[RE-wrenches] AC coupling and Outback inverters

[Glenn Burt]

I would advise against using CAT-5 cabling for any RS-485 data
communications, it is not an appropriate tool for the job. This is a common
poor practice in the solar industry.

4 conductor shielded, 24AWG jacketed cable is what SMA recommends, and is
appropriate for this purpose.

 

Glenn Burt

(many years of data comms experience B4 solar)

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
[mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of mac Lewis
Sent: Thursday, October 04, 2012 9:41 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] AC coupling and Outback inverters

 

Hi Kirk,

 

I would consider the Sunny Island option.  Everything integrates nicely.
You can use the smartformer to get 240Vac if you need it at the critical
loads.  This would give the Sunny Island Frequency control over the Sunny
Boy (assuming you can run Cat 5 to the Sunny Boy). 

 

Good Luck.

On Thu, Oct 4, 2012 at 3:10 PM, Kirk Herander <kirk at vtsolar.com> wrote:

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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-- 

 

 

 

Mac Lewis

"Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates

 

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