[RE-wrenches] Sunny Island vs. XW system - advice requested

Glenn Burt glenn.burt at glbcc.com
Thu Aug 23 18:55:01 PDT 2012


I have experience with the SI/SB designs, and can warn you that they
typically need a boatload of additional switchgear to support a good robust
design. That being said they work great together, handle battery charging
like no other and we rarely get calls on them.

 

I have seen the XW system, and although have no firsthand experience with
it, was walked through one by another trusted wrench, and his experience
with both systems may have swayed me - almost all the wall of additional
switchgear has been incorporated into the XW.

 

My next GTWB system will be an XW system.

 

YMMV,

 

Glenn

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Allan
Sindelar
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2012 10:39 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island vs. XW system - advice requested

 

Wrenches,
We have worked with Outback Radian and Schneider XW once or twice each for
grid-tie with backup, and with Sunny Boy/Sunny Island numerous times. The
SMA is certainly the most sophisticated equipment, but also the most
expensive. 

For a particular job coming up, the loads are not excessive, and the array
will be 8kW. The main hitch is that the array will be located on a barn roof
that is about 500' from the BOS and home.

I suspect that running high-voltage DC from the array to a Sunny Boy, and
then feeding a pair of Sunny Islands makes the most sense. My question is
this: does it make any sense to consider running two high-voltage subarrays
500' to two Schneider XW-MPPT-80 600V charge controllers, feeding two XW
inverters (in order to handle the full 8kW) in a DC-coupled approach? 

Is there ever a situation in which this would be a better solution than SMA?

Thank you, as always,
Allan

-- 
Allan Sindelar
 <mailto:Allan at positiveenergysolar.com> Allan at positiveenergysolar.com
NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic Installer
NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional
New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician
Founder and Chief Technology Officer
Positive Energy, Inc.
3209 Richards Lane (note new address)
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507
505 424-1112
www.positiveenergysolar.com <http://www.positiveenergysolar.com/>  

 

 

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