Overvoltage problem on Trace SW after lightning [RE-wrenches]

Kent Sheldon kent.sheldon at xantrex.com
Sun Sep 2 14:30:42 PDT 2001


Does the o-scope read the 152Vrms/210Vp or the meter? Is the meter a true
RMS meter? This sounds suspiciously like a ground reference/measurement
problem. You did mention there may be problems with the ground grid at this
site.

Kent Sheldon
Sales and Marketing Manager
Distributed Industrial & Utilities Markets
Xantrex Technology Inc.
Direct 925 245 5463 - Fax 925 245 1022
kent.sheldon at xantrex.com  www.xantrex.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Windy Dankoff, Dankoff Solar [mailto:windy at dankoffsolar.com]
Sent: Saturday, September 01, 2001 11:19 AM
To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
Subject: Overvoltage problem on Trace SW after lightning [RE-wrenches]


I'm writing this for Ray Walters / Remote Technology. He's on a job 
site in Texas and had nobody else to call for sympathy on a Saturday 
morning. Ray's an E.E. and pretty whiz, and he's racking his brain on 
this one:


The installation has two SW-4024 inverters on a single system, 
connected independently (not interfaced).

Lightning strike occurred nearby and took out some other electronics 
in the system in spite of a Polyphaser and some Delta arrestors. 
(Site is a dry rocky hilltop where grounding is attempted but can't 
be very good.)

The inverters work, oscilloscope shows normal, good waveform, but RMS 
volts = 152, with peaks of 210. This has been confirmed by several 
meters. The meters then confirmed to be normal when reading the 
generator and grid output too (at his motel).

Now, get this -- BOTH on-board meters read the normal 120V vicinity. 
Each inverter behaves the same, whether it's fellow inverter is also 
on or off.

Trace factory couldn't help, hadn't heard of such a problem. They say 
failure of regulation should show on the on-board meter too, and 
should cause waveform distortion.

Ray has tried checking and disconnecting grounds every which-way, 
checked for leaks to ground from neutral, etc. etc. None of the usual 
causes of weird readings.

Inverters otherwise work normally. (Appliances OK but customer thinks 
lights look brighter and one wall cube does seem to be awfully hot.) 
--- except they don't pick up the generator. They try, but don't show 
the error light. Both inverters behave identically, which is a bit 
strange considering the usual random nature of lightning failures.

Anybody ever see a similar problem ??

Windy

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