New Solar PV system - says "waiting"...

tiggerpud

I had a new system installed yesterday and the installers said that there wasn't enough sun for it to start working when they finished late afternoon and it should spring into action the next day. Well it hasn't.....the inverter still says "waiting". The inverter is a Sunny Boy 3000 and the 18 panels are Shucko. I've been watching the voltage shown on the inverter and have seen it as high as 292v - should it have sprung into action by now? The installers are going to call back next week - but I'm impatient and wondered if anyone can help?

Thanks.

stoozey

tried the obvious turn the inverter off/on ?

tiggerpud

Just tried that.... really annoying as lovely and warm & sunny here today! From reading manuals, it seems it hasn't yet reached the start up voltage. If today isn't good enough then I'm worried....!

stoozey

one of the strings is not working by the ousnds of it.

Have you paid the final payment for the supplier to commission the system ?

I would want them back on Monday to fix it if I had paid. It's not like they are cheap.

tiggerpud

No havent paid a penny - company didnt even want a deposit so no worries there.

Just really diappointed as it was all getting so exciting!

stoozey

that is strange as the code of practice lays down the payments, deposit, delivery of parts and commissioning.

Well if you aint paid then wouldn't worry.

Jon_Tiffany

Its waiting for the grid connection, not the panels. At 292v it should have started up by now. Is the AC isolator turned on? Have you checked the consumer unit? It may be that the installers left it turned off. Electricians seem to prefer to turn things off rather than on, something about self preservation...

They sound like a good company that did the install, makes a nice change that they havn't even asked for a deposit. Gives you peace of mind that they ust be confident in what they are doing.

tiggerpud

Yes everything seems to be switched on.

I'm sure they will call me Monday - I'm just being impatient....it's very frustrating when the sun comes out! lol

bjohnson

There should be a red light flashing occasionally on your generation meter if anything is being fed to the grid. When mine was first installed it kept tripping the RCD on the mains board and the electrician said that probably somewhere in our house there was a neutral and earth connection transposed. When there was a back-feed of current that caused the RCD to trip. When he connected to a part of the board not protected by an RCD it was fine.

tiggerpud

Only flashing light is the one that seems to be waiting for start up conditions to be met.... Lovely sunny weekend too - boo hoo!

keith_r59

FAQs from the SMA US web site suggests that the panels may have been wired incorrectly. There may also be an error condition but you will need to watch the inverter for a few minutes as it will only be displayed briefly between waiting mode messages.

http://www.sma-america.com/en_US/service/frequently-asked-questions.html