warranty start dates

singh

On larger jobs, work completed in stages, How do most of you guys handle warranty issues.

example: Today I fired up my first pinnacle (sweet!) But I installed and pipe it up about ten months ago. should my standard one year guarantee begin now?

Also this project is off the grid,(that's why it took so long)and I'm worried that some erratic fluctations may zap the board on pinnacle.

Bill_14

Warranty

Get your warranty letters to the owner based on the date your equipment or your systems are actually used by the owner. Don't wait until your partially accepted job is 100% completed. Document - Document - Document.

Bill

jim lockard

1st use

When I installed x-ray machines for a living GE and all the big companys in that game would press for 1st use. Thats when the warrenty started thats when the lease started that when the money flowed. Take a picture even if it took a month to work the bugs out. J.Lockard

Ken D.

Warranty

Retrofits are when you complete job and new construction is when the owner moves in. They will probably need proof of occupancy.

BillW@honeywell

Off grid?

I strongly recommend a whole-house surge supressor on your electrical supply. Square D and other major electrical equipment manufacturers make them, and unless you have strong line-voltage wiring ability, leave this job to an electrician. Surge supressors will help avoid problems with boards,other hvac components, computers, tv's and many other electric-powered things.

Dale

Off grid

I too (like Bill) would really push surge supression for lightning protection if you are in an area prone to lightning. Nothing takes out electronics quicker than a lightning hit.

Carl PE

Off-grid?

Generally, the warranty starts the day you fire it up. We usually send the owner a letter that says "We're going to be done hooking things up on *date*. Stop by and we'll show you how everything works. Warranty on *equipment list* starts *date* and ends *date*."

The "off-grid" part has me a little concerned, though. You didn't mention exactly where they were getting their power, but if it's from an inverter, watch out. Those things put out what they call a "modified sine wave". OK for light bulbs, but not so great for electronics. Also, they don't work so well with bigger loads. If you've got a compressor hooked up to the system anywhere (a/c, freezer), look at the voltage drop when it kicks on.

Might pay to contact the equipment mfr AND the inverter mfr and get them to ok your design..

Constantin

Actually, it depends

The cheaper inverters produce modified sine waves on the AC side. However, there are units out there that produce true Sine waves, though usually at a lower efficiency than modified sine wave converters. Modern IGBT electronics and the like make the sine wave issue less and less of an issue, as the control over the transistor output improves.

I second calling up the manufacturer of the inverter though and finding out how well it behaves with respect to motor loads. Stops and starts can be very hard on the inverter. Many inverter units are now shipped with a net continous rating, as well as a burst rating for motor starts and the like.

Were it my system, I would decouple the AC side from the electronics control board and go DC-DC if conversion is required. There also ought to be swap-compatible DC motors out there, may be simpler for the DC bus to handle than an inverter with all the attendant losses. Danfoss and others even make small compressors that run on DC.

Constantin

Yup!

Whole house supression it is for us too... however, that does not preclude the use of high-quality surge strips with a fat Joule rating throughout the house. After all, induction from a nearby hit can energize low and high-voltage wiring alike, then spring over.

Lightning recently took out my cable modem, router, base station. All via the cable system. The APC UPS that protected these devices from AC-line based trouble couldn't do anything since the CAT5 wire holding the LAN together was not protected... (fixed now). Argh.

singh

Thanks for the info,
Yes,I am concerned about the electronics on the pinnacle and being off grid, (solar panels by the way)
I will inform the H.O about lightning suppression and will modify my warranty as advised.

Also , Taco IFC circ making terrible noise ,I had this problem before,took apart and made sure check was seated,I now wonder if it has something to do with power source.