Bad Fronius IG 4000- Need matching inverter

[LAH433]

All,
I have gone through posts about the Fronius IG 4000. I have the State 421 code. 13 years old so I'm looking to replace. The unit I'm replacing covers 20 205W panels. Grid tied. I'm a GC so I now a decent amount about a lot. Just not enough about electrical so I need help sorting through my options. There are numerous options in the 4000KW range of inverters. There is a tag on my inverter that says, operating current-max power 22.54A, operating voltage-max power 182V, Short circuit current 23.86A, max system voltage 600V, and system power output 4100W. If I stayed in the Fronius what model should I use? Im not stuck on a particular bard so would also take any suggestions.

All help and suggestion are much appreciated.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

All,
I have gone through posts about the Fronius IG 4000. I have the State 421 code. 13 years old so I'm looking to replace. The unit I'm replacing covers 20 205W panels. Grid tied. I'm a GC so I now a decent amount about a lot. Just not enough about electrical so I need help sorting through my options. There are numerous options in the 4000KW range of inverters. There is a tag on my inverter that says, operating current-max power 22.54A, operating voltage-max power 182V, Short circuit current 23.86A, max system voltage 600V, and system power output 4100W. If I stayed in the Fronius what model should I use? Im not stuck on a particular bard so would also take any suggestions.

All help and suggestion are much appreciated.

Please list your panel Voc and Isc values.

are they wired in two parallel strings?

 

[Solar Guppy]

Any similar wattage gridtie inverter should work, the IG 4000 working DC voltage is 150 to 500V and it is a single mppt. Based on the number of panels you have I suspect you have two stings of 10 in series.

I have found Solis inverters to be good performers, This one should be a straight forward swap out. One advantage of newer inverters is the have more mppt inputs, so if you do have 2 strings of 10 panels, you could put each string to its own mppt input, potentially get better performance if any of the panels get shaded.

 

[LAH433]

Guys,
So I'm not sure what the Voc is but the Isc is 205W per. All 20 panels are wired inline.

 

[LAH433]

Also,
The inverter is mounted in my basement so there is no issue with heat.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Guys,
So I'm not sure what the Voc is but the Isc is 205W per. All 20 panels are wired inline.

Isc is the short circuit current of the panel. 205W is the panel rated power.

@Solar Guppy rendered my questions moot.

 

[Solar Guppy]

Any grid-tie inverter of similar or high wattage should work, all you need to check is the mppt operating voltage window of 150-500V. A wider window is OK for example the one I linked in the previous post is 90-520V for Solar input.

 

[LAH433]

I see that reading through the posts that systems are split up? 20 panels. 10 each. Is having all 20 together inline beneficial or not?

 

[Solar Guppy]

If you want to stay with Fronius, they seem to be back-ordered / out of stock from a quick search, but this is the model that would be a replacement

Having 10x2 vs 20x1 give the option of better shading performance ( maybe ), but you will have to do wiring and design validation to know if that is an option. If you're looking for just a swap out, it's just disconnecting and reconnecting the DC and AC wires ( mark the solar +/- ). Do it at night, so you are not working with live DC ( solar ) wires would be my recommendation.

 

[LAH433]

I appreciate your time responding. Understood on the sun/shade performance. I'm not looking to change. Was just curious. Makes sense.
I'm trying to go through forum now to search for Sunny Boy posts. Is it worth waiting till September(?) for the new models to come out? Seems like they are mostly out of stock with current model. Not sure what is drawing me to the Sunny Boy except maybe the options.

 

[Solar Guppy]

I appreciate your time responding. Understood on the sun/shade performance. I'm not looking to change. Was just curious. Makes sense.
I'm trying to go through forum now to search for Sunny Boy posts. Is it worth waiting till September(?) for the new models to come out? Seems like they are mostly out of stock with current model. Not sure what is drawing me to the Sunny Boy except maybe the options.

Since this is a 13 year old installation, I would just get the most basic grid-tie that meets the power and DC input voltage needs, and that what I linked in my first response.

 

[LAH433]

Understood.
Thanks again for the advise and peace of mind. Great place to pick up some good info.