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Inverter fault

Ah gutted

Was out of the house today and checked my generation on the portal

Massive day, potentially a 28kWh or more day. Realised that the inverter was reporting a fault

Gutted

It seems that we had a power cut.

My error was : grid under voltage, the grid under frequency. Reported it several times

Then an hour later showed a consistent fault message.

It seems the electricity did come back on but the inverter stayed in fault state.

Does this sound like a power cut? And should the inverter have fixed itself if the power did come back?

It stayed as a fault and no generation until I manually restarted it.

:(

Comments

  • theboylard
    theboylard Posts: 1,211 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    oldskoo1 wrote: »
    Ah gutted

    Was out of the house today and checked my generation on the portal

    Massive day, potentially a 28kWh or more day. Realised that the inverter was reporting a fault

    Gutted

    It seems that we had a power cut.

    My error was : grid under voltage, the grid under frequency. Reported it several times

    Then an hour later showed a consistent fault message.

    It seems the electricity did come back on but the inverter stayed in fault state.

    Does this sound like a power cut? And should the inverter have fixed itself if the power did come back?

    It stayed as a fault and no generation until I manually restarted it.

    :(

    Sorry to say but that would be the behaviour I'd expect.
    It has to power down if there is an issue, and as the box won't know why, then even if power comes back up it needs to stay in a safe condition.

    Safety first?
    4kWp, SSE, SolarEdge P300 optimisers & SE3500 Inverter, in occasionally sunny Corby, Northants.
    Now with added Sunsynk 5kw hybrid ecco inverter & 15kWh Fogstar batteries. Oh Octopus Energy too.
  • oldskoo1
    oldskoo1 Posts: 619 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    Thanks

    I tried reading the manual but it just said call for help if it persists

    I was hoping it was a power cut and intended behaviour (there is no reset button so I turