[RE-wrenches] OB Battery Charging

R Ray Walters ray at solarray.com
Sat Nov 7 15:49:33 PST 2009


In 7 years of Outback inverter installations, we've never had to go  
out to adjust something. The Outback defaults are pretty good out of  
the box, and not including the Mate keeps them from messing with the  
settings.
I have had several calls from customers WITH the Mate that had to be  
talked through the screens, and reassured that everything was working  
fine, even though they didn't understand some of the reading s on the  
screen.

R. Walters
ray at solarray.com
Solar Engineer




On Nov 7, 2009, at 1:48 PM, jay peltz wrote:

> I always install a mate.
>
> My logic is that I can try, might not succeed, to walk them over the  
> phone through the many adjustments that might need to be made.
> And also look at error messages etc which can save me a bunch of time.
>
> So for those of you who don't include a mate, do you then charge the  
> customer to show up and do a adjustment?
>
> Thanks,
>
> jay
>
> peltz power
>
>
>
>
> On Nov 7, 2009, at 12:10 PM, Allan Sindelar wrote:
>
>> Ray,
>> We usually include the Mate if we expect a backup generator to be  
>> the periodic source of a higher C/rate than the PV array for  
>> equalizing batteries. The Mate is necessary to initiate an EQ  
>> charge algorithm. How do you accomplish periodic EQ with an Outback  
>> inverter and no Mate?
>> Thanks,
>> Allan Sindelar
>> Allan at positiveenergysolar.com
>> NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic Installer
>> EE98J Journeyman Electrician
>> Positive Energy, Inc.
>> 3201 Calle Marie
>> Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507
>> 505 424-1112
>> www.PositiveEnergySolar.com
>>
>> From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches- 
>> bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of R Ray Walters
>>
>> As far as customer interaction with the MATE, we generally don't  
>> provide one. They're way too expensive and hard to understand, and  
>> the chances of them screwing up the programming are too great.
>> We install just the cable, and coil it up so that when we come out,  
>> we can access the programming without having to remove all the  
>> cover plates.
>> Only customers that are comfortable with changing settings, etc.  
>> actually get a MATE. (1 out of 10)
>>
>> R. Walters
>> ray at solarray.com
>> Solar Engineer
>>
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