[RE-wrenches] SunnyIsland - was AC coupling and Outback inverters

[Kirk Herander]

One Question: Output of the SunnyBoy is 240vac. So this is fed to the
critical load panel, of which the SunnyIsland 120 vac output is fed to. So
we need a 120/240 step up transformer between the SunnyIsland and the
critical load panel to fully take advantage of the Sunnyboy array for
battery charging, correct?.

 

Kirk Herander

VT Solar, LLC

dba Vermont Solar Engineering

NABCEPTM Certified installer Charter Member

NYSERDA-eligible Installer

VT RE Incentive Program Partner

802.863.1202

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of David Katz
Sent: Friday, October 05, 2012 2:11 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] AC coupling and Outback inverters

 

Hi Kirk,

All of the Outback inverters will work AC coupled (GT and FX) as will any
bi-directional H-bridge type inverter.  I have used old Trace SW's,
SunnyIsland, Apollo TSW, Magnum AE and now I am using an Outback Radian to
do exactly what you are talking about.  I have 6 kW of grid tie inverter and
an additional 4kw of modules running through a Xantrex 600 volt charge
controller to the batteries that the Radian runs on. It all works flawless
as long as you have a provision for protecting the batteries when the gid is
down and the grid-tie PV system is making more power than the loads are
using.  

If the customer has SMA inverters, I would recommend using a SunnyIsland
because the battery control when the grid goes down is so elegant.
Everything else is a bit of a kludge.

 

David Katz

CTO & Founder

AEE Solar Inc

P: 707 825-1200

F: 707 825-1202

dkatz at aeesolar.com

www.aeesolar.com

 

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Kirk
Herander
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2012 2:11 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] AC coupling and Outback inverters

 

I have AC-coupled an Outback quad-stack with multiple SunnyBoy 6000US
inverters and it's been running fine for 4 years. I used the off-grid
version of Outbacks.

Now I have an application where a customer wants to add battery backup to an
existing SunnyBoy 5000US system. And expand his array by a couple KW. So I'm
thinking of using a GT Outback w/ batteries to handle the critical loads and
feed the extra 2kw of PV (charging the batteries through an MX60) to the
grid. And I'd like to AC-couple the SunnyBoy so the original 5 kw array can
also charge the batteries, BUT I remember, at least I think so, that the GT
inverter cannot be AC-coupled, only the off-grid version. Is this correct?
Thanks.

 

Kirk Herander

VT Solar, LLC

dba Vermont Solar Engineering

NABCEPTM Certified installer Charter Member

NYSERDA-eligible Installer

VT RE Incentive Program Partner

802.863.1202

 

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