After receiving a retrofit solution for inverters from Deye, numerous users of balcony power plants complained about problems with the devices. In addition to complex commissioning, there are cases in which the inverter fails completely after one or two days of operation and no longer supplies electricity. Deye is currently trying to fix the problem with interventions and firmware updates.
The retrofit solution, an external relay box, is required because some Deye inverters lack the relay for protective shutdown, even though the certification requires this. The relay is intended to prevent current from being present at the contacts of the inverter when it is unplugged from the socket. According to the manufacturer, all already installed Deye microinverters SUN-M(60-100)G3-EU-Q0 and SUN (300-1000) G3-EU-230 must be retrofitted with so-called NA protection devices.
WiFi connection required
The device is plugged in between the inverter and the house network. You connect for commissioning according to instructions via WLAN with the protection device. After a successful connection, the device updates the inverter’s firmware.
The necessary measures appear to pose major problems for some users, as reports in internet forums suggest. On the other hand, initial users of the retrofit solution note that the combination of inverter and NA protection device works according to the manufacturer’s instructions when commissioned. However, in my opinion, the number of retrofit solutions that have been successfully put into operation so far is manageable. The manufacturer only started shipping the relay boxes a few days ago.
Inverter “dead” after two days
An example: I was contacted at the beginning of September an owner of a Deye SUN600G3-EU-230 inverter, the retrofitting of which had probably gone quite wrong. The commissioning worked according to the manufacturer’s instructions, but after two days the inverter of the balcony solar system in question malfunctioned and the corresponding LED only lit up red.
Reconstruction without success
Dismantling the NA protection solution was unsuccessful, and Deye support did not respond to a request from the person affected. In order to find out whether this is an unfortunate isolated incident or a problem in the series, I published the matter on my blog.
Shortly afterwards, there were numerous comments that wanted to negate problems with Deye SUN600G3-EU-230 inverters and the NA protection device and attributed errors to incorrect commissioning. That felt like “It must not be what cannot be” on and was stopped.
Other affected people reported the error pattern outlined above, where the inverter was permanently malfunctioning even after the NA protective box was dismantled. Only for a few affected people does the inverter work again without the NA protection box. This indicates a problem in connection with the retrofit solution, which does not affect all owners of the Deye SUN600G3-EU-230 inverter and, in the event of an error, can lead to a permanent malfunction in the device.