We bought a 12 solar panels (330 Watt) to power a 2.9 kW installation using pumps and motors. The installation was done single phase and now we realized we needed 3 phase as all the pumps and motors are 3 phase. The provider wants to sell 14 kW more arguing that the pumps need a tripe of the current to start and needs 2 more 6 kW inverters to split in 3 and transform to 3 phase. I thought a phase transformer could have done the tick but I guess that does not exist.
Thank you for any advice.
Hi @JCamalich. I don’t believe there is any easy solution there. @commodoresolar might be able to shed some light, but I’m assuming your supplier is correct in what they are saying.
Hi guys,
Agree with Marty there, not really an easy solution to convert from your single phase inverter to 3 phase without upgrading it.
for a 3 phase 415V pump system however we have a solar pump inverter which outputs 3Phase, it is a VFD based system which allows it to soft start the motor hence not requiring as high of a start up current, depending on the size of the motor you could quite possible replace your inverter with one of our pump drives to run 1 pump, the pump drives can only run 1 pump at a time. Alternatively you could potentially still leave your existing single phase system in place if it is feeding into the grid, earning you feed in credits, and then use one of the pump drive systems with another set of panels to run the pump.
If you can send through any power ratings on the pump motors I can help to suggest a suitable sized systems for you.
thanks - Linden