| Author |
Message |
Sean Welsh (Sean) (64.81.73.194)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Friday, January 10, 2003 - 10:05 pm: | |
Folks,
Starting a new thread on this because I'm sure only three people are still following the old one :-) Besides, several people asked me to post the solution when I found it.
I think I have solved my engineering problem with respect to connecting my Trace SW4024 to my generator and my shore cable while maintaining only one neutral-ground bond and generally having a safe installation that still takes advantage of all the Trace's features.
I say "think," because I'm not sure I can find the 60-amp 4PDT relay that this solution calls for. (If you know where I can find one, drop me a note. I've spent hours on the websites of Siemens, Cutler-Hammer, GEIndustrial, and SquareD, so please be more specific than "try Square D" :-)
In any case, the (lengthy) solution notes are at http://ourodyssey.us/transfersw.html and there is a link to the diagram at the top of the page. I won't take up BNO's disk space by repeating it all here...
My main "bus" page is at http://ourodyssey.us/bus.html, by the way.
-Sean |
J Clark (205.188.209.11)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 10:40 am: | |
My Heart inverter automatically switches to a floating ground when receiving shore power. Are you sure your Trace doesn't do that also? They are made by the same people. Also, have you checked Grainger or MSC? They carry a pretty wide selection of relays. |
Sean Welsh (Sean) (64.81.73.194)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, January 11, 2003 - 11:31 pm: | |
Uhh, Heart and Trace are not really the same people. Two separate companies that happened to be bought by Xantrex in a very bad (for consumers) consolidation of the industry (in Canada, to boot). Interestingly, Trace was started by a bunch of disgruntled Heart engineers in '85, and the Xantrex consolidation was not well-received at Trace.
That having been said, the Trace and Heart products are very different, having been separately designed and manufactured. I expect the product lines to move closer together as Xantrex takes stock of what it's bought and eliminates products that are too similar. For now, all they have done is consolidate the marketing.
The Trace SW4024, having been designed primarily for fixed backup and grid-tie applications (as opposed to RV and marine applications, one of Heart's specialties), does not do ground-neutral switching. Trace is very careful to point this out in the manual and even provides a suggested circuit diagram for achieving the switching external to the unit.
Trace markets a specially designated version of the SW series, dubbed the -MC2 model, listed and targeted for the RV market. I had hoped that this unit would provide the required switching, but two separate calls to Trace support confirms that it does not.
Yes, I have thoroughly searched Grainger -- no luck. I'm not sure who MSC is though -- a pointer would be appreciated.
-Sean |
OAE Palmer (208.164.96.46)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 12, 2003 - 4:07 am: | |
Go to-
www.mscdirect.com
I did a cursory searh of the paper cat and could only find 40 amp relays...but then again my cat is a year old already. |
J Clark (64.12.96.235)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, January 12, 2003 - 4:45 pm: | |
Sorry about that Sean. I didn't mean to imply that Trace and Heart were identical, it's just that on the Xantrex web page it appears that some Trace and Heart models are looking somewhat similiar, and being a dummy, I always look for simple answers first. I have had both Heart and Trace units over the years, but didn't know if you had a recent edition that I hadn't seen. MSC supply is a huge catalog supply firm that can be found at www.mscdirect.com, but OAE (above) has already checked there. That said, I'm bowing out of this thread. jc |
Dale MC8 (66.52.64.102)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Tuesday, February 11, 2003 - 5:58 pm: | |
Took me a while to get around to it, but I have the same set up problem. I emailed Trace and asked them what to do. The answer I got was to check with Boat Electric in Seattle. email address is boatelectric@boatelectric.com
HTH
Dale |
Sean Welsh (Sean) (64.81.73.194)
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Wednesday, February 12, 2003 - 12:51 am: | |
Dale,
I solved it, thanks. I don't think Boat Electric is gonna be any help, though, based on my dealings with them.
If you want to have a look at my solution, take a look at http://ourodyssey.us/transfersw.html and click on the diagram link.
The problem gets even simpler if your generator can be configured with or without a bond, in which case the one hot and the neutral from the genny can bypass the contactor, and the neutral bond relay moves to inside the generator with its coil connected to Trace AC1 (have a look at the diagram to follow this).
I don't know if my generator can do this or not, but I will have a look at it next week when I am up in Sumner.
Give me a holler if you have any questions on my diagram or where to get the contactors.
-Sean |
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