Wiring a Schneider XW Pro

[@HOST8I8]

Ive had this unit for I think 6 years or more while reliable not very user friendly. Schneider should pay you for this video their support videos are non existent. Good job dude.

[@DavidPozEnergy]

Nice work. It's very cool the knockouts line up. I love that this one inverter could power your whole home. I keep watching your other video where you are able to turn on your air compressor with the Schneider.

[@thhillbillyinventor105]

Go ahead and upgrade . Change from the two you have on the wall to those .

[@ejemm]

@DavidPoz : I thought it was just me. Watched that video too many times to count. Also watched your video with your wife and the Sol Ark 12K. My wife was like ... "did you see her face? .. make sure that does not happen to us for the upgrade!" 😄

[@mikebroom1866]

Would like to see a grid zero configuration for those without net metering.

[@SkyCharter]

Subscribed. Thanks for this arrangement of the Schneider gear. I was use to seeing the breaker box to the right of the inverter (seems to fit well there too) so had to do a triple take to understand your way of wiring. I'll look around your channel on how you tied this into your load center. I've seen where the big Sol-Ark 15k can just be in line, but wonder if this smaller system can be as well. Learning. Thanks!

[@selfrelianceenergy3431]

Cool install. I am a solar installer in Missouri and have used several different brands of equipment over the last 4 years. Of the Sol-Arks I have put in, about half of them have been having a lot of overload shut downs when they shouldn't. It's disturbing that I have less ( or no ) problems with the cheap inverters that are for my price sensitive customers. It isreally great that you demonstrated the install in such detail since I will be handling a Schnieder in a couple of weeks and now feel much better about the process. If I like it we may go to them exclusively. Keep up the good work.

[@benssolarandbattery]

Glad to help! The Schneider installation is a little more involved, but totally worth it in the long run.

[@SaltGrains_Fready]

Congratulations to YOU Dude !! EXCELLENT CLOSE UP SHOTS !!! !!!! !!!! !!!! U R The first vid that shows the actual wiring close up in the compartments on these Schneider units. I've been looking through YT for 2 days and all U get is guys talking with the camera 5 feet out as they talk about the installation !!! I'm getting ready to put an SW4048 with only the com box on a portable panel build on wheels with all the connections on a vertical panel area, and batteries lying on the base, which are 4 - 12V 480AH LI Batts. The unit footprint is 2 x 3 feet with a 2 x 3 foot vertical panel area on the back side. The solar feed, MPPT controller, generator socket, Utility AC feed input and a multi breaker output panel on it will feed to a satellite panel in the basement, all with 50A 240V sockets & plugs for those connections. The only large appliance in the house is a 90's Maytag washing machine & GE High Efficiency window 'summer' AC that are both around 7AMPS. The fridge and freezer chest only have 1 AMP compressors on them. The constant winter heating is the 50W draw on a ComfortBilt 93% efficient Pellet heater & a Monarch wood add a furnace 2A Dayton blower motor that only runs 30 seconds at a time cycling out Hot air. There's 12 325W panels that will install to power the setup. IT should run fine with just 10 of them in 5 sets of 2 in series.

[@rowlandcrew]

HI Ben, schneider should give you a good citizen award. Their manual is poorly written, except for use after one knows what to look for. Your videos clarify so much of the ambiguous stuff in the schneider manual. thank you

[@RJ-cc1fz]

Thanks for explaining the wiring.. watt node to do grid tie is what I’d like to see tested

[@Keifsanderson]

Thanks for these detailed Schneider videos. Really helpful.

[@ejemm]

Great job Ben. I just bought a XWpro as an upgrade to a SW-4024 on account of your recent videos. Looking forward to more content!

[@TimothyEdgin]

I am having nothing but great results with my Schneider XW Pro-I am off grid 70-80% of the time even on lightly cloudy days-and and have too much for my battery bank on sunny days even in January. All I need now is a hookup to the grid so I don't have to run my oven to burn off excess energy. I paired this with 16 REC 375 Watt PERC panels, some EG4 batteries, and I have been getting better than I was expecting in the winter. I have had too much power on many days so I really need to grid tie eventually-running the oven to burn energy because the batteries are full is not ideal but Centerpoint Energy hates solar and it can take a over year to get grid tied in this part of Texas. So for now it is either grid or solar-not both. But I love this inverter. It is far batter at inductive loads than the 6Kw Sigineer Power inverter it replaced. I still like the cheap inverter-but this Schneider can run my AC, electric range, and the coffee pot while two gamers are gaming. And that is is only on two EG4 batteries. I am going to get 2 more batteries shortly then another 2 later. But already I have too much of a good thing and I can finally use it with very little issues. In an emergency this will be priceless. Thanks for the videos.

