HI Brian, I would add that remember we had to take out the400 amp class T fuses because they kept blowing!
jay peltz power On Apr 27, 2011, at 6:13 PM, Brian Teitelbaum wrote: > Benn, > > I have a little experience from about a decade ago. Don’t know how useful it > will be though. > > AEE and DC Power used to team up to supply power for a three-day outdoor > music festival in Mendocino Co, CA in the mid 90’s and early 2000’s. Music > from 5-8PM on Friday, and from 11AM-10PM on Sat and Sun. I don’t know how > big the crowd was - 5-6000 I would guess. > > We would bring a rack-mounted 12kW Exeltech MX inverter set-up (24V and not > even N+1 redundant) and 5-6kW of PV (a lot of 120W modules). DC Power would > bring two big tractor-trailer loads of industrial wet-cell batteries (I have > no idea what the total amp-hours were, but a hell of a lot). > > The sound crew would show up each year with a bigger set-up, even though we > warned them that the power supply was limited. Stage lighting was left on > generators running biodiesel. > > The last year that we did it, the sound guys showed up with a sound system > rated at 14kW. It drew 6kW just being on with no sound. Not even a hint of > buzz or hum from the inverter power. The MX is good stuff. > > I nervously watched that Exeltech all weekend as the bar graphs on each power > module stayed in the red over-load range for most of each band’s set. When > the drummers or bass players would go nuts it was all red lights. We were > measuring up to 600A of current flowing through the four pairs of 4/0 cables > coming from the batteries, and a good bit of voltage drop as the cables were > at least 30’ long. The inverter was seeing less than 24VDC most of the time. > The cooling fans on the MX modules would run for 20-30 seconds, and shut off > for a minute or two and then come on again. This is with temps in the upper > 90’s, and the inverter sitting on the ground under the stage. Even with all > this torture, the Exeltech never even hiccupped, which was quite impressive. > The sound engineer was hollering at us that the inverter was clipping off the > high notes, but neither I, nor the audience ever noticed. All I could do was > shrug and tell him that he was warned about limited power availability. The > music was great. > > By the end of the weekend, those batteries were pretty drained, so it’s hard > to actually say that the show was “solar powered”. Sitting around with a few > beers afterwards, we all agreed that the ranch owners could install a 2kW > grid-tie system on a tracker at the concert site and that system would > produce all the energy needed for the show in a year’s time, likely including > the energy use for the lighting and by the vendors. This would have required > that utility power be brought to the site, which would have been a rather > expensive deal, but would have made more sense, and would have made it a more > truly solar-powered event. > > Brian Teitelbaum > AEE Solar > > From: re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org > [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of benn kilburn > Sent: Wednesday, April 27, 2011 3:51 PM > To: Wrenches > Subject: [RE-wrenches] PV powered music festival > > Wrenches, > I have been asked about sizing PV systems for a couple different music > festivals that have been run solely off of generators in the past. The > problem i'm having is determining the energy consumption of music/stage > (amps, speakers, lights, etc...?) loads as well as concession. The > organizers have never considered the kwh of electricity used and it has never > been metered. I believe the attendance of one festival is expected to be in > the range of 5000 and the other closer to 15000 over the course of a weekend. > > Do any of you have any experiences in this area? How were the loads > determined? > > No doubt that generator back-up will still be needed, to what extent, will be > determined. So what we're looking at would be a temporary off-grid PV system > with generator back-up... > > Any suggestions on how to proceed with this one? > > benn > > DayStar Renewable Energy Inc. > b...@daystarsolar.ca > 780-906-7807 > HAVE A SUNNY DAY > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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