Replacing old SW’s has accounted for about half of my work load for the last two or three years. When my clients have limited means and a single SW4024, I install a MS4024 w/conduit box, and leave everything else intact. Often, when dealing with really remote sites, I can have the client send me some pictures of the “power wall” and I can make one trip out showing up with everything I need too make the swap in an few hours. My service truck is stocked for every contingency to do so.
Dual inverters, I lean towards a pre-wired MS4024PAE Mini-Magnum power center. That’s a pretty quick swap too. When customers do have the means, or say it's is a new client who purchased a place with a legacy system, then I just start from scratch, In that case I specify Radians, either 4 or 8kws, because the Mate 3’s make my life so much easier. I get calls all the time from folks who have Magnums and ME-ARC controllers……….”How do I get back to %” Plus with the Mate 3, if these get wonky, I can have the client send me pictures of the “Events” so Iknow what were up against. Way more problems with Magnum reliability in the last few years too. The question I think about all the time is why is it that all my earlier systems and those installed by others do so well. I mean, I have built hundreds and hundreds of SW based systems with modest arrays with a great success rate. Long battery life and minimal equipment failure. Nowadays I feel like Im running around putting out fires and wasting my life on hold waiting for “tech support”. I almost never see ten years with FLA’s. I love it when I come across an Ananda power center, what a blast from the past. Michael > On Oct 7, 2018, at 6:02 PM, Ray <[email protected]> wrote: > > Greetings Esteemed Wrenches; > > I have yet another customer whose 20+ yr old Trace SW inverter has flown off > to inverter Nirvana. I have replaced a few over the years and never quite > solved the quandary of whether to replace the entire power board, or to > retrofit a Magnum/ Outback in place of the SW, and keep the old Trace DC > enclosure. In this particular case, he has a pair of SW 4024s on an old > Ananda power center. I'm considering taking the system to 48 v as well, since > this will let us use the Magnum 4.4 kW inverters. This however will also > involve rewiring 20 yr old arrays of 50 and 75 watt modules...... > What is the consensus on the best replacement practices on these legacy > systems? I have several out there with the clock ticking down. My current > idea is to just keep the Ananda and use Magnum's extension boxes to connect > up the new MS 4448 inverters. Its a tough call: I've replaced a few single > SW installs and reused the Trace DC enclosure, and cursed working in those > tiny boxes. In other cases, I've put up a whole new system, but wondered if > that was over kill too. It seems to be a case of more field installation > hours vs more equipment costs. > > Sure be handy, if someone made an SW replacement kit, there are still a bunch > of them out there. > > As always, thanks for all your comments and ideas, > > -- > Ray Walters > Remote Solar > 303 505-8760 > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List-Archive: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html > > List rules & etiquette: > www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > www.members.re-wrenches.org > _______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance List Address: [email protected] Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html List rules & etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
