ez wire/whisper controller substitute [RE-wrenches]

[Steve Johnson]

I've inherited maintenance on a system with 2 Whisper 175's 
(500lv)feeding a 48 volt battery bank that is inverted with parallel 
SW5548's to an emergency panel.  We have put a production meter in AC1  
which now goes through an auto transfer switch to the emergency panel 
when grid is out.  The production meter is topping the batteries off, 
since they are on standby only. I don't have any confidence in the 
Whisper  regulator, which is confirmed by the thread below. One is a EZ 
wire (aluminum box), the other is a Whisper controller(black box). There 
is no readout on the black Whisper Controller, just turn a tiny screw 
and hope for the best!

Battery float and sell on the SW is 53.6.  The Whisper Controller is 
guestimated to be  57.6, its supposed to be higher than sell to grid 
setting.  

Since this system is 2.5 hrs away I can't monitor it and owner is 
frequently not there.  It may be working fine for all I know. I guess my 
main concern is the production meter, which is at a premium rate, 
spending too much time floating the batteries through AC1. Any 
advice/comments?

Steve
************************************************
Fri 1/4/2008 3:54 PM
Has anyone used a substitute for Southwest's EZ wire system to regulate 
battery charging, 24V on the 1000W machine?
I thought for a moment that a rectifier plus a Bergey 1kW controller 
would look very similar.
 
thanks,
Erika
*********************
Ohio License # 44844
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer TM
Certified Home Energy Rater
___________________________________

Hi Erika,

The charge controls on EZWire systems are so poor and unreliable that I 
have always simply used the rectifier part of their box and not wired up 
the dump load circuit and hence don't use the charge control.  We also 
disconnected their meters too since the information was more misleading 
than useful.

I then added another MPPT dump load controller to the system like the 
Enermaxer when they were available.  Now I would probably recommend an 
MX60 if you can afford it and use it as a load control.  Or simply use a 
C40 or C60 in diversion mode.
Hope that helps!
Jeff C.
___________________________
HI Erika I agree with Jeff.  
The rectifier is also very low amperage and do not survive storms very 
well as they overheat and fail.
The Bergey is rather low cost and has a 100 amp rating instead of a 60 
amp of the ez wire.  The Dump load can be controlled using a Tristar 60 
in diversion mode (Morning Star), which I perfer as I have had very good 
luck with them. 
Darryl
_________________________________________

The TriStar is also an excellent choice.
Matt T



Steve Johnson
LightWave Solar Electric
Nashville, Tennessee


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