MOV lightning protection [RE-wrenches]

[David Palumbo, Independent Power & Light]

Conrad,

I have been using SOV's (Delta LA's) for the last 12 yrs or so. Used a few
MOV's prior to that - but had one catch on fire ,which scared the homeowner,
(did not burn anything else, thankfully) and put me off those.

I can't say what the Delta's actually do. I ground the sh__ out of the
system, put those LA's on and don't have many problems at all. The lightning
problems I have seen have mostly come on systems that I did not install.
They all had mediocre to poor grounds.

Our local Lightning expert is good (UL Certified, I have learned a lot about
grounding from him) and he thinks the Delta LA's are a joke. He cut one open
to show me that they are simply sand in a can with the wires. Yes we know
the theory behind it, but we aren't necessarily buying that it can actually
do it. Mr. Lightning protection (Will Priestley - Priestley Lightning
Protection (there's a great trade name for ya)) uses "Zone Defender's" by
Atlantic Scientific and lots of #2 braided copper ground wire and as many
driven ground rods as needed.

David

-----Original Message-----
From: Conrad Geyser [mailto:conradg at cape.com]
Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 10:23 PM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: MOV lightning protection [RE-wrenches]



Is there anybody that has had lightning protection (MOV style) actually save
a system?
Conrad
Cotuit Solar

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Ellison" <ellison at gisco.net>
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 6:48 PM
Subject: Outback dealer protection? [RE-wrenches]


>
>
> I had an experience the other day that the longer I think about it the
> more
> it irritates me, here goes.
> I got a call from a customer that had a pair of VFX3648 inverters and took
> a
> 2 1/2 hour drive to the site,
>
> He had no lightning cans and took a bad lightning hit, the inverters were
> already off the rack and opened up.. Both inverters were down and he had
> an
> insurance inspection the following day. Real bad timing. I did not supply
> or
> install the gear and low buck wholesale never suggested lightning
> protection.
> My regular supplier is at a show so I called Outback to get the boards and
> was informed that we had to send the inverters back. Also the board prices
> were up from $700.00 to $1200.00. and we needed all of them, 2 sets. There
> was no doubt that all the boards were bad, the burns were obvious.
>
> I was not having any luck getting the boards sent and asked the tech to
> explain to the customer that they had to be sent back. I  found out after
> he
> got off the very short phone conversation that he had been sold all the
> boards at my cost, and on my dime for the phone call!
>
> It just ticked me off, I guess the dealers don't have an advantage over
> the
> customer any more at Outback.
> I didn't expect the customer to get dealer pricing. I could have gotten a
> verbal PO easily or just put it on a card and actually made some money on
> the process instead of the way it worked out.
> 5 hours drive time and a couple on site add up fast towards wasting a day
> real fast.
>
> Back to packing for Solarfest,
>
> Bob
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
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