I am curious what experience other people have had with radio interference from their SunTie inverters? Have you found any measures to help reduce the interference?

My installation mostly blocks out AM radio signals in the house during the day when the inverter is running.

Hi Roger,

The factory upgrade STXR units will provide some relief to the RFI problems some people have encountered in the past. These changes have resolved television and radio interference issues for several customers who, at one time, had RFI problems.

Best regards,

Roger,

Thanks for the reply. I had sent email to customerservice@xantrex.com last month but didn't get an answer.

Tobin's fast reply is appreciated. I guess I will find out in a few months how much the RFI is reduced.

Kevin

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by knoedler:
... Have you found any measures to help reduce the interference? ... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

There is at least one other post here about this problem, see "Daves Top 10 reasons to buy a Sunnyboy" in the "SMA Products" section, where Pete says:

... One of several reasons I replaced my STXR's with Sunny Boys is because my wife was going to make me install a huge antenna for her AM radio. The RF noise from the XR's kept her swamped out her favorite financial station. Now the interference is gone and the antenna project is unfulfilled history.

Needless to say, this is just about the most drastic "measure" one can take to resolve the problem, but being a shortwave radio listener, I can identify with the frustration level...

Have you tried contacting Xantrex about this?

I would be very interested to know if the new factory upgrade would resolve the problem or at least reduce some of the RF noise ... or if Xantrex is offering any other options for relief.

-Roger

Hi Tobin (& Kevin),

Thanks for getting back on this.

Overall, this sounds like great news, although quite frankly, it also sounds a little like there are some open-ended qualifiers in your response (i.e. "some relief" and "some people" instead of more inclusive adjectives).

Are there any cases known where RF interference has remained with an upgrade?

I looked around at the relevant pages & pdf docs on the Xantrex website hoping to find some text containing "FCC" or "Radio" and found none (thinking maybe this has been covered in statements about the equipment creating/accepting interference, which microprocessor based equipment frequently makes reference to).

The user manual only has the word "interference" once, in the section on connecting the remote monitor and it is not about any radio or television issues.

I understand that many factors can lead to RFI, some of which may not be due to inverter design.

It seems that it would be appropriate to see some discussion on RFI (along with any best practices for reduction &/or prevention?) in the docs.

FWIW, the SMA 2500U install/operation doc (pg. 52) contains summary info on EMI certification for compliance with FCC regulations & DIN EN.

-Roger