<div dir="ltr">Hi Jason,<div><br></div><div>I really don't think the generator is at fault. I think of these grid tied inverters as current sources, not voltage sources. If they don't "like" the voltage at their AC input terminals, its their job to disconnect from that voltage source and reconnect when the voltage is within their specs. It's certainly not impossible and I would recommend having a contactor remove the PV input when the transfer switch is in generator mode. I'm sure if you tell Eaton that there was a generator connection, they would be much less inclined to honor any warranty that there may be.</div><div><br></div><div>One caveat to this is if there are lots of non-linear loads and the generator wasn't sized to account for this you might see voltage distortion that may cause problems. I'm not sure how an inverter decides if a voltage source is worthy of connecting to or not, so wave-form distortion may not be picked up, and I'm not sure if there is any input filtering. Here is a very good and succinct article on the effect of non-linear loads on generators: <a href="https://www.idc-online.com/technical_references/pdfs/electrical_engineering/Generators_and_nonlinear_loads.pdf">https://www.idc-online.com/technical_references/pdfs/electrical_engineering/Generators_and_nonlinear_loads.pdf</a></div><div><br></div><div>On another note, if there are a lot of inductive loads, activation of a transfer switch could cause a voltage spike in the system.</div><div><br></div><div>Good Luck</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jan 29, 2016 at 9:37 PM, Jay <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jay.peltz@gmail.com" target="_blank">jay.peltz@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div></div><div>Hi jerry</div><div><br></div><div>Can you give any insight as to the failure mechanism? </div><div><br></div><div>I guess I don't understand why bad AC would damage the inverter, I mean besides the obvious bad equipment design. </div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><div><br></div><div>Jay</div><div>Peltz power. </div></font></span><div><div class="h5"><div><br>On Jan 29, 2016, at 3:18 PM, Jerry Shafer <<a href="mailto:jerrysgarage01@gmail.com" target="_blank">jerrysgarage01@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><br></div><blockquote type="cite"><div><p dir="ltr">We have seen something very close, it appears that the gwnny will always win this war.<br>
Jerry</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jan 29, 2016 1:14 PM, "Jason Szumlanski" <<a href="mailto:jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com" target="_blank">jason@floridasolardesigngroup.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">I'm looking at two Eaton PV250 inverters that failed simultaneously as far as we know (not my install). Everything checked out normal, but no display and no power output. I suspect both boards are bad. Upon digging into the scenario I discovered that the owner had a whole-house generator transfer switch installed a while back, after the PV was installed. The PV is a load side interconnection, so calamity should have been expected.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">What are the odds that the generator caused the inverter boards to fail? I was always under the impression that it was more likely for a generator component to be damaged than an inverter component in this scenario. It could be coincidence and the inverters may have just failed around the same.</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Note: ~10kW PV, 25kW Generator</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Side note: The PV was interconnected at a 50A breaker on a 200A bus bar in the main distribution panel and somehow passed inspection by an AHJ that shall not be named... Over 120%, and also not the correct OCPD rating anyway for these two inverters. Passed plan review and inspection... Contractor out of business... surprise!</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Jason Szumlanski</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Florida Solar Design Group</div><div><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><span></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>
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