I think it would be hard to overstate just how valuable this video is for me and probably a large number of your viewers. The tests you've done are worth their weight in gold!

Hi @DavidPoz!!! Thank you for your video... in my modest opinion, you just set the record strait... you are an Off-Grider and what you want is the Best Off-Grid solution for your conditions... that's it!!! So the Sol-Ark 12K is an awesome inverter but is not what you need... crystal clear... you don't want to overpay for an inverter that does not fit your needs or not suitable for your specific conditions; so those 2 Growatts with the SolarEdge AutoTransformer are what you need... and you already tested them, therefore, they are it!!! I really appreciate that you took all that time and effort to clear up things... very honest gesture from your side!!! I'll definitively keep following your channel to see what other great videos you bring to us... Take care and stay safe!!!

David, thank you for taking the time to do a follow up video and give even more detail to your methods. As always your videos are awesome and very helpful!

Without a doubt, you are the gold standard for well-researched information backed up by live testing and experience. Thank-you for the excellent presentation and discussion. I learned a lot!

Kudos for keeping after it. I retired after 30 yrs as a facility electronics manager. I learned a long time ago, from the same kind of experience you just went through, that when the equipment I KNOW so well suddenly seem to misbehave after something NEW has been added I know to look at the NEW stuff. No problem, with your troubleshooting skills you got there. You'll remember that sucker forever. I'm sure the comments were pretty fierce. I choose to be grid tied, cheap backup for my welders and other monster loads. When that changes, I may go to some storage. Michael in Colorado.

David I did the same thing.. I bought the 12k and realized it does shut down when off grid but never when it is grid connected.. There are times where it will pull from the grid for a big load via passthrough to avoid shutting down.. I built it up in my mind too to be perfect to justify the price.

I have a Sok-ark 12k inverter installed in my house and I wasn’t aware of the 4500 watt limitation. Now I know what to look for in the event mine throws an ac overload error. I very much appreciate your effort in tracking down the problem.

Loved the previous video… don’t let the trolls get to you!

Professional installer here. You can stack these inverters in parallel, gives you 2x the power. I’ve seen sol-arks power complete houses with swimming pools and 5hp water pumps completely off-grid. They make a 15k version now for even larger loads. You need to do a load calc to give you a general idea before you plan out how many inverters you’ll need

Great video... No real surprises. I kinda figured these tests would go exactly as they did... Cool that you went ahead and made a video to display it all as well as the cost breakdown. All around good video for anyone watching. My situation is exactly like yours. I want to get rid of the grid at the cheapest cost.

I have watched your vids and others . All politeness aside for all the features the solark has it doesn't outperform some inverters that cost 1/2 the price🤨in some critical areas. People are experiencing this with normal household loads not tools.thats Solarks problem that they need to fix. Lastly if Momma aint happy aint nobody happy. Thx for all you do.

Good, honest, explanation of your previous video on the SA. I too, had the SA puffed up in my head as the top dog inverter, but with the price difference and great reviews, I had to go with a pair of GW’s like you. Hoping to get them operational in the next week or two. I appreciate the time and effort you put into these videos.

I'm so glad you took the time to post this. I was close to buying the 15k model which is superior to your 12k in many ways. But now I'm considering going to a Schneider inverter. I found another video where the sol ark 12k could barely handle a 6k continous load. That basically sucks. It also failed miserably at start up loads for motors such as well pumps and compressors. The Schneider was able to handle the loads. Based on price I can buy 2 Schneider for the price of 1 sol ark 15k. I will keep researching but I'm so glad I found this video because it helped me look at additional options.

Thanks for the update David. Happy holidays to all.

Man those little auto transformers are crazy cool. I put in two for my system just in case one fails, but that was a really interesting experiment. Also the Sol-Ark is UL listed which is a big deal for people who care about insurance companies covering in the event of a fire or something like that. UL Listed things are always more expensive than non listed parts (like the GW5KES), so people also need to think about that. Don't listen to people drinking that hateraide David, you are doing great. I love watching your program, it's one of my favorites on KZfaq.

