Interesting installation [RE-wrenches]

[Dana Orzel]

Matt - Document the heck out of this one.
Who knows where this could end up.
I think you are giving too much room for the opinion of  "Maybe this bad/non
existent ground or ground fault caused the initial failure?"  Someone
installed a system with-out  much if any common sence, the NEC, or reality
based experience period.



----- 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]

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