Author Topic: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here  (Read 3659 times)

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Offline xerxescct

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Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« on: August 12, 2017, 03:25:02 pm »
So I just acquired the new 2017 version of the big boy Power Jack inverter. I am going to be running it through its paces but I figured I would share some pictures. As of today these are not on sale yet. I was given a unit to test and review. I believe the price will be 1200-1500 USD + cost to ship a 90 LB inverter. This unit is 15KW from 24 volts and will "Splite Phase" or Split Phase. They have yet to print user manuals for these inverters so I was not able to get one. Overall I am mostly impressed with the new design but I still do not think the cooling will be up to the task when running at 50% advertised load or greater. I will test this of course. This inverter, much like the large square inverters they make, is meant to be placed and never moved.

Some areas of concern I have noticed thus far:

Packaging was good but a lot of the Styrofoam that was used broke off inside the unit before I even opened it. Many little pieces were floating around inside.
The terminal block cover was also floating around inside when I got it which would make anyone open the unit immediately to inspect for damage. A little hot glue would fix this.
The front and back plates are not adequately braced with each other. I have a small bend on the lower right corner of the front plate from shipping. It caused no internal damage that I can see but it was very close to the charger board.

Power Jack includes two universal outlets on this unit. However the 220 Volt plug is the same style as the 110 Volt plug. Being in the U.S. I have nothing that will actually plug into that. Also my main concern would be if someone plugged a standard 110 volt appliance into that receptacle it would burn up the appliance. The whole point of having 2 designs for outlets is so this does not happen.

I tried to post photos on the forum but it kept timing out. I uploaded many photos to my Facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1589740167757681.1073741830.987612947970409&type=1&l=3624a075a1


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Offline lighthunter

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #1 on: August 12, 2017, 05:51:53 pm »
One toroid?? Is it a larger core size than previous version of this inverter?? There appear to be two groups of yellow wires, normally these would all connect to Tthe same electrical point. These appear to go to diifferent locations??? Two separate fet boards maybe?
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Offline xerxescct

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #2 on: August 12, 2017, 05:59:35 pm »
One toroid?? Is it a larger core size than previous version of this inverter?? There appear to be two groups of yellow wires, normally these would all connect to Tthe same electrical point. These appear to go to diifferent locations??? Two separate fet boards maybe?

Yes it has one very large toroid. I would say easily twice the weight as the ones previously used but I will not open it up to find out.

Looks to me like they are running the two main boards in parallel. This would beat out anything that PJ has released thus far, in theory of course.

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Offline lighthunter

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #3 on: August 12, 2017, 08:48:39 pm »
Yes it has one very large toroid. I would say easily twice the weight as the ones previously used but I will not open it up to find out.


 :(
 Aw thats no fun, you could be like "AvE"on you tube and open the box with an end mill ;D. one funny canadian. Really I'm just kidding  :) thank you for sharing the review with us!
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Offline xerxescct

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #4 on: August 13, 2017, 03:51:04 pm »
So I got it hooked up to my battery bank. Have done a little testing and found a few things.

In standby or no load draw the inverter consumes 1.7-1.8 amps @ 27 volts. With the fans running it will consume 2.1-2.2 amps @ 27 volts.

The transformer is very loud. Even with the cover on you can hear it across the room.

The fans seem to draw a fair amount of air in but I would personally prefer higher speed if possible. All of the fat wires inside make for many obstacles that the air has to move around.

There are two meters on the front. One is for 220 volts and the other is for 110. Even with the fans off there seems to be some kind of draw according to the meter but it doesn't make any sense. 5 watts and 1.1 amps at 110 volts. So I am sure that the meter is not measuring properly.

I did take a voltage reading of that 220 volt universal plug and it does output 220 volts. This is a major issue for me as it's way too easy to plug a 110 into the 220.

There was also some sorta clicking sound coming from the inverter. At first I figured it was just the warm up of all the parts but even in standby it would do it. I am not sure if it is the charger but that's my guess. Despite the fact that I do not have this unit plugged into the house for charging. I plan to remove all of the charging hardware when I'm done testing the unit.

I did a quick 1.5kw draw for 60 seconds and the toroid actually stayed fairly cool and the auto fans never came on. This same test on my 8kw inverter would make the fans come on within 20 seconds or so. I always run the fans full time but I wanted to make sure the thermistor was working for auto shut off.

So far my impressions are good.

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Offline xerxescct

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #5 on: August 14, 2017, 04:38:44 am »
More testing in the evening has revealed something I do not like, The Voltage regulation.

I have over 2 KW of solar coming into my battery bank. I had my large window air conditioner plugged in and running and I noticed that the air conditioner would "buck" every so often. I couldn't figure out what it was until I measured the voltage and found out what was going on. My draw on the battery bank was less than the input from the panels. So as the voltage would rise on the battery bank the voltage would rise on the output side of the inverter. Once it hit a certain point it would buck the voltage back. During this "bucking" my AC output voltage would go from about 114 volts down to 106 volts or so for about a half second. Adding my desktop computer into the mix would make the voltage drop even more severe. When I disconnected my PV array this problem went away.

