Hi Carl,
The home 0.2 miles away in my subdivision has an Enphase system with the
following specs.
DC system size: 6.32 KW
AC system size: 4.64 KW
Module Type (must be the panels as he has 16 panels roof mounted): 16
QCells. Q peak duo BLK ML-G10+395
Inverters: IQ8Plus-72-2-US
Today I took my portable flag with DX Engineering Preamp and my laptop SDR
receiver system and made measurements out on the sidewalk in front of the
home. I definitely am detecting a rise in the noise floor on 80, 40, 30,
20, 15, and 10 meters when pointed at the house and 30 meters was so
obvious that I made a few quick measurements on 30 meters from the back
property line of the home to make sure the noise still peaked when pointed
at the house as I was able to be on “common property”owned by the HOA (HOA
retention pond grounds).
I can’t tell you that the solar system is the source of RFI but I can tell
you that I easily detected a typical 5 to 8 dB increase in my noise floor
when pointed at the house. The rise in the noise floor looks like white
noise in the RF spectrum in which there is no specific repeating bands like
you might see from the harmonics of the carrier on a variable frequency
drive, etc, I just observed an overall rise in the noise floor (when
looking at 2 MHz of spectrum at a time as an example.
In the demodulated AM audio spectrum waterfall there is evidence of some
60, 120 Hz, etc components but there are so many other sources of that so
can’t be sure about them but will go back and study my recordings in more
detail next week when I get a little spare time.
I would need to go back there after sunset to see if things change (kind of
dangerous) but at least you have some feedback from me that you should at
least be suspicious about needing a contract that stipulates they will
address any rise in noise floor that you might experience and to use all
available technology/best practices to minimize potential RFI.
All measurements were made today around 11am EDT on an absolutely sunny day
with no shade on the panels.
Unfortunately the homeowner is not cooperative so I can’t get as much data
as I would like in order to prove the source of the noise. He even came
home today while I was having a great conversation with his neighbor and he
drove into his garage and closed it without saying hi even after I told him
yesterday via text messaging to say hi if he saw me out there today. I
don’t think he will ever warm up to me and we are both at fault based on
some past unfortunate circumstances (first time involved our dogs, second
time involved my asking his solar installer some questions directly that he
thought was in a threatening manner and without his permission and I
probably should have handled it differently). Just another learning
experience.
Hope this helps, and I will also load a video onto YouTube for you next
week to show you what the rise in noise floor looks like.
Don wd8dsb
On Thu, May 25, 2023 at 2:22 PM Carl Foster <carlfoster@cactuscomm.net>
wrote:
> I told the solar salesmen selling Solar Edge to pound sand and
> never return. Another salesman came by and had a low-pressure
> approach. His company uses Enphase inverters and distribution
> equipment. Has anyone had experience with Enphase?
>
> The installation company is Genesis Power Solutions.
>
> Both companies appear legitimate.
>
> Carl KB7AZ
>
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