Don:
I
would love to have it! Please send it along.
Not to
rag on my friend John Berdner, but my first impression of the PCB-10 board was
that the fuse holders were not robust enough to last in the real world. I still
feel that way except that now I have a lot more field evidence to backup my
original thoughts. I had a tangle with one of these combiners about a month ago,
and it convinced me that I would happy if I never worked with another one
again.
This
was a situation where 10-amp fuses on MSX-120 modules (undersized for these
modules) were used and 6 of the 8 installed fuses were blown. Several of the
fuse elements had melted and two of the fuses were welded to the internal
contact.
If I
had to venture a guess as to what happened is that you got a ground-fault
in the box. The source of the current was likely the inverter/battery in
addition to the PV array. I would love to do a post mortum on it.
Trace
and Advanced Energy have combiner boards in their units, but these are
UL-recognized and not usable in a field installation in anything other than what
they are designed for.
You
can get nice RK-5 fuses and fuse holders rated at 125Vdc, but you need to have a
protected fuse holder (like the ones in the Trace and Advanced Energy boards) to
be code compliant. If anyone has a source of the fuse holder/pullers, please
chime in.
ANY
MANUFACTURERS IN THE SOUND OF THIS EMAIL--MAKE US A DECENT COMBINER BOX RATED AT
125 VDC--AND GET SOME INPUT ON THE DESIGN BEFORE YOU RELEASE
IT.
Okay,
I feel better now.
Bill.
In a message dated 03/23/2001 11:31:55 AM Pacific Standard Time,
mmangelsdorf@hei.com writes:
That installation had Solarex MSX120s, four to a string,
using slightly undersized 10a. fuses when they should have been 15a.
Bill,
chime on this one if you want. Since the TCB10 is one
of only a few
Marco, I was using 4 kc120 in series
with a 15 fuse (according to
kyocera-slightly big-they want 11 a). I
feel like saving the box and giving
it to Bill for his collection of
"things that suck".
Don - - - - - - -
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