[RE-wrenches] Morningstar new battery backup , more comments and opinions

[william at millersolar.com]

Steve:

 

Thank you for your very gracious and professional reply.  Maybe we can chalk this one up to over-excited, under-informed marketing people.  I guess it’s common.  I appreciate you schooling them and being willing to modify the message.  I am impressed by your candor.

 

Sincerely,

 

William Miller

 

PS:  Battery storage has developed quite a buzz lately and I fear there is a dearth of experience on the subject amongst manufacturers.  I lunched recently with representatives for a major inverter manufacturer.   They indicated they were developing a new battery-less inverter featuring a “plug and play” battery upgrade.  They indicated they would be marketing this is an “easy” upgrade from battery-less to battery backup.  I told them this transition was not as simple as they described it.  This is the same scenario as we are discussing.

 

WM

  

 

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Steve Bell
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2015 1:42 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Morningstar new battery backup , more comments and opinions

 

Hello William,

 

I had not seen the video prior to your posting. I totally agree that a one day install of a complete battery back-up retro-fit is completely unrealistic. Perhaps 4 to 7 days, depending on the complexity and size of the retro-fit. Yes, one day might suffice to install and wire just the TS-MPPT-600-TR, but creating a sub-panel, installing and wiring the battery-based inverter and the battery bank will require significantly more time.

 

I have spoken with our marketing department, and they will be addressing this misrepresentation. 

 

I believe all our printed literature for the TS-MPPT-600 is accurate and does not contain any misrepresentations.

 

I am sorry for the unrealistic expectation that the video currently creates. Unrealistic expectations are never good for the industry.

 

Respectfully,

 

Steve Bell 

 

Technical Support 

Morningstar Corporation

sbell at morningstarcorp.com

www.morningstarcorp.com

 

 

 

On Wed, Jun 3, 2015 at 9:03 AM, <william at millersolar.com> wrote:

Chris:

 

The market Morningstar is going for is the customers with non-battery, grid-tie only inverters.  If you then add the Morningstar product and a whole lot of other items and a lot of labor, you can have battery backup.  If you already have a complete GTBB system, such as you describe in your home, you cannot benefit from this product.

 

I viewed the demo video and I find it disingenuous.  The block diagram presented shows a battery bank, a batter inverter and a critical loads sub-panel.  The verbal description they offer of this system and interconnection is: “some wiring.”  This is a vast understatement in most cases.  Adding a sub-panel and segregating loads is major surgery in a majority of homes, not to mention creating a safe storage container for batteries, interconnecting 600VDC PV feeders, AC Feeders, etc., etc.  To pre-bias the customer by saying such a project can be completed in one day makes it really hard to present a realistic bid for what can be a pretty significant project.  I liken this to the Tesla hoopla about how easy it is to screw a small box to your garage wall and you will have endless power without reliance on the grid.  It’s a lot of over-simplification to sell product, and a disservice to the installing community.

 

I’d like to see a response from Morningstar on this point.

 

William Miller

 

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Chris Mason
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2015 5:03 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Morningstar new battery backup , more comments and opinions

 

I'm having trouble understanding the application for this product. I have the tristar 600V CC in my own home.

If I want to have backup and also export to the grid, the Outback radian does that without the need to change anything over.  WHy would you want to have the Radian as a backup AND have a grid tied inverter, and have to change over a manual switch to provide power to the CC? What am I missing?

 

On Tue, Jun 2, 2015 at 4:46 PM, Tom Lane <tom at ecs-solar.com> wrote:

I would appreciate more opinions and comments on the new Morningstar Controller for Grid connected systems .  I developed a simple transfer switch back for this type of application back when Grid Connected systems were 48 volts . This seems like a great idea for high voltage Grid Connected System . Tom


_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance

List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org

Change listserver email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org

List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/maillist.html

List rules & etiquette:
www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm

Check out or update participant bios:
www.members.re-wrenches.org



 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20150603/aa268099/attachment-0002.html>