Very in depth video. On a Shire note we have gone from a daily average shaded 5.5Kw Hr to Now Over 8.0Kw Hrs a day in the winter with the Tree's newly cut down. Our Panels are dismally angled still in a temp set up until further funds. The Battery does Top up full most days! I'm moving the entire AC Mains panel, Inverter and battery into a cubby once we fabricate the Shower room and kitchen! 14Kw 240v Water heater going in soon. I have the #6 AWG and the 60 amp 2 pole Breaker. We also located a 8 ft Galvanized grounding rod ($14). Excited to make those videos' soon. Once the Battery is in Place i pray to never ever move it again! She's a beast and we'll see how long it'll last! Winter #3.

I have 2 Sol-Ark 12Ks paralleled and I live totally off grid. All my heavy loads run off them. My well, my dryer, my ovens, etc. we got by with 1 12k for about a year and just upgraded to a second. For off grid, they’re awesome. I also have eight 130ah discover batteries and a 12kw solar system.

Hi David. Great video. I think there is an important takeaway from this experience. If you have a two-phase inverter with 9KW of total capacity, think that you do not have it. Actually, you have two inverters with a capacity of 4.5 KW each. And none of them can be overloaded. The same conclusion applies to a two-phase generator.

Very nicely done. I'm in a similar situation with northern sun in winter. Even adding battery's still requires a generator, which I can live with for now. Our grid is coop owned but still very expensive to connect to. Your critique of components helps me select and understand present technology available. Thank you for all you do here.

Great video. A lot of time and energy go into these videos and we appreciate your time.

I appreciated your findings and videos on this inverter - it certainly helped inform me for my all electric off-grid build before I encountered the same problems.

I am not sure how to put a picture on my comment. But the reality is that I have the growatt 5000es inverters. They are handling my power needs in awesome fashion. Of all the you tubers doing solar / power videos you are the most honest. I am extremely thankful that I saw your videos. I am also very happy that I teamed up with signature solar on my solar installation.

Thanks for taking the time, energy, and $$$ to share this info!

Thank You. We are building a new home and are going solar from the start. Your videos helped me understand issues I would have with the Sol-Arc. There are other videos out there showing similar problems with Sol-Arc. One guy shows trying to start a air compressor. We do wood working so these heavy loads are common but typically one at a time. We will probably have to have two inverters or one that handles startup loads better such as the XW-Pro. Thanks again

The total capacity of any multi phase system is the sum of each one of the phases maximum capacity. Your split system is not exempt to this rule. It is not about imbalance but individual capacity (the ampacity of the wires of each phase). The only solution for your case would be an auto transformer with twice the capacity of your inverter, this way it would supply 100% to a single phase, but never anything above that. The best solution is to split the loads equally between the two phases, which is not easy to control. Load imbalance can damage the transformer core.

Thanks Dave for your efforts on this video. I appreciate so much the information and testing it to it's limits....

There's so many hybrid inverters like the growatt you can find from china. The play is pretty much a 240v inverter and then the auto-transformer. It's always gonna be cheaper and more efficient to do that because split phase inverters are just not as powerful, given that they have basically 2 inverters working in series, so a surge in one phase will be soaked by only half of the inverter and give issues like you had with the Sol-Ark. While a plain 240v inverter with an auto-transformer will handle 100% surge without a problem and even more with the transformer, given that the transformer is sized appropiately. I'm currently building an inverter with retired wind turbine parts, to work without a boost stage, meaning a ~340vdc battery pack with a basic igbt full bridge. I already assembled the inverter portion just need to create a gate driver, because the IGBT's are so big that they can't be driven by off the shelf gate drivers. And then mate them with an EGS002. According to my calculations since they are 1700V 1400A igbt's it should handle over 300kW CONTINUOUS with a 380vdc bus. Though of course I have no intentions of consuming even 10% of that, but it's crazy numbers. It's been on the backburner cause of college but I really hope to finish it in the next few months. If I do get it up and running will deffo make a series about it.

