Ray,
I think Daryl is on to something. I would suspect a line problem
(under-sized feeder, bad connections, failing transformer, trees rubbing
wire, someone else on the feeder with noisy or large intermittent loads,
etc.). Utility transformers can degrade for a long time before they fail. In
similar cases I called in a trouble report but did not tell the utility
about RE system so they wouldn't blame the customer's equipment. Instead, I
told the utility that my customer's computer or tv was acting like (high or
low voltage or whatever) was on the line so I put my voltmeter on the line
and measured (low or high) voltage and would they please check out the
feeder circuit and transformer. Almost every time the field workers found a
line problem, repaired it and the customer's problems cleared up. It's worth
the call.
Joel Davidson
----- Original Message -----
From: <[email protected]>
To: "RE-wrenches" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 31, 2010 12:32 PM
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Outback Grid Problems
Ray, Believe me when I say I have gone through all the exercises described
so far by our esteemed colleagues. I think you will find the problem is
with the customers transformer. I continue to make impressive amounts of
kwh since the swap out last week.
Daryl
Battery bank is in great shape, is brand new HUP set.
Thanks,
R. Walters
[email protected]
Solar Engineer
On Mar 31, 2010, at 6:19 AM, [email protected] wrote:
Ask the customer to ck the cells for bubbling during the charging period
to make sure the cells all are good OR Isolate the battery banks to make
sure there isn't a dead cell the OBs are trying to charge. BB1 one day,
BB2 the next & so on.
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
-----Original Message-----
From: R Ray Walters <[email protected]>
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2010 10:42:58
To: RE-wrenches<[email protected]>
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Outback Grid Problems
We currently have a Grid Tie system with a pair of Outback inverters
that are regularly dropping out of sell mode, and letting the arrays
spend all day charging the battery bank.
It seems to do this several times a week, and the customer is losing
substantial production, and gassing the batteries too much.
It will reset itself the next day, or the customer resets it by turning
off the inverters manually.
The system is 24 v, with an old array of 1800 watts running through 2
FM60s, and a new array of 2800 watts running through another pair of
FM60s.
The battery bank is HUP about 4100 Ah @ 24 v (3 strings of 1375 Ah each)
Big battery, I know, but the customer is an electrical engineer, who
wanted maximum storage capacity.
Outback tech support has not resolved the issue, and this has turned
into several service calls, and customer frustration.
We've tried running the controllers through the HUB, and also
independently, and that doesn't make a difference.
I have numerous Outback GT installs dating back to 2003, and have never
had a problem like this.
Any help or advice would as always be greatly appreciated.
Thank you in advance fellow Wrenches,
R. Walters
[email protected]
Solar Engineer
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