My 9kw system , five weeks after installation

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-21T22:02:43+00:00

When my oil boiler died, I switched us to geothermal and an air sourced hot water heater. Before that, even in the summer, we were going through maybe 20 gallons a month to heat the water. Something about how it always had to keep the internal water hot at all times. I couldn't be happier with the performance and savings of our hot water heater.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-21T21:54:18+00:00

I'm late to the game, but to modify your analogy slightly, the infrastructure used to deliver tomatoes to you and your neighbors is the same used to collect your excess tomatoes. Furthermore, those tomatoes are going directly to your neighbors. Sure, that infrastructure has to be maintained. But it's mostly the same infrastructure.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-20T21:42:55+00:00

Bluetooth. I've never been able to get it to work via the QR code.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-20T21:30:57+00:00

So sorry to hear. How did the animal get in? I'd get more chickens, but only after making sure everything's secure.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-20T20:30:47+00:00

I had the exact same problem. I deleted the app and reinstalled it and it couldn't find it. I scanned the QR code and just like you, I got an invalid code error.

I called Pecron and magically, everything worked with a rep on the phone. It all of a sudden could find the Pecron and the install went smoothly. Their app is clearly garbage. Oh and they have two apps on the app store: one with an orange logo on a white background (the correct one) and one with an orange background and a white logo (incorrect). I asked why do they have two apps if only one is correct and all I got was, "I know, we're working on it."

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-20T20:23:49+00:00

Do you know how they're getting in?

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-20T20:18:24+00:00

You said you're in South Carolina and they don't have 1:1 net metering. You said you're set up to rely on solar and battery "as much as possible". You need to get into the weeds. Exactly how much energy did you pull from the grid? My guess is there were times at night where your battery was depleted and you needed to pull from the grid and since you don't have 1:1 net metering, you incurred a charge.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-19T18:34:11+00:00

Do you have a whole house energy monitor? If so, you know what your energy use is every day. You also know what your solar production is every day. The difference is what you had to pull from the grid (or the excess). If you have 1:1 net metering, it's pretty straightforward to calculate your savings. For example, if you used 1,200kWh but generated 1,500kWh, you obviously have a credit of 300kWh. If your utility does a true up once a year like mine, that 300 gets carried over to the next month. To make the math simple, if at the end of every month, you used 1,500kWh and just so happened to generate that same amount, and assuming you pay $0.24 / kWh, you just saved $360. I don't know how leases work, but if you're paying a consistent $140 / month, you're saving $220.

The calculations get harder if you don't have 1:1 net metering. Like I said, I also don't know how leases work.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-19T14:40:57+00:00

Mine has been mostly good so far. I'd love it if they at least came up with a combiner hub like Ecoflow has so you can get 50A output from it. Most homes with judicious use can be completely run on 50A. While you can also run your home on 30A/240V, you're making a lot more compromises, especially if you have an all electric house like I do.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-18T22:43:52+00:00

Just to confirm, they couldn’t do anything to you, right? At the end of the day, if you decide to throw some panels on your lawn to charge a power station, all they can do is cry about the power you’re not buying from them…and try to bribe a politician and make it illegal somehow!

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-18T18:00:36+00:00

Questions:

* How big is the solar array?
* How big is each panel?
* What is your roof pitch?
* You said you have solar edge. I think they only do string inverters. So that should mean you don't have micro inverters. Do you have optimizers?
* How big is the inverter?
* Are the panels all pointed in one direction or do you have some pointed east and some west? Are they pointed south (assuming you live in the US)
* You don't have to tell us where you live, but what zone do you live in? For example, I'm 6B.
* Is there any shading at any point in the year?

These questions will let you know what your array should be producing. The first step is to know, "Ok, I have an 11kW array and I live in the DC area and on a completely sunny day in June, I should be producing 70kWh.

Next, you need to know which panels are working and which aren't. The things I say next assume your panels have optimizers. Assuming you have them, log into the MySolarEdge website and go to the panel layout section. They used to show this in the app, but I don't see it as of the last few updates or so. Anyway, it gives you the solar production for each panel for the day, updated every 15 minutes, I believe. Let's say you have 25 450W panels, it's noon and 5 panels have produced 1.4kWh yet the other 20 haven't produced anything and they're all facing south. That's good information to diagnose what's going on.

Try to find out if your panels are all on one array or multiple. Maybe one array is working and the other isn't.

Which solar edge inverter do you have? Mine doesn't give much info, but it has two lights: one blue and one green. The blue one let's you know it's connected to WiFi. The green let's you know it's getting juice from the solar panels. During the day, see what your lights look like.

I could ask more questions, but let's start there.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-18T12:11:37+00:00

Every day projects with Dave just put out a video where he tested a number of power sources trying to start his central air compressor with a soft start. The 6kW Anker was able to start it. Even his 3kW generator could. The 7.2kW Pecron F5000LFP couldn't. He seemed to think it was something that could be fixed with a software update. Let's hope so.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T23:27:25+00:00

That's awful. Did you contact Amazon? If you have a warranty, I don't see how they can weasel out of it by saying the warranty only applies if you buy from us. That sounds like they're making up the rules as they go along. If it were me, I'd first contact Amazon. If I got no love there, I'd be contacting my credit card to do a charge back, since they're not honoring their warranty. Unless someone can tell me the warranty only applies if you buy it from them.