Thanks for all the information! Your style of explaining is very understandable. I am a newby, and planning on a system soon. Still in research phase. Thanks again, Tony

Great video David. Thank you. I like how you said that you are aiming at going totally solar power off grid, not relying on a power company or other power systems. That to me makes sense to me. Cheers

Love your improvising work! That is how I made my solar boat. Already in use for 8 years. Next step wil be the house.

At the end of the day, this thing is designed as a hybrid, with AC passthru. Perfect for on grid with solar/ battery to reduce grid usage. It won’t overload because the grid will supplement the inverter. Running this off grid will result in hitting its inverter limits.

Great informative video. Really interesting and useful results using the autotransformer on a split phase inverter. Keep up the great videos.

David, You don't owe us an explanation. You did a GREAT JOB on the prequel. Glad for the additional content, but the 12K is a 9K, split phase. So only able to deliver 4500 watts per phase at a time befor overload. Kind of like getting GIGABIT symmetrical internet, but you can only use half the speed at any time.... Or a wifi router that claims the theoretical lab speeds, and then when you go to test it, you find out it's an irrelevant number that only exists In lab environments with some over exaggerated marketing claims.

I truly want to personally thank you for your hard work in all the details you've gone thru! it has changed my mind as well as I want to be electrical off grid and want fuel independence. and I too will be going with growatt!!-- Thank you David!! I was sooo much very sold on the solark and was totally planning on spending that much- but as you've shown I'm not gonna go out and spend money on extra petroleum based fed appliances which would add cost just to get what electric that I have in place and paid for- that money could be spent on a better inverter like growatt!!

Thank you for the follow-up video and adding much needed additional detail, as well as a nice test at the end! I hope that folks can see the difference between the two setups. It's a matter of what you want to do and how you want to do it, in the end. The Sol-Ark is a premium product that installs cleanly, likes to be grid-tied, has a long warranty and great customer support, whereas the Growatt setup is much cheaper but requires additional time and investment into setup, configuration, and is not appropriate for grid-tied applications.

I'm not anywhere near ready to take on a project such as this, but when/if I am, then I'll remember this video. Thanks!

Good work. I was convinced on the first video but this one really cemented my decision to go with Growatts. Thanks. Ultimately zero dependence on the Grid is key.

Thank you so much for posting David! We will be operating an RV 50 amp until the off grid small home is built and this is definitely great information to use because we are beyond the grid...

Dave, you're just so awesome in what you do. I was going to get a Solark 15K. But your video has me leaning towards 2 Growatts for my off grid system. Thx a lot

"Please allow me a minute to break down and cry." is what I was thinking you were going to say!

Thanks for taking the time to explain all of that.

Awesome analysis!! Thanks for the clear , easy to understand cost analysis! Might be doing something similar in Gilford NH

Great work David. Very comprehensive analysis!

Helpful video, thanks David. Clothes dryer solution: I purchased a Meile heat-pump dryer (some other brands offer the same technology) which runs on just 120v without a lot of draw. Amazing efficiency! A bit slower to dry, but works beautifully and does not use a vent to outdoors, so air leakage into the house is avoided (plus no dryer fluff clogging issues).

Your videos are very informative and very much appreciated. Thanks!

