[RE-wrenches] Portable Solar Trailer w/ intermittent Ground Fault

[Jason Szumlanski]

As far as I know, you won't find a mobile listed inverter that can be
grid tied (for the reason mentioned by Steve. I'm curious about how you
are "feeding a GFI breaker." I think the best you can (legally and
safely) do with a mobile system is to power loads using a listed mobile
inverter plugged into and A/C transfer switch inlet at the premises, as
if the portable solar energy system is a portable generator. The utility
and the AHJ would not allow a "temporary grid-tied" PV system.

Any differing opinions?

Jason Szumlanski
Fafco Solar

-----Original Message-----
Date: Tue, 1 Jun 2010 11:59:01 -0700
From: "Steve Higgins" <shiggins at outbackpower.com>
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Portable Solar Trailer w/ intermittent
	Ground	Fault
Message-ID: <8B410BA5E8E5BF49B7C591DCBF706ADD020BED91 at mail1.ob.local>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Wayne, 

That's because the GVFX3524 goes not provide any support for ground
switching.   If you install a Ground switching relay and isolate the
input neutral from the output neutral bus's this will get rid of this
problem... 

On a side note how did you get a utility (or have you) to approve a GT
inverter on a mobile trailer? 

Steve Higgins. 

Sr Application Engineering Mgr
Sub-Saharan Africa Business Dev Mgr. 
Outback Power Systems. 
19009 62nd Ave Ne 
Arlington Wa 98223
360-618-4313

 
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Wayne
Irwin
Sent: Tuesday, June 01, 2010 9:30 AM
To: Wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Portable Solar Trailer w/ intermittent Ground
Fault

Hello Wrenches,

We have a 2KW portable unit with one Outback GVFX3524. Intermittently,
we have a problem feeding GFI breakers. 
Its the strangest thing, sometimes it trips GFI's and other times it
doesn't. Aside from the possibility that some of the GFI's aren't wired
properly we haven't been able to figure it out. We have it plugged into
a GFI at the shop (which is wired properly) and there is no problem.

I thought there was a previous string on this issue but could not find
it in the archives.
What do you recommend for grounding portable units and what
recommendations do you have from personal experience?

Thanks!

Wayne Irwin
Director of Engineering
Pure Energy Solar International Inc. 
State Licensed Solar Contractor
License # CVC56695 
Wayne at PureEnergySolar.com <mailto:PureEnergySolar at hotmail.com>  
http://pureenergysolar.com <http://pureenergysolar.net/>  
352 377-6527 Office
352 336-3299 Fax