[RE-wrenches] All-In-Ones / Sol-Ark fail

Thu Oct 10 16:50:27 PDT 2024

Thank you for your feedback Jason. These are essential functions we must implement to comply with UL1741 standards. If this were to be changed then this could affect our status of being compliant with this standard and will limit the markets we could offer the Sol-Ark inverter. If you haven't already, I recommend calling our support line for assistance with this issue. You can reach our technical support team at 972-575-8875, Ext. 2, or email us at support at sol-ark.com. I’m not certain which fault code was triggered, but some PV-related faults can be in relation to the AC side as well, which could potentially lead to further damage to the installation.

As a side note, you can disconnect the PV of the affected inverter by opening the circuit using the DC disconnect. If the fault is coming from one of the inverters related to the PV, the system should function normally once you disconnect the affected string from the inverter. After experiencing multiple faults consecutively, the inverters may require a manual power cycle to return to normal operation. Again, I am not certain what fault was triggered or if you were able to reach our support line, but this should resume activity for the inverters until you are able to make it to the site.

Best Regards,

Jharen Poole
Applications Engineer II
972-575-8875
[cid:4fc04000-1e1e-4b96-b9a2-4422dddacb70]
________________________________
From: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org> on behalf of jay via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Thursday, October 10, 2024 6:17 PM
To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Cc: jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com>; Lou Russo <lou at spreesolarsystems.com>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] All-In-Ones / Sol-Ark fail

Caution: This email is from an external source.

Seems like this is a firmware setting and should be adjustable.  If lo

On Oct 10, 2024, at 3:59 PM, Lou Russo via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>> wrote:

Aloha All,

Thank you Jason. This is a huge and surprising issue. So much so that I dropped what I was doing and called Sol-Ark to confirm. Mind you this was level 1 support, but I was told this is what the Sol-Arks are supposed to do and it is a feature not a bug. Their take is if there is any fault on any one string, the Sol-Ark assumes the worst and shuts everything down.

I wonder what solutions could be implemented on future installs to prevent this from happening?

Aloha,

Lou Russo
Owner
lou at spreesolarsystems.com<mailto:lou at spreesolarsystems.com>
Office - 808 345 6762
Spree Solar Systems LLC
CT-34322

On Thu, Oct 10, 2024 at 11:45 AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>> wrote:
I think it's more likely water in a J-box or possibly physical damage, but someone passed by the property and did not observe any physical damage to the array.

Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208

On Thu, Oct 10, 2024 at 5:41 PM Jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com<mailto:jay.peltz at gmail.com>> wrote:
Jason
What’s the possibllity it was a lighting strike?

Jay

On Oct 10, 2024, at 2:57 PM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>> wrote:

We have been talking a lot recently about all-in-ones. I just had a massive fail during Hurricane Milton with a quad Sol-Ark 15K off-grid system that deserves some discussion about whether AIO is a good idea if it can't build in some resilience to errors. I'm not sure if the new Midnite unit is better in this respect, but this is what happened to the Sol-Ark system...

Four inverters, each with 4 strings of PV paralleled to 2 MPPT per inverter. One of the slave units developed some sort of PV DC fault during the storm. This caused the slave inverter to shut down and throw an error, which in turn caused a parallel fault across all four inverters. Power output ceases at that point. Apparently the system keeps resetting because I have a cell modem that uploads data to Sol-Ark, but that cell modem is powered by the inverter outputs, so it must be getting power at least intermittently. The rest of the loads are basically flatlined according to the Sol-Ark data. It's mostly air conditioners, so they probably can't turn on fast enough before the PV fault causes another shutdown.

So, in essence, one of 16 strings of PV develops a fault, and that causes all four inverters to malfunction? What is the point of redundancy if a fault of one results in a fault of all?! If there is a true PV input fault, shouldn't that just shut down that MPPT, or perhaps all of the PV DC input to that inverter? And why can't this inverter continue to invert power from the batteries and charge from a generator when there is a DC input fault that could be programmatically isolated and ignored?

This is a bad design in my opinion, and something I hadn't considered. If the faulted inverter can't function with a DC input fault, it should just take itself out of the game. (This is 120/240 split phase, BTW). Is this how all AIO inverters work? One inverter fault on the DC side kills all paralleled units' AC output? Not good.

This is a completely off-grid system on a remote island with no vehicle access, so it's not exactly easy to do a "truck roll" on this one, especially post-hurricane. To make matters worse, the generator was running at the time of the fault, as it was being signaled to run because the battery had reached the assigned charge voltage. The fault also killed the 2-wire start signal from the master, so the system also stopped passing through generator power to the loads. The house is dark.

Jason Szumlanski
Florida Solar Design Group

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