Fw: Interesting installation [RE-wrenches]

Joel Davidson joeldavidson at earthlink.net
Thu Apr 17 14:14:18 PDT 2003


The best goal is a good PV system and a happy customer.
Call the installer and tell him:
1) that the owner asked you to look at the system for possible expansion,
2) in your judgment the system has some design and electrical problems,
3) and the owner is not happy.
Then ask the installer what he wants to do about this situation.
His answer will lead you to your course of action.

matthew tritt wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: matthew tritt
> To: wrenches at topica.com
> Sent: Wednesday, April 16, 2003 10:17 PM
> Subject: Interesting installation
>
> Here's one for all you Xantrex fans.
>
> I went to look at a potential system expansion today, the current system of which consists of 11.5 kW (name plate rating) of Kyoceras on 4 array mounts, a Xantrex 10 kva 3 phase and an isolation transformer. The owner wants to add 5 k of Sharp 156's and a couple of SB's with remote monitoring. Great.
>
> So, we climb up on the roof and, lo and behold, the entire array is pointed directly West! This is on a flat roof surrounded by a rather high parapet. The first row is about 6 feet from the parapet, which results in the entire row being useless in all seasons except Summer, before around 10:00 AM (it's facing West), and after 2:00 PM (looong shadow from the parapet). Added to this are the PV "racks" which are so wimpy that they actually bend in the middle from the weight of the modules!
>
> So, just for the fun of it, I checked the Trace combiner box, and discover that it's putting out about 390 volts positive to negative, 1/2 of that from positive to the ground buss, 1/2 from the negative to the ground buss (that's well over 120 volts folks) and there is a 2 to 3 amp load on the ground wire! What the f***k say's I. There is no "Danger! High voltage" label on this scary combiner with a "live" negative stickin out in the breeze either.
>
> I called Xantrex in Livermore (sp?) and talked to a tech who was very interested in finding out who installed this fine piece of work. I decided that, after all the discussions we've had concerning the pros and cons of being a tattle-tale, I'd see what the consensus is from you sterling bunch of wrenches. Also I don't want to get in the middle of a potential litigation. :-) The owner isn't too thrilled with what we showed him.
>
> According to the owner, the installer has done a lot of big jobs and does a bit of work for the Hollywood crowd (he's from Santa Barbara).
>
> I think there's a chance that either the inverter isn't grounded at all (yikes!) or that it is, but it's acting like it isn't. The inverter was reported to have failed early-on and was sent back for a repair which took almost a month, so the owner isn't too keen on repeating that situation. Maybe this bad/non existent ground or ground fault caused the initial failure?
>
> Opinions?
>
> Matt T
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
> - - - -
> 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 sbcglobal.net

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

TOPICA - Start your own email discussion group. FREE!
http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/create/index2.html
==^================================================================




More information about the RE-wrenches mailing list