Up Owe Her?

If you look at their literature, they say 2000 Watt load continuous unless a resistive load where it is 3000 Watts. My units all have the same size wire coming out of the transformer. The sleeve on one of the Neutral wires is larger but the wire inside is the same. Mine is wired to my breaker panel in the shed with 4 conductor Southwire SEOOW  ( 105C ) 10AWG cord (which Southwire doesn't list on their website ).  At the normal rating of #10 wire on the 240VAC that would exceed the 6000 Watt rating by a mile. This wire is however rated at 25 Amps and that matches the 6000 Watt rating of the unit. The unit has run both a one tube A/C unit and our refrigerator at the same time and that is well over the 1K you say. And that is drawn on only one leg of the unit. Now as far as temps go, the units fans will kick on in the afternoon even if the inverter is off. Why? Because it can get above 40°C in the shed. The MakeSkyBlue charge controller kicks on when the temp gets to 45°C in it. 

so really his video is a 12volt inverter running 2700 watts on one leg as both outlets are the same leg. sounds like a messed up review. 2700 watts on one leg? hmmmm

would not 255 amps out of one leg and almost 3000 watts be a lot and certainly heat up the transformer. that is what he reports in his video for the 12volt 6000 watt inverter - a powerjack inverter. if it is all on one leg L1, then would there be unused capacity on L2?

so possibly 3000 watts or more if split properly by using the terminal to l1 and l2?????

does the video need a correction?

i have a lifepo4 battery that is about 27.2 volts to 26.8 volts most of the time hooked up to the 24-volt upower/powerjack 6000watt lf psw split phase inverter. 

just testing it as i build the pv system around the electrodacus sbms0 and electrodacus dssr20. i paid about $270 delivered in october 2020 for it.

not needed for central air use but power tools and lights etc.. 

the lifepo4 battery has 13,926.4 watt hour potential capacity. still learning. thanks for any info.

3 minutes ago, pilgrimvalley said:

so possibly 3000 watts or more if split properly by using the terminal to l1 and l2?????

does the video need a correction?

Out of an ASL1?  I severely doubt it.  The ASL1 core is so small, I don't think it's possible to get enough wire around it to handle 3kw total load.

You might be able to get a smidge more power out of a more balanced load setup--but keep in mind, the L1 circuit usually has double the strand count than the L2 circuit.  Which means that an L2 load will cause twice as much heat as the same load on L1.

Sean couldn't get 4,500W continuous out of a stock ASL5 (running 240v loads like a dryer, A/C).  My AS5 would overheat at 3,000W (again, balanced loading).  With that precedent in mind, I'll happily be very surprised if you can get a continuous 2kw out of that inverter.

the enclosed user manual says not over 2000 watts for some things except for the induction cooker says 2500, but only 350w for air/water pump???

strange for sure.

i was thinking the battery bank would be a limiting factor which it is, but this inverter will still be the weakest link.

thanks all. 😎

Starting loads are what have to be factored in. That 350 Watt pump might have an 8 times larger starting surge. I see 600 Watt loads when the fridge starts but it runs at 220.  Unless the defrost heat kicks in and then it is 400 Watts plus continuous.  The one tube A/C unit has a soft start setup so it doesn't slam the inverter hard. Fan starts and then ramps up, compressor then starts and slowly loads till it reaches full load on it. If there is a power blip, the fan stays powered but the compressor stays off for 5 minutes. Then it starts all over again. But this time it kicks in at 800 plus Watts. A 3/4hp water pump will hit 2500 Watts when starting. A 1.5hp pump can draw close to 4200 Watts when starting.

Low Voltage on the inverter can be a problem. It puts an extra load on everything and undersized cables will hurt it even more.

Waterman, I'm happy to hear you got a transformer you can get a good output from.  If yours has evenly matched output wires, you got lucky!  Most of them seem to be the unbalanced type.  Is your trans labeled ASL1?  As I've mentioned before, the only thing consistent about powerjack is that they are inconsistent.  Especially true when talking about the Upower versions. 

I have a 6kw 24v upower, probably identical to Pilgrim's.  It has the unbalanced sized output wires and an ASL1 trans.  Luckily, I didn't buy it to run my house as I doubt it could do it.  (maybe I'm wrong.  I am often!)

As for wire size, 10awg is likely good enough, I just like to oversize a size or 2 to be safe when I'm running my house loads through it.  Cheap insurance.  #6 is my goto wire size for inverter to house panel.

