Hey all. This may be way out there, but does anyone have experience using Arcdroid in an off-grid solar power application? I know I have to size the array and inverter properly (probably 5000kva) although I have not researched it yet. My question is primarily about the synthesized 60hz AC and how the equipment will respond to that. Any other tips or oops! would be appreciated. Thanks. Phil
Droid’s power consumption isn’t much. Going to take a lot of solar to run a plasma cutter!
Oh, I agree! And a welder, but not at the same time.
I think the answer to your question depends on how clean the power supplied by your inverter is. I’m not off grid but I run on solar when it’s producing enough to meet my consumption and it switches or supplements with grid power as needed. As such I’m sure I’ve run the arcdroid on solar quite a bit. No issues. Don’’t have any idea what I’m running on when using the plasma cutter and the arcdroid. Since I am able to run central air and refrigeration on solar I expect the plasma cutter is not an issue but I don’t know definitively. As I said I think the issue is more one of lll the ac output of the inverter than the kilowatts.
Pretty sure the Droid is all DC. 120vac input is converted to probably 24, 5, maybe 12 vdc. Might not be tough to stay dc from a few panels to a battery bank to the Droid. Oxy/acyl torch and your off grid minimal cost.
@arcnc - I agree fully on the issue being how clean the power is. I don’t have experience with running equipment using off-grid inverters, so I appreciate the input on your experience. I’ll take that as an “it might work” ! Much better than hearing “Heck no, I tried it and it blew up my electronics!” Thanks!
@BobD - Very good points! Avoid the inverter all together.
Phil
