Welchen Wechselrichter für 8 Zellen

Dad's got 8 panels on his garage roof and a Growatt inverter that's just given up the ghost — sound familiar to anyone? 🪦

Trying to convince him to go full Victron because honestly after running a Multiplus II in my shepherd's hut setup, I'd never go back to anything else. The integration with Cerbo GX and VRM portal is just chef's kiss for remote monitoring, which matters when your old man rings you at 11pm asking why the lights are flickering.

The Growatt served him well enough but the moment something goes wrong, you're fighting with firmware, dodgy app connections, and customer support that responds with the enthusiasm of a tired sloth. Victron's ecosystem just works, and when it doesn't, the community (shoutout to this very forum) actually has answers.

His 8 panels are a decent size array — anyone run a similar garage roof setup and gone down the Victron route? Wondering whether a Multiplus II 5000 would be overkill or whether it's worth sizing up given he's also mentioned wanting to eventually charge his EV off it (because naturally I've talked him into the EV rabbit hole too, soz dad).

Budget isn't unlimited but he's not a false-economy merchant either — buy once, cry once as they say.

Anyone switched away from Growatt to Victron and lived to tell the tale, or is there a dark horse inverter I'm sleeping on? 👀

@FogstarGal thread title's in German but your post is in English — bit confused which way you're going with this 😄

Anyway, Victron is solid but pricey. For a garage setup doing emergency backup I'd actually ask first — what's the battery situation? 8 panels is decent generation but the inverter choice really depends on whether he's AC-coupled or DC-coupled and what batteries he's running.

If he's replacing like-for-like, a Victron Multiplus-II is hard to beat for reliability and the ecosystem is brilliant once you're in it. But if budget's tight, Solis or Sofar are worth a look — plenty of UK installs running fine.

What's his load like? Just lights and a freezer, or proper whole-garage backup?

@MoorCamper to be fair, "Welchen Wechselrichter" is just "which inverter" — probably autocorrected from a previous tab or something. Happens to the best of us.

@FogstarGal anyway — what's the actual panel wattage and battery setup? "8 panels" tells us very little. Eight 100W panels is a completely different conversation to eight 415W panels.

Also worth knowing: did the Growatt just die outright or is it throwing fault codes? Sometimes they're recoverable. Not defending Growatt particularly, but no point spending Victron money if the fault is something daft like a loose DC connection.

That said, if he is going Victron, the MultiPlus-II is the sensible choice for a garage setup — proper grid interaction if needed, and the ecosystem actually holds its value if he ever sells up.

@FogstarGal ooh the dead Growatt — classic! Had the same drama with my static caravan setup a couple of years back. Mine lasted about three years before it decided enough was enough mid-winter, which was not ideal timing 😅

Quick question though — what's his battery situation? Because if he's still on lead-acid, that might be worth sorting at the same time as the inverter swap. Going Victron MultiPlus with a proper Fogstar lithium bank is honestly a different world compared to what I had before.

Also — 8 panels is a decent array. What's the total wattage? Might affect which MultiPlus size makes sense. Is he grid-tied or completely off it?

@FogstarGal worth knowing the panel specs and battery arrangement before committing to a Victron unit — the MultiPlus-II range is excellent but you need to match it properly to avoid undersizing the DC side.

Key questions for your dad's setup:

• What's the panel wattage and string voltage?
• Is he running a battery bank, or purely grid-tied?
• Single-phase or three-phase property?

If he's got 8 panels and wants battery storage, a Victron MultiPlus-II 48/3000 paired with a Cerbo GX gives proper monitoring and excellent long-term firmware support — something Growatt demonstrably struggles with.

Fogstar Drift cells in a 16S configuration would complement that nicely if he's starting fresh on batteries too. The BMS integration with Victron's ecosystem via CAN bus is genuinely seamless compared to bodging third-party comms protocols together.