Quattrohead
Emperor Of Solar
Mounting power electronics on plywood is an instant fail.
not all prohibit itThe first thing I noticed was it is all mounted to wood. My inverters explicitly stated this is not allowed.
Looking at the different pics, it looks like 2 separate 5P battery banks going into the "combiner box" above the batteries. Additionally, it looks like the center battery of each 5P bank is what is connected to the combiner box.The Sunnyboy 4.5kw each can charge at 110 amp continuous / 140 peak, yet the PHI batteries are 28 ah maximum each so in 5p2s specified would be 140 amps continuous.
I see the Sunny Boy is still truckin though !!!
Reviewing the 4.5kw Sunny Island and the 1.4 PHI batteries there appears to be a design flaw in the installation
The Sunnyboy 4.5kw each can charge at 110 amp continuous / 140 peak, yet the PHI batteries are 28 ah maximum each so in 5p2s specified would be 140 amps continuous.
So the grid charges the batteries at 220 amp but the batteries can't handle more than 140 amp in that configuration. Add in the issue with wire length differences ( the manufacture warns against this ) would allow more current to one battery and it's a time bomb.
Just because they can, doesn't mean they have to.
The Sunny Island should be programmed to regulate battery current to desired amount.
The Food Rescue will blame the people they bought the system from, That company will blame the manufacturer of the batteries, The manufacturer of the batteries will blame the installer. The installer will blame the Food Rescue for not operating according to instructions. The various insurance companies and Bond issuers will blame everybody and deny payment. The lawyers will get together and have long martini lunches that they bill their clients for.My guess is the litigation for who was at fault will go on for awhile![]()
My guess is the litigation for who was at fault will go on for awhile![]()
I'm trying to look closer at their design in the hopes that I can continue to reassure the folks I'm working with right now that our new system won't have a similar flaw.
I've found a web page that purports to tell all about the system but the bottom of the two links goes to a file that's been made private. Did anyone happen to cache it while it was still up? I'd really like to see the system design. I've circled the page I can not get to.
Solar DC Microgrid System Education Program – New Sun Rising
www.newsunrising.org
I grabbed the video showing the system when it was originally built but was not able to copy down that PDF as it was already private.
To be fair to the system it had been running for 3 years before it all went wrong. My guess is that whole website and all technical information will disappear if it hasn't already.
Ultimately I would be asking big questions of the city and their inspectors as well as the installers. However it looks like there's a lot of DIY going on there.
Can anyone chime in on what the thinking must have been? I have no direct experience in grid-tied systems. Is this type of design common? It almost appears as though they went out of their way to make it inefficient and complicated.
Do you have 9540A listing now, or is it still being formalized?9540A is the fire rating to look for. we have pushed our EG4 packs through it and exceeded the standards with the fire arrestors just to ensure that the batteries are hardened against this.