Growatt SPF 5000 ES Review after 18 months - Should you buy?

growatt spf 5000 es review after 18 months and should you u buy it? I will be giving you my updated review of the growatt inverter after 1.5 years of use.

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[lawotschkin]

I am also running 2 of them since January - super happy - the mobile app could be a bit more user friendly .. but they run absolutely stable - have 12.5kwh battery and 4.8kwp panels - which is enough in sunny South Africa to 'almost' keep us off the grid

[Rleeknives]

I have been running one for over a year now and use it for our water well system on our farm that consists of one 240v 3hp deep well pump thats at around 550' deep that pumps into a holding tank and one 240v 1hp pump that feed 3 homes and animals in the pasture. After the install we noticed we had more power available than what we consumed since the deep well pump only runs every other day for 45 minutes so we added a 18k btu mini split ac to the living room for daytime use and it has worked out very well so far and thats with Texas heat. We just recently add one more inverter this past week and have only had a few issues with each running different software I think, i have not yet reached out to signaturesolar for their opinion on the matter but will in the next few day. Only other problem we are having is with the growatt transformer when grid power is connected making the inverter show no power is being used to loads but when disconnected it works as it should. All of this is connected to 5 eg4 batteries for storage. The hardest and most important thing to get right with these growatt inverters are supplying proper grounds and neutrals safely and im sure as you know it has been one big debate after another. I would love to see a detailed wiring diagram drawn out of your setup if you would be willing to into that much detail.

[showme]

I have 2 each running its own independant circuits to the house and each one has a LFP04 battery bank a 21kWh and a 10.5kWh and they have been working just fine. I also use the Solarassistant to monitor and adjust what ever I want in real time, which is just fantastic. They are so cheap I even bought one as a backup Inverter its still in its box.

[justaguy-]

i'm getting ready to buy one in the philippines, we use 220-240 here, single phase, so going with a 48v - 220 is what i need with no transformer or wiring it to 110-120v. i'll start with one inverter and 4- 550w jinko panels to get my 150v required to start it up and run it, and 2 100ah 24v lifepo batteries.
later i can add more panels and batteries as i see the need. my house is only 1024sq ft. and we live pretty simple, i may not need more. its mostly the frequent power outages we have weekly or monthly for an hour or 10 that moved me in this direction, plus if we get a good typhoon we may have no power for 3-5 days !

[bellobadamasi]

Very reliable hybrid inverter, I have been using it since May 2021 and apart from the software upgrade issue I had, which was quickly solved, never any serious issue noted. However, without making comparison with any specific inverter, may I request the noise from the fan be reduced. Otherwise, the SPF 5000 ES inverter is great & sleek.❤

[xpressivemusic]

thank you for this video, I am considering getting 2 of these

[dc]

I have 2 Growatt 5000 us version from signature solar. I have my display to auto off to save screens. Only issue I have had is the wifi dongle with servers. I think it was server issue so I couldn't pull up webpage. Sounds like you need 1 more inverter so you can handle all the loads. I am also thinking about a generator and removing grid since I I still get a bill when I do not use anything from grid.

[secondadventmessengerminis]

Hello Rodney, thanks for the update. I have basically the same system as you do. We have 15.8 kwh in panels and all three of our inverters are connected. We use propane to cook, dry clothes, heat our water and heat our home (only as a back up to firewood). We have no young children. We just installed our system in mid November 2023 and have had a problem with our ES5000’s not switching over to charging the batteries in the morning every 3-4 days. We’re awaiting three replacements. My question is, how has using you A/C effected you inverters?

Thanks,

Maranatha

[amio_roseto]

Great video, thanks for sharing, question, did u us the transformer to split to 120V ? or looking today you will get another inverter like EG4 or MPP ?

[alaskacanoe]

Rodney I have 5 of the ES5000, 5 of the EG batteries and 42each 360 watt PF panels. not hooked up yet, did you do your panels in series or parallel ? Nice job on your videos

[nutterknoll]

Hi Rodney. Just found your channel, with this video. You do a good, informative vid. Well done!
I've had 2 of those inverters for over a year now, (not installed). I'm still hanging off on purchasing batteries, as I'm still searching for "the" most suitable ones, plus, we have a wedding to host in the very near future...which is a financial unknown.
What I would like to know is : are your inverters linked together, (communicating), or do you run them individually - stand alone, with their own battery banks? My understanding is that, say 3 inverters linked together means you still only have 5kW output. Run them individually & you have 15kW output, but you need to output to 3 different lines of your house. Is this correct?

[dadpng]

Thanks for the review after a long period of time. I don't see many of those!

I appreciate your fully off-grid approach. Have you (or any other viewers) found an effective way to charge your batteries at specific times (cheap grid rates) without using the built-in chargers? What equipment do you use?

[canjoe]

What is the max solar input into the inverter on a perfect day? The reason I asked is because I currently have 10 kw solar feeding into 2 inverters but the max power I get from each array into the inverters is around 2.7 kw max while they are 2 5 k arrays. I’d like to move to growatt

[queen]

Thanks for this review. We have most all of this equipment waiting for it too cool off to assemble the solar outside. In NC and it is hot!

Do you have any diagrams for your wiring? We have 3 growatts 5000spf ES, 6 x EG4 server rack battery.
What is the size of your home? Are your large appliances electric?

[lnostdal]

I switched to a dryer that uses a heatpump. Massive reduction in load. I have the same inverter. :)

[Doubleolseven]

How did you configure the priority (solar/battery/grid) for parallel? I have same two inverters in parallel. The only difference in setup is that the master (no solar) is set SBU (solar/battery/utility) and the slave (4kW solar) is SUB. This is the only way I could get them to share the load 50-50.

[vdeligma]

Hi Rodney i have a question growatt spf 5000 5.7 kw solar panels set up and plenty of sunshine. Is there a limit technically how many kWh battery i can use for the system to run. Generator charging possible. thanks

[MichaelBrown-xbpp]

Have you had any issues with the clocks on any devices in your house when running the Growatts? I have an issue with my coffee maker's clock running faster when I power my house off the inverters. Just doing some initial testing before I run them full time. I first noticed it when I was just charging the battery bank with the 18 amp EG4 charger. But now it seems to also happen when I switch over to the Growatt power. Looks like my coffee maker may just be sensitive to high frequency noise on the AC side.

[gabrielyoder]

I’ve had one running heat and ac for a year and just as a backup. Just synced up two more the last few days. No major issues. Trying to find the best settings for charging lifepo without the bms connection. I have a couple of eg4 server rack batteries but recently put together a 14kwh battery with a jk bms so have to figure out the best way to charge it too.

[amio_roseto]

Hi Rodney, question : what have u done with the ground-neutral bonding on the growatt ? did u remove the ground of 2 of them and leave on one ? left them ? what was your setup ? thank you