[@benssolarandbattery]

Glad to hear it's going well for you! They've definitely gotten a lot better in the last few years. I'm using mine currently as a backup for the LG Home 8 battery I'm load testing. If the LG shuts down, I know the XW will be there to take over.

[@SpencerLAPower]

Also could use a good video installing and connecting the Insight home Gateway

[@fisherus]

Ben, another great video but, you'll never convince me that Schneider is better than Sol-Ark. Now that I have got my Sol-Ark 12K up and going with sixteen 360W panels on one side and another sixteen 370W panels on the other, coupled with a auto transformer, I'm running 2 well pumps, a 5hp compressor, 200AMP Mig welder, and everything else during high hours without a problem. One thing that amazed me was how fast my LTO battery bank gets recharged. So I am using the overflow to weld and keep my compressor full of air. I also charge all of my Makita batteries as well.

[@benssolarandbattery]

I'm not trying to convince you that it's better. Each have their pros and cons. Glad everything's working well for you!

[@Scat.original]

Craig, What auto transformer are you using?, Thanks

[@rightsdontcomewithpermits7073]

Cool story!

[@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity]

My two 12Ks have worked great for 18 mo, except occasionally tripping if I’m pushing a lot of 240V loads then I start my vacuum or circular saw, then it faults out for two minutes. Tried two pos, flickering, pulsating, 6500ex from SigSolar on my shop. I will never buy cheap Tier 2 equipment and nothing from SS! 64kWh of LFP, so plenty of power. 16000W of PV.

[@thhillbillyinventor105]

Good content. Keep pumping it out. Ready to see that Ac coupled vid you are making . Probably would be best with a watt node or some type meter . Want to see the responsiveness to your solar edge . I had to manually go into advanced settings to turn on ac coupleing mine was set to off when i got into my SW.

[@stevenstocki3122]

Cant thank you enough for making this video. Helped me tremendously .

[@williamgreen6889]

Great video, explains just what I needed to know to finish my installation.

[@WiSeNhEiMeR-1369]

Thanks COOP ...

[@jeffmaling9577]

Thanks Ben for the thorough and helpful installation review. AC Coupling performance would he helpful to learn about....for those of us with existing solar who are thinking about adding batteries for consumption reduction and backup. Specifically I'm wondering how it performs with an existing net metering connection in terms of exporting maximum energy for credit, reducing grid consumption, and features that help optimize that balance.

[@luiscosta9261]

I'd be interested in this avenue too

[@Marker-er3ro]

Me too

[@JayDee25895]

I did all three, commented too ✌🏻

[@jeffwinkelman6574]

Ok, I swear I read all the comments and didn't see anything about what SER wire size you're using. Nice that you're using aluminum, but what size for the ac input?

[@benssolarandbattery]

I used #4 SER on a 60a breaker. So much cheaper than copper romex!

[@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity]

I’m replacing the two junk 6500ex in my shop with a Schneider system.

[@michaelcoghlan9124]

Thank you very helpful. Have a great weekend. M

[@JonOffgrid]

👍😎

[@pete4778]

AC input can be used for battery charging no grid sell.

[@Franciscss82]

What cable did u use from the 100/600 to the pdp and why? Is it a#4? If my pv setup is 21A/450V i should be set at #6. Am i right? Thanks and nice video.

[@benssolarandbattery]

I did use 4awg. 21a at 450v is 9450W which is too much for this 1 charge controller. If you divide that by 48V, you get 196a. If you plan on maxing it out, you should use 2awg.

[@Franciscss82]

@@benssolarandbattery yeah i rounded way too much. Its 18A and 428V. Going for awg 2 as suggested

[@jefflongino4999]

Hey Ben.....you mention this being grid attached but then later say that the neutral block and ground block are bonded. For on grid I would have thought the bonding would be left to the grid/entry panel and then the XW portion be left un bonded. Can you elaborate some there?