The voltage regulation is too harsh. I would actually like to see voltages closer to my house being around 119 volts or so.

Offline Fionn

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #6 on: September 13, 2017, 09:07:08 am »
Would you mind posting the dimensions of the torroid?
PJ are selling these for about £500 on Ebay UK, I'd be tempted to try one if the torroid is big and heavy.

Offline xerxescct

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #7 on: September 15, 2017, 05:46:47 pm »
Would you mind posting the dimensions of the torroid?
PJ are selling these for about £500 on Ebay UK, I'd be tempted to try one if the torroid is big and heavy.

Do you happen to have a link? These are unreleased as of now and are still being tweaked and tested.

The first test unit I got weighed 90.4 LBS. The replacement which should be here in a few days weighs 109.2 LBS. Most of the weight is the very large torroid.

This will be a good time to update. We have been tweaking the design and output of the inverter. These inverters will now put out close to 115/230 volts even under 50 percent load. My largest complaint was the low 112 volt output under no load and 106-109 under 50 percent load. It was enough to make my battery backup system complain of a brown out. The voltage regulation has been tweaked quite a bit. Fortunately the main boards stay the same and so do the mosboards so replacement parts are easily available.

There was a "leak" coming from somewhere on the charging board. I do not use the inverter to charge my battery bank however it was causing a draw on the system and was being reported by the LCD display on the front while under no load. This has been fixed. I will get new pictures up when the inverter arrives.

Offline xerxescct

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #8 on: September 21, 2017, 10:44:11 am »
Got the new inverter on Monday and have been testing it extensively. I am running directly into my house using a manual lock out switch. Both phases are being used. Here are some testing results and other notes thus far.

The updated inverter uses a larger Torroid. Even larger than the first one that was sent to me. I attached a picture on the label on the transformer. It is nearly 6 inches tall and has a diameter of 8.5 inches. It is about 20 pounds heavier than the previous transformer. So Power Jack did beef up the single transformer even further

7218-0

Based on this graph the inverter actually stay cool up until 5K which is where I stopped. I plan to go further when I install larger wire running from the inverter to the main breaker panel.

The next graph shows voltage per phase. They are pretty much equal but what is impressive to me is the fact that the voltage stays near 115 the entire run whereas before it would drop well below 110. I had complained about the low voltage even under no load.

7220-1

Based on the testing so far this inverter is turning out to be a beast. It had no issue starting any appliance I had around the house. I did not start my central air or my dryer. I want to beef up the wiring running to the panel before then.

Realistically, unless you have a huge battery bank or a very large solar/wind array you will not be driving this inverter to 50 percent on a regular basis. Short stints of 50 percent will happen when certain items around the home startup such as refrigerators or window air conditioners. I will of course test it to my limits but it is showing great potential as being an out of the box whole house inverter.

Offline lighthunter

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #9 on: September 23, 2017, 08:10:01 pm »
Hi, just for fun I went out to the shop and measured voltage of an older (2014) PJ 6000lf, modified of course. Heres the result at the inverter terminals.

Unloaded L1-N = 119.9VAC.
                   L2-N= 119.9VAC.

4KW load. L1-N= 117.1VAC.
                   L2-N= 118.5VAC.

                AC current approx 36A.
               
Almost seems like PJ went backwards with Vreg but then maybe not apple-apple comparison due to bank size and this is 48v driven.

At least the new PJ may not need mods to get a functional setup, thats good!
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Offline xerxescct

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #10 on: September 23, 2017, 08:15:57 pm »
Hi, just for fun I went out to the shop and measured voltage of an older (2014) PJ 6000lf, modified of course. Heres the result at the inverter terminals.

Unloaded L1-N = 119.9VAC.
                   L2-N= 119.9VAC.

4KW load. L1-N= 117.1VAC.
                   L2-N= 118.5VAC.

                AC current approx 36A.
               
Almost seems like PJ went backwards with Vreg but then maybe not apple-apple comparison due to bank size and this is 48v driven.

At least the new PJ may not need mods to get a functional setup, thats good!

Those numbers look real good.the first inverter would dip well below 110 under the same test. The floor seems to be around 114 with the new inverter which is acceptable to me.

I think they are trying to regulate it to 115.

Offline solarnewbee

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Re: Power Jack "2017 version" 15KW SP inverter is here
« Reply #11 on: January 14, 2018, 12:43:33 pm »
Need a little help. I bought the same one $799 ebay so assuming it’s the smaller toroid coil. Mine arrived damaged, landed on the battery terminals crunching the fans, they’re sending new ones. They certainly did built it with heavy sheet metal but not to withstand dropping off the ups truck. Poor shipping box.

So, the ct for the 220v is unplugged and I really can’t see where it goes. You’ve had yours apart so maybe you could point the direction.

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