Xantrex GT 3.0 [RE-wrenches]

[Matt Lafferty]

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Wrenches:

Jerry C wrote:

>  Anyone try one of the new straight grid high voltage
>  string inverters from Xantrex?  I'm curious to hear
>any reports on performance of the GT 3.0.

I've been getting the same question from a number of people who are
interested in this inverter, but very gunshy... For reasons I believe we all
understand.  The question has been asked here, but the only response was
from the Xannie rep (Mark E) who alluded to "over 20,000 hours of field
testing.... Extensive reliability testing in the lab.... Positive
feedback... I'll send you some dealer names offlist"...

This is all well and good as a "consider the source" piece of info, but
20,000 hours can be made up of a lot of things...  

Does it mean,

10 Inverters with 2,000 hours each?  

1 Inverter with 20,000 hours?

20 Inverters with 1,000 hours each?

Are those 24/day hours or are they actual hours of production from Sun-Up to
Sun-Down?

Total Hours	# Inverters	Hrs. Each	# Days @ 24 / Day	#
Days @12 / Day
20000		1		20000		833			1666
20000		5		4000		167			333
20000		10		2000		83			166
20000		15		1333		56			111
20000		20		1000		42			83
20000		25		800		33			66
20000		50		400		17			33
20000		100		200		8			17

What times of the year were these hours accumulated?

In what climates?

With what configurations of arrays (Voc:Inverter Rated Power, Vmpp:Inverter
Rated Power, Impp:Inverter Rated Power)?

I'm not even going to discuss their "reliability testing in the lab" here...
Sounds a whole lot like a three-year old echo to me...

And just what does "positive feedback" consist of?

"Gee, that's a swell color", or,

"The conduit entry and wiring are really well thought out and easy for us
out in the field", or,

"The reliability, price and features are a terrific combination", or, 

"Which terminal is the positive, again?"

Hmmmmm..... If it sounds like I've seen this before, that's because I have.

Last I looked on the Mfr. website (~a week and a half ago), I couldn't find
anything that addressed these questions and concerns... 

UPDATE: Bob M's message just got here... Thanks for the data points and the
info, Bob!  (Now we know where some of those 20,000 hours came from... And
we have a data point on the array power of it... And we know that it was in
southern OR... And Bob M says the installer related stuff is improved...
Kewl!)

Any others?

I wasn't born cynical... I earned it!  (Hatched / Fell off the turnip truck
/ Found under cabbage leaf / Dropped on head by Stork / Fill in the blank as
you see appropriate... But wait... There isn't a blank...)


Matt Lafferty
Universal Energies Institute
mlafferty at universalenergies.com
(415) 252-0343
(916) 914-2247 Fax

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