Aurora 3.0 inverter on a 3.84kw system - is this reasonable?

[upnorth01]

I had a solar panel installation completed this week. There are 16 x Csun 240-60P panels (3.84kw capacity, on a SW facing roof in north-east Scotland) and a power-one Aurora PVI-3.0-OUTD inverter. From the inverter booklet I see this has a max recommended DC power in of 3.5kw and max AC power out of 3.3kw. It seems from my reading of the sepcification that this is too small a unit and the system should have been fitted with a PVI-3.6 model. I guess I have 3 questions - is this system within a reasonable tolerance or does the inverter need to be changed, what will happen when the panels deliver more power than the inverter can cope with (damage the inverter / output stops altogether / output continues subject to the maximum cap of what the inverter can process etc) and will running near full capacity reduce the life of the inverter.

Any help or comments will be appreciated. I have found the forum most helpful. Thank you.

 

[BruceB]

Re: Aurora 3.0 inverter on a 3.68kw system - is this reasonable?

16 x 240 = 3840. Are you sure it is 3.68?

- The inverter is undersized. The correct Aurora model would be the PVI-3.6-OUTD (use the UK version limited to 16A).
- The inverter will only draw from the panels what it can deal with so no damage will be done provided the string(s) have been wired so that input voltages are within tolerance.
- Running at full power all the time will reduce the life of the inverter.
- You will lose some of the annual production because of limiting.

 

[upnorth01]

Bruce,

Oops - indeed it is 3.84 - got the figures mixed - edited my post to correct. Thank you for the information - its not as bad as I feared (not dangerous and production continues rather than just stops) but I will try and persuade the installer to replace. I suspect this will be met with some opposition. Would MCS take up a case like this, and if so is it likely to yield any results?

 

[BruceB]

Re: Aurora 3.0 inverter on a 3.86kw system - is this reasonable?

3.84

It is a pretty clear mistake if all is as you have presented it and the installer should be willing to fix it. You will have to go through their complaints process before any of the supervising bodies will get involved.