I think it's more likely water in a J-box or possibly physical damage, but someone passed by the property and did not observe any physical damage to the array.
Jason Szumlanski Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 On Thu, Oct 10, 2024 at 5:41 PM Jay <[email protected]> wrote: > Jason > What’s the possibllity it was a lighting strike? > > Jay > > On Oct 10, 2024, at 2:57 PM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > We have been talking a lot recently about all-in-ones. I just had a > massive fail during Hurricane Milton with a quad Sol-Ark 15K off-grid > system that deserves some discussion about whether AIO is a good idea if it > can't build in some resilience to errors. I'm not sure if the new Midnite > unit is better in this respect, but this is what happened to the Sol-Ark > system... > > Four inverters, each with 4 strings of PV paralleled to 2 MPPT per > inverter. One of the slave units developed some sort of PV DC fault during > the storm. This caused the slave inverter to shut down and throw an error, > which in turn caused a parallel fault across all four inverters. Power > output ceases at that point. Apparently the system keeps resetting because > I have a cell modem that uploads data to Sol-Ark, but that cell modem is > powered by the inverter outputs, so it must be getting power at least > intermittently. The rest of the loads are basically flatlined according to > the Sol-Ark data. It's mostly air conditioners, so they probably can't turn > on fast enough before the PV fault causes another shutdown. > > So, in essence, one of 16 strings of PV develops a fault, and that causes > all four inverters to malfunction? What is the point of redundancy if a > fault of one results in a fault of all?! If there is a true PV input fault, > shouldn't that just shut down that MPPT, or perhaps all of the PV DC input > to that inverter? And why can't this inverter continue to invert power from > the batteries and charge from a generator when there is a DC input fault > that could be programmatically isolated and ignored? > > This is a bad design in my opinion, and something I hadn't considered. If > the faulted inverter can't function with a DC input fault, it should just > take itself out of the game. (This is 120/240 split phase, BTW). Is this > how all AIO inverters work? One inverter fault on the DC side kills all > paralleled units' AC output? Not good. > > This is a completely off-grid system on a remote island with no vehicle > access, so it's not exactly easy to do a "truck roll" on this one, > especially post-hurricane. To make matters worse, the generator was running > at the time of the fault, as it was being signaled to run because the > battery had reached the assigned charge voltage. The fault also killed the > 2-wire start signal from the master, so the system also stopped passing > through generator power to the loads. The house is dark. > > > Jason Szumlanski > Florida Solar Design Group > > _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: [email protected] > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
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