[RE-wrenches] Sunpower micros and mysterious outages

[Chris Worcester]

I’ve seen half of a 200A DP main CB fail intermittently, causing some circuits to go down then come back on at various times. Then on one service call out to diagnose this strange set of partial blackouts, I heard an internal click while standing next to it, after checking every wire in every panel of this large off grid system. The breaker handles didn’t trip though. A very hard one to figure out.  We swapped it out and no more partial black outs.

 

Chris Worcester

Solar Wind Works

NABCEP Certified PV Installer

Office 530-582-4503

Cell 530-448-9692

Fax 530-582-4603

www.solarwindworks.com

chris at solarwindworks.com

 

From: RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] On Behalf Of Hilton Dier III
Sent: Monday, March 27, 2017 9:04 AM
To: re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
Subject: [RE-wrenches] Sunpower micros and mysterious outages

 

Friends of mine got a Sunpower system installed last year. Ever since then they have had intermittent problems with circuits in their house going dead.

The array is 14 each Sunpower SPR E20 327 C AC. The array is mounted on a corrugated steel roof on their garage, about 20 feet from the house.

What happens is that a circuit in their house will either go dead or brown out so lights barely glow. This happens to various circuits and at any time of day or night. The rest of the circuits will work fine and the event will last an hour or two. The breakers don't trip. They have had two different electricians there to check the house wiring and it's all solid.

Any ideas? Some kind of metal roof capacitance?

Many thanks,

Hilton



-- 
Hilton Dier III
Missisquoi River Hydro
Renewable Energy Design
453 East Hill Rd.
Middlesex, VT 05602
Tel: 802-223-6652
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20170327/dc8b1605/attachment-0002.html>