[RE-wrenches] Utility Transformers (was Outback Grid Problems)

penobscotsolar at midmaine.com penobscotsolar at midmaine.com
Thu Apr 1 10:43:23 PDT 2010


Thanks Joel. I would also add that the utility also ran a much larger
feeder line from the transformer to my house, likely to cover all their
bases.

Daryl



> Ray,
>
> I think Daryl is on to something. I would suspect a line problem
> (under-sized feeder, bad connections, failing transformer, trees rubbing
> wire, someone else on the feeder with noisy or large intermittent loads,
> etc.). Utility transformers can degrade for a long time before they fail.
> In
> similar cases I called in a trouble report but did not tell the utility
> about RE system so they wouldn't blame the customer's equipment. Instead,
> I
> told the utility that my customer's computer or tv was acting like (high
> or
> low voltage or whatever) was on the line so I put my voltmeter on the line
> and measured (low or high) voltage and would they please check out the
> feeder circuit and transformer. Almost every time the field workers found
> a
> line problem, repaired it and the customer's problems cleared up. It's
> worth
> the call.
>
> Joel Davidson
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: <penobscotsolar at midmaine.com>
> To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 12:32 PM
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback Grid Problems
>
>
>> Ray, Believe me when I say I have gone through all the exercises
>> described
>> so far by our esteemed colleagues. I think you will find the problem is
>> with the customers transformer. I continue to make impressive amounts of
>> kwh since the swap out last week.
>>
>> Daryl
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> Battery bank is in great shape, is brand new HUP set.
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> R. Walters
>>> ray at solarray.com
>>> Solar Engineer
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mar 31, 2010, at 6:19 AM, tump at hughes.net wrote:
>>>
>>>> Ask the customer to ck the cells for bubbling during the charging
>>>> period
>>>> to make sure the cells all are good OR Isolate the battery banks to
>>>> make
>>>> sure there isn't a dead cell the OBs are trying to charge. BB1 one
>>>> day,
>>>> BB2 the next & so on.
>>>> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: R Ray Walters <ray at solarray.com>
>>>> Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:42:58
>>>> To: RE-wrenches<re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>>>> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Outback Grid Problems
>>>>
>>>> We currently have a Grid Tie system with a pair of Outback inverters
>>>> that are regularly dropping out of sell mode, and letting the arrays
>>>> spend all day charging the battery bank.
>>>> It seems to do this several times a week, and the customer is losing
>>>> substantial production, and gassing the batteries too much.
>>>> It will reset itself the next day, or the customer resets it by
>>>> turning
>>>> off the inverters manually.
>>>> The system is 24 v, with an old array of 1800 watts running through 2
>>>> FM60s, and a new array of 2800 watts running through another pair of
>>>> FM60s.
>>>> The battery bank is HUP about 4100 Ah @ 24 v (3 strings of 1375 Ah
>>>> each)
>>>> Big battery, I know, but the customer is an electrical engineer, who
>>>> wanted maximum storage capacity.
>>>>
>>>> Outback tech support has not resolved the issue, and this has turned
>>>> into several service calls, and customer frustration.
>>>> We've tried running the controllers through the HUB, and also
>>>> independently, and that doesn't make a difference.
>>>> I have numerous Outback GT installs dating back to 2003, and have
>>>> never
>>>> had a problem like this.
>>>> Any help or advice would as always be greatly appreciated.
>>>>
>>>> Thank you in advance fellow Wrenches,
>>>>
>>>> R. Walters
>>>> ray at solarray.com
>>>> Solar Engineer
>>>>
>>>>
>
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