[RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system

[Exeltech]

GFI outlets have an internal circuit breaker.  Likely the breaker contacts in that outlet are marginal (resistive), causing a voltage drop.  The compressor pulls max current at the top of each compression cycle.  When the peak compressor current coincides with an AC voltage peak (they're not necessarily synchronized on a cycle-by-cycle basis), the voltage drop across the GFI breaker contacts is sufficient to cause the LEDs to flicker, but not so much of a drop as to affect the compressor or other loads.

I'll bet if you replace the GFI .. the LED flickering problem goes away.

Nice detective work.


Dan


--------------------------------------------
On Wed, 1/8/14, Kirpal Khalsa <solarworks at gmail.com> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] Flickering LED lights on and Outback Dual 7248VFX system
 To: "RE-wrenches" <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
 Date: Wednesday, January 8, 2014, 4:11 PM
 
Folks!!! Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions regarding the flickering LED lights...I think we have found the culprits....although 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 outlet....when 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 operating....not 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