Voltage report using a Sola Basic autoformer

[pianotuna]

Hi,

First test of a Sola Basic autoformer on August 5th, 2016 starting at 2:30 p.m.

The unit cost was $232.50 Canadian dollars. I added a #10 shore power cord, a 30 amp RV outlet, a 15 amp female outlet, and a 15 amp female outlet in parallel to the 30 amp cord. That is so I can easily monitor whether it is doing anything to the voltage or not.

I added several holes to allow for cooling, but it appears that may not have been necessary.

I can report that the Sola Basic autoformer works well with shore power.

The fridge was running on electric for this test and wattage was 1630.

On a thirty amp shore power supply, before the air conditioner was started voltage was 115. Without the autoformer it dropped to 105, when air was turned on.

With the autoformer in the circuit voltage actually rose instantly from 115 to 118.

After one hour I "shot" the temperature of the case and found it was 27 C (ambient). I then "shot" through one of the cooling holes at the transformer. Temperature was 26.8 C.

I just, as a test, added the water heater. Wattage jumped to 2995, input voltage at the Sola Basic dropped to 104.5, and voltage inside the RV dropped to 109.5 (113 at the output of the sola basic). I turned off the water heater within 3 minutes.

The air just cycled off, and wattage dropped to 321, voltage inside rv at 114.

Air cycled back on, and wattage is 1672, voltage inside RV at 118.

The equipment was 60 feet of #10 cord into a 30 amp outlet, the solar basic feeding the Magnum 3012 hybrid inverter (load support mode turned off), and the RV being fed from the Magnum.

I'll be testing with various other power sources, such as 15 amp and generator, though I don't think I'll be able to notice anything with the generator.

I'm sold!

[pianotuna]

When it goes into boost there is a faint click. 1st level is a 10 volt boost from what ever input voltage has sagged to. As the voltage is lower there is a 2nd click (and a boost of 20 volts from input sag), and finally at 90 volts there is another faint click.

I could not check out the boost because that cuts in at 135 volts and I could only get to 133.

[Almot]

pianotuna wrote:

No noise at all that I can notice except for some very soft click sounds as it cuts in (and out).

Did you mean when you turn it on/off, or when it initiates one of those 5%, 10% etc boost modes?

[MEXICOWANDERER]

In my case many years ago the "noise issue" would have meant: Separate bedrooms

[peterth]

Well understood

[pianotuna]

Hi peterth,

No noise at all that I can notice except for some very soft click sounds as it cuts in (and out).

The reason I asked is that I am reconsidering a permanent fixed installation and the power center is under the bed. I did not want to install something that might be noisy in that location.

peterth wrote:
Hi Pianotuna
No there is no noise from the Sola Basic. The Sola takes care of the power issues and the surge protector takes care of the rest of the problems. I am quite happy with it.
Are there noise problems with yours

[peterth]

Hi Pianotuna
No there is no noise from the Sola Basic. The Sola takes care of the power issues and the surge protector takes care of the rest of the problems. I am quite happy with it.
Are there noise problems with yours

[pianotuna]

Hi Almot,

No peterth has a dedicated surge device that follows the Sola Basic.

I.E.

Shore power-->Sola-->P.I.surge-->RV

I want to add surge only--so I could in theory just plug in a device on one of the two "extra" 15 amp outlets I installed on the Sola Basic. That should, I think, give me quite basic surge protection.

I had one for several many years to protect the fridge--I noticed the other day that it is no longer protecting anything.

Almot wrote:
I think he meant that Sola is now silently takes care of "small surges", so to speak.

[Almot]

I think he meant that Sola is now silently takes care of "small surges", so to speak.

[pianotuna]

Hi peterth,

Does the Sola Basic make any noise or sound?

peterth wrote:
I installed a Sola Basic in our coach about 3 years ago. It is installed before the surge protection. I am not an electrical engineer or such but I do find it works well for us in Mexico as we live and travel there. Don , I find your calculations very interesting as I all I did was install the unit and checked for voltages and found it better then before the install. No more thumping and banging of the surge protector going on and off.

[pianotuna]

I just found out the very popular Progressive Industries surge protector uses MOV technology.

Since I'm not interested in a unit the checks polarity (I do that manually myself) is there any reason to not just use a surge unit intended for a house?

[peterth]

I installed a Sola Basic in our coach about 3 years ago. It is installed before the surge protection. I am not an electrical engineer or such but I do find it works well for us in Mexico as we live and travel there. Don , I find your calculations very interesting as I all I did was install the unit and checked for voltages and found it better then before the install. No more thumping and banging of the surge protector going on and off.

[Almot]

Looks like it's got everything other than surge. A must to have for trailer park snowbirds in Mexico.

I understand it only needs an extra 30A outlet either inside the trailer or outside (or permanently rewire the existing 30A outlet to SOLA).

[pianotuna]

I went on a road trip yesterday and used a fair bit of microwave time 8 minutes at noon followed by a one hour drive and 10 minutes for supper followed by a 20 minute drive. The microwave draws 176 amps.

I got back to the cottage and plugged in to the 50 amp thinking all would be well. Not so--the Magnum was charging at 80 amps and the roof air dragged the voltage down to 106.

So I put the autoformer in circuit and it bumped the voltage up to 115.

[pianotuna]

Hi Mex,

All I want is sufficient voltage to run my roof air. I think I have that now.

The reason I suggested others might prefer the Hughes, is that after testing, I'm probably never going to get to the 2nd layer of boost on the Sola.

Another reason is the Hughes is "plug and play". I'm a slow worker but it did take me at least 3 hours to add an input cord, 30 amp RV outlet, 15 amp outlet in parallel to the 30 amp, and 15 amp outlet in parallel to the input (so that I can check what input voltage really is, especially when in boost mode). I also drilled a dozen 1/2 inch holes (9 for cooling) and one 3/4 inch for the power cord.

I think that is beyond what most RV'ers want. They want something to plug in so they can run the roof air. The Hughes should meet that need. The fact that the new Hughes does do some extra checking and has a bit (not great) of surge protection makes that even better.

So far I'm delighted with the Sola Basic. I might add surge suppression to it, but not just MOV type.