A mystery to me..... [RE-wrenches]

penobscotsolar at midmaine.com penobscotsolar at midmaine.com
Sun Oct 19 13:34:09 PDT 2003


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Hi Matt,
  Thanks, I checked the batteries somewhat but I'll do better when I next go 
up there. One thing I left out is that when the leg with the well pump went 
on and dragged the inverter down the battery bank went down to 16.7 volts 
from 54.4 v Do you still think it might be the batteries? I hear you when 
you say more than one crimp could be bad..... Remember, this is a single 
series string of 2 volt cells.
Daryl
Penobscot Solar Design 

 

Matt Tritt writes: 

> Daryl, 
> 
> I'd bet that the problem is with the batteries, not the inverter.  
> 
> I would check for a bad inter-battery connection or a series-string
> connection, possibly a bad crimp(s). Dropping to 27.2 volts would
> indicate that the problem is at the end of a 4 battery string. 
> 
> Matt T 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: penobscotsolar at midmaine.com [mailto:penobscotsolar at midmaine.com] 
> Sent: Saturday, October 18, 2003 2:19 PM
> To: RE-wrenches at topica.com
> Subject: A mystery to me..... [RE-wrenches] 
> 
> 
> Hello all,
>    I'm having no success in troubleshooting a system we installed almost
> two 
> years ago that is three hours travel time each way. It has operated 
> flawlessly since installation. We have had no lightning in the area for 
> months.
>    The system is an SW4048-PP with 24 Surrette KS-25 batteries. It was 
> originally set up for generator only use (against my recommendations)
> but 
> they quickly added a 1.2 KW array within the year. We aded an Outback
> MX-60 
> to the system this last July.
>    I arrived at the site with replacement inverter in hand. We started
> up 
> the original inverter with manual bypass breakers both off. It ran fine, 
> 
> starting up and going into search after 20 seconds or so. Setting it to
> ON, 
> again, it ran fine. We turned off the main in the house and threw the 
> inverter breaker in the bypass and it continued to run fine. We turned
> off 
> all the breakers in the main panel and turned the main on and it ran
> fine. 
> We threw the first breaker and it continued to run fine. We turned off
> the 
> first breaker and continued in this manner until we threw a breaker ( 
> labeled track lighting) and I saw the battery voltage suddenly drop from 
> 
> 54.4 volts to 27.2. The inverter shut down with no error reading and
> without 
> any breaker tripping anywhere. We shut off this breaker and turned the 
> inverter back on. It ran fine.
>     We continued on and found 2 breakers which powered sub-panels both
> had 
> the same effect. One sub powered a Grundfos 1/3 hp SQ-O series 110 VAC 
> submersible, among other things (mostly lights in the room where the sub 
> 
> panel is). It seemed as though certain loads were dragging the inverter 
> down.
>     To shorten this story, we replaced the inverter and voila! the same 
> problem!!!!!
>     When they power the house with the generator through the manual
> bypass 
> switch everything runs fine. The system has separate structure ground
> (for 
> the array) and system ground (the electrical systems ground)
>      WHAT AM I MISSING???
> Daryl
> Penobscot Solar Design 
> 
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