[RE-wrenches] SunBandit Hybrid Solar Water Heater

[Larry Crutcher, Starlight Solar Power Systems]

Jason,
I spoke to a representative at SunBandit. They told me that the microinverter was a proprietary device built by APS for their heater. They assured me it required no AC power source to work. See attachment, notice it has a variable AC output of 20 to 150 Vac. Also notice it can handle up to 620 Watts input.  

I have not received and solicitation from them but was interested for off grid customers. They are showing "dealer" pricing to the public on their website. https://www.sunbandit.us/pricing.aspx#anchor-SBprice For those prices I'll use another method to heat water.

Larry




On Oct 3, 2013, at 1:13 PM, Jason Szumlanski <Jason at fafcosolar.com> wrote:

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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