I did not know about the “upgrade junction box”. I have two EP500s and the Smart Home Panel, but I have not installed the panel yet. Can I use the original panel as-is, or do I need the upgrade junction box?
I believe if you ordered the Smart Home Panel after February 2022, you’ll have the modified panel already. Just check out the manual linked in above post, and verify that you have the junction box shown in figure 2.4. If that’s missing, I would contact support.
Success. After splicing the wire to green junction box and connecting the main grid neutral, everything is working fine, both EP500s in split phase and UPS mode. Tested on well pump (biggest surge draw) and was fine. Thanks for the help, PowerMat.
Update: After 3 days of normal use in split phase and UPS mode, this morning the units cut AC output with the same errors: 11 H-Bus Voltage high and 12 Bus Voltage high, on the master unit (the slave unit only displayed communication errors and phase integration errors). I restarted both and reconnected and it was fine again, but 5 hours later, it happened again. Not sure what caused it after 3 days of working fine. No extra loads, nothing else changed. I will be contacting support again.
I just wanted to give an update on this. I’ve been running successfully with Smart Home Panel Installed for about a month now. Initially, there were some issues with 08 OCP, but replacement has been running fine now.
I also have a few solar panels hooked up to these units, and run them with Custom UPS mode, discarge them for a few hours a day during peak sun exposure. I have it timed/setup to charge back up (I aim for ~90%) before the sun sets again.
Overall, I’m pretty happy with the Smart Home Panel and the EP500Pros thus far. I do wish there was also a simpler mode for triggering the inverter to just on/off, and it could be triggered via bluetooth so I could automate this based on battery level and sun conditions for the day.
Hi PowerMat,
Thank you for providing an update on EP500Pro with Smart Home Panel. I have not purchased the product yet, however, will do so soon. What appliances do you run on the set up? I would like to run home appliances AND central A/C and central gas heater for a few hours?
Marilee
@marilee-972 I wouldn’t count on running central A/C, maybe the central gas heater would work, but I wouldn’t recommend it.
You only have 6,000w (3,000 watts per leg) on 240v, so you must try to balance your loads if you are going to cut it close to the limit. If you go over the limit, then everything goes off. Initially, I had my microwave and coffee maker on the same leg (along with some other loads) and that happened. I finally rearranged loads after that and just run the “critical loads” that I don’t want powered off with short grid outages now.
If the outage runs longer than I expect, I would fire up my gas generator and run the house – including central A/C, gas heaters as well as charge up the EP500Ps from that. After testing that scenario, everything seems good. You’ll have to manage your expectations on the loads that would be powered
PowerMat-
I appreciate your feedback. Thank you very much.