Hi Mark,
I will talk to the installer to get more details.
At 02:06 PM 9/21/2009, you wrote:
Hi Drake,
I had not heard about this battery incident you
mention below...do you have any other details?
So far there has not been any record of battery
problems on the XW that I know of and we
obviously would like to hear if there is something we should be looking in to.
Hi Peter - as far as I recall we resolved the
issue you mention below back in January, and
from our records the customer has been happy
with the results. It was a pretty unusual
condition that our tech support team had not
seen before, and it took the senior designer of
the XW product to finally be able to understand
what was going on. A learning "opportunity" for all.
Cheers,
Mark
_____________________________________________________________________________________
Mark Edmunds | Schneider
Electric | Renewable Energies
Business | CANADA | Senior Director, Engineering
Phone: +1-604-422-2609 | Mobile: +1-604-613-3285
Email:
<mailto:mark.edmu...@ca.schneider-electric.com>mark.edmu...@ca.schneider-electric.com
| Site: www.xantrex.com | Address: 8999
Nelson Way, Burnaby, BC V5A 4B5, CANADA
*** Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail
From: Drake Chamberlin <drake.chamber...@redwoodalliance.org>
To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>
Date: 09/20/2009 05:10 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] XW6048 parts problem
Sent by: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org
Hi Peter,
Do you need the extra fan? The VFX has an
internal fan. Are there a lot of heavy loads
that push the limits of the Outback? If not,
take out the fan or swap it for a cover with no
fan. Many VFX inverters didn't come with cover
fans. I don't know if they are standard now, or not.
Or, have the fan go on whenever the direct grid
tie inverter is being called on to charge
batteries instead of feed the grid. If loads
are not real heavy, battery charging, by back
feeding the AC Out, may be the time when the fan is needed the most.
Before inverters started controlling generators,
we used a device called the Simple Switch, which
was a voltage controlled contact. (We'd use it
with a GenWiz). I'm not sure what is out there
these days. You could use the Atkinson GSCM,
generator start module, which senses the
voltage. If you need this solution, I'd call AEE.
Thanks for the heads up on the Xantrex. I just
heard another horror story about the Xantrex
6024 system. According to the installer, the
owner shut off an AC switch and the array cooked
a bank of Surrette 25CS 25 PS batteries. I
don't know the new Xantrex line and don't
understand how this could happen. Is this really possible?
-Drake
At 06:43 PM 9/20/2009, you wrote:
Hi Drake (and everyone else interested in this thread),
Armed with the information from my esteemed
colleagues, we went ahead and purchased a
SunWise Solar Ready-Grid Tie Battery System, a
SRB3.6 to be exact. The heart of the system is a
GVFX3648. I ordered it without the Charge
controller and purchased a SB3000 and 3150 Wdc of PV to go with it.
I also purchased a Grainger 2P2T relay with a 12
V coil in a NC configuration (to disconnect the
SB when the batteries are fully charged in
off-grid mode) and an Outback PSX-240 to
transform the 240 Vac to 120 Vac (in order to interface with the GVFX3648.
When we looked into hooking the relay up to the
AUX-OUT of the GVFX3648, we discovered that it
was already dedicated to the fan
So it looks like we will need to put something
together to sense the battery voltage and
energize the relay coil, when we exceed the
threshold. Any recommendations for a add-on HVD?
And exactly what threshold voltage should we use
for 8ea 6V 305 Ah (C/24) AGM batteries?
And for Drake: I gravitated away from Xantrex
because of a very unsatisfactory experience with
a XW6048. The system failed to work properly and
Xantrex hemmed and hawed for over six months.
Bottom line: we made six service calls, two
firmware upgrades and probably two dozen calls
to largely clueless group tech supporters.
Through it all, I lost the customers confidence
and he chose another integrator to do a follow
on commercial project. The last part of course
was the worst part of the experience.
- Peter
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Drake Chamberlin
Athens Electric
OH License 44810
CO License 3773
NABCEP TM Certified PV Installer
Office - 740-448-7328
Mobile - 740-856-9648
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