[@benssolarandbattery]

Sorry if I was unclear about that. The neutral and ground are not bonded at the XW or PDP. You can bond them there if it's off grid, but mine are bonded in the main service panel.

[@johnalbert3164]

Thanks for the videos. I recently installed an XW 6848 Pro with the mini pdu. A concern I have is that it appears that the factory installed L1 and L2 wires from the grid in are reversed where they connect to the bottom of the grid breaker. The drawing appears to be correct but on my pdu the L1 and L2 are reversed and it appears in your video that yours may be reversed also. I did get ahold of Schneider yesterday and was under the impression that they were going to send me an email that I was to attach photos to and send back but I never received the email. I tried calling again today but was on hold for a bit but then got a message to call back later because no one was available.

[@benssolarandbattery]

If you're in a situation where L1 and L2 being reversed matters, make sure you test for that. In most cases, it doesn't really matter, though.

[@SpencerLAPower]

Great details video though😁

[@carlosreyes6448]

Hey ben, have a question. I noticed two fuse holders. On the charge controller, what are those for?

[@carlosreyes6448]

Hey Ben, got a question. On my xwpro, with grid in. It doesn't invert it just passes ac through. Just wondering what settings do you need to setup on the insighthome. I have ac1 priority right now. And the other two are Gen, ans ac disqualify. Neither of them allow the xwpro to invert.

[@nealhamilton3881]

It would be nice if you start to document start to finish on installing these...since Schneider doesn't feel it necessary to provide support to the peasants. This is what holds people back on these xw inverters and force people to buy a solark while it might not be the best choice for them. We need more in depth info on installing these with and without the pdp panels since it would be more cost feasible for us to use breaker panels from home depot that would allow us to connect two, three and four of these with what the price of a single pdp panel cost. Why didn't you have to connect the neutral from the grid on yours?

[@benssolarandbattery]

It's hard for me to document start to finish in one video, as I rarely have more than an hour at a time right now. Have you tried calling support recently? They answered for me right away even when I said I was not an installer. The neutral in and out is tied together in the inverter and there's a neutral bar in the mini PDP as well, so no need to hook up 2.

[@nealhamilton3881]

@@benssolarandbattery Thanks Ben for the time you do have sir..we're very thankful when experts like you come in and help the diy crowd otherwise some of us would not be able afford any of this when we're in a time that solar might be the difference between having electricity or not. I was looking at solark but for many reasons I'm looking at outback radian or the xwpro instead. I hate the fact they charge so much for the pdp panels. Thanks again bro for your time.

[@USA-GreedyMenOfNoIntegrity]

Leave off the extras and wire it like any other system using this video as a guide. You saw breaker sizes, wire sizes, etc.

[@thhillbillyinventor105]

Have you happened to mess with your ac coupling yet . I was talking with a guy at Schneider & discovered that with the sw even though it isnt able to export itself when the batteries get full it will allow the pv inverter to export through it when connected through grid and when grid is off its internal relay prevents grid injection. When i have the grid off i would like to see more of a float mode for the loads rather than a shutoff & requalify for the pv inverter . Have you messed with your settings yet with yours ?

[@benssolarandbattery]

If your grid tie inverter can do freq/watt modulation, I believe it will start limiting the output. Mine won't but I've seen the XW kick the frequency up by a small amount at first. You'll have to look at the grid profiles on your inverter(s). I know you can do it with Enphase using one of their Puerto Rico profiles.

[@charlessailer4580]

So what wiring is provided if you go with the PDP and inverter? I know you'd have to provide the cables from the battery bank to the PDP, the wires coming in from your PV array, and then wires out to your load center panel. But are all the "internal" cables provided?

[@jeffwinkelman6574]

Yes, "internal wires" are included. Yes, I have a mini pdp.

[@valentinuribe3438]

Also have a Schneider bcs for whole home back up cannot get to communicate with insighthome

[@123elpecoso]

Hey great video like your instal i have the same set up. I have a couple of questions what is the size of the cable coming out from your charge controler to your pdp? The other question is wer do you biy the breaker for the charge controller i have the 80 600?

