It is smart to re-check the wiring in almost all 'factory wired' enclosures, no matter who they came from. Definitely check that the connections are tight, too. Especially for battery connections.
Nick Soleil Project Manager Advanced Alternative Energy Solutions, LLC PO Box 657 Petaluma, CA 94953 Cell: 707-321-2937 Office: 707-789-9537 Fax: 707-769-9037 ________________________________ From: R Ray Walters <r...@solarray.com> To: al...@positiveenergysolar.com; RE-wrenches <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> Sent: Sat, July 24, 2010 10:46:12 PM Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Midnite Magnum E-Panel Unofficial Service Bulletin I usually recommend retorqueing all connectors once the panel is mounted. Whether its an E-panel or one we built at the shop, those washboard roads can loosen stuff that would never have had a problem otherwise. I'm actually surprised we haven't had more problems like this, even with internal wiring on inverters, etc. Hours of vibration can do bad things to equipment not designed for it. Having said all that, I too have grown probably too complacent, and forget to check connections, especially if its hard to get to, and the sun is going down..... R. Walters r...@solarray.com Solar Engineer On Jul 24, 2010, at 1:27 PM, Allan Sindelar wrote: Wrenches, >In the past month we have encountered some assembly errors on preassembled >E-Panels using the Magnum MS4448PAE and MS4024AE inverters. Robin Gudgel >has >become aware of the problems and has corrected them, but there may be >other >Wrenches who have installed or plan to install these E-Panels and may be >able to correct the errors at installation. Robin has encouraged me to >post >this here. > >On all three E-Panels the same two problems were found. The first is that >the four signal wires (two twisted pairs) connected to the Magnum ME-BMK >sending unit for the remote display were loose enough to pull out. In one >case this prevented state-of-charge data from being accessible on the >display. The solution is simply to tighten the terminals, but as this is a >preassembled connection, checking tightness could be overlooked. The >second >is that the white 14 awg DC - conductor from the preinstalled array GFDI >is >terminated at the white AC neutral bus. It should be connected to the DC - >bus on the shunt. Moving this will require splicing in a few inches of #14 > >solid white THHN, as the existing conductor is too short, but has a >resistor >lead soldered to it, discouraging just replacing this wire with a longer >piece. > >It's a funny thing - it's easy to overlook these errors because we expect >the factory wiring to be correct. I missed these two errors, and so did an >experienced installer from our Taos branch who crewed with me on one of >the >three installations. It took an inexperienced but very skilled apprentice >on >his first day of his first installation to discover both problems and >bring >them to my attention. I have worked with Eden, the apprentice, on other > >projects, so I trusted him to terminate correctly in the E-Panel. Turns >out >it was his fresh eyes that caught what we had overlooked because we hadn't >expected it. >Allan > >-- > >AllanSindelar >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 _______________________________________________ >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 > >
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