This somewhat limits the usefulness of the hardware anywhere you need to be insured, e.g. your house, boat or van.
(Also, Amazon is where most people get their solar equipment these days and you would be amazed how much of it is not UL certified either.)
The real reason this should give you pause is that you don't want your house to burn down regardless of an insurance payout. That is how your incentives remain aligned with the insurance company.
I've certainly had my fair share of square wave UPSs and devices that don't work on them.
There are certainly cases where harmonic distortion is a problem for a device. It’s just that everyone is left guessing, and there’s an overblown fear of devices being harmed.
I wouldn’t run some AC motors, old AC clock, ham radio, or many other things on some generators.
The line is open to interoperation and never defined by the manufacturer. It’s blanket liability avoidance that confuses customers.
If you want to DIY everything you need self-build insurance.
I’m definitely not covered if I were to burn my house down with a dodgy inverter installation.
Many things you still have to get a permit and have it inspected afterwards just like a professional would. But if you skip that no one will ever notice unless it's major structural work (such as a new deck).
That said, if it's electrical and you skip the required inspection and then your house burns down and your work was at fault that might nullify your insurance but I'm not sure.
In my experience insurance companies just ask you a bunch of big-picture or specific questions (eg swimming pool), reserve the right to inspect even though they never do, and then jack the rates rather than trying to grok more unknowns.
I've never read an insurance policy where anything like this is explicitly mentioned. I suppose there is a legal path of being criminally charged by fire investigators for having performed unsafe wiring (non-Listed power handling equipment as part of the fixed wiring), and then the insurance company denying you because of that criminality. Or in states where DIY wiring is not illegal, perhaps declaring that the wiring itself is "illegal" (as it goes against the NEC (despite the NEC not being openly published as we generally expect from laws!)) and then hanging their hat on illegality regardless of criminality? But does any of this happen in practice?
Surely if insurance companies were concerned about fires caused by dodgy electronics, they'd address all of the people using non-NRTL-tested GENSYM brands from Amazon et al? They've got no ability to post-facto deny based on this (said devices aren't illegal), but they could surely make it an explicit condition of policies.
That being said, the Libre Solar components are also meant to be used as the basis for customization (hence, called building blocks). Some of the devices are used with minor modifications in certified commercial products.
Apart from boats/caravans, DC systems are used a lot for rural electrification in the global south. This is also where the communication features of Zephyr RTOS are very important.
Same goes for all the random Chinese inverters people are buying and installing in their Homes, Boats and Vans. Doesn't seem to stop them.
Of course, there is a rising group of actually really high-quality native brands starting to come out of China - Anker were an early one of these, Xiaomi is a massive one, UGreen is really popular on Amazon etc. These kind of brands actually will be properly certified and are scary good for how cheap they are. So it's changing a lot.
($3k would be for "unintentional radiator" device, i.e., not supposed to be a radio, $30k would be for "intentional radiator" device, i.e., supposed to be a radio)
*Testing and tweaking and then sign-off in grown-up labs.
A hobby BMS is usually a bad idea, as most kits from unknown origins prioritized cost over safety. Depending where you live, prior to roof installation there may be additional zoning and signed engineering drawing requirements.
It is not hard to find UL equipment, but expect to pay about another $600 for the BMS. Yet, it is better than a house burning down, and the insurance provider denying coverage.
Have a look at local certified installer companies, and make sure to get some real references in your town. Just like most HVAC companies... some installers are just over priced scams. Some folks claim https://www.pegasussolar.com/ was inexpensive, and might be worth a call. Best regards =3
UL or other certification is a very good idea. They can't automatically deny coverage for lack of certification, but it becomes a much harder fight for you to prove the non-certified equipment wasn't at fault.
The battery stuff is more risky (bringing lithium cells into the picture) but I don't think anyone should be worried by the MPPTs.