Kent Osterberg wrote:
Allan,
I've had trouble with breakers opening when they shouldn't. On an
array of two strings of Mitsubishi 175s (Isc = 7.9A) I had two 15-A
breakers open. Last week, I had a low-power call from a customer with
three strings of Evergreen 190s (Isc = 7.1A); one 15-A breaker in the
combiner was open. Most of my installs are around 3000 ft elevation,
so the irradiance is possibly a little higher than normal, but not by
enough that it should be an issue for 15-amp breakers. If this is a
wide-spread problem, I'd expect others on this list to have noticed.
Hi Kent,
Could there be a defective module and the breaker is just doing what it
is supposed to do ?? What is the series fuse rating for those
modules ? (probably 15A?) A shorted or defective module would cause
those other strings to make it trip, if there are enough
parallel strings. I hope there isn't some kind of intermittent problem...
Was the breaker actually in the "tripped" position or the "off"
position, since there is a difference? (tripped of course means
that there is some play in the lever.)
We (and OB) have sold literally over a million (or millions?) of these
breakers and we just haven't seen any problems. You have been
using these breakers for years now... Have you seen problems before
this ?? I understand that any problems with CBI breakers
have been AC breakers, not DC, and even then, problems have been far and
few between.
You could test the breakers though... Just shove, say, 10 Amps through
one of the questionable breakers and see if it trips after a while.
It seems kind of odd that more than one of these breakers would have
defectively tripped near the same time ( week ? day? week-day?).
There is, I suppose, the possibility that they could all of a sudden
have started having some kind of problem, but CBI breakers have
had an excellent track record for many years now. We haven't heard
anything from any other customers here at MidNite.
Can't wait to hear what's causing this problem though... I'm sure it
will be very interesting !
boB
As others have mentioned, it is important to take precautions to make
sure that stranded wires are well tightened in these breakers. I
tighten, wiggle, re-tighten, and then check again later. On systems
where I've had breakers open, loose connections haven't been the issue.
Kent Osterberg
Blue Mountain Solar, Inc.
www.bluemoutainsolar.com <http://www.bluemoutainsolar.com/>
Allan Sindelar wrote:
I have had no problems to date, Kent. Can you be more specific as to what
problems you have had?
Allan Sindelar
al...@positiveenergysolar.com
NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic Installer
EE98J Journeyman Electrician
Positive Energy, Inc.
3201 Calle Marie
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507
505 424-1112
www.positiveenergysolar.com
-----Original Message-----
Is it just me, or have other wrenches had problems with the CBI circuit
breakers used in the Outback or Midnite combiner boxes?
Kent Osterberg
Blue Mountain Solar, Inc.
http://www.bluemountainsolar.com/
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