If Your reading this most likely you read my article in the Home Power magazine.

I really believe in Solar Power but have been frustrated by the total lack of open , honest information about the different manufactures products.

I have taken noticed that there are no active support or Question and Answer forums For either Xantrex or SMA. So I’ve started this in hopes it can become a useful service for other like me that believe in Solar Power.

So , Yes , at first this will be a work in progress type of thing. The usefulness of this depends on the solar community in large and this means YOU and your willingness to participate.

I have commitments from both SMA and Xantrex to monitor the forums and answer any questions ask.

So Fire away and lets see what we can do to help you and others

There is much going on behind the scenes and soon I will be able to tell the community about what I have been up to since I wrote the Home Power Article.

Thanks for taking a look !!!

Thanks for starting the forum...we need to exchange facts without rancor. Improved performance of solar systems is a must if the industry is to be readily accepted by the mainstream public.

My wife will not let me die because she fears a system breakdown after I'm gone!

Indeed thanks for setting this forum up, as well as the excellent work putting together the article. Got home this evening and saw the copy of my favorite magazine and settled in for an evening of enjoyable reading.

Some quick comments/requests:
1) Rather than simply having a separate thread for two inverter brands, there are many more that I'm sure people would like to compare and contrast, does it make sense to consolidate the two into one?
2) Call me stupid, but I'd love to give folks my Messenger/P***port ID. Unfortunately, the registration form only asks for AIM or ICQ

Hi Lopez,

Thanks for your comments .. I'm not a programming or web wizard ... so as far as the IM vs AIM stuff , it is just how ubb has there bulletin board software

The though of seperate topics was to help SMA and Xantrex support people so they don't have to search thru unrelated questions to there products

All work in progess and I am open to suggestion from all to make this site useful

Thanks !

THANK YOU - THANK YOU - THANK YOU!!! This need to be done. The Master Electrician thatI work with here in the DC area has performed similar tests with similar results. I have six ST unit in now - most with Millennia Thin Film PV Panels. Thes units I am told will only match up to an ST or an STXR in a residential environment (fire fear). Up to 1.2kW systems may be OK on an Advanced Energy 1 kW inverter. Please test one of these to see what it will do next to the SB and ST/STXR. I am willing to bet they will donate one for a test purpose. [img]images/smiles/icon_confused.gif[/img] <A HREF="mailto:solarnrgman@juno.com">solarnrgman@juno.com</A>

Excellent article, great testing and reporting too. For the past ten months I too have felt my ST2500 was underperforming, but with the Hawaiian islands having varied cloud cover, and temperature, plus limited PV users, it was hard to really verify that the ST was not up to expectations. I love the scaleability of the ST, but like the quiet, efficient and sealed package found with the Sunnyboy. Thanks for performing the testing and looking forward to more!

Hello old solar dog Hawaiian Sun !!!

You both make excellent suggestions and both of these ideas , testing other inverters and testing with Thin Film PV Panels are much needed things I would like to do.

Testing other inverter's will be the first thing on my list and the AE inverter , the new sunnyboy 1700 and an improved Suntie would make a good 1k testing roundup.

On the panels ... this is a though thing to do since all I own is Koycera panels. I will put it on my to do list to see what can be done in these regards..

Thanks for your comments !!!

[img]images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]

WHERE IS MY POST OF OCT.17. 2002??? MEMBER #50 BILL HOOPES. [img]images/smiles/icon_eek.gif[/img] <A HREF="mailto:null[/EMAIL][email]slh4@ix.netcom.com">null[/email][EMAIL]slh4@ix.netcom.com</A>

You posted in the SMA topic about a Xantrex product. The post was moved by the moderator to the Trace/Xantrex area.

arnold

Nice article in H.P. and thanks for setting up the forum. I'm looking into PV's now and know that I'll learn a lot from folks here.