Hi Kevin;
That makes sense, if the charger is enough of a reactive load, it could
introduce noise into the entire system. Just something like a hair
dryer can put noise into the entire system. Did it improve with large
enough generators, or not? Was this a problem when charging from the
grid? Did you have any issues with controls not working on the Magnums?
Thanks,
R.Ray Walters
CTO, Solarray, Inc
Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
Licensed Master Electrician
Solar Design Engineer
303 505-8760
On 3/19/2015 3:40 PM, Kevin Pegg wrote:
Hi Ray,
This is a bit of old news for us, goes back probably 8 years ago or so, so this
is from memory and have not been able to locate the testing reports we created.
We conducted extensive testing of the issue, were able to easily replicate it, didn't
matter what generator being used. There was some harmonics and "noise" on the
line that was specifically caused by the Outback charging circuit.
We presented this information to Outback, and the response was something of the line of
"ya we know but don't think it's a problem and so won't be any effort to
resolve". Where we work in Canada and the north the winter sun is quite scarce and
such being reliant on generators was a reality. And the most problematic loads were
furnace boiler control systems that of course the clients needed to run.
At the time we moved to Magnum units primarily, and then to Xantrex XW once
available. The issues were immediately and permanently solved by replacing the
inverter with another brand.
It certainly jaded my opinion of Outback as we had to replace several systems
at our cost.
Kevin
-----Original Message-----
From: RE-wrenches [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of Ray Walters
Sent: March 19, 2015 9:05 AM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] outback radian question
Hi Kevin;
I have both a comment and a question:
Comment) I thought that while charging, the AC loads were simply powered
directly by the generator, and the inverters were operating strictly as
chargers. My experience is that it is almost always an issue of poor
waveform regulation with the generator. This is easy to check with a
Fluke 87 or 89. Set to quick peak capture, and see what the peak of the
waveform is. A clean sine wave of 120 vac will have a peak that is 1.41
times the RMS, or 169 vac. I've seen them as low as 135, or
alternatively have weird spikes into the 200s.
Of course a scope reading is better, but not everyone can afford those.
Question) Which inverter did you switch to that cured the problem?
Thanks,
R.Ray Walters
CTO, Solarray, Inc
Nabcep Certified PV Installer,
Licensed Master Electrician
Solar Design Engineer
303 505-8760
On 3/18/2015 9:20 PM, Kevin Pegg wrote:
This sounds like the exact same issue with the FX and VFX inverters. Meter the
power quality while under charge - nasty. We found a lot of computerized
control systems on furnaces and boilers would either reject the power and not
power up, or would behave erratically, some would be ok if you powered it up
before generator on, some not. They were fine on inverter, fine on generator,
but under charge bad.
Ended up swapping out a lot of inverters since customers were not so keen on
certain loads not operating properly when under generator charge.
Kevin
-----Original Message-----
From: RE-wrenches [mailto:[email protected]]On
Behalf Of jay peltz
Sent: March 18, 2015 5:32 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: [RE-wrenches] outback radian question
HI All,
My question is. are there any known issues with the Radian interfacing with a
generator?
I have a customer with flickering lights.
The lights are LED ( some dimmer/some on/off)
The generator supplier says that there are lots of problems with the Radian.
I've not heard this and don't believe it.
symptoms:
radian alone: no flicker
generator alone: no flicker
generator/charging flicker.
different generator: no flicker.
So there is no doubt its the generator.
I'm trying to get more information to go back to the customer.
Thanks
jay
peltz power
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