[RE-wrenches] Outback AC coupling Sunpower?

[Steve Higgins]

The deltrol model 375s work well. Send me a request offline and I can send you a spec sheet.


Steve Higgins
Technical Services Manager
M: +1.206.790.5840
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Surrette Battery Company
Exclusive manufacturer of
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From: Ray Walters
Sent: Wednesday, July 31, 2013 12:55 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Reply To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback AC coupling Sunpower?


Corey;

Would you mind sharing what relay didn't work, and which ones did, along with inverter output current?  Since the relays will be running for hours at inverter rated output,  my thinking would be to oversize the relay by at least a factor of three.  I might try Outback's relay/ breaker ( ROCB) if possible.

Thanks again for sharing,

R.Ray Walters
CTO, Solarray, Inc
Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
Licensed Master Electrician
Solar Design Engineer
303 505-8760

On 7/31/2013 12:24 PM, Corey Shalanski wrote:
Mac,

We have installed about ten AC coupled Magnum systems over the past year.

Overcharge protection is accomplished by frequency shift, but Magnum recommends an auxiliary form of battery management. The cheapest way to do this is to program the relay driver on the Magnum advanced remote control (ARC) to open/close a solid state relay at specified battery voltage setpoints - similar to what Kelly mentioned. Unfortunately the "cheapest way" sometimes comes back to haunt us in the form of unanticipated extra costs. We had two customer callbacks indicating their inverter had mysteriously shut down - site visit revealed a fried relay in each case.. so I would recommend at least investing in a good quality relay if you choose this route.

One other thing we have learned is that not all grid interactive inverters are compatible with the Magnum inverters. Specifically Power One Aurora string inverters cannot seem to synchronize in off-grid mode - we have had to switch out Auroras on two projects because of this. We have had no such synchronization issues with SMA inverters so far.

--
Corey Shalanski
Joule Energy
New Orleans, LA



On Wed, Jul 31, 2013 Mac Lewis <maclewis1 at gmail.com<mailto:maclewis1 at gmail.com>> wrote:

Here is a paper on AC coupling the magnum.
http://www.wholesalesolar.com/pdf.folder/inverter%20pdf%20folder/MagnumACcoupling.pdf

The key is to connect the AC input terminals on the Magnum to the main
panel (or a panel closer to the utility feed) and then feed the utility
interactive inverter to a subpanel that is connected to the AC output
terminals on the Magnum.  Under normal operation, the Magnum passes the
power through and the utility interactive inverter is connected to the
grid.  If the grid goes down, the internal relays isolate the Magnum and
the critical load panel from the grid and the Magnum starts to make a sine
wave that the UI inverter will export power to.

You have to keep the critical load panel amperage below the pass through
rating on the internal relays on the Magnum, and the grid connected
inverter needs to have a lower output than the Magnum (I think by 10%).
 Also, I'm not sure if the diversion controller Magnum has been working on
is out yet or not.

I've never done this, but I am about to.  Any wrenches have experience
doing an AC coupled magnum?



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