Another concept is if you experience excessive draw on your inverter, change appliances. I have natural gas, so first thing I did after moving in 2 decades ago was to replace the electric water heater and electric dryer with gas appliances. Motivated by the water heater failing, and installed a tankless gas in its place. Recently Installed a 6 kW inverter (EG4 6000XP) and about to commission. It powers a subpanel for one side of the house (kitchen, living room, garage). If the electric range proves a problem, I'll change to gas (wifey desires anyway). A similar idea is when I installed central heat/AC in my prior 1929 Atlanta house, I picked the smallest unit (1/2 ton), which pro's claimed "insufficient". Being an engineer, I calculated it would due to tree cover and insulation (blew R19 cellulose in walls, R30 attic). If it fell short, I could add more insulation (didn't need to).

3800 less AND it doesn't shut off with your loads. Nice informative video ,although I felt like you explained your situation well in the first one .

Thanks for this David. In your efficiency comparison you neglect to bring up that the pair of Growatt's will peak at around 15k watts before tripping and run constant at a full 10k watts where the Sol-Ark will trip at around 9k watts with 240v loads. The Sol Ark will trip at around 4500w on L1 or L2 whether it is used on grid or off grid. I had problems with the first few installations I did based on the false assumption that a Sol-Ark 12k actually produced 12k. I believe this false assumption made by myself and many other has finally led Sol-Ark to come out with their new 15k unit that is "supposed" to supply a full 15k, just like the older 8k inverter produces close to 8k. The downside to their 15k inverter is that it will be much more expensive and it is as yet unproven. It's supposedly a new design but it's still from the same Chinese factory that produces a number of other hybrid inverters. I think your testing says more about the Solar Edge center tap auto transformer than anything else. I have found that to be a very versatile piece of equipment that efficiently solves the issue that the European 240v inverters come with, i.e. no 120v or split phase. As a bit of clarification for energy consumption with the auto transformer it draws less as more load is applied to the system. Another interesting use for the auto transformer is to use it (or several of them) in place of the utility neutral for straight grid applications. High utility bills are exacerbated by 120v high consumption appliances. This can be reduced considerably by a balanced 240v load. Since the electrical meter doesn't know where the neutral is in the system, records the lower amperage and wattage of the 240v consumption. Overall a well done test. Thanks again for putting facts out there.

Liked both videos..... I wish Sol-Ark would make a version like the Growatts but keep their 120/240v like they have now.... Alot of people are looking at total off grid no generator etc..... I bought Victron but had to buy the charge controller and lynx to equal Sol-ark.....plus all that extra work in planning and install...... Glad you did this KZfaq to show the need for more efficient higher end in total off grid.......

Thanks for your honest review and keep it coming!

Thanks for the follow up video. Appreciate your channel and research.

David a great video. I'm presently building a 4.3kw off grid solar system for my barn/greenhouse. Once down I want to do the same for our house. Our house uses around 22kw/grs a day and is ALL electrical and its staying that way. My house design was using the solarark 12k unit. Buying 2 units is $$$$$. I think your system is more robust for the off-grid.

Great stuff... can't wait for your next test. Awesome

Huge amount of useful information. THANK YOU!!!

Exceptional Video - Really helps to develop realistic use-case expectations and this certainly helps me to decide what will be best for my requirements/installation. Thank You!

Thank you for the videos i too am looking to be completely off grid and i do like the Sol-Arks just wished they had an inverter for off grid only and with you showing the differences hopefully they will be watching

David thank you for the very in-depth explanation.

Great to add up the investment pieces! There is also more effort in extra wiring, which is hard to quantify.

Thank you for doing the autotransformer test!

You installer friend is so right. 30 years ago solar panels were 5 dollars a watt. I couldn't afford an all electric house, so propane was the answer. Thanks for all the hard work testing. I think the convenience of the SOK-ARK as a plug and play unit is why many installers are going to it. I think Growatt or a secondary supplier needs to come up with a companion power distribution box. If that happens Growatt can be the go to system.

Thank you for a very good video I think this could be the best video I’ve ever seen from you. I guess it was a lot of work to make it just to show us what and why it is like it is. I have just bought a growatt 5000 myself thanks to your videos and I have start to install it and it seems to be a very good product.

