Hello Chris,
First item of business ... my thanks to Jay Peltz and others for the correction on the Outback charge controller model numbers (again!)! Argh! The CC are are Outback FM60 and FM80. 150Vdc input versions. He needs one each. Apologies for all the confusion. The entire system is built into a custom rack and enclosure in his garage. Granted he may have to change brand/model, but he'd rather not if he can avoid it. He's got a ton of work in it as it is. The system is off-grid north of Fort Worth, Texas. The house and equipment are sitting on and in the worst caliche I've ever seen. It's as close to concrete as you can get. There's virtually no topsoil. Watering grounds won't help .. even poured into a hole. It just sits there. They had to jackhammer to dig the tower hole. He's got a 110' tower for his Bergey. He told me they drove numerous grounds diagonally into the bottom of the tower hole from the edges, bonded them all together, then connected everything to the tower, as well as the other equipment using #4 AWG solid. All of the guy wires are equally bonded. Lightning hit the tower directly, but the fact is .. his grounds didn't work. Everything electrical in the house was destroyed. Didn't matter if it was turned on or off. The only things that DID survive are his batteries (as far as he can tell) .. and the Bergey itself. He connected a three-phase diode array directly to the Bergey output leads, and it's charging his batteries, just not as well as with the controller in place (of course). The genny runs smoothly in the wind, meaning all three phases are intact. If one or two phases were open, you'd see it and hear it in the motion of the blades - much the same effect on the engine if you had a plug wire fall off. If you're a wind person (how can you NOT be in Montana?) .. you already knew that. He may bonded everything to his well casing. I don't know - but I'll ask. This is indeed a good learning opportunity. I'm going to help him get things operating again .. and will highly recommend some of the new lightning protection units Midnite is making. In the meantime .. charge controllers and inverters first. Thanks! Dan -------------------------------------------- On Sun, 6/15/14, Chris Daum <ch...@oasismontana.com> wrote: Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Damage - Need Replacements (Correction) To: "'RE-wrenches'" <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> Date: Sunday, June 15, 2014, 6:00 PM So, was their not enough moisture around the ground rods? That's an issue here, in our semi-arid climate, but I tell people to run their hoses where their grounds are....or plug their grounds into their drainfields, whatever works (or attach to well casings, as you all know). Where is the location of this system? Sorry so much stuff burnt up. Lightning is a wierd beast, and it DOES strike twice or even more often in many locations. Chris Daum Oasis Montana From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-boun...@lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of toddc...@finestplanet.com Sent: Sunday, June 15, 2014 4:53 PM To: RE-wrenches Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Lightning Damage - Need Replacements (Correction) on an educational note dan, can you further detail the lightning protection equipment which was incorporated into the system? specifically if spd's were in the system? i have installed several midnight spd's and am curious how they do in real world situations like this. thanks, todd On Sunday, June 15, 2014 2:22pm, "Exeltech" <exelt...@yahoo.com> said: > Wrenches, > > My apologies for an error. When I was given information about the > lightning-damaged equipment a few days ago, my friend was understandably a bit > rattled after a direct lightning hit to his home, and inadvertently provided > incorrect model numbers for the Outback charge controllers. The correct models > are listed below. (As an added update, almost everything electrical in his > home > was destroyed. He said wall cubes for his router and weather stations > "exploded", > with only small pieces scattered around to be swept up.) > > Thank you. > > Dan > > > > A friend of mine experienced the destruction of major parts of his system in a > recent lightning storm. Everything was extensively grounded and protected, > but he > lives in an area with very high soil resistivity, so good earth ground is very > difficult to achieve. (The lightning hit his wind turbine tower directly. > Remarkably, his Bergey 10 kW survived, but everything else in his system got > fried.) > > He's looking for: > > * Two Xantrex XW6048-120/240-60 inverters. They are beyond repair. > * One Outback FM60 > * One Outback FM80 > > New-old stock or used but in good working condition units are preferred. (No > failed/repaired units please.) > > If anyone has any of these units available, or you know of any that are > available, > please contact me off-list. > > > Thank you. > > > Dan Lepinski > _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
