[RE-wrenches] 208 3 phase Off Grid Inverter

[Ray Walters]

Here's an off list reply from a friend of mine at SMA:

Sunny islands are alive and well in the US.
SMA required distributors to technically support them to get the best pricing. Some of the big boys declined and have been eliminating their advanced tech support, design services.

Who told you SI-US is going away?

To "stack" 3 phase clusters you use a multicluster box. You can gang 12 si's that way.


-Wes


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

On 3/24/2014 10:41 PM, william at millersolar.com wrote:
> Ray:
>
> Sunny Islands being discontinued:  Did not know that!
>
> XW inverters:  Not impressed and have had mixed results.  I have resolved
> most issues but dealt with glitchy, overcomplicated software and firmware.
> Some are reluctant to connect to generators and earlier firmware would not
> sell efficiently.  Also the BOS cabinet is way too small, but aren't they
> all?
>
> Wm
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
> [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Ray Walters
> Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 8:35 PM
> To: RE-wrenches
> Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] 208 3 phase Off Grid Inverter
>
> Hi William;
>
> I was told by two different major distributors  a few months ago that the
> Sunny Islands were not going to be available in the US anymore
> because of some volume purchasing issues.   Has that been sorted out?
>
> The XW  I have not installed, since I've had poor results with other recent
> Schneider products.  No where could I find in the spec sheet any mention of
> 3 phase/ 208 capability, but I found some mention of 3 phase in the manual
> for the XW Config software. (XW 6048 Spec sheet just says single phase, so
> is this a newer capability? or just in the config software) Do you have
> specs  or a wiring diagram for the XW in 208/ 3 phase? For instance, what is
> the L to L (single phase) power rating at 208 vac?
> Are the XWs decent? I've heard some positive feed back from other wrenches.
>
> R.Ray Walters
> CTO, Solarray, Inc
> Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
> Licensed Master Electrician
> Solar Design Engineer
> 303 505-8760
>
> On 3/24/2014 8:58 PM, William Miller wrote:
>> Ray
>>
>> Sunny Island or XW.
>>
>> Wm
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org
>> [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Ray
>> Walters
>> Sent: Monday, March 24, 2014 7:44 PM
>> To: RE-wrenches
>> Subject: [RE-wrenches] 208 3 phase Off Grid Inverter
>>
>> Hi All;
>>
>> I'm exploring options for an off grid project with an existing 30 Kw
>> Kohler wired for 208 vac 3 phase.  The generator runs some 8 hp air
>> compressors, so rewiring it is not an option.  We're primarily
>> interested in reducing gen run time from the current situation: 14 hrs/
> day.
>> So far, only the Outback VFX inverters seem capable of being wired in
>> 208, 3 phase, but according to the manual they can only be stacked 1
>> inverter per leg. This limits the system to only 3 inverters total, or
>> 10.8 kW.  I would like expandability beyond this.
>> 1) are there any other inverters available that I'm over looking?
>> 2) Should I consider a transformer to convert from 208 vac/3phase to
>> 240 vac/ singe phase?
>>
>> We're not going to even try to run the compressors, just the other
>> single phase loads, mostly 120 vac, but we have a couple of small air
>> conditioners, that are currently running on 208 single phase.  I
>> believe they would run fine on 240 vac, as they have a name plate rating
> at 230 vac.
>> 3) We may possibly run 2 separate 3 inverter stacks and only tie
>> together at the battery, but otherwise they would not be connected.
>> This seems inefficient, and would require some load balancing of the
> various inverters.
>> All help and discussion is greatly appreciated as always,
>>
>> --
>> R.Ray Walters
>> CTO, Solarray, Inc
>> Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
>> Licensed Master Electrician
>> Solar Design Engineer
>> 303 505-8760
>>
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