[RE-wrenches] Enphase intermittent breaker trippjng
Amos Post
integrityenergy101 at gmail.com
Wed Jun 3 14:30:39 EDT 2020
I was just at a site last week where the Enphase branch circuit breaker, outside utility disconnect breaker, and feed breaker in the main panel all tripped simultaneously, and it happened about 1 hour before I showed up onsite. The customer said it had happened 1 other time last fall but that time it was just the 1 branch circuit in the Enphase combiner panel. Interestingly the customer mentioned that he had just washed off the panels, also about 1 hour before I got there. I went on the roof and found that the installing contractor had not put on the Enphase termination caps. 1 string was wire-nutted with regular wire nuts and sitting on the roof, and the roof was damp right there. This was a fairly flat roof. The other micro trunk cable was just cut with no protection at all, tied to the rail…
Amos Post
Integrity Energy
W 802.763.7023
C 802.291.2188
ienergyVT.com <http://www.ienergyvt.com/>
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> On Jun 3, 2020, at 2:05 PM, Jason Szumlanski <jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com> wrote:
>
> The breaker in the main panel IS tripping simultaneously with one of the branch circuit breakers each time.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Wed, Jun 3, 2020 at 12:43 PM Jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com <mailto:jay.peltz at gmail.com>> wrote:
> A question that keeps nagging me is why do these breakers trip and not the breaker in the main panel?
> Presuming there is a 40 amp in the main
>
> I would have thought that given all the times the breakers have tripped at some point that one would have tripped and I can’t understand why not?
>
> Jay
>
>> On Jun 3, 2020, at 8:27 AM, Jerry Shafer <jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com <mailto:jerrysgarage01 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Wrenches
>> Looking g at the bigger breaker tripping at the same time is very likely do to response time of the breaker nothing more. As l suggested in a previous message. Use a non bridged breaker to see if it is one or both legs that trip. Also an eguage will help to see what if anything leads up to the failure and when.
>> Jerry
>> Jerry
>>
>> On Wed, Jun 3, 2020, 7:58 AM Jason Szumlanski <jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com <mailto:jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com>> wrote:
>> I wonder about that. Of course, it could be the "inverter output circuit" having a fault in the wiring still (an intermittent issue somewhere within the IQ cable or home run wiring). But internal to the microinverter, is it possible that a fault could still occur at night? I had a suggestion from another wrench that there are film capacitors on the AC output side, but are these isolated when there is no DC input? It seems unlikely that this would be an issue, but I have seen microinverters reporting a couple of watts at night (in Enlighten). I'm not sure how real that is.
>>
>> The overriding question I have is what kind of fault would cause BOTH a branch circuit and the main solar breaker to trip simultaneously? That seems odd to me. If any normal load branch circuit has a fault, you don't often see premises main breakers tripping, or even feeder circuit breakers.
>>
>> I got to thinking that maybe there is some kind of issue between the BR220 and CH240 breakers not playing nicely together. But I would think this would be a well-known issue because I'm sure there are tons of CH feeder breakers in the wild with BR branch circuits downstream.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Jun 2, 2020 at 9:25 AM <drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org <mailto:drake.chamberlin at redwoodalliance.org>> wrote:
>> If it trips at night, we know it is not the output from the inverters causing the tripping. The current must be coming from the grid.
>>
>> ---
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2020-06-01 12:05, Jason Szumlanski wrote:
>>
>>>
>>> It's not weather. It's at all times of the day and night, and I confirmed that there is no correlation to rain or high winds. That was my first suspicion.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jun 1, 2020 at 10:27 AM Ray <ray at solarray.com <mailto:ray at solarray.com>> wrote:
>>> Is it at all weather related? Rain, or high humidity? High temperatures? Do you have any indication what time of day it trips off at?
>>>
>>> Ray Walters
>>> Remote Solar
>>> 303 505-8760
>>> On 6/1/20 10:23 AM, Jason Szumlanski wrote:
>>>> Well, that didn't resolve it. The main breaker and a branch circuit breaker tripped again a few days ago. It was the same branch this time.
>>>>
>>>> As my next diagnostic step I swapped two circuits (on which breaker they are landed). If history is a guide, it will work for about two weeks and then trip again.
>>>>
>>>> I'm dumbfounded. I really don't want to have to tear this whole system apart. At this point, if I have to remove all the modules, I feel that I need to replace all of the trunk cable which is an expensive proposition. I really don't know what else to do at this point.
>>>>
>>>> Jason
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, May 25, 2020, 10:43 AM Jason Szumlanski <jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com <mailto:jason at floridasolardesigngroup.com>> wrote:
>>>> I strongly suspect the CH240 combined breaker was compromised (we will see). Since it happened that two different strings tripped, I doubt I have two microinverters with internal faults. It has to be the combined breaker. I was just surprised that branch circuit breakers were tripping simultaneously with the combined output breaker.
>>>>
>>>> Of all the supply side connected systems I have installed, I have never seen a combined output fusible disconnect fuse blow, but I have seen many combined output breakers tripped. I was worried early on that I would be replacing fuses constantly, but that has not been an issue whatsoever.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, May 21, 2020 at 11:15 AM <scot.arey at solarcentex.com <mailto:scot.arey at solarcentex.com>> wrote:
>>>> Actually, we had a IQ7 string loaded up to its max panel size and max string length and in the spring on cool, clear day, it tripped the string's associated breaker in the Enphase combiner.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> We reset but of course that breaker was impaired and it tripped again. We replaced and never had an issue going forward. We suspect the breaker was less than perfect from the start as we've add equally nice days since.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> This almost reminds me of loading up Outback FM80. It says 4,000 watts but in reality, 3,600 is the max when amps spike. I will be extra careful going forward on IQ7 string length when going to the max published...
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My story.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Scot
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> From: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org <mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org>> On Behalf Of Jason Szumlanski
>>>> Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2020 8:57 AM
>>>> To: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org <mailto:re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>>
>>>> Subject: [RE-wrenches] Enphase intermittent breaker trippjng
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm trying to resolve an intermittent frustrating problem with and Enphase IQ system. There are three AC Branch circuits of 9 microinverters each coming into an Enphase AC combiner.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> What has been happening is one of the BR220 branch circuit breakers and the combine CH240 breaker in the main backfed load center have been tripping simultaneously. It has happened about four times in the last 6 months. It was always the same branch circuit breaker, so we kept investigating that string, checking the junction box, trunk cable, and cap, etc. Finally we swapped out the BR220 breaker.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Fast forward 4 weeks, and we got another call. This time a different branch circuit breaker and the main breaker tripped simultaneously. We checked that branch circuit and could not find any fault. It seems unlikely that two branch circuit breakers would be faulty, so we have now switched out the CH240 main breaker in hopes that it is the culprit.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I'm not totally confident in this resolution and I have my fingers crossed. If that doesn't work, does anyone have any suggestions on another diagnostic step? These intermittent problems are a major hassle. One thought I had was to switch to a supply side interconnection with a fusible disconnect. Maybe the intermittent fault would blow one of the two line fuses so at least I could narrow it down to which line the fault is on if there is in fact a fault.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I have experienced two other tripping breaker issues with Enphase systems in the past. Neither of them were systems I installed. One turned out to be branch circuits that were not properly paired up and landed on different breakers. Another time we had an inverter with an internal fault which eventually"blew up" with a loud popping noise and smoke billowing out of it. That happened after resetting a trip breaker multiple times. This case seems to be unrelated to those issues. I'm perplexed.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Jason Szumlanski
>>>>
>>>> Florida Solar Design Group
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
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