Inverter Failures - Page 9

 



You have to know that Trace, back in those days, only had Dialup Internet
connections, and they were located fairly far back in the Woods of
Western Washington State.  Things have progressed considerable for
Internet availability around Arlington in the last half decade.

Bruce in alaska
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add a <2> before @

 


Don't we all ;-).


Well, firstly, put in a generator bypass switch; lets the generator
bypass the whole inverter-battery process.
Secondly, maybe get a step-up transformer (T-240, X-240, whatever) so
you can run your well pump off 120v, or get a DC well pump (Shurflow,
Lorentz, etc)
Cistern water systems I like. Again, as someone else mentioned, for
water availability in case of fire or accident.


To get a replacement, if your credit cards are amenable, couple days,
max. Repaired, another matter. Depends on what died.
With OutBack stuff, it's board swap. I've replaced boards on OutBacks
from arrival at the client site to turning the DC breaker back on
afterwards: two hours downtime. It's been my experience that boards
can be shipped out from OutBack in a day. Someone mentioned doing a
'board-ectomy' on a Trace, so it might be possible too. Now that
they're dropping the SW and the SW+ for the new XW, might start
getting more interesting.


So that's your weakness. Eliminate it ;-).

 



Yes, that was part of the initial installation.


I've thought of that.  But if it's only a few days for a replacement, I can
live with occasional generator runs for water.



Don't have Outback, so that suggestion doesn't work for me.


--ron

 

I'm going to make a suggestion here that I haven't heard before.  Most
inverters companies won't repair units past a certain age, and won't make
repair info available to other parties.  The two highest failure rate parts
in an inverter are going to be the magnetics (inductors and transformers)
and the capacitors.  The next higher failure rate item is probably the power
semiconductors.  The magnetics are very likely custom items and repair shops
aren't going to be able to get a hold of them, however the capacitors and
the semiconductors are likely standard parts.  However, the capacitors and
power semiconductors are likely to destroy themselves when they fail to the
point that the part numbers will be unreadable when they fail.    My
suggestion is that if a person wants to be able to repair an interver in the
future, they should do the best they can to build a parts list and take high
resolution digital photographs of the circuit board before it fails.  Both
will be invaluable for a repair shop.

 



For a "Properly" designed Inverter, the Magnetics are one of the LAST
things that fail, as it takes significant overloads to heat them to
the point of failure, and by that time, the Silicon will have long since
BURNT Open, or the Overcurrent Protection (fuses) will have opened, and
disabled the inverter.  Capacitors, in a "Properly" designed Inverter
are only used for Filtering, and Small Signal Coupling, and usually only
fail when the Electrolyte Dries out, from overheating and age.  
Semiconductors can usually be Second Sourced, if the OEM DOESN'T paint
over the Identifacation Information, and the same with most of the
Low Level Circuitry. The Magnetics are usually Custom or OEM Spec'd
for that particular unit, and are usually not stocked by the Supplier to
the OEM much after the Production Run, and a few spares.

Pictures are worth a Thousand Words, of documentation, anyday.....

Bruce in alaska
--
add a <2> before @