Rain Damaged Inverters [RE-wrenches]

[Bob Maynard, Energy Outfitters]

Hi Travis,
I would do nothing until the insurance company has seen and photographed the
damage.  I would file for 100% loss on the inverters, have the customer keep
them in his possession until the claim is settled, and at that point try to
clean them up.  I would also get a written statement from Xantrex(hard copy of
email response, whatever) to share with the insurance company.  Don't do
anything that transfers responsibility from the customers insurance to you!

I had a similar situation to Larry's with an SW a few years back.  Customer
install, he left the AC access cover off, mice moved in to a nice warm dry
house.  Fortunately before a fire started, he noticed it smelled like dead
rodents and shut it down.  He brought it to my shop, we removed the cover,
partially disassembled, and cleaned out the chunks, blew out the small stuff,
gently used  dry toothbrushes to remove the sticking stuff, blew it out again,
re-assembled, applied power, and "got lucky".  Unit is still in service and
performing flawlessly.

A sharp claims adjustor would probably say something like, "Send them to a
repair center for evaluation and refurbishing quotation.  We will make our
decision to repair or replace based on that report."  Realistically, after that
kind of storm, they are probably so overwhelmed that they may say here's a
check, throw the old ones away, then you can play!  My 2 cents.
Regards,
Bob Maynard
Energy Outfitters


"Travis Creswell, Ozark Solar" wrote:

> Hello Gang,
>
> As always, thanks for the prompt and helpful answers to my previous
> questions.
>
> Recently, three of my customers were in the path of a Class 2 Tornado.  2
> have solar arrays (well, one still has a undamaged solar array and the other
> one has a UTR100 Zomeworks that broke in half and 10 out of 16  MSX60
> modules that are as flexible as amorphous now), all three have dual inverter
> systems.   One of the dual inverter systems was mounted in barn near the
> demolished tracker.  It was mounted on a free standing rack with the
> batteries on the bottom two shelves.  As the barn was heading for another
> county the inverter kept one wall standing with the 7 #6 wires and conduit
> that attached it to that wall due to the weight and stout rack.   When I got
> there I used my ratcheting cable cutters to cut the wall free from the
> inverters  and stood back while the 40'x10' wall fell down.
>
> Finally my question,
> After the barn roof blew away approximately 4" inches of rain (and mud,
> sticks, little dogs from Kansas, etc) fell on the  inverters while they were
> turned on.  When the customer called me to tell me of the tornado he only
> was able to tell me that he didn't have any power, the inverters had LED's
> on and offered no other details.  Rather than risk a fire or the customers
> life I told him to turn off the breakers that fed the system.  In hind sight
> I wish I would have asked for some more details.   I brought them back to my
> shop and have taken the cover off of the top one for inspection.  No
> standing water or other moisture, no obvious smoked boards or any other
> damage.   Now what?  Should I get power them up to see what happens or
> should I just send them right in to a service center?  Insurance is probably
> going to pick up the tab but I don't know to what extent yet.
>
> Thanks in advance.
>
> Travis Creswell
> Ozark Solar
>
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