Check out the new SMA Smartformer, though I'm not sure whether it's
actually shipping yet. I'm thinking about this for my house eventually
(SB5000US).
http://www.sma-america.com/en_US/products/off-grid-and-back-up-solutions/smartformer-for-sunny-island.html
Alternatively, the new SMA TL inverters (at least the 3, 4, and 5kW
units according to the press release) have an "Emergency Power Supply"
function that can provide backup power (12A?) during the day when the
grid is down. This may meet your customer's requirements. No batteries
required, though since the TLs require ungrounded arrays, you may need
to rewire the existing array to be compliant with 690.35 (PV Wire or
raceway).
On 2012/10/5 8:41, Kirk Herander wrote:
One Question: Output of the SunnyBoy is 240vac. So this is fed to the
critical load panel, of which the SunnyIsland 120 vac output is fed to.
So we need a 120/240 step up transformer between the SunnyIsland and the
critical load panel to fully take advantage of the Sunnyboy array for
battery charging, correct?.
Kirk Herander
VT Solar, LLC
dba Vermont Solar Engineering
NABCEP^TM Certified installer Charter Member
NYSERDA-eligible Installer
VT RE Incentive Program Partner
802.863.1202
*From:*[email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] *On Behalf Of *David Katz
*Sent:* Friday, October 05, 2012 2:11 AM
*To:* RE-wrenches
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] AC coupling and Outback inverters
Hi Kirk,
All of the Outback inverters will work AC coupled (GT and FX) as will
any bi-directional H-bridge type inverter. I have used old Trace SW’s,
SunnyIsland, Apollo TSW, Magnum AE and now I am using an Outback Radian
to do exactly what you are talking about. I have 6 kW of grid tie
inverter and an additional 4kw of modules running through a Xantrex 600
volt charge controller to the batteries that the Radian runs on. It all
works flawless as long as you have a provision for protecting the
batteries when the gid is down and the grid-tie PV system is making more
power than the loads are using.
If the customer has SMA inverters, I would recommend using a SunnyIsland
because the battery control when the grid goes down is so elegant.
Everything else is a bit of a kludge.
David Katz
CTO & Founder
AEE Solar Inc
P: 707 825-1200
F: 707 825-1202
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
www.aeesolar.com <http://www.aeesolar.com>
*From:*[email protected]
<mailto:[email protected]>
[mailto:[email protected]]
<mailto:[mailto:[email protected]]> *On Behalf
Of *Kirk Herander
*Sent:* Thursday, October 04, 2012 2:11 PM
*To:* RE-wrenches
*Subject:* [RE-wrenches] AC coupling and Outback inverters
I have AC-coupled an Outback quad-stack with multiple SunnyBoy 6000US
inverters and it’s been running fine for 4 years. I used the off-grid
version of Outbacks.
Now I have an application where a customer wants to add battery backup
to an existing SunnyBoy 5000US system. And expand his array by a couple
KW. So I’m thinking of using a GT Outback w/ batteries to handle the
critical loads and feed the extra 2kw of PV (charging the batteries
through an MX60) to the grid. And I’d like to AC-couple the SunnyBoy so
the original 5 kw array can also charge the batteries, BUT I remember,
at least I think so, that the GT inverter cannot be AC-coupled, only the
off-grid version. Is this correct? Thanks.
Kirk Herander
VT Solar, LLC
dba Vermont Solar Engineering
NABCEP^TM Certified installer Charter Member
NYSERDA-eligible Installer
VT RE Incentive Program Partner
802.863.1202
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