[RE-wrenches] Low grid voltage fix

[frenergy]

Joel,

        Unrelated, mostly.  I got a call from a customer a few weeks ago 
that was claiming his inverter had failed working.  When I arrived it was in 
fact not working and gave a code that the grid voltage was too high.  I 
called Fronius and they said they sometimes have had to replace a card to 
fix this sometimes, but also suggested that I check the grid voltage first, 
just in case.

        I was a bit surprised to find 270 VAC L-L, 135VAC L-Gnd.  Out of 
disbelief, I checked it with another meter and got the same readings.  This 
was PG&E, NE Ca.  Service dude came at customer's request and claimed the 
"voltage reg" was not adjusted properly. Problem fixed.

Bill

Feather River Solar Electric
4291 Nelson St.
Taylorsville, CA  95983
530-284-7849/6544 fax


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Davidson" <joel.davidson at sbcglobal.net>
To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 19, 2010 9:24 AM
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Low grid voltage fix


> Wrenches,
>
> It's Christmas time again in Southern California Edison (SCE) territory 
> which means low insolation and high regional electric consumption. Every 
> night SCE voltage drops to around 105 VAC or lower. Our grid-tie SW4048 
> inverter sees SCE's low voltage as a brownout and switches to autonomous 
> mode which is normal. However, we have only 4 kWh of battery storage so 
> the combination of nightly brownouts and a series of cloudy days 
> eventually depletes our battery bank causing the inverter to do a 
> low-voltage shut down which is normal. Power goes off in our home and we 
> have to switch over to SCE power, reset the inverter, and wait until the 
> battery bank is recharged. How do we set the SW4048 to accept as low as 
> 100 VAC from the grid before switching to autonomous mode?
>
> Joel Davidson
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