

Haven't decided yet. I should have the Schneider up and running soon for testing.

I haven't had that problem yet. How long does it stay connected for? Have you checked the AC1 and charging amp settings?

It will be connected for days then all off a sudden one of the inverters will stay connected an the next will be dropping the connection on an off i just did a update on one of the sites today will run some test tomorrow an see what happens

@@bugzy2426 weird. I'd check all of your connections too.

Trust me i did only the pros do it all off the ones i have installed had the power company come out an make sure the Power coming was good an still do it

Sorry to hear that. What company was that?

Unfortunately, that kind of approach does seem to garner more attention than the alternative...

Only slightly cheaper if you get one comparable to a Sol-Ark 12k. That is including 2 charge controllers, the Mini PDP, Gateway, Breakers and AGS. Retail Sol-Ark is around $6900, that setup would be around $6500. I'm hoping better.

I'd highly recommend them for fully off grid DC coupled systems. The last few I've done have used them and are working well. The system I removed was an older one that was on grid AC coupled for backup only. Pair that with an early Evault, and it was glitchy at best.

@@benssolarandbattery sorry, Ben - I didn't see your response back to me. Hope You are doing great!