Iconica 2000W 24V hybrid pure sine wave inverter with 50A solar charge controller, 20A mains battery charger and UPS - for off-grid or remote areas without power or with unstable electricity supply

I have had a few hybrid inverters and this is the best by far. I cannot recommend this unit enough.

In May I was up to setting up an off-grid system for some relatively small garden applications, most importantly my fish pond bio-filter using an advanced, very economical but efficient pond pump (up to 35 W, 6000 litres/hr, +12W UV) plus LED lights (also 12W max) for late evenings. The idea was to use solar power of 2 x 140 W PV panels in the daylight to run the pump and charge 2 x 120 Ah batteries, whilst at night the batteries would supply the needed 50 W for the bio-filter. Then I needed a good power 12Vdc/230Vac inverter for the pump and UV lamp (well, for LED bulbs too, but that's not the point).After some 4 weeks of research and trial and error with cheaper power inverters, both modified and pure sine wave, I eventually decided to buy this one (at least 3 times more expensive), even though there were no reviews for it (I am writing the fist one now!). However, the Iconica specs, its diverse priority modes and settable charger parameters looked very impressive and promising. Apart from its versatility in terms of power source prioritisation (solar/battery/mains) and PMW charge controller settings (Flooded/AGM/User specific), the Iconica seemed to provide the ultimate solution to the problem of hybrid mains/off-mains automatic power switch, which would be of course not only handy but rather a necessity for my fish pond application (the pump+filter need to be run 24/7 virtually all year round). Later I realised that there are a couple of unexpected patterns though (see below).I have had this inverter (rated 2000 W version) for 4 months now, and have tested it in all different modes that are compatible with my set up. For example, I had to first reset the battery type from AGM/Gel (default) to Flooded, but also later tried the User defined settings in an attempt to improve on the efficiency of batteries' charging. I have also tried different priority modes, depending on the lighting conditions during daytime, but also the battery charge status in the evenings: solar-battery-mains priority for the input, solar/mains (or vice versa) priority for charging and so on.Overall, the Inverter works fine and does what it is supposed to do at its core: converts 24Vdc to very stable 229 Vac +/- 1V. In this respect it beats any other inverter I tried in the past - I never saw a decline in AC output even when my battery bank was rather low on charge, irrespective of its being charging from solar/mains or merely discharging under the load.However, this inverter has a few strange omissions in its readings and programs, which I would consider flaws that partly defeat the purpose of such a complex and versatile off-grid/mains power switching unit:1) First of all, in its most natural setup for a solar system, with prioritisation of Solar-Batteries-Mains power for the load (in this order; menu [1] - SbU) in combination with Solar-and-Mains recharging mode (menu [16] - SnU), Iconica 2000 W does not charge batteries to their full capacity. That is, in this regime it only recharges the batteries to the float level of 13.5 V per battery (27 V in total) and returns back to loading the battery bank. That is, the full 3-stage recharging process is either omitted or interrupted. The manual does not mention this unexpected "feature" whatsoever. According to the manual, the full 3 stage recharge procedure is supposed to be invoked whenever the load is fed "in-line" from the mains, i.e. bypassing the battery. But in practice this only works correctly (as stated) when either "utility" ([1] - UtI) or "solar" ([1] - SOL) priority is chosen for feeding the load, i.e. not SbU. So be careful and do not prioritise the battery - it will inadvertently discharge your battery deeper and deeper, unless you monitor your batteries daily (as I did, and hence discovered this unwanted pattern)!Similarly, never prioritise recharging the batteries from solar power only ([16] - OSO)! - I am not sure in what setup this option can be useful at all, because the current of any solar system drops considerably (could drop 10 times!) as soon as a shadow casts on any of your panels, or even just a few PV cells on a single panel. This is unfortunate, or course, but is true and that's the major defeat of solar systems, no matter how powerful in direct sunlight. Thus, on pure solar input batteries won't get recharged fully (unless you have a huge array constantly exposed to the sun). This is, of course no complain about the Iconica inverter, but rather I general consideration.2) Even though quite a few parameters in the system can be displayed (i/o voltages, i/o currents, i/o frequencies and load values), not all the readings are meaningful, at least not always. For example, the unit I have never shows non-zero load values for my estimated 40-60 W load, which is constantly shown as 0 VA, 0 W, and 0 %! I was concerned with load values in my regular use, because I wanted to monitor how much is actually drawn from the batteries and this way know how much the inverter plus cables/connections withdraw. As of now I don't know how to check the losses in the system otherwise. Well, a couple of times I used my hummer-drill powered from the inverter, and the load was shown correctly, about 800 W. This implies that the power is only correctly measured and displayed for sufficiently high loads (I guess more than 25% of the unit max power).3) In the same fashion as in (2), the current drawn from the batteries (due to discharge under the load) is always displayed as 1 A, no matter the load conditions (LEDs on or not etc), although it does show 0 A when I switch the load off completely. The PV (solar) input is also most often shown as constant 25 V (rarely max 26 V in bright sunlight), except during the initialisation time shortly after the panels are connected to the unit (during which the PV voltage is gradually dropping from 40 V to 25 V on the display). This is despite the directly measured voltage on the panel terminals reads ~40V most of the time in daylight. However the PV input Amps value (charging current, not the load) are more responsive.Strangely enough, while voltages are displayed up to the fist decimal (precision of 0.1 V), the two current readings (PV input and battery load) are only shown as integers, omitting all the decimals, so it is rounded up to 1 A precision, which is a disappointment.Summarising, my practical impressions of using the Iconica 200 W are mixed, and I am inclined to think that either my unit is slightly malfunctioning (but not at fault apparently), or there are a few essential software flaws to be dealt with in the next upgraded version. Maybe I need to upgrade the firmware? - but the manual is mute about the way to do it.For now I can only give 4 stars here, considering the unit price and how much is promised for that price but delivered with somewhat flawed "behavioural" patterns - updated from 3 stars after having lengthy correspondence with the PhotonicUniverse' engineer who seemed to confirm that my unit is not faulty, after all.

The product was easy to install and setting up wasn't too technical, the big problem came when trying to use the CD to install the monitoring software. I extracted the installer file from the rar file on the CD and ran the installer. all seemed OK until I ran the program at which point my virus protection kicked in and disabled the file as it contains a virus. I eventually found the WatchPower web site which directed me to Opti Solar site and I downloaded a copy from there. this copy installed correctly and runs without issues so the CD copy is definitely corrupted.I also found the manual for the software which is pretty useful but does not explain how to use the RS485/RS232 option, no diagram of the connection pins or how to couple it up.So one star down due to poor documentation.The device is working OK and I connected the software via the USB port which is working OK but with the distance between PC and the Device I would be happier with the serial connection.