Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system
Folks!!! Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions regarding the flickering LED lights...I think we have found the culpritsalthough I don't have a good understanding as to why...I am sure you could shed some (non flickering) light on the subject so that i might understand why more clearly.. The main culprit causing the flickering was the fridge compressor.the fridge was plugged into a GFI outletwhen plugged into a non GFI outlet the problem vanished!! It turns out that the other loads that caused this flickering were also plugged into GFI outlets and when plugged into standard non GFI outlets caused no flickering.The flickering remained steady as long as the load was operatingnot just on start up. The dimmer switches did not seem to affect the flickering by them selves Problem solved- but my understanding is lacking Thank you!!! Sunny Regards, Kirpal Khalsa NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional Renewable Energy Systems www.oregonsolarworks.com 541-218-0201 m 541-592-3958 o On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 12:14 PM, Jerry Shafer jerrysgarag...@gmail.comwrote: I checked one of my mobile rigs with dual VFX3648 with a transformer and 36 kWhrs of total battery capacity it has 4 foot LED's and with the inverter on ON not search it works great I keep going back to programming some time back my program was messed with and it was on search mode we had audio problems during a concert because one of the inverters was set to high it was pulsing like your lights and it was programming Jerry On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:07 AM, Bob-O Schultze bo...@electronconnection.com wrote: I run an old VFX3524 and have LEDs EVERYWHERE in our offgrid home. Two on dimmers. One ac freezer, one DC freezer and one DC fridge. Washing machine, dishwasher, nuke, all that jazz. No flickers anywhere and the old house grounding system sucks bad. Bought most of my LED lamps from Costco. Bob-O On Jan 7, 2014, at 8:32 AM, jay peltz wrote: Hi bill My $.02. Single vfx3524, Trojan IND in an AC electric house with about a dozen LEDs of 5 or 6 different types and brands. No flickering at all, no dimmers. One test I thought of was to,run the generator and see if the flicker continues. If so, then bypass the inverters to take the chargers off line, As to bulbs, I've been super happy with the Cree ones from Home Depot. $10 ish and beautiful light both warm and daylight. Jay Peltz power ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system
Aha! Great info Kirpal...thank you. I *almost* mentioned when you first posted, but didn't and should have.,..a client's brand new fridge would not run AT ALL from a GFCI outlet.the tricky thing was that it was a downstream GFCI branch. Way at the back of the fridge owners manual..it said quite clearly that it cannot be used on a GFCI outlet or branch, and must have its own non-GFCI circuit. Glad you found the problem. Dan Fink, Executive Director; Otherpower Buckville Energy Consulting Buckville Publications LLC NABCEP / IREC accredited Continuing Education Providers 970.672.4342 On Wed, Jan 8, 2014 at 3:11 PM, Kirpal Khalsa solarwo...@gmail.com wrote: Folks!!! Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions regarding the flickering LED lights...I think we have found the culpritsalthough I don't have a good understanding as to why...I am sure you could shed some (non flickering) light on the subject so that i might understand why more clearly.. The main culprit causing the flickering was the fridge compressor.the fridge was plugged into a GFI outletwhen plugged into a non GFI outlet the problem vanished!! It turns out that the other loads that caused this flickering were also plugged into GFI outlets and when plugged into standard non GFI outlets caused no flickering.The flickering remained steady as long as the load was operatingnot just on start up. The dimmer switches did not seem to affect the flickering by them selves Problem solved- but my understanding is lacking Thank you!!! Sunny Regards, Kirpal Khalsa NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional Renewable Energy Systems www.oregonsolarworks.com 541-218-0201 m 541-592-3958 o On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 12:14 PM, Jerry Shafer jerrysgarag...@gmail.comwrote: I checked one of my mobile rigs with dual VFX3648 with a transformer and 36 kWhrs of total battery capacity it has 4 foot LED's and with the inverter on ON not search it works great I keep going back to programming some time back my program was messed with and it was on search mode we had audio problems during a concert because one of the inverters was set to high it was pulsing like your lights and it was programming Jerry On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:07 AM, Bob-O Schultze bo...@electronconnection.com wrote: I run an old VFX3524 and have LEDs EVERYWHERE in our offgrid home. Two on dimmers. One ac freezer, one DC freezer and one DC fridge. Washing machine, dishwasher, nuke, all that jazz. No flickers anywhere and the old house grounding system sucks bad. Bought most of my LED lamps from Costco. Bob-O On Jan 7, 2014, at 8:32 AM, jay peltz wrote: Hi bill My $.02. Single vfx3524, Trojan IND in an AC electric house with about a dozen LEDs of 5 or 6 different types and brands. No flickering at all, no dimmers. One test I thought of was to,run the generator and see if the flicker continues. If so, then bypass the inverters to take the chargers off line, As to bulbs, I've been super happy with the Cree ones from Home Depot. $10 ish and beautiful light both warm and daylight. Jay Peltz power ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system
Hi bill My $.02. Single vfx3524, Trojan IND in an AC electric house with about a dozen LEDs of 5 or 6 different types and brands. No flickering at all, no dimmers. One test I thought of was to,run the generator and see if the flicker continues. If so, then bypass the inverters to take the chargers off line, As to bulbs, I've been super happy with the Cree ones from Home Depot. $10 ish and beautiful light both warm and daylight. Jay Peltz power ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system
