This is a great site to get real information. Keep it up.

I have read a fair amount from the solar guppy forum site trying to find the answer to my question, but the answer eludes me. I can tell that Henry is a recognized expert on the Xantrex Suntie, so I am hoping that you will answer my fairly simple question. I purchased an upgraded Suntie 2500 from a gentleman that I meet through your solar guppy forum. I am in the process of bringing it up very soon. My question is how do you figure the maximum and recommended amount of solar DC watts of panels that can or should be connected to the Suntie 2500. I am currently planning on an array of 16 Sharp 170 watt panels (8 strings of 2 panels to an outback combiner box) for a total of 2820 watts. Figuring that under normal conditions, the panels will not put out over 90 percent of their rated watts. Am I close or do I have too much panel wattage for the 2500 watt Suntie.

Hope someone can give me some guidance or point me to some Suntie planning information. I have read the entire suntie installation manual several times and not found the answer to this question.

Thankyou for your kind words , I am the designer and enjoy helping out others that want to build there own systems and or have technical questions that I might have insight into.

From actual systems I have built and have running, once can expect about 80% peak AC watts from the DC STC name plate ratings from panels

Now there are many factors that come into play, first is the fact that unless your panels are on a tracker, the panel is never perpendicular to the Sun , then there is the effect heat has at lowering the output voltage and hence the maximum power, wire losses ect.

My East and West arrays which are panels fixed mounted to my roof produce about 3300 watts DC, STC ... they average about 2300 watts peaks AC most of the time ... on a cold clear day, it might be a 100 or so watts more ... On my system that had 4 season adjustable racks, I got about 2200 watts best case with 2880 arrays.

The Suntie will never be damaged if you have "to much" solar panels, the worst that will happen is the inverter will run upto its software limited 2500 watts , so for example if you had 5kw of panels, it would just produce 2500 watts most of the day, a big waste! but nothing would be damaged

Thank you for your response. I finally got a second meter base installed as required by my power company and the ok to start the inverter. Which brings up another question. The inverter started up fine and began generating a little power even in a semi cloudy day, I makes a noize that sounds like old pocket watch ticking. It is not really a tick, but a low buzz. You can feel a slight vibration on the top of the unit. I have never seen one of these units run before, should they make any sounds that oscelate? It appears to be functioning ok and the air flow is ok, although I have never heard the fan come on, (but it has been cloudy and have not reached peak output).

The power electronics, well actually the E-Core Magnetics, do make audible noises, they increase with load. Not to worry, just what that style of magnetics does, there is nothing to worry about