[@benssolarandbattery]

Anyone who stocks the charge controllers should stock the breaker. For an 80a charge controller, I'd recommend 4awg wire.

[@carlosreyes6448]

So how did you get your, cable? From the insight home. To the mini pdp? I see the yellow cable. Coming from the charge controller. But not the white cable. From the insight home.

[@benssolarandbattery]

I just poked it out a knockout in the side of the mini pdp using a romex connector to keep critters out.

[@valentinuribe3438]

Would like to know if the grid and loads got connected to the same bus bar in the panel

[@reneroman1421]

Good video....I am a user of Schneider equipment, I currently have a 6848 Pro but I have a question regarding the Grid support configuration...I have the equipment for self-consumption with grid support enable and zero sales to the grid. ..the question is..why does it consume 100 to 200 watts from the grid when the batteries are charging or when they are fully charged?...any setting I have to do?....thanks

[@benssolarandbattery]

I'm not sure, sorry. That would be a question for Schneider.

[@rluttrall]

Thank you Ben, I just finished the ground array and hung the components on the wall. Now I need to wire it and connect it to my house. Was going grid tied but might just pull off some critical loads into its own panel and segregate the systems... You have any thoughts on that?

[@benssolarandbattery]

It all depends what your utility is like and whether or not you have a net metering agreement. You can tie your whole house through it and do zero export, tie half your house through it and use modbus with CTs to do zero export on your main load center. Lots of ways to do it really.

[@rob7469]

Did you install the grounding fuses in the Conext MPPT 100 Charge Controller? Why or why not? (I'm not sure what I am supposed to do here). Thanks.

[@benssolarandbattery]

If you're installing it into a negatively or positively grounded system, you'll want the fuse in the respective position. Most new installations will not use a fuse. The system will still detect ground faults, though, as long as your grounding is done correctly. (I tested this by accident, it does work)

[@martinadamczewski3975]

How is the air flow on xw pro with the mini pdp under it?

[@benssolarandbattery]

Great! The Mini PDP has a grate in the bottom of it allowing air to get though.

[@whowhatisthat88]

Is there a video on price breakdown on what you have purchased?

[@nicholasgrammatico403]

Can the button head screws on sides of mppt be removed for tight mount between modules?

[@benssolarandbattery]

Yes, I believe I did that with mine. Nothing fell out that I know of...

[@andino2003]

Do the positive and negative cables have to be the same distance from the battery bank?

[@benssolarandbattery]

No. If you have multiple batteries in parallel, the positives should be equal, and the negatives should be as well.

[@andino2003]

ok and the final cable from the busbar to the inverter must both be the same?

[@williamdenham8018]

So how does it work for you or not work? Is Sol-Ark better for off-grid?

[@benssolarandbattery]

For off grid I'd 100% go with one of these. Grid tied or battery backup, sol-ark has its benefits over the XW.

[@HectorLopez-nr2rr]

What wire number did you use for the 125 amp DC breaker? Charge controller

[@benssolarandbattery]

2awg copper

[@user-um5lx8wl9y]

Ben- I cannot find any information about what the large grounding lug on the right below the Negative DC busbar goes to. I see you have it connected but I can't follow where the aluminum wire goes to its source. You mention it at 3.47 minutes. Can you explain that so a caveman can understand? lol Not sure what needs to go there.

[@SpencerLAPower]

I noticed you didn't have the ferrite cores on the DC high voltage coming into the charge controller and I didn't see a fuse in the ground fault just curious as to why you did not use them.

[@benssolarandbattery]

Good catch! I couldn't find anything in the installation manual about the ferrite cores, so didn't install them. Turns out there was a separate piece of paper detailing their installation. As far as the fuse goes, the array is floating so no fuse required. Thanks for the feedback!

[@SpencerLAPower]

@@benssolarandbattery what do you mean by floating ungrounded? didn't realize that that was possible with this high voltage.

[@benssolarandbattery]

@@SpencerLAPower the array is grounded, but positive or negative don't have a reference to ground. Most newer systems and string inverters use this. It should have a 2 pole disconnect ahead of the charge controller, but that's it. It will throw an error if either of the conductors grounds out but the equipment being grounded will prevent it from getting you.

