Vanner [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

Dear Lawrence,

Thank you for the detailed response. In the 1980s (pre-Trace) I sold Vanner
inverters in L.A. because they had a rock-solid reputation with the public
safety market (fire, police, ambulance). Back then Vanner could not get
excited about the renewable energy market because it was too small,
dispersed, DIYers, etc. Then they got interested, picked Joe Bobier's brains
and came up with a Heart Interface clone.

It is frustrating and expensive to develop good inverters. Frustrating for
engineers because they are not given enough beta test time. Frustrating for
company managers because it takes so long (in the minds of
short-attention-span owners and investors) to bring new, different and
better products to market. Frustrating to salespeople, installers and
customers who have to deal with problems that should have been solved if the
engineers had been given the time and money to discover them.

I like the idea of capacitors to keep the inverter on during weather
changes. Some non-RE companies are developing super capacitors for energy
storage in mobile applications. Four years ago, I saw photos of Russian
trams (like 1-car Disneyland trams) that used super-caps for 15 minute round
trips carrying about 20 people. Cost about 10X more than electromotive
batteries (about the same as flywheels). The Russians' sales pitch to Disney
was "cheaper than batteries that need maintenance and replacement." I think
fuel cells will beat out super-caps in the future, but don't hold your
breath. The automobile and petroleum industries have their own plans for
their continued domination of the transportation and energy sectors.

A bit of advice - when tinkering in an SW5548 inverter with the big blue
caps, never stand in front of the caps because they can explode.

Best regards,
Joel Davidson

Lawrence Elliott wrote:

> Joel.
>
> I have three Vanners out now for about 10 months.
>
> 1 off grid
> 2 grid intertie with backup..
>
> Negatives.
> They have a problem staying on line in sell mode. Frequent shut downs
> although I suspect primarily due to the overly agressive and in some
> cases silly regs in UL1741.
> Had two that "leaked  FET smoke" for unknown reasons.
> Slow response from Vanner engineering in truly solving the grid tie
> problems although they have been working on it and now may have solved
> the problems in 48vdc models.
> The units are still not ready for prime time in off grid mode due to
> lack of generator start or ability to reliably charge from generator.
> Remote is not very intuitive and clumsy in navigating the menus and
> setups.
> My opinion is manuals need complete rewrite.
> Bad habit of display lockup when left in certain modes for lenghty
> periods.
> CD software included is better but still could use some work.
> One customer is certain that the inverter has been responsible for
> killing a second Grudfos SQ pump but I am not convinced.
> Pump installer would like it to be so.
>
> Positives
>
> In one of my installs with 3 kw wind and 2.4 kw PV in sell mode we have
> seen as high as 70% overall efficiency in passing 4kw to the grid and at
> times 6kw peaks at slightly less efficiency
> Very clean power, good surge capability in backup mode and very quiet.
> Ergonomically much easier to install than Trace SW and much cleaner
> overall without optional conduit box.
>
> Both customers are satisfied except for the fact that they will not act
> as a UPS due to fault when grid goes down and they still have too
> frequent grid drop outs per day.
> (as many as 6-7 times per day with 5 min restart times)
>
> By synthetic battery they mean a small bank of electrolytic capacitors
> that allows the inverter to deliver power when grid goes down and sun is
> shining.
> Very limited due to lack of any real capacity in the caps so any
> variations in load can easily drop inverter off line.
> I have suggested they look at 2-3 thousand farads Ultracaps to improve
> performance.
> My opinion is that it has limited usefulness as SunLynx product and has
> a hefty price tag.
>
> Refuse to sell additional units until bugs are worked out.
>
> Larry Elliott
>
> > Vanner advertises the Sunlynx SLX as a non-battery "system" with a
> > "synthetic battery." Anyone using this device? What is a synthetic
> > battery?
> >
>
> >
> >
>
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