Thanks for taking the comments in stride and revisiting this video. Well done explaining your reasons and I agree it's not for everyone. I still have it on my wish list for when I go off grid as the simplicity of the one unit means more to me than the cost. And it's true with most off gridders being light loads on their power systems as they have not had the access to the power we do now. My calculated loads are going to be in the order of magnitude smaller for the most part than the 15K can provide but will be able to handle the future loads as well. My plan is also to have a garage with welders and big woodworking tools so that would be on a separate system but that is yet to be figured out as I don't have the tools figured out yet ;) thanks Again

Exelent video. I really appreciate the detail you go into.

Thanks for doing this video which provided me more information about these units.

For production usage of the Sol-Ark 12K, make sure you have sufficient horizontal clearance for the three fans on each side. My Sol-Ark's mounted outside (in a temperate climate) and the fans spin frequently, even on cooler days.

very well done, start to finish.

This is a perfect video. Clearly verifies the inverter was not designed properly. Investing into an auto transformer the top of that? I wish you had one more small load connected it would shut it off at 8000W. I appreciate it, I’m glad I’m not the only one who has problems with this unit.

ty you for sharing your experience ! Priceless.

Superbe explication direct et franche DAVID ! Merci et j'aborde parfaitement dans ton point de vu aussi bien financier que technique.

Thanks for showing a good cost anaylsis. The problem with the grow watt system is that it requires someone to set up all the stuff.

So I went reading through those comments also, the ATrans one stood out to me too because it made sense. Thanks for proving it out....Good info could help with someones system.

What i take from all this is how problematic having split-phase is, i am so glad here in Europe, we have 230v only.

Thank you for sharing this addition information. I will now have to go back and watch the other video. Haha. David I have enjoyed your videos for years and really enjoy your presentations. This was painful to see you need to explain how Sol-Ark is better for “some “ people.

Another awesome review. I think the SolArk is targeted at installers and diy folk who want to minimize install time and complexity. Still has a place in those markets, if cost is not a factor.

🤔 Perhaps incorporating a SPAN smart panel would allow more precise programming, monitoring, and control. It would save you the laborious manual troubleshooting. Increasing the capacity of the system and balancing the phase loads should allow operation with less challenging of the differential load limits and would increase reliability. A discussion of EMP resistance would be useful. 😎

David both videos helped me to understand the limitations. Someone tried to explain it to me with a different hybrid inverter but it wasn’t clear. I didn’t end up buying that inverter as a result. I am currently using Schneider conext 4024 120/240 split phase and I can run full loads on one leg only. It runs my 12,000 btu a/c perfectly ( for over four years) with other loads. I was expecting that with some of these significantly higher priced inverters as well. I am currently thinking of upgrading but I might just go for the Schneider 6848 Pro . It is much cheaper, it is also stackable and can easily work off grid at full load with no issues. I am aware that I will have to add an additional charge controller and do more wiring.

Being candid about mistakes will halp everyone. Thank you. I try to do the same for others.

David, you don't owe anyone shit. Your last video was excellent.

With all those inverters around you ,I I'm jealous , great presentation's

Follow up the growatt, sometime, that would be great too. Thanks again.👍

Very helpful explanations.

Good follow-up, thank you for sharing!

Awesome video, great detail well presented to the non-technical consumer. Bottom line minus the legalize the sol-ark is not labeled as a "Consumer" would expect.

I appreciate your enthusiasm in promoting off grid power generation and your videos have been informative. I think you will agree that the internet is full of solar energy offers that are rip-offs. The off grid community is growing but I would suggest that the overwhelming number of people looking at solar energy as a way of reducing their energy cost are not technically minded enough to do what you do. You correctly stated that Sol-Ark is not the inverter for your situation. The "power wall" with solar options and grid back up is probably going to be ideal for most people (turn key, with minimal monitoring and full house loads). I think that Sol-Ark is a company that could do that. I am a subscriber and enjoy your videos keep up the good work.

