<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;">Hello Allan, Dan, Ray and Wrenches ...<br><br>There's some misinformation posted below, which I'll address as soon as my time permits today. I'm headed to a meeting where I'm due in 20 minutes.<br><br><br><br>Dan<br>Senior Engineer<br>Exeltech<br><br><br><br>--- On <b>Fri, 9/9/11, R Ray Walters <i><ray@solarray.com></i></b> wrote:<br><blockquote style="border-left: 2px solid rgb(16, 16, 255); margin-left: 5px; padding-left: 5px;"><br>From: R Ray Walters <ray@solarray.com><br>Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Inverter with no overload protection?<br>To: Allan@positiveenergysolar.com, "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org><br>Date: Friday, September 9, 2011, 8:13 PM<br><br><div id="yiv802626103">I've long been an Exeltech fan, but they are the Pure bred race horses of inverters, beautiful wave form that exceeds Grid quality, but they
are not a work horse.<div>I put a DC breaker on them at 80% of name plate continuous rating. You read right folks, I want that breaker to trip, before something internal goes "poof".</div><div>If people want starting surge, I sell them a 2nd inverter. The 80% breaker actually allows full load for maybe 10 secs, then trips, the customer calls, and I say "a coffee maker?! a Vacuum?! we didn't design for that....."</div><div>I reserve Exeltech for things like tube amplifiers, HiFI stereo, Recording studios, sensitive metering equipment, or one client that had a $50,000 photo quality line printer that was very finicky about its power; stuff like that.</div><div>No load to full load, Exeltech hold almost perfect waveform, but they are not as robust as the old mod sine transformer based inverters (whose waveforms can be ridiculous at load)</div><div><br></div><div>less than $50 sounds pretty cheap for the repair, I'd do that, and get the customer a bigger
(cheaper) mod sine unit if her loads can handle it.</div><div>Somebody (like me) will buy the XP125 off you for their portable sound project.</div><div><br></div><div><br><div>
<span class="yiv802626103Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; border-spacing: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; orphans: 2; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px;"><div>R. Walters</div><div><a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:ray@solarray.com" target="_blank" href="/mc/compose?to=ray@solarray.com">ray@solarray.com</a></div><div>Solar Engineer</div><div><br class="yiv802626103khtml-block-placeholder"></div><div><br>Hi Allan;<br><br>That's amazing! I'll make a note of it for sure. I
often work with tiny systems in remote areas that are transported by
helicopter and boat, and even with many inexpensive inverters (for
example Statpower) there's at least a line of automotive blade fuses
inside that blow and can be easily replaced....one customer hit his
output line with a snowplow, just had to buy 12 new fuses.<br><br>I
highly recommend the Morningstar SureSine. It's bombproof, even for
customers with no electrical knowledge. Just be sure to mount it in an
electrical box, as there are no knockouts on the unit to clamp down the
DC or AC wires.<br><br>Dan Fink<br>Executive Director;<br>Buckville Energy Consulting<br>Buckville Publications LLC<br>NABCEP / IREC / ISPQ accredited Continuing Education Providers<br><a href="http://www.buckville.com/" target="_blank">http://www.buckville.com/</a><br><a href="compose?to=info@buckville.com">info@buckville.com</a><br>970.672.4342 (voicemail)<br>970.373.1311 (fax)<br><br class="yiv802626103khtml-block-placeholder"></div><br class="yiv802626103Apple-interchange-newline"></span>
</div>
<br><div><div>On Sep 9, 2011, at 6:30 PM, Allan Sindelar wrote:</div><br class="yiv802626103Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite">
<div>
Wrenches,<br>
A bit over a year ago I built a mini-system for a customer: One 135W
module, SunSaver-10, 104 A/hr Concorde VRLA, Tri-Metric monitor and
an Exeltech XP125 inverter. All but the module were installed in a
plastic picnic cooler. The customer was totally satisfied with the
system for this weekend getaway cabin system and used it well within
its bounds - a couple of lights, mostly.<br>
<br>
Last week she called because the inverter had failed. I called
Exeltech tech support and was told that the XP125 lacks protection
against AC overload! There's no circuit breaker or internal shutoff
protection, and an internal fuse on the circuit board is included
only to protect against reverse polarity. And because the inverter
has been in operation for 15 months, this apparent failure isn't
covered under the one-year warranty. Send it in, under $50 to
repair. <br>
<br>
I wrote the customer about the load size and her (edited) answer is
below. Apparently it wasn't even an overload, just a failure,
possibly related to poor power factor in the cordless drill charger.
But I still have never heard of an inverter without some form of
overload protection, and it seems to me that a unit this small
especially needs it, given how easily its capacity can be exceeded.<br>
<br>
I have long respected Exeltech, one of few domestic electronics
products left. But this incident is giving me pause. Morningstar's
SureSine claims extensive protection: "The SureSine has extensive
electronic protections that will automatically protect against
faults and user mistakes such as short circuit, overload, high
temperature and low voltage disconnect. Recovery from most faults is
automatic." It's looking better all the time.<br>
<br>
Has anyone else experienced a similar failure?<br>
Thank you,<br>
Allan<br>
<br>
-- <br>
<font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><b>Allan Sindelar</b></font><br>
<small><a rel="nofollow" ymailto="mailto:Allan@positiveenergysolar.com" target="_blank" href="/mc/compose?to=Allan@positiveenergysolar.com"><font color="#000099" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><u>Allan@positiveenergysolar.com</u></font></a></small><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
<span style="font-size: 10pt;">NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic
Installer<br>
NABCEP Certified Technical Sales Professional<br>
New Mexico EE98J Journeyman Electrician<br>
<b>Positive Energy, Inc.</b><br>
3201 Calle Marie<br>
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507<br>
<b>505 424-1112</b><br>
<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://www.positiveenergysolar.com/"><u>www.positiveenergysolar.com</u></a></span></font>
<b><br>
<br>
</b><span style="font-size: 10pt;"></span>-------- Original Message
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Subject: </th>
<td>(no subject)</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">Date: </th>
<td>Fri, 9 Sep 2011 12:48:14 -0400 (EDT)</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">From: </th>
<td>Joann</td>
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<th align="RIGHT" nowrap="nowrap" valign="BASELINE">To: </th>
<td><a rel="nofollow" class="yiv802626103moz-txt-link-abbreviated" ymailto="mailto:allan@positiveenergysolar.com" target="_blank" href="/mc/compose?to=allan@positiveenergysolar.com">allan@positiveenergysolar.com</a></td>
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<font id="yiv802626103role_document" color="#000000" face="Arial" size="2">
<div>Hi Allan, i just got your message. I have a 7.2 volt
craftsman cordless drill and I used the 1 hour charger. As soon
as I plugged it in, the inverter made a funny sound and
everything went off. the battery was operating 100% - it was
in the morning and nothing else was turned on. On the bottom of
the charger it says: dual charge rate
<div> input: 120V AC 60 Hz 65 watts</div>
<div> output: 7.2-24V DC 1.6A Battery Charger</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
<div>Yes, it's a little upsetting that this happened. I remember
asking you if I could overload it - one of my concerns and you
advised me that wouldn't happen. I appreciate your taking care
of this. Thanks, Joann</div>
<br>
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