Power Jack 600w Grid Tie Inverter Testing, 800w Solar Power

Test of a 600 watt (rated) Power Jack Grid Tie inverter. The unit does function well...however the manufacture's continous rating is double the actual. First off, it will not do more then 500w no matter what power is at the input...and when doing so the eff drops to less then 80% and the unit gets dangerously hot. At 300 watts output the eff is about 90%, at 400watts output it is about 85% and requires an external fan (even in my 65 degree basement). The line cord supplied must be replaced, even at 300 watts output it gets very warm. I have a 1200 watt on order and will test next week. Currently I have 4, 205watt panels in 2S2P...2 more on order for 2S3P. Its not a bad idea to open these units up before using...I found all the heat sink screws loose and a cold solder wire joint. This Inverter is a Power Jack 600w 28-55v 110 volt unit.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Power
• Jack
• Grid
• Tie
• Inverter
• Solar
• Panel
• PV
• EV
• Pure
• Sine

[drz4000]

Yes, the powerjacks are good for 1/2 their rating.

[drz4000]

Get another 18v put it in series with the 18v you have. Then put both in parallel and you will have 36v at 265 watts.

[jakethepup1]

I sent the 600 watt back, and exchanged for the 1200 watt, works much better. It costed me 100 dollars more. It is not like yours however, only one cooling fan. but it is better made, and it does cool better. I was afraid of the 600 watt ran way too hot, and the output was only about half what it should have been. I did not get the one with the LED meter, I had seen some bad things on youtube about the LED 1200 watt inverter. The 1200 watt one has been working about a week now.

[drz4000]

@jakethepup1 Yeah the 1200 watt is much better beyond 350 watts. How much PV do you have?

[jakethepup1]

This reply is not for the 600 watt inverter, but I cannot find a forum for powerjack on the internet. I hooked up a 300 watt inverter that I purchased back in Dec. 2009 never had used it, I connected the 300 watt inverter to a 130 watt UL solar panel, and this inverter work much better than the 600 watt unit. The 300 watt inverter is outputting about 112 watts at peak power now this is more like it. Drz400 and all you guys thanks for your information. 

[drz4000]

@jakethepup1 Jake, you must have had a bad 600w (chinese quality control)...with (1) 205 watt panel on my 600w unit I got 188 out at peak.

[bghoss77]

I have a 1200W GTI and 4 - 180W mono panels. Can you increase the energy pumping into the grid if you hook up 2 - 1200W GTI in parallel since it is tapping off the same source, with a battery bank? Because it seems on my setup I am only getting .53 on the power factor with just 1 GTI.

[taztaz79]

Hmm 112F is nothing! You know that a transistor can handle around 200F.. I would start to worry if the temp goes over 170F ... 112F is cool! :)

My SUN-250w inverter gives out 220-230w out to the 230v net. I have been running this inverter for 12-15hours straight with maxload without it breaking. Usally also inverters have a overheating protection if it gets to hot it will lower the output.. I don't know if the powerjack has that though.. But i also agree with you, you should not run max load..

[potatoepeter1]

This tool is very good. But in germany we say dont forget the "Milchmädchenrechnung" ...Okay (otto Kayser) Cheers

[hotsexybrownguy]

Hey, I had a quick question about grid tie.

I have a 180 watt 36 V panel and a 85 watt 18 volt panel

A 300 watt grid tie can only handle 14 - 28 VOLTS

A 500 watt grid tie can handle 22 - 60 volts

How the heck would I try to grid tie both panels with just one grid tie inverter, since the voltages do not match up?

[jakethepup1]

@drz4000 I have two 220 watt UL solar panels connected to the 1200 watt inverter, and I have one 130 watt UL solar panel connected to the 300 inverter. I have the panels mounted on a tool shed so now I have that roof covered. Now I am thinking about getting about getting 7 230 watt sharp panels using Ephase microinverters. I have been shopping around for the best price, I want something that I can expand on.

[helloman1976]

I've heard a number of times now that the grid tie inverters best operation voltage is around 24 volts DC and that if you go over that you lose efficiency. I dont know why this is but it's what I've seen on a number of actual tests. Also it seems like you are really cranking out some AMPs with your setup, no doubt from the 2S2P setup you went with but it's nice to see 14 AMPs pretty continuously at 30VDC.

Have you found generally that you basically get half the rated watts per solar panel?