[RE-wrenches] PV Powered vs SMA

Geoff Greenfield geoff at third-sun.com
Thu Dec 3 04:55:54 PST 2009



Yikes! 



We have not personally used PVP yet (and have a fleet of bulletproof SMA out there), but we have heard plenty about the early residential sized units.  We have had disaterous experiences with the old Advanced energy GC-1000s and plenty of Xantrex GC failures.  Clearly, inverters are a huge piece of the reliability (and call back and reputation) chain. 



That said, I am totally impressed with the new large format PVP inverters... I got to fondle the innards at SPI, and everything, from the heat sinks to the busses to the redundancy to the installability and servicability looked top notch.  It seems that PVP has "re-invented" itself with a lot of new talent as well as a partnership with Boing focused on reliability and lifetime cost/performance. 



While I am not looking at them at all for residential and small projects, I recomend that they be given a fresh set of eyes for their larger central inverters.  



For a brighter energy future, 

Geoff Greenfield 
Founder and President 
Third Sun Solar & Wind Power Ltd. 
340 West State Street, Unit 25 
Athens, OH 45701 

740.597.3111     Fax 740.597.1548 
www.Third-Sun.com 

Clean Energy - Expertly Installed 






----- "Nick Vida" <nickvida at ymail.com> wrote: 
> 
> 
Yes I know the failures you were mentioning in 05-06. 
> I had one that had 2 blown 20a ac midget fuses inside the cover. i was told by the service of their partner company at that time to replace the fuses- it might have been a grid surge that took out the fuses. 
> i did so later that day and the inverter started and counted down. I heard the click, a very short interval of their very annoying operating tone, and then BOOM lika an M80 firecracker was inside the inverter. 
> I was so thankful that I had decided to put the cover back on the unit in the time while I was waiting for the countdown. 
> truly humbling like only electricians can understand. 
> 
> 
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