[RE-wrenches] Xantrex XW or Outback with very small temporary battery bank

[Kevin Pegg]

Hi Jim, 
 
I have done exactly this before (old, but not dead car batteries) with the XW and no problems at all. In fact, due to the XW's flawed charging algorithms my default config is to set the batteries to the lowest possible Ah setting. 
 
I've not tried with Outback but can't see how it would be a problem. 
 
Kevin

-----Original Message-----
From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org]On Behalf Of Jim MacDonald
Sent: May 28, 2013 1:33 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Xantrex XW or Outback with very small temporarybattery bank



Hi wrenches

I have a "friend of a friend" that wants a 6kW grid tie with battery backup system, but does not have the money to buy everything at the moment.

 

Right now, he can afford the PV + inverter + BoS, but estimates that he's need to put aside $$ for about a year before he can afford a proper battery bank.

He'd like to consume/ sell all solar kWh this year; during this time in a blackout he'd be outta luck and he knows that.

 

Was thinking about "fooling" the inverter with a temp battery bank of (4) used 12v car batteries just so it can see voltage and turn on.

 

Outback says their Flex "needs" 100 ah minimum, and the Radian would need 350 ah minimum; Xantrex XW 100 ah.

 

Im wondering how they'd know the battery bank was so shallow if it were to never cycle.

And of course if we could perform a memory wipe/ factory reset on the CCs in a year's time and then install a nice new 48v deep cycle 800 ah batt bank.

 

Has anyone ever tried to connect a too-small battery bank to a battery-based / grid-tied inverter, and had the inverter not work because the bank was too small?

(If there are old threads on this please let me know)

 

thanks

Jim MacDonald 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20130528/614eda8b/attachment-0004.html>