Alan,
Yep, could be a LVCO. Any indication from her as to the state of the
batteries voltage-wise? Shouldn't have much effect one way or the
other, but with longer runs of inverter cables, I generally twist them
together.
Bob-O
On Jun 14, 2009, at 3:59 PM, Darren Emmons wrote:
Allan,
Maybe it's not an overload, perhaps a low voltage cutout caused by
some issue with the either new 2/0 battery cables or their connections.
The Staber WEB site indicates only a 11 amp surge which shouldn't
overload trip a FX2524T.
Cheers
Darren Emmons
Allan Sindelar wrote:
Wrenches,
Here’s one that has me quite stumped, and perhaps one of you
esteemed Wrenches has an answer or suggestion.
In 2000 we installed a clean, basic budget off-grid system in a new
remote manufactured home for a client, a single woman who lives
quite consciously and frugally. The system was 24V, 600W of PV,
Trace DC175, DR2424 inverter, Solar Boost 50, eight golf cart
batteries and a Tri-Metric, along with a Sun Frost RF16 and Staber
washer. The system had worked perfectly for her, and we replaced her
batteries with same last year.
She called a couple of weeks ago because her life situation had
changed and she now worked from her remote home using cell phone and
satellite internet. The new satellite equipment had been troublesome
and had already been replaced, but would still shut down
intermittently. Given that she had already replaced the electronic
equipment with same, I suggested that she finally was facing the
problem of modified-square wave DR waveform. I said that while there
were no guarantees, a switch to a sine wave inverter would likely
cure the problem.
On Friday I removed the DR and installed an Outback FX2524T. No
other changes, other than longer 2/0 cables. I changed a few
settings for flooded batteries and her generator using a service-
truck Mate, but did not sell one with the system. Everything booted
up properly, job done, let me know how it works out.
Friday evening she called with no power. The red “error” LED was
lit. I had her reboot the inverter with the DC breaker, and all was
restored. The only thing she had run was the Staber washer. I
assured her that the inverter could handle a DC reboot without
trouble. The next day (yesterday) she left a message that she had
six times overloaded while completing the wash load with the Staber.
Everything else was fine.
On Monday she will call for an explanation of what is happening and
advice on how to correct it, and I won’t have any. What would allow
a Staber to run fine on mod-square DR power, but overload an FX of
the same capacity? The Staber was likely ordered with notification
of the need for a mod-square control board, as they instructed in
the early days, but I wouldn’t expect it to be incompatible with
sine-wave AC.
Not having expected this problem, I didn’t go hunting for problems
such as a ground fault in the washer circuit. I haven’t done any
troubleshooting, of course, but would like to have some idea what to
look for. The only anomaly that I noticed was that some of her Tri-
Metric program settings had changed from what I checked when I
replaced the batteries: CEF of L98 instead of H97 meant she always
showed 100%, and a couple of other settings weren’t what they should
have been. I noted this and reset it, but considered it an
unexplained glitch, as though a nearby lightning surge had scrambled
some settings without damaging anything, or she had inadvertently
pressed the wrong button sequence and changed settings. Now I’m
wondering about extraneous things: a bad ground? Mice chewing
through the laundry circuit (although she has cats…)?
What would cause an overload to be detected by the FX that wouldn’t
have tripped the DR all these years?
All ideas and solutions would be appreciated. I will likely have to
make a return trip, not under warranty, though.
Allan Sindelar
[email protected]
NABCEP Certified Photovoltaic Installer
EE98J Journeyman Electrician
Positive Energy, Inc.
3201 Calle Marie
Santa Fe, New Mexico 87507
505 424-1112
www.positiveenergysolar.com
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