I'm a bit confused and need some feedback. I live off grid in Texas and I'm not a professional electrician. When I bought the cabin it was powered by a generator. I've recently completed the installation of a Sol-Ark 12k with (16) Mission 415 panels and (12) Simpliphi 3.8-M 48 volt batteries. I commissioned my system a few week ago and I've had a smile on my face ever since. It's so quiet here now. This week the weather got warm and we had the window units on, a 1000 watt and (2) 400 watts . All was well until we plugged our Polaris Ranger EV in. While charging, when the well pump kicks on, which is about every 3rd or 4th toilet flush, the Sol-Ark shuts down temporarily and shows a high amp spike warning. I talked to the folks at SA and they recommended a soft start on the well pump. The well pump is a Sta-Rite jet pump, 1 hp, 230v single phase. I put a clamp meter on it and when it powers up it spikes to 30 amps and in a nanosecond settles down to 10 amps when running. I called the manufacturer of the pump and asked if I was ok using a soft start on their pump. The tech support guy said he could see no reason why their pump wouldn't play happily with a soft start and blessed the idea. So then I started searching soft starts and settled on a Schneider. In talking to Schneider their tech support guy he told me they only had 1 unit that would address my single phase pump, their ATS01N125FT. I told him I was concerned that my pump would exceeed the 25 amps listed on that pump and he advised the 25 was a run start not a limit. After searching their site I found a ATS01N112FT that was a also a single phase. I wrote back to Schneider and the tech support guy said both would work but the 25 may be a better fit. I suggested that, based on our previous conversation, if the 25 indicated it wouldn't start until it saw 25 amps and I was peaking at 30 amps I wasn't gaining much. He seemed to backtrack on the previous statment that the 12 or 25 number was where it started and reiterated both would work.
So here's my question. Do I need the 25 amp version? Price is not a driver, but it's twice the price and I'm not sure its the best fit for my situation/application. Can anyone who understands this topic better than I add some color to my decision making process?
Thanks in advance.
So here's my question. Do I need the 25 amp version? Price is not a driver, but it's twice the price and I'm not sure its the best fit for my situation/application. Can anyone who understands this topic better than I add some color to my decision making process?
Thanks in advance.