Yeah, Sean likes to mix up L1 and L2.  Probably cross-eyed from all the powerjacks he works on....😄

9 hours ago, dochubert said:

Waterman, I'm happy to hear you got a transformer you can get a good output from.  If yours has evenly matched output wires, you got lucky!  Most of them seem to be the unbalanced type.  Is your trans labeled ASL1?  As I've mentioned before, the only thing consistent about powerjack is that they are inconsistent.  Especially true when talking about the Upower versions. 

I have a 6kw 24v upower, probably identical to Pilgrim's.  It has the unbalanced sized output wires and an ASL1 trans.  Luckily, I didn't buy it to run my house as I doubt it could do it.  (maybe I'm wrong.  I am often!)

As for wire size, 10awg is likely good enough, I just like to oversize a size or 2 to be safe when I'm running my house loads through it.  Cheap insurance.  #6 is my goto wire size for inverter to house panel.

Yeah, Sean likes to mix up L1 and L2.  Probably cross-eyed from all the powerjacks he works on....😄

 

Yes, it is an ASL1. It might be only because the ASL1s I got they were all of recent manufacture. In fact the one I'm currently running was made only a couple days before it was shipped from China directly to me. I haven't checked the third unit to see what the wire is in the sleeve. Even though it was sold as a Upower unit, it arrived as a PowerJack unit. My cable from the shed to the house is #6 also.  I tend to also go a size or two larger on anything that is over 25 feet.  As I figured that the unit would put out 12.5 Amps/240VAC at best, #6 is overkill.  I have a chop saw that will draw 14 Amps on 120 Volts and it has no problems with it cutting wood whereas the Reliable 3000 Watt would trip out after 10 seconds without a load on the saw. It and the refrigerator both have run at the same time including start up of the fridge. I do have to shut off power to mine when not in use or otherwise the fan will come on because of the temp in the shed. It comes on at 40°C.

1 hour ago, Waterman said:

I have a chop saw that will draw 14 Amps on 120 Volts and it has no problems with it cutting wood whereas the Reliable 3000 Watt would trip out after 10 seconds without a load on the saw.

That's my experience as well, only I had a SwiPower 3000 watt 48-volt inverter.  It was physically capable of 3,000W continuous (though the overload circuit would trip at 2,700W)...but it was horrid at starting any sort of surge load.  I'm sure the compressors in my fridge and freezer were not happy with the regular brownouts due to my forgetting that they were running and trying to start a circular saw, or even a corded drill.

All those problems vanished with the "9kw" 48-volt PJ that I purchased...it handled surge loads of any combination like a dream.  But then it couldn't do 3,000W continuous without overheating.  Win some, lose some--but I never will be going back to HF inverters.

1 hour ago, Sid Genetry Solar said:

Win some, lose some--but I never will be going back to HF inverters.

Got that right!  I bought my first powerjack in 2014 and have 3 assorted HF inverters that have not seen use since.  (I would have sold them but my conscience won't let me rip anyone off...)

BTW, that first powerjack is still in daily use and has never blown fets or been rebuilt!  Wish the new models were that reliable and resilient.

Funny thing is, I have a Jupiter modified square wave 2000 Watt 12Volt HF unit that never had any problems with any of this. But it was hard on the compressors and transformers.

Care to provide any photos/info about the unit/insides?  I'm curious to see where they went wrong 😁.  I've heard that some versions <3.0 were pretty reliable.

It's a 24v 8kw pj that I ran my house in San Diego with for about a year before getting my first 48v 15kw.  Now it runs my water heater in powersave mode here in Idaho for the last 3 years.  It can't handle the 4500 watts the wh requires for use in 230v but does fine doing 2500w running it at 110v. Takes longer to heat it up, tho.  I added independent fan control but still has stock fans.  Runs cool and quiet.

Tomorrow I will get the cover off and send some pics.  I think it has a v2.2 control board but not sure. (haven't had a problem so haven't opened it in quite awhile.)

Thanks.  The oldest board I have is a v4.0, and it's functionally identical to the v10.4 they're at right now.  Somewhere way back when, I understand the "CPU" was something completely different than they currently use now (Microchip PIC).  I'm really curious to see how the design was different back then...

Ok. Finally got the cover off and some pics taken!

I definitely haven't looked at this one for some time!  Date on transformer 2014-5-17.  The transformer has two separate neutral leads coming out of it and going direct to output receptacle. L1 and L2 go to the control board so its a 230v control board.  Version 1.4!  Didn't realize (or remember) it being that low a number.  The mainboard is a small size like the new small ones in upower, except...  No mosboards.  Fets soldered directly to mainboard.

So I guess it's a classic!  As in, "They don't make 'em like that anymore!"