[RE-wrenches] SMA Arc-Fault

William Miller william at millersolar.com
Sun Nov 13 20:54:40 PST 2016


Dave:



E-gauge will not test for line noise.  You need a power quality monitor.
The cheapest one and the only one I have used is the Fluke VR1710.



William





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millersolar.com <http://www.millersolar.com/>
805-438-5600



*From:* RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On
Behalf Of *Dave Tedeyan
*Sent:* Sunday, November 13, 2016 5:37 PM
*To:* RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] SMA Arc-Fault



Howie,

Yes, we have actually already replaced both inverters on site and the

issues are still happening. At this point I doubt that we could have

gotten 4 units with faulty arc fault sensors...



Drake,

I am beginning to think that it may be some noise from the utility.

Would you know of a way to test for this? eGague unit maybe?



Cheers,

Dave






*--*



*Dave Tedeyan*

*Project Engineer*



*Taitem Engineering, PC*

109 S. Albany Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Voice: (607) 277-1118 x121

www.taitem.com



On Fri, Nov 11, 2016 at 10:15 AM, Drake <
drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org> wrote:

Electrical noise coming in from the utility side can also cause an arc
fault code.

At 07:32 AM 11/11/2016, you wrote:

This array is a ground mount, so not on a roof, and no radio towers nearby.

As for grounding, The array and the shed with the interconnection point are
in the same area.
There are a couple ground rods there, which everything on the AC side is
connected to,Â
including a #6 wire from each inverter. there is just a #10 ground coming
from the array to the inverters.Â
The house is a couple hundred feet away and has its own grounding electrode
system.

Jerry,
The inverters are new (replaced 2 months ago), but it is a good idea to
check firmware.
As for AC loads, nothing stands out as the types of things you mentioned,
although there
may be a well pump. They also do have a large water storage tank for
heating, but they
say that they have not needed to use it yet this year. Then there is also
the generator...

Thanks for your recommendations.
-Dave





*--Dave Tedeyan*
Project Engineer


*Taitem Engineering, PC*109Â S. Albany Street, Ithaca, NY 14850
Voice:Â (607) 277-1118 x121 <http://??>
www.taitem.com

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 9:51 PM, Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com >
wrote:

Dave.

We have many TL-22 in the field and they will detect faults even when they
are normal contactor faults, have you made sure the SW is the latest, last
I checked it is 2.65.3R and it may have a patch in there, you can turn off
the feature for testing only and see if you melt something down but if you
do please be on site as a arc may happen. Do you have a well, AC system
with contacts, welders, compressors, anything that has a dry contacts that
brakes under load, this is another place I would look. Every time we have
had a code out it was real weather from something normal or a wire issue.
Not to brag but we have hundreds in the field from the 3's to the 24's and
as much as I dread getting a call with this issue I can usually find the
problem and it can be either AC or DC.

Jerry



On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 8:14 AM, Dave Tedeyan <dtedeyan at taitem.com> wrote:

Hi All,Â

Maybe someone will have some ideas for why a couple inverters keep arc
faulting:

-There are two SB7000TL-22 inverters, Sunpower branded.

-3 Strings of 7 SPR-327's to each inverter. Kept separate until the
inverter.

-Ground mount about 50' from the shed where the inverters are located
(indoors)

-Simple grid connected system, no batteries.

-There is a whole house generator co-located in the shed.

-We interconnect by using piercing taps on the line side of the generator
transfer switch

-There has been only one power outage there since the system was installed
in April, but the generator fires up weekly.

-The arc faults have been happening on both inverters. Sometimes only one
at a time, sometimes both will go within a day of each other.

-The events have been approximately one a month, but sometimes more,
sometimes less.

-We have already checked every single connection in the system twice, by
two different people.

-We have replaced the underground wires (and they looked just fine)

-We have replaced all home runs.

-We have replaced both inverters.

-Arc faults are still happening.

-Arc faults are not always on the same day/time of the week.

I am wondering if this can be caused by the generator?Â

Has anyone run into a situation like this or something similar?

Thanks for your help,

Dave

--

Dave Tedeyan



Project Engineer

Taitem Engineering, PC

109Â S. Albany Street, Ithaca, NY 14850

Voice:Â (607) 277-1118 x121 <http://??>



www.taitem.com

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