Hi Folks,
I had an XW on my off grid system for a number of months, at the
insistence of my partner it has been taken out and our old SW Plus is
back doing homestead power duty. The reason we took the XW out of
service was because it had an unreasonably high tare loss and it
didn't work well with our 3 kW Honda generators - it kept dropping it
off charge. I really liked the user interface but only with the
addition of the Remote Panel, the machine itself without the remote
would be a pain to operate. It was no surprise to learn that they
were made in China, but I tend to agree that small parts should be
available for this sort of product.
Best regards,
Ezra
Ezra Auerbach
DragonSun Consulting
On 4-Aug-09, at 7:41 PM, jay peltz wrote:
Hi Peter,
I agree with you on the XW. I'm amazed that there is no integrated
battery capacity meter, plus plenty of other issues I find pretty
amazing given they used to make the premier inverter and in many
ways I have to say the old SW hasn't really be beaten.
Also I still find the old SW the best screen/display out there. I
think the reason besides the logic is there are more buttons.
As to the outback relay. I've used a Solid State relay, and they
work really well in my opinion on the AC side. Many of the large
relays have too big a draw for the AUX relay to power, the SS
relays work great.
And no the outback nor any other ( the SMA is different) cannot
regulate in the AC coupling mode.
jay
peltz power
On Aug 4, 2009, at 6:25 PM, Peter Parrish wrote:
I would like to start a thread on AC-coupled grid tied battery
backup systems. We do a fair number of GTBBSs (four to five a
year) and I have gravitated from the Outback solution to the
Xantrex XW solution. I am not happy with the XW product and
especially not happy with Xantrex’s post sales technical support.
I know I have more to learn about these puppies in general, so I
am genuinely disappointed with the uneven TS from Xantrex.
I also had this nagging feeling that the heart of a GTBBS should
be the tried and true high voltage inverter. Enter the SunPower
positive ground requirement, and now an AC coupled system seems
the best solution.
From the white paper that Outback sent me, there was no mention of
a heavy duty relay. Doesn’t the Outback inverter regulate the
battery charge control?
Has anyone tried to order a SunWize “Solar Ready Battery Assembly”
without the charge controller (e.g. P/N SRB3.6). It would seem
that this is a nice package for small energy needs (13 to 26 kWh
of battery backup).
-Peter
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-
wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Home Power magazine
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
Options & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org
