[RE-wrenches] Long transmission line inductance and LED light flicker

[Exeltech]

Troy,
 
Elsewhere in this thread, boB (Midnite) suggested connecting one of the problematic lights and dimmers directly at the inverter output.
 
This is a very sound recommendation, and would immediately rule in .. or rule out the conductors (and related circuits) as an issue.
 
Another Wrench suggested using an oscilloscope to check the waveform at the load end.  This too is excellent advice, and would be even more telling than connecting the lamps and dimmer directly at the inverter.  The ‘scope will reveal the AC voltage AND a visual indication of any waveform distortion, either aspect of which could potentially cause the flicker you describe.
 
If you don’t have access to a ‘scope, boB’s comment about connecting at the inverter won’t require any test equipment.
 
At a minimum, set your DVM to record the voltage minimum; connect it the lamp circuit, and turn on the 1 kW load you described.  If the voltage is dropping notably, this too would introduce visible flicker.  The DVM method is less accurate than an oscilloscope, but better than nothing, and depends greatly on the quality (or not) of your DVM.
 
The above aside, anything else would be strictly conjecture .. which we can do all day, and never be correct.
 
 
Dan
 
 
 
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On Wed, 2/12/14, August Goers <august at luminalt.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Long transmission line inductance and LED light flicker
 To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
 Date: Wednesday, February 12, 2014, 9:01 AM
 
 Hi Troy,

Have you double checked that your grounding systems both in the house and at the inverters/array are all up to snuff? 

Sorry I can’t offer any help with the inductance issue.

Best,

August

 

From: re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Troy Harvey
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2014 5:45 PM
To: RE-wrenches
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Long transmission line inductance and LED light flicker


Richard,


The system configuration is:
Approx 24.7kW of modules connected to:
            2 x 9kW Sunnyboys
            1 x 5kW Sunnyboys

Plus
4 x 6kW sunnyislands, with 2 Parallel 48V Strings of (12 x 4V Surrettes ) using 350MCM cable



Wire

The wire is about 1000 feet long 350 MCM in a "twisted" bundle to this outbuilding

Conditions

The conditions were during the day with full sun, so during the test there is approx. 47kW of available inverter pointed at only >15 amps (120V) of load(!).

The steady state conditions was a few LED lights, maybe 60 watts worth, plus a handful of vampire loads, maybe 100-200 watts total. When a pure resistance load, like a 1000W curling iron was turned on the lights would flicker.
 
Since the lights flickered from a resistive load, but didn't stay dim, I assumed it was from a reactive-phase issues due to the transient  turn-on - screwing with the LED dimmer circuits which are already doing a bit of magic to turn TRIAC waveforms into a DC constant current.

thanks,

Troy Harvey
---------------------
Principal Engineer
Heliocentric
801-453-9434
taharvey at heliocentric.org