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Page 4
Pulse and Connect Energy
In the late 1990’s, Pulse Energy was formed from the
now defunct Ananda Power Technologies. They changed
the color of their circuit breaker box to match the
Trace line of inverters. Pulse as a company did not
last long however. A short time later, Connect Energy
was formed from the ashes of Pulse. The products of
all three companies are essentially the same, (good
stuff). It all stemmed from Ananda Power Technologies
designs of the 1990’s. Building a sound profitable
company in this industry is difficult.
Pulse
PC250
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Connect
Energy PC500
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Heliotrope
Solpan 30
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HelioTrope
While I was working on the DC250, Heliotrope
came out with their SOLPAN system. It
was very similar to the Ananda box but
eliminated most of the DC load circuits.
The Solpan was meant to be a lower cost
alternative to the Ananda power Center.
A basic Solpan system with inverter breaker
and charge controller could be purchased
for as little as $600. Heliotrope was
very well known for their PWM charge controllers
at a time when Trace Engineering was still
making relay based controllers and Ananda
used Mercury displacement relays. Heliotrope
was years ahead of everyone else with
their excellent charge controllers. The
Solpan breaker box included a 60 or 120
amp charge controller as well as DC over
current protection and disconnects.
The inverter breaker was an option, but
a 500 amp shunt was standard. These boxes
did not incorporate any AC circuitry.
The Heliotrope units were ETL listed and
a good value. Sam Dawson (owner of Heliotrope)
was forced to close the doors of Heliotrope
after a fire ravaged the factory, but
I hear he is still involved in solar swimming
pool equipment.
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