SW-series inverters hazard? [RE-wrenches]

[Bill Brooks]

Wrenches,

Before we get too far down the road on this line of questions, this is
primarily a rear-end covering excercize by UL. I am very concerned about the
impact for the average Joe in California who could be impacted by this
poorly worded press release. There are over 2000 of these inverters
currently connected to the grid in California and they pose no threat or
hazard to our utility system or homes any more than the existing utility
poses. Trace/Xantrex and UL both screwed up majorly on this issue, but the
customer will likely be the ones to pay for these organizations misdeeds.

Time will tell what the implications of the press release are, but mark my
words, utilities do not need this type of ammunition against our industry.
Worst case is that interconnected PV systems could be set back to the stone
age. Best case, this will be a speed bump that will cause an inconvenience
to all customers and installers.

UL needed to protect their name as testers of this equipment, but
unfortunately this message begs the question of UL "what the @#*& were you
doing when you passed this in the first place?" My sense is that they have
not adequately thought that question through--but all utilities will.

I'm sure some good will come out of this, but the wording left much to be
desired. The phrase "Installed in both the U.S. and Canada, these devices
are not authorized to bear the UL Mark" is ambiguous and seems to imply that
everything in the field is now dangerous. Although the unit may not meet the
harmonics or balanced islanding requirements, this does not necessarily mean
that the unit is a HAZARD. Even though the message is titled "MAY POSE
HAZARD", the interpretation by utilities and local jurisdictions will be "IS
HAZARD", which is a very different issue. So much for tact or spin. I'm not
saying they should have lied, but a different choice of words could have
made a big difference.

Bill.


-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Ellison, Alternative Energy Systems [mailto:ellison at gisco.net]
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 7:12 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: RE: SW-series inverters hazard? [RE-wrenches]


When was the last time we saw the loads balanced on the grid or anywhere
else?
Makes me wonder how hard they had to work to make this happen.

Bob

-----Original Message-----
From: Bob Maynard, Energy Outfitters [mailto:bob at energyoutfitters.com]
Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 7:03 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Re: SW-series inverters hazard? [RE-wrenches]


Hi Joel and all,
We can expect a response from Xantrex on their website tomorrow.  Hopefully
this unfortunate situation can be rectified quickly.
Regards,
Bob Maynard

Joel Davidson wrote:

> Did you all see the UL notice about SW-series inverters?
> Does Xantrex have a solution to this problem?
>
> http://www.ul.com/about/newsrel/alert111601.html
>
> ALERT: PHOTOVOLTAIC INVERTERS MAY POSE HAZARD
>
> November 16, 2001 -- Underwriters Laboratories Inc. (UL) is notifying
> electric utility companies, installers and authorities having
> jurisdiction (AHJs) that Xantrex Technology or Trace Engineering
> photovoltaic inverter models SW3512, SW4024, SW4048 and SW5548 may: 1)
> support an unintentional island in the presence of a balanced load, when
> utility power is interrupted; and, 2) exceed the output current total
> harmonic distortion limit.
>
> Results of operational tests recently conducted by UL during field
> investigations revealed that SW series inverters may not cease to export
> power to the utility grid when power from the grid is interrupted in the
> presence of a balanced load. The SW series inverters may continuously
> sustain an unintentional island condition under multiple balanced test
> load conditions while exporting power at the tested 25%, 50% and 100%
> power levels.
>

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com

- - - -
To send a message: RE-wrenches at topica.com

Archive of previous messages: http://www.topica.com/lists/RE-wrenches/

List rules & etiquette: http://www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/etiquete.htm

Check out participant bios: www.mrsharkey.com/wrenches/index.html

Hosted by Home Power magazine

Moderator: michael.welch at homepower.com

==^================================================================
This email was sent to: michael.welch at homepower.com

EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?bz8Qcs.bz9JC9
Or send an email to: RE-wrenches-unsubscribe at topica.com

T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register
==^================================================================