Batteryless inverter recommendation [RE-wrenches]

[Joel Davidson]

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Richard,

Thanks for the feedback. Let's hope that inverter manufacturers are still in 
business 9.9 years from now and are able to honor their 10-year warranty. 
Does SMA and Xantrex provide you with replacement/refurbished inverters so 
you can do a swap-out without having to make 2 site visits?

Joel Davidson

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Richard Bogan"
To: <RE-wrenches at topica.com>
Sent: Friday, February 29, 2008 9:25 AM
Subject: RE: Batteryless inverter recommendation [RE-wrenches]



Joel,

Within our accounting system we have done our best to factor in the cost to 
service our PV systems, 10 years out.

Inverters are the weakest link in the system and all installers would tell 
you, the first thing they check on a service call. We inform our customers 
of this fact and educate them for what to look for. Monitoring system have 
helped with this.

I spent a good amount of time changing chips out of SMA inverters or 
resetting EPROMP errors. Switched to the Xantrex GT's and started see them 
drop like flies with a defective "something" under its hood. I've also heard 
the stories of past and current issues. All inverter manufactures have had 
their issues one time or another.  I like to see what they do to back-up 
their products and support the installers after the breakdown.

Currently, we draw from a pool of inverters, selecting the one that best 
fits that particular system, customer, location, and/or salesperson. Give me 
5-10 years and I'll have a better answer to your question. Of course by that 
time the inverter manufactures will be on their 5-10th generation and we 
will have to ask the question all over again.

Richard J. Bogan
NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer ®
Solar Operations Manager | Empire Solar Solutions, LP


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