SMA Grid Tie inverters with battery-less emergency power feature are getting closer.

[SolarMikey]

SMA 3000TL US with EPS

SMA 3000TL US with EPS

Since all of the threads here on this sub-topic seem to be closed, I am starting up a new one.

For several (quite a few actually) months there has been discussion of the SMA 3000/4000/5000 TL-US grid tie inverter family with 12 amp (max!) 120 volt dedicated outlet for emergency power when the grid is down but the sun is shining. Without batteries.
It looks like to get the maximum of 1500 AC watts out will take something like 3000 DC watts available from the panels. If the insolation is not so good, you will get proportionally less, but at least good for cell phone charging.

Anyway, one of the members of another forum who is staff at the Solar Academy suggested watching the SMA Solar Academy site for more information, and I see that SMA has now opened a one hour webinar about that line of inverters and that feature. I have registered already at http://www.sma-america.com/en_US/sm...y_tl_us_series_eps_overview_live_webinar.html. At this time it looks like the first available date is 4/2.

Still no price list or other information on the SMA website, no ship dates, and the specifications are still labelled preliminary.

Just wanted to share the webinar information with those who might be interested and have not been actively following the product.

---GoldDigger

As a SunnyPro club member, we received a "demonstration unit (3000TL-US) The inverter is very light, and has the same basically the display as the HF series. The EPS module works great, as we ran a 1000W Shop vac under high irradiance (2300 watts out of the array). As mentioned previously, the EPS is not made for critical loads, and loads with "drop off" if array output is below load requirements. As a nice touch, it seems the display reports the watts being consumed by the load when in EPS mode. Here's to a very first :thumbsup:

 

[GoldDigger]

Here's to a very first :thumbsup:

Has pricing information come to you already too? (Not asking what it is, just whether it has been set and whether you can actually accept and place orders.)It is good to know that it can produce almost 1/2 of the input array power. That indicates to me that the standby output will be more reliably able to ride through low irradiance for the larger units with larger PV arrays connected, even though the max output is unchanged. Did you notice any hesitation when the vac was turned on?