[@SpencerLAPower]

@@benssolarandbattery did you have to change anything in the settings on the charge controller in order to do this I've got a customer that's having ground fault issues with one of their systems wondering if it's the solar panels they're using are used the six other systems that they have are all working fine just that one keeps blowing the fuse in the charge controller and throwing ground fault and shutting down the charge controller down.

[@benssolarandbattery]

@@SpencerLAPower didn't have to change settings for that. Sounds like there's a fault there if it's blowing fuses. Time to check the whole circuit plus panels. Be careful!

[@FreedDev]

Question on sizing, what’s the best way to know if you need use more that one XW pro? My goal is to try to run my house with out a critical loads panel and start off with only battery back up with grid power and generator. My loads spike to 7452w and with an 1800w average load with HVAC turned on. I am willing to turn off major loads when on battery. Looking for 30 minute window before starting to manually shedding the load from my main panel. Thoughts?

[@TheJjyoung333]

I believe 6KW is the backfeed limit. I'd personally move circuits over to another backup panel and have 12kw available. You could leave some circuits in the main panel and backfeed those while powering the backup load panel.

[@thhillbillyinventor105]

The xw pro is a lf inverter so it will be able to handle spikes very well . I have the sw (The little brother to xw it handles a 2 ton mini split and a well pump with ease highest ive seen it was 4700 watts & idle consumption of 1.2kw. In his last vid he showed the xw doing 10kw . Those units are beast.

[@benssolarandbattery]

1 XW should handle that, but what you could do is install 1 and use a full sized PDP, that way if 1 isn't enough, you can easily tie in another right next to it. These do handle a lot, but be aware that the overload is temperature based, so if they're in a hot space, they'll overload quicker.

[@norsk54472]

@@benssolarandbattery exactly my plan Ben, thanks for the detailed video and commentary

[@jeffwinkelman6574]

​@@benssolarandbattery Can you not put 2 mini PDPs next to each other for 2 inverters??

[@TimothyEdgin]

Hey I just had this system working perfectly since January. However, Thursday an electrician came and put in a new primary electrical panel and electric meter, my old panel is now the secondary panel. I am still feeding the house through a 50AMP generator tie in. The day before the new panel I stress tested the unit with 12kw and it held up for 30 seconds no issue. After they put in the new primary panel the system will run, but as soon as any large load starts up the AC disqualifies, the system resets and triggers F.91 fault and AC fault. To test I ran the generator directly to thee house and I can run the house no problem. But when I connect the generator to the Schneider then to the house the same symptom happens; it is fine at low wattage, but but the system trips and I get a BMS error (even with BMS disabled). The generator did not cut out. Before the new panel I could run the house via battery, solar+battery, or generator, all through the inverter. Now I cannot run the house one anything over 2kw load on the inverter, but bypassing the inverter and connecting the generator to the house I can run everything so I know their connection is working. The electrician even moved the generator tie in for me to the new box, same thing. Any help is appreciated.

[@benssolarandbattery]

Hmm. Sounds like something is either miswired or loose. I would have the electrician come back and go through the whole system. If it worked before he was there, but not when he was done, he should definitely go through everything.

[@TimothyEdgin]

@@benssolarandbattery I narrowed it down to only the Central AC circuit. The electrician is coming back. I tested and I can run 12Kw on the inverter using the oven, stove, coffee pot and microwave-so nothing wrong with the inverter. However, if I turn off everything and try to power the central AC it detects an AC fault and starts resetting and giving BMS errors. The generator does not care and will still power the whole home. But somewhere there is a fault. One thing we are changing is thy used a heavy gauge aluminum wire to connect the main panel to the sub panel. I am thinking that has to go-my house was 100% copper.

[@SkyCharter]

@@TimothyEdgin Any updates after your electrician came back?

[@carlosreyes6448]

How do you like your setup.im wanting to do the same tyoe of setup.

[@benssolarandbattery]

It works really well. And the inverter is a beast! Programming takes a little while, but once you get it set up, it's good to go.

[@carlosreyes6448]

Does the pdp.come with the breakers?

[@Ms2Chill]

Any issues with ground faults?

[@benssolarandbattery]

None.