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Xantrex: NEED POSITIVE GROUND XANTREX GT INVERTER!!!
http://solar-guppy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=616		 Page 1 of 3
Author:  Iboc [ Tue Feb 26, 2008 12:55 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject:  Xantrex: NEED POSITIVE GROUND XANTREX GT INVERTER!!!
I've got a little problem... Perhaps a big problem. I went to go order my inverter yesterday. When I had Alternative Energy Store work up the quote in late January, Xantrex said that the inverters were available. Now apparently that is no longer the case. In order to order the inverter I want, they would need to order 10 of them and they are not willing to do that. I dont blame them, who else is gonna but them? For that matter why the h*ll would Xantrex say that they are available but make them impossible to order by the average person? ARRRG. Does anyone know where I might be able to order a Xantrex GT3.3-na-240/208-pos UL05? If I can't get this inverter anymore then I have lost all faith in Xantrex as I cannot build a cheap system anymore. I wanted to eventually AC-Couple it to an XW system to get my Ideal setup. With any other inverter the XW would be incompatible. I was originally told it was available with a 6-8 week lead time, now its not available to me. Any suggestions other than switching to a different panel brand or an SMA inverter (which I don't want)? :(
Author:  mike90045 [ Tue Feb 26, 2008 2:40 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject:  Re: NEED POSITIVE GROUND XANTREX GT INVERTER!!!
I believe any of Xantrex GT series will work with + gnd, but I have not read all the manuals. I don't think there is anything special about the 3.3 vs the others in the series.

http://store.solar-electric.com/xagt33grties.html should have some for good prices.
Author:  Solar Guppy [ Tue Feb 26, 2008 4:36 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
Try this guy

http://www.beyondoilsolar.com/inverters.htm

Also, the Alternative Energy Store don't seem to carry much of the Xantrex line, so just because this litttle outfit can't get you an inverter has no bearing on Xantrex, its a reflection that it looks like the are aligned with PVPower and SMA, based on the products listed
Author:  mike90045 [ Tue Feb 26, 2008 5:16 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
hey, I like those prices @ beyondoilsolar
Author:  Iboc [ Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:14 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
mike90045, the problem was not the size of the inverter, the problem was that I needed one with the Model # Suffix of -pos which denotes the positive ground nature of the inverter model. The only real difference is where they place the ground fuse, on the negative leg or the positive leg. I went through Alternative Energy because they were a reseller of Powerfab Racks from Direct Power and Water. They treated me well the first time so, I figured I would give them a try. They weren't able to quote the inverter to me at any discounted rate, but I didn't expect them to because its a special item, not something they would typically carry in stock. But then again, who would carry a positive ground inverter unless they are a reseller of Sunpower, the only company that manufactures exclusively positive ground panels.
Author:  Iboc [ Tue Feb 26, 2008 6:20 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
By the way, Alternative Energy Store and Xantrex are in the process of clearing this up and getting me the inverter I requested. Eyedid over at the Xantrex Forums looked in to it for me and told me that they would help Alternative Energy Store to get me one. Chris at Alternative Energy Store told me they should have a solution for me soon. Also, price wasn't the issue either, Im pretty sure no matter where I go it's going to be a special order Item due to the fact that I need a positive ground model. Therefore, it's not likely that I would recieve a discount, although I do agree BeyondOilSolar's prices are good and they have a larger selection, the advertised price of the GT 3.3 (standard negative ground) isn't that different from other sites.
Author:  Iboc [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 11:23 am GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
Hopefully tommorow will be our first day online with the new system, its going to operate independently along side the other system until I can afford the equipment to merge the 2. Im told the XW 24v systems aren't shipping yet anyway. Its been a bit of a head trip reading NEC codes and Inverter manuals to be certain the wiring configuration I came up with is correct. I ended up grounding the arrays as specified by Xantrex and Sunpower, but not on each module, I grounded the aluminum mounting rails instead since they bolt to the aluminum panel frames. I used UL Listed CU/AL certified outdoor lugs and Green #10 wire. The system is positive ground, which is strange to work with. In a pos-ground system your grounded and ungrounded conductors are swapped in color and location, so the positive wire is unfused and runs to what is normally the negative bus bar in the combiner box. Also the Negative (Ungrounded) conducor is black instead of white as normal and runs to the fuses which is also backwards from the typical setup. I have marked all my wires by color and tested polarities with a multimeter. This has been made more complicated by my choise to go with aluminum #4 before I even knew what type of system we would have. I had to buy UL Listed CU/AL certified splice blocks and heavy duty shrink wrap. I also used the anti-corrosive paste on the aluminum side of all connections. We know it works, durring testing my dad zapped himself with string 1 while it was cloudy, then we tested the line, 324 volts!!! HA HA. :roll: We also got a lucky break at home depot, we are replacing our service entry at the same time and we bought 20 ft of 100 amp Copper Service entry cable for the price of 15ft of aluminum wire because they couldn't find the right price. Anyway, once I get this thing done I will try to find a way to upload some photos. Anyone have any Idea how to do that? :?:
Author:  mike90045 [ Mon Mar 17, 2008 1:29 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
I don't think you can actually upload photos here, but you can, with the little button tools above the text entry box, paste a image URL, and the img* button will "embed" the link into your message.

Image

( {img} http://www.mike-burgess.org/images/GT_Screen_Save.png {/img}
only the curly braces are square brackets in real life )

like this. Your image has to be hosted SOMEWHERE on the internet for this to work.
Author:  Iboc [ Tue Mar 18, 2008 4:30 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
I was looking for a place to upload, I suppose I could upload them on to my CarDomain site, it allows other photos to be stored there too aside from just car pictures.

FYI to all, My inverter is ONLINE. It came online today at 11:00 this morning and we produced almost 14kwh today, and it was a little cloudy due to some high altitude strattus clouds. AMAZING!!! I was expecting maybe 8 or 9 KWH based on what other have gotten with similar systems. We missed the first 2 or 3 hours of daylight, it wasn't 100% clear out and the windmill was dead in the water today. We have had the skystream up for 2 months now and it has only managed 1 surplus kilowatt hour, I think they broke it when they dropped it during installation. Maybe slightly de-magnetized the permanent magnets. If this turns out to be the case they will replace it though. Part of the reason of the increased output is that my retired father is home all day and turns the pole top rack mounts once every hour to increase output. 8)
Author:  mike90045 [ Tue Mar 18, 2008 5:40 pm GMT EthGMT ]
Post subject: 
Iboc wrote:
Part of the reason of the increased output is that my retired father is home all day and turns the pole top rack mounts once every hour to increase output. 8)


That helps !! The good thing about trackers, you don't need them in bad weather. If the sun's out, a 60 minute egg timer, and a good book should keep the tracker mechanism happy.
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