I checked one of my mobile rigs with dual VFX3648 with a transformer and 36 kWhrs of total battery capacity it has 4 foot LED's and with the inverter on ON not search it works great I keep going back to programming some time back my program was messed with and it was on search mode we had audio problems during a concert because one of the inverters was set to high it was pulsing like your lights and it was programming Jerry On Tue, Jan 7, 2014 at 11:07 AM, Bob-O Schultze bo...@electronconnection.com wrote: I run an old VFX3524 and have LEDs EVERYWHERE in our offgrid home. Two on dimmers. One ac freezer, one DC freezer and one DC fridge. Washing machine, dishwasher, nuke, all that jazz. No flickers anywhere and the old house grounding system sucks bad. Bought most of my LED lamps from Costco. Bob-O On Jan 7, 2014, at 8:32 AM, jay peltz wrote: Hi bill My $.02. Single vfx3524, Trojan IND in an AC electric house with about a dozen LEDs of 5 or 6 different types and brands. No flickering at all, no dimmers. One test I thought of was to,run the generator and see if the flicker continues. If so, then bypass the inverters to take the chargers off line, As to bulbs, I've been super happy with the Cree ones from Home Depot. $10 ish and beautiful light both warm and daylight. Jay Peltz power ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
[RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system
Another $.02 I have 2, FX3524's and 35 KWhrs of HUP's behind themjust cleaned and torqued the terminals/cables. I run 6-7 brands, sizes, styles of LEDS and some of them of them flicker while, in my case, the convection oven is running. It quickly pulses (~10-20 times/second) to maintain a temperature. Fridge is DC. The less expensive off-brand LEDs flicker, the big name brands don't. Bill - Original Message - From: Jerry Shafer To: RE-wrenches Sent: Monday, January 06, 2014 6:21 PM Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system I have had this same thing happen with a off grid application using SMA SI's it rooted back to programming one inverter was going to sleep and under some loads the lights would flicker and they were over the dinning room table and suspended from a 16 foot ceiling so it lit up the entire room. I know this has a different inverter system but I would look close at the programming LED's use such a low load and the drivers take a second to activate. Did you connect a DVOM and watch the volts better yet a scope Jerry On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 5:56 PM, Exeltech exelt...@yahoo.com wrote: There may also be a technical aspect of the dimmer that's adding to the flicker, depending on the type of dimmer(s) in use. Some dimmers use a device called a silicon-controlled rectifier .. or SCR. They allow only half of the sine wave to pass. Half-wave power wasn't very noticeable when used with incandescent lamps due to the continued glow persistence of the filament. However, LEDs react [essentially] immediately, and the flicker is very apparent. Final thought .. compressors use the most energy during the compression stroke. Actual current draw varies with each stroke of the piston. Check not only the battery connections, but look to see if the loads are on the same circuits as the lamps. If in fact the inverter AC output voltage IS dropping due to DC-side issues .. and the large AC loads happen to share the same circuit as the lamps .. this would make any flicker that much worse. Dan On Mon, 1/6/14, b...@midnitesolar.com b...@midnitesolar.com wrote: Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248 VFX system To: RE-wrenches re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Date: Monday, January 6, 2014, 6:25 PM Only during Big load surges ? Could it be current limiting and because LEDs are so fast on and off, you notice the drop in momentary voltage ? Any inverter might do that under the right conditions. Just a thought. boB On 1/6/2014 3:45 PM, Dan Fink wrote: I consider LED flicker as very common when a fridge starts up, but NOT while it's running. Both dimmed and not dimmed LEDs. I see flicker more often on systems with smaller (or aging) battery systems of course. The only particular appliance I have found causing constant flicker here and with my clients is a particular brand of laser printer. And also a subwoofer on the stereo (light show!)a different subwoofer brand solved that problem. Go figure, I have no idea why. Most of my inverters are by Magnum. I have not found much difference with LED brands or dimmer brands. I can see how this could be a problem for your client, Kirpal. None of mine seem to mind a startup flicker, but if its constant that's a big problem. I wish I had an answer for you, but I hope that providing this information helps others. CFLs do not give me the same problem, but of course have their own other problems. Dan Fink, Executive Director; Otherpower Buckville Energy Consulting Buckville Publications LLC NABCEP / IREC accredited Continuing Education Providers 970.672.4342 On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 2:48 PM, Jay Peltz j...@asis.com wrote: Dimmers are super specific to light brand/type. You'll have to do the research For now swapping to regular switches should work Jay ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org -- ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http
Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system
the only ones i have on a dimmer are in the bathroom and they flicker. being we are grid tied (GVFX-3648) and the grid is up, i suspect this is because of a bad dimmer/lamp combo. anyone find the RFI from led lamps a problem? i have to shut all mine off when using the 2 meter ham rig. todd On Monday, January 6, 2014 7:56pm, frenergy frene...@psln.com said: Another $.02 I have 2, FX3524's and 35 KWhrs of HUP's behind themjust cleaned and torqued the terminals/cables. I run 6-7 brands, sizes, styles of LEDS and some of them of them flicker while, in my case, the convection oven is running. It quickly pulses (~10-20 times/second) to maintain a temperature. Fridge is DC. The less expensive off-brand LEDs flicker, the big name brands don't. Bill Sent from Finest Planet WebMail. ___ List sponsored by Home Power magazine List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change email address settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List-Archive: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules etiquette: www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out participant bios: www.members.re-wrenches.org
