[RE-wrenches] SunBandit Hybrid Solar Water Heater

Jason Szumlanski jason at fafcosolar.com
Thu Oct 3 13:13:46 PDT 2013


Anyone else getting inundated with SunBandit Hybrid Solar Water Heating
System marketing emails? Any first impressions? Here are my initial
thoughts:

Pros - provides hot water in utility outages, no interconnection hassles,
possibly easier permitting hurdles, eliminates moving parts in active SDHW
systems
Cons - no grid-tie, any excess energy produced is wasted, AHJs won't know
how to categorize equipment for permitting and may charge for solar water
heating and PV permits and inspections

I haven't dug too deep, but one strange thing I think I saw on a spec sheet
was that the "micro-AC Grid" (aka microinverter) is UL 1703. If that is the
case, how does the PV continue to provide water heating in a utility
outage? What I really don't understand is why there is a need for a
microinverter at all? Why not just use a DC element? I guess a
microinverter, despite minor efficiency losses, is cheaper than a load
controller.

Jason Szumlanski
Fafco Solar
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