Richard B

I appreciate your comprehensive review. I am awaiting the arrival of my 5kW S6 unit (the 6kW's are out of stock until mid-Aug). A friend visiting from the UK says the majority of his installs are Solis, so it's clearly a decent market player overseas too. (The S6 hasn't properly landed in the UK yet, they're still mostly using the S5). What won me over were the PV specs as I had already purchased 550W Canadian panels which, at 13.2A, are on or slightly above the Sunsynk's capabilities. In addition, Solis alleges to have better warranty handling than Sunsynk (which apparently has an 8-week turnaround), whereas Solis SA will swap your unit out. I wonder whether it's reasonable to wall-mount an Android tablet somewhere to make up for the missing touchscreen... might give that a try (assuming I don't also get locked out of the Bluetooth comms).

This is what Steve said too, so if I really want the strong silent type I could go for 2x 5kW S6Pro's and it would work out to cost marginally more than an 8kW Sunsynk and be future proof.... hmmm...

I was set on getting myself the 8kW Sunsynk and mitigating the fan noise by implementing @BrettB's silence hack . However, on the generous advice of Steve @ PF I am now considering the Solis S6 Pro 8kW as it will handle my Canadian 550w's better, and has faster turnaround times in the case of a warranty issue. It looks like it can meet my needs regarding setup, scheduling and interaction with home automation. Does anybody have experience with these, specifically around the fan noise? I have to install it in my passage so don't want it to be humming and whining in the middle of the night.

@shifttymike have you reached consensus on the positioning of E/L prior+post inverter, and on the sharing of Neutral from Grid In and Inverter Out, or alternatively keeping them separated and bonding Inverter Out Neutral to Earth? Those are the only questions left for me in my own similar scenario... I too have a pure sine wave 850VA hybrid inverter, which plugs into grid with a standard appliance plug. Have you built your system yet, or has your design strategy changed?

Thanks Scorp007, I will check out the Luminous as well. My supplier said that I can also try switching on both "UPS Mode" and "Hybrid Mode" at the same time which should give me the behaviour that I want. I'd like to set up some logging of the incoming PV DC supply and the DC line to and from my 12v Battery, to log both current and voltage, as well as logging the Incoming AC from grid mains and outgoing AC from inverter, so I can get a proper understanding of the different modes... I can then select the ones which give me the best balance between green energy and backup reserve - I might not be able to have both my cake and eat it though... Will post my results here once I've bought all the logging gear and got it rigged up.

Hi all, I'm new to the forum, so hopefully I'm posting in the right topic... I've just purchased a Chadha Power 850VA / 600W Hybrid inverter 12V. The unit came with a tiny booklet outlining the wiring setup, and operating buttons and LCD display, but there isn't much in the way of operation logic. It is my very first "intelligent" inverter so perhaps the concepts are self-explanatory to the seasoned backup power person. I've attached the Datasheet - there doesn't seem to be much info on Google. It seems to be a white-label of the Exide 850VA Solar Hybrid Inverter. Does anybody have experience with using this product line? It has two settings which can be switched On or Off, namely "Hybrid mode" and "UPS mode", so with those two settings there are essentially 4 different combinations of "modes" I guess. My setup is really simple: 1x75w + 1x140w 18v panels wired in parallel into the inverter 1x105Ah 12 deep cycle battery AC input from grid mains multiplug from inverter for AC Load items (Laptop, lamp, phone chargers) I would like to understand how the hybrid inverter operates with the different modes and combinations of the two settings. Ultimately I would probably like: the battery to remain charged by Solar when available, and AC charger when no Solar is present. the Load to be supplied from the Solar when battery is fully charged unless Solar is not present, then from AC mains input and when neither are present then from battery until battery voltage gets too low Hopefully the above makes sense? many thanks Richard D1546729031.pdf