Trace PS2512 drop out problems [RE-wrenches]

Doug Pratt dmpratt at sbcglobal.net
Tue Dec 16 21:52:22 PST 2003


The real problem is that the SW series...and the somewhat upgraded PS
series... were never really designed to be a UPS. Throw all the
band-aids you want at it. Brownouts will trip them up, high voltage
surges will cause them to shut off completely. Real Goods made this
mistake when the SW first came out. We got hit by a high voltage surge.
Lights flared a bit, but everything was still on...*except* the SW4024
that was powering the Unix server. It shut off to protect itself. It is
*very* ugly when a Unix server crashes. We bought ourselves a 7kW BEST
UPS after that, never had another problem, and it's been 10 years.

I have a client in Napa Valley with a 7kW PV array and stacked SW4048s.
Has been running intertie/backup for over 5 years. Car hit a nearby
power pole last month, big power surge, and both his back up inverters
shut down. Nobody on site with the wherewithal to simply turn them back
on, so all the food in the fridges goes bad before they finally called
me.

Get the right tool for the job, it works better.

Best regards,
Doug Pratt


-----Original Message-----
From: Richard Perez, Home Power magazine
[mailto:richard.perez at homepower.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 2:42 PM
To: RE Wrenches
Subject: Trace PS2512 drop out problems [RE-wrenches]

Hello Wrenches

Quoted below is a problem that an Home Power reader is having with 
his Trace PS2512. I am at a loss as to how to help him. Perhaps one 
of you Wrenches have solved this problem.

Richard
Home Power

At 12:10 -0700 12/16/2003, Jim wrote:
>We've been fighting with a problem involving a Trace PS2512 
>inverter. I thought perhaps you might offer some insight into what 
>is causing the problem and what (if anything) we can do about it.
>
>Our Moab, UT office experiences power interruptions lasting anywhere 
>from under a second to several hours. While relatively infrequent, 
>they can be quite costly to our programming effort. So, using my 
>experience at Ray Mesa Power & Light, we built a grid-tied 
>uninterruptible power supply for our software development 
>environment. Currently, the system relies entirely on the grid for 
>charging -- although we anticipate adding solar to it next year.
>
>The system (dubbed "MOAB", Mother Of All Backups -- see attached 
>photo) consists of a Trace PS2512 and about 675 AH in a 12v battery. 
>It's sourced from a single 30 amp circuit breaker thru the inverter 
>and back to a secondary breaker panel with two smaller circuits: one 
>for our server room and one for the programming office. We calculate 
>the system will carry us for about 8 hours under worst case 
>conditions. All in all, it works as intended. When we pull the 30 
>amp breaker, the inverter kicks in with no visible interruption -- 
>not even a screen flicker. Cut-over is seamless and never fails; 
>we've never had a computer go down in this situation.
>
>On the other hand, we have had several instances in which the office 
>fluorescent lights barely flicker, the inverter kicks in and 10 out 
>of 12 computers in the programming office instantly go dead. The two 
>computers that seem to ride through (both Macs) are always the same 
>two. Other nearly identical Macs on the same circuit leg as well as 
>all PC's always go down.
>
>We have called Xantrex tech support and although they admit to 
>having had the problem reported, they are unable to offer either an 
>explanation or a solution. They claim that there is no firmware 
>upgrade available (the unit is 18 months old) and don't know what to 
>suggest. I hinted that maybe they could furnish some means for us to 
>perform line monitoring to see what was actually triggering the 
>problem -- they didn't bite. We had already tightened up the grid 
>voltage limits in the hopes of catching the outage as early as 
>possible -- no help. Xantrex suggested since tightening the grid 
>voltage limits doesn't seem to work, maybe we should try widening 
>the limits. Since there's nothing to lose, we'll probably try it but 
>I'm hardly optimistic.
>
>We have discussed adding small consumer grade UPS's throughout the 
>office to provide short term ride-through but this defeats the 
>intent of our original $3000 investment. It just seems illogical to 
>us that the inverter is able to cut-over without so much as a 
>flicker when power is cut entirely but can't seem to handle short 
>blips.
>
>Have you heard of this problem? Do you have any idea what causes it 
>and if so, any suggestions for dealing with it?

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