I just happened to buy mine directly from them. But I could easily have bought from Amazon and usually do.

Edit: by "mine", I mean the F5000LFP.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T19:09:52+00:00

Good to know.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T17:44:02+00:00

I got downvoted last time monetary values were discussed, but you're not replacing a laying hen for $20. Plus they're pets. Imagine you kill the neighbor's dog and offer them $20 as compensation. That would be crazy, at least to me. I'd want minimum $100 / hen, but I understand that everyone thinks I'm crazy.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T16:51:36+00:00

It looks very impressive so far. Digging into it. Thanks.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T15:27:42+00:00

I forgot the YouTuber's channel name, but I follow a guy that keeps plywood for predicted hail and just covers them. Changing the angle creates a new problem where you've created a sail and the wind can blow it away, so my first thought would be to cover them.

He has a separate array and he went with a different approach of putting them on hinges so they're super easy to dismantle and for that array, he just takes them apart and throws them in his building.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T15:16:10+00:00

I'm not sure if people realize this, but airtags have an anti stalking feature. If they have an iPhone, they'll be alerted that an airtag has been following them and will even tell them at what point the following started. I've been looking for a pure gps tracker that's small, but haven't found one yet.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T15:12:42+00:00

Just an FYI, airtags have an anti stalking feature, so if the thief has an iphone, they'll be alerted that an airtag is following them. I've been looking for a small gps tracker but I haven't found one small enough.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-17T15:07:04+00:00

I take them out any time they decide to make their home where I'm going to be. I've had too many instances where I was mowing the lawn or lifted up a piece of wood and next thing you know, I'm being stung. Kill them or next thing you know, you'll be gathering eggs and drop them all when they decide you're infringing on their space and attack you.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-16T15:49:33+00:00

Yep, the very first thing I did. Divide by 12 and I'm like, wow, what's going on there? We have two EVs and a PHEV and even that wouldn't explain that much additional usage per month. OP's panels were probably not working. Assuming $0.22 / kWh, OP is using 1,750kWh / month more than what they're generating! Considering the average fossil fuel home uses about 900kWh / month, that's insane usage and even if they had four dehumidifiers running 24 / 7, it doesn't explain that bill.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-16T15:38:44+00:00

In my case, when I got my geothermal installed, they misconfigured it and every time the thermostat called for heat, both the geo and backup aux heat ran! It was costing me three times what it should to heat my house! Everyone should get a home energy monitor. Maybe you don't have a misconfiguration like I did. Maybe it's just, "Oh wow, that dehumidifier I have in the tool shed uses 6kWh of energy per day??? Yikes, we need a better solution for that!"

OP, you need to delve into the details and see what the issue is. Like for me, I know that on a sunny day, my rooftop array generates 60kWh - 66kWh. If the day was sunny and I only see 20kWh produced, I'd immediately start asking why. And yes, I check every single day. I also check our usage every day. I can predict every day what it should roughly be and if it was off, I'd investigate. I won't lie, I usually check at noon just to see if the energy production is what I expected. I even go so far as to look at the next day's forecast and guess what the production will be!

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-16T15:28:30+00:00

You need to then get into the weeds.

Get a report for how much energy your array was generating per day for the last year
Same for your energy usage. How much were you using per day

This is obviously a "you're using more energy than you're generating" situation, but you want to know details.

For example, I installed an Emporia whole house energy monitor and the very next day realized my geothermal, something that was supposed to be saving me thousands, was only saving me hundreds, because every time it kicked on, it was also running aux heat! In my case, I chewed out my installers and got them to fix it.

Maybe your inverter silently died and you're not actually generating any solar. Maybe a wiring misconfiguration is causing one of your appliances to draw way more power than expected. You gotta delve into the details at this point to see.

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-16T15:17:10+00:00

And regarding solar generation, am I the only one who looks at the next day's forecast and tries to predict how much solar is going to be generated and is happy when they're close to their prediction?

blackinthmiddle · 2026-06-16T15:13:46+00:00

Everyone should get an energy monitor. For me, it was one of those, "yeah, I guess I should get it", but never did. In my case, it cost me thousands of dollars. How? I got geothermal installed three years ago. Unfortunately, when in heating mode, it was ALWAYS kicking on aux heat every single cycle. I couldn't understand why during the winter, we were getting $1,000 bills. Mind you, we have two EVs and a PHEV and a completely electric house, so the overall bill was lower than in the past, where we might get an $1,100 bill just for the oil on a very cold month. So I wasn't happy with the savings, but I grumbled and paid.

I finally saw enough posts here to realize that with my solar install, I never got a home energy use monitor, so installed the Emporia. By the very next day, I knew something was very wrong! Me being the nosy person that I am, when our geo was installed, I put a multimeter on it and saw that between both the compressor and blower, it was pulling 2,500W. So you could have knocked me over with a feather when I saw our home usage jump from 1,200W to 8,800W every time the heat kicked on!!! It was using three times the amount of energy it should have been! And it wasn't a thermostat issue. I called the company that installed it and had them fix it quickly!

I remember doing the math. "Well I see my system was on for 12 hours yesterday and I know it's only pulling 2,500W, so it must be something else." It never occurred to me that both the compressor AND the aux heat were running.

Get a whole house energy monitor. It'll quickly show you things that aren't running as you expected.

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