Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

ChrisOlson

Re: Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

You see, that's exactly what they told me. When I was talking to the guy on the phone I specifically told him that I wanted a setup where my wife can turn on a high-draw appliance, the inverter carries the load long enough to get the generator started and online, then the gen carries most of the load while the inverter carries the balance. He immediately told me "nope - the GFX does not do that - you need a GS8048 Radian." Then I got switched over to Francine Flores and it was all GS8048 and what dealer I could go to to get one.

So nobody is going to really know until somebody tries it because the GFX IS designed to support grid power input. Maybe they put me off because the GFX-series are famous for being really picky on what generators they'll work with?
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Chris

mtdoc

Re: Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

As discussed on this forum previously - and I believe in the Outback forums- The Outback "G" inverters do gen support but apparentely the non G inverters do not. G inverters require an inverter type generator I believe (maybe not on the Radians?). I have tested gen support on my system and it appears to work just fine.

ChrisOlson

Re: Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

mtdoc wrote: »

G inverters require an inverter type generator I believe (maybe not on the Radians?).

They didn't say anything about inverter generators. They just told me that if I wanted generator support for an off-grid installation that the GS8048 was the only one they had. Of course, when I told them what our loads are that may have automatically disqualified the GFX because it's too small to run any of our stuff, and I just misunderstood when they told me the Radian was the only thing they had (when they meant it was the only they have that is big enough).
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Chris

Blackcherry04

Re: Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

What I like about the OutBack GFX series is their parallel stacking scheme and the redundancy it offers. You can stack up to 10 with the hub. Like everything, there will be short comings. I haven't put a pencil to the cost yet, I am sure it'll be more with 2 of everything. Getting service is a issue for me and a 60 Lb Inverter is a lot easier to deal with.

Chris, I followed what you did and that was a no brainer to go the way you did based on what you'v shared with us about your system. I am a big time follower of yours. You'r a getter done guy.

SolaRevolution

Re: Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

Blackcherry04 wrote: »

What I like about the OutBack GFX series is their parallel stacking scheme and the redundancy it offers.

Unless Outback has changed things, for grid tie, the GFXs can only be used in singles and pairs. (3 for a three phase) Only one per phase and no auto-transformers. You can use them in pairs to power seperate load panels.

Off-grid is fine for up to 10 inverters and auto-transformers.

-Alex

inetdog

Re: Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

SolaRevolution wrote: »

Unless Outback has changed things, for grid tie, the GFXs can only be used in singles and pairs. (3 for a three phase) Only one per phase and no auto-transformers. You can use them in pairs to power seperate load panels.

Off-grid is fine for up to 10 inverters and auto-transformers.

-Alex

The reason not to try to use a transformer with a center tap neutral or an autotransformer for any grid tie situation in which the POCO connection is 240 is that your transformer will end up trying to "fix" any imbalance between the two phase voltages on the POCO side. Your transformer will lose!
Two or three separate inverters with 120 or 208 volts out will just each match the exact POCO voltage for that phase.

If there is no neutral connection, then using a 120 to 240 isolated step-up transformer will work, just as a 240 volt inverter without a neutral connection will work for grid tie.
UL (or NEC??)currently requires grid tie inverters with 240 volt output to still check the two line to neutral voltages and shut down if the imbalance goes beyond a certain limit.

Blackcherry04

Re: Final Commissioning XW & generator paired

SolaRevolution wrote: »

Unless Outback has changed things, for grid tie, the GFXs can only be used in singles and pairs. (3 for a three phase) Only one per phase and no auto-transformers. You can use them in pairs to power seperate load panels.

Off-grid is fine for up to 10 inverters and auto-transformers.

-Alex

Is this what you meant ??

OutBack Three-Phase Stacking

In the past, OutBack inverters could only be stacked in three-phase configuration using one inverter per phase. In addition to this “Classic Three-Phase” configuration, new programming has been added to allow multiple inverters per phase.

All installation instructions are the same as those in given in the International Series GTFX and GVFX Grid-Interactive Inverter/Charger Installation Manual.

The jumper in the HUB must be left in the standard position (usually called the “series/parallel” position) for three-phase configuration with International Series GTFX and GVFX models. (This instruction is the same as that given in the Installation manual. However, it is specific for these models, and may conflict with the HUB Installation and User Guide.)

In theory, any number of inverters may be installed per phase. In practice, it is usually not possible to install more than three per phase, due to the number of available ports on the HUB. This assumes the use of the HUB10.

It is recommended that equal numbers of inverters be installed on each phase.