[RE-wrenches] Inverter temp spec for cold regions

[Mark Edmunds]

Hi Matt - 

 

I think I know which site you are referring to, and the issue there was
not an inverter temperature problem. The units were running at or colder
than the rated minimum temperature for GT's... and other than for the
LCD not being very readable this is not a problem. We routinely test all
our inverter designs in our Highly Accelerated Life Test (HALT) chambers
at down to -65C, and the units work pretty well.

 

The issue with this particular site was the very high open circuit
voltage caused by those very cold arrays. When we designed this custom
version of the GT for this particular OEM we had not anticipated such
high voltages - using our normal string sizing approach each string
should have contained one less module under the conditions the site
ended up with. Once we had evaluated the site we did a field upgrade to
the units to handle the high Voc, and the units were working to
everyone's satisfaction after that.

 

Thanks for your concern about our bottom line!

 

Cheers,

 

Mark

 

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Matt
Lafferty
Sent: Sunday, August 31, 2008 10:52 AM
To: 'RE-wrenches'
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Inverter temp spec for cold regions

 

But then there's the Xantrex GT.... Not your cold-weather friend.  I
know of a project in CO that had to replace approx 280 of them last
winter.  Word I got was that the actual low-temp was warmer than the
spec.

 

I recommended against using that inverter in that application, for this
and other reasons that I won't go into here.  The project engineers
bought Xantrex's story that they would be fine.  Guess they were for a
month or so....  At least part of me hopes that Schneider will put a
stop to the historical release of products and engineering by Xantrex
that doesn't pass muster....  These practices aren't good for the bottom
line, no matter what kind of beans you're counting.

 

Sunshine Wishes,

 

Matt L

 

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