Truly great content here. Thank you! For a city cat like me the Sol-Ark is gonna perform great, but I will have to be careful about a couple of large loads to avoid knocking it offline.

Of course now everything you priced with the Growatt configuration, is at least $4000+, but great analysis and explanation. Very educational. I could not afford a SolArk regardless, but ultimately went with 2 x EG4 6500EX-48 (which I have not received yet).

Thanks David another informative video, please can you test an air con unit without and with a soft starter, so that we can see how the Solark inverter handles the inrush current? Stay safe and compliments of the season to you.

Thank you for showing and explaining your experience with the off grid experience and capabilities of the inverter. I was assuming the same thing you had inically on the off grid capability being similar to the ongrid setup. Will help on design of system.

slight correction to your assessment... for Grid tied systems, (not necesarily grid FEED systems) Solark does not just drive the critical loads panel. It drives the main panel as well, unless the grid shuts down. So even if you don't want to feed excess power from PV to the grid, Solark still will take care of all your panels, and heavy loads too - IF you are grid tied - for those overload situations. So in affect you have trouble free PV with the occasional, as needed support of the grid.

Right on spot no fossil fuels or connection to grid. Keep up the good work Off grid .

Regardless of what inverter you have there is a big advantage to adding current monitoring that shuts off water heater/clothes drier/oven in stages just before overload. Then when load goes down they automatically turn on again. Saves you from constantly watching loads and circuit breakers.

Awesome video! Great lesson learned. Call Sol-Ark support! Maybe you should have called the Engineers at Sol-Ark from the beginning and you could of save a lot of trouble.

Hi David, I am in the process of having solar installed and the installer provided a Sol-Ark 12k. I am very grateful for your review and it has given me a chance to think about future installation. At this time I am grid connected and will remain so until a later date, so I think that the grid tied functions will be a big benefit. I have to deal with the utility as well and that affects the equipment options that I can install which is a point that wasn't discussed. Thank you for all you do, it is much appreciated.

Great story David! Thanks!

I use a Magnum 44/48 split phase inverter. No problem to date. Doesn’t seem to have a problem with imbalanced loads. Just don’t go over 2200 watts on any one phase. I have a full time pressurized water system, full time electric refrigerator, when needed I run the dishwasher (not HE) and the clothes washer(is an HE).Both run the water pump. I have solar hot water, something I would recommend to anyone who wants to live off grid. For a whole year I cooked all my food with electric appliances. When needed I run a variety of 15 amp portable power tools such as a ten inch Bosch table saw, a DeWalt 13 in planer, a 12 in Porter Cable miter saw and a host of high amp wood routers. I’ve been off grid for twenty years. I’ve learned to work with the cycles of the sun. Fact is if you’re going to live like your grid connected your going to have to beef up your system. And learn to work with the sun. However it seems you’re determined to find a way to make your system work. I wish you all the best.

Great follow up video ... I might add that with TWO growatts, there's the additional safety of having two units if one should fail especially since you're offgrid (albeit with half the available power). If the Solark should fail in an offgrid situtation, it could be catastrophic if no backup system is available. I myself have two MPP Solar 5048 AIO's for our offgrid solar system just for that scenario. Thanks David

very informative and appreciated

An advantage of having 2 Growatts is that you will have one still working if one fails, which is critical if you are off-grid. Obviously, you won't have all your usual circuits (including 240 volt) but something is better than a no power if the Sol=Ark fails. Also, I prefer to have all the breakers separate from inverters, so you can remove and refit it without any live wires. I live in Australia and we don't have any split phase issues here, as everything runs on 240 volt. 🙂

Great comparison video!

Thanks for this interesting video. I'm pretty happy being in Europe with single phase 230V! My SMA Sunny Island is great for my hybrid needs and will also work when I go off-grid. But I might need a second one at that point. Decisions, decisions...