PV Inverter Recall: Anybody?

Our PV system uses 2 SunPower Inverters. SCE, our utility company just sent us notice that SunPower inverters (manufactured by Xantrex Technology Inc.) are on recall. Anybody else gotten notice? I'm wondering what the potential defect is ... drop in efficiency? ... fire hazard? I can think of at leas a half dozen possibilities. I haven't heard back from the manufacturer, and our installers were too creepy to want to deal with any more. Weird that SCE would notify us faster than SunPower. I never knew SunPower wasn't the manufacturer of our inverters. I wonder how many other folks inverters are made by Xantrex as well.

EDIT
Ok, if you're wondering about whether YOUR model/brand/label or year is involved in the recall, it looks like this document will answer anybody else's questions as to what damages may happen and what the defects are all about:

http://runonsun.com/~runons5/blogs/media/blogs/a/Recall%20Notice%20-%20one%20page.pdf

A component of the inverter can degrade, causing out gassing within the wiring compartment of the inverter. Should arcing occur, gasses could build and force the compartment cover to be blown off. If the cover is blown off with sufficient force it can injure the user or person, or cause damage to property in close proximity to the inverter.

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Hmm... Out-gassing sounds like blown capacitors. This is usually caused by driving capacitors close to their maximum specifications... With some luck, it should be a pretty simple capacitor swap.

Yikes. I have a Xantrex GT and my "authorized dealer" is no longer in business.
I am registered for warranty, so I'm not sure why I didn't get this directly from Xantrex.

I just confirmed that it's in the model & date range impacted, so I have to make some calls.

My Sunpower PV have a SMS Sunny boy.

I have been down for a few weeks, solar city is still waiting on the parts,
Luckily they will reimburse me for the lost power

Mx5racer said:

I have been down for a few weeks, solar city is still waiting on the parts,
Luckily they will reimburse me for the lost power

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Will Solar City reimburse you? If so, maybe I should pursue this with Acro Energy. It's been two months already.

We are leasing - Solar city guarantees a level of production in the contact.

Stick to the good stuff, Outback is the leader! been in service here since 2008 no issues. Outback makes the good stuff.. We power a 50 amp service that feeds all of the important stuff in the house included our ZAP EV and soon our LEAF. But the cool thing is we Store our electricity in our Battery pack so we never loose any power. And the OutBack equipment switches so fast and works so well we never know when the Grid is down ..

Seriously don't scrimp on your inverters or charge controllers.. Stick to the Leader..

http://www.outbackpower.com/

One of my inverters is a Xantrex. I was contacted about the recall by the company that installed that system, and they took care of everything. Silverwood Energy has been great from sales, through installation, and service too! There was no cost to me, and the service work was done in roughly half an hour. My utility, SDG&E, also sent me a letter to advise me of the recall. I did not have any problems before the service work, and everything since has been fine too.

Now if I only had my electric car!!!

thew said:

Stick to the good stuff, Outback is the leader! been in service here since 2008 no issues. Outback makes the good stuff.. We power a 50 amp service that feeds all of the important stuff in the house included our ZAP EV and soon our LEAF. But the cool thing is we Store our electricity in our Battery pack so we never loose any power. . . . . . snip

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um . . . that's not completely true, if you don't mind me picking a few nits. For instance - once a PV's battery backup is 'full' and there's no where else the surplus can go, the excess power in essence (rather than over charging/wrecking batteries) is wasted. Then there's the conversion loss, just like when charging our 24kWh Leaf traction pack. Put a clamp on meter in line from your EVSE and you'll see you're using about 26kWh to get your battery 'filled'. But - that can be an entirely different thread.

hill said:

thew said:

Stick to the good stuff, Outback is the leader! been in service here since 2008 no issues. Outback makes the good stuff.. We power a 50 amp service that feeds all of the important stuff in the house included our ZAP EV and soon our LEAF. But the cool thing is we Store our electricity in our Battery pack so we never loose any power. . . . . . snip

Click to expand...

um . . . that's not completely true, if you don't mind me picking a few nits. For instance - once a PV's battery backup is 'full' and there's no where else the surplus can go, the excess power in essence (rather than over charging/wrecking batteries) is wasted. Then there's the conversion loss, just like when charging our 24kWh Leaf traction pack. Put a clamp on meter in line from your EVSE and you'll see you're using about 26kWh to get your battery 'filled'. But - that can be an entirely different thread.

Click to expand...

Nope its feed back to the Grid and we get $ for it.. No loss at all.. All the excess is used up by our Home.. anything left goes back to the Power Co.. And like your Taxes.. you really don't want anything left over.. Its best to have your system balanced enough that you are at Zero left over or possibly just a bit of use from the Grid. But for us.. when the grid goes down we don't