[RE-wrenches] Sunny Island sending power to the generator??

[Tump]

I too must agree with Kevin, SMA & SI is the kind! (although I have had a few fail) SMA IS the ONLY company that will expedite new inverter AND compensate monetarily, not just talk but they DO. Yeah its a bit&H when the installs are on islands cause their heavy but quality IS there, support IS there and their Tech support does acknowledge that the manual is complicated and there are places that exist in the manual that don't exist in the inverter but they are very patient, (uncomplaining, tolerant, resigned, stoical;calm, composed, even-tempered, imperturbable, unexcitable, accommodating,understanding, indulgent; informal unflappable, cool.)and the product is well worth the additional up front costs! ...... No I don't work for SMA! 
On Sep 18, 2014, at 7:45 PM, Kevin Pegg wrote:

> Our firm has installed many Sunny Island hybrid gen cycle charge systems. In my experience they are hands down the most reliable inverter system out there for this application. Many sites that have been working perfectly with 100% uptime over several years. Most sites we visit once a year to check and there are no issues at all.
>  
> There are many small tricks on the install side to get to reliability like that. While the menus with the 8 characters and all manner of acronyms can be daunting, once it's configured there's generally no changes needed. Tying in the webbox option makes it a lot friendlier to program and monitor.
>  
> My direct experience does not match with the last paragraph comments. The only problematic installs we have worked on were installed by others and not installed well.
>  
> Kevin Pegg 
> EA Energy Alternatives Ltd. 
> 37471 Hwy 16 E 
> Telkwa, BC  V0J 2X2 
> 250-846-9888 
> Http://www.EnergyAlternatives.ca
> -----Original Message-----
> From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org]On Behalf Of William Miller
> Sent: September 17, 2014 10:23 PM
> To: RE-wrenches
> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Sunny Island sending power to the generator??
> 
> Colleagues:
>  
> I was invited to troubleshoot a Sunny Island system.  What I found is a Sunny Island mini-grid system behaving oddly.  The generator, when started with the SI, would run for a few minutes and then shut down.  Further investigation revealed that the SIs were indicating that the inverters were sending lots of power back to the generator, even with the Sunny Boy turned off. 
>  
> I don’t know if this was actually the case, nor can I grasp how this could happen.  The system was programmed as a PV/Gen only system.  Fortunately I reached an off-grid tech at SMA and we were able to resolve the issue.  I am not sure what we did but I suspect that simply rebooting the Sunny Islands was the cure.
>  
> I post this in case any of you experience this problem and could benefit from my experience.  Also, I want to understand this better.  Could it be true that the inverters could send power to the generator?  I know the circuitry is there to sell to AC2, which is how this system would work as a true grid-interactive system, but how did it get triggered?  Was it battery-selling to the generator?  I welcome any comments.
>  
> What I am starting to think is that the Sunny Island system, like any feature rich system, is complicated and has the potential to be less reliable than simpler systems.  On the plus side I could also think of these systems as job security for the knowledgeable technician.
>  
> Sincerely,
>  
> William
>  
>  
> <image002.jpg>
> Lic 773985
> millersolar.com
> 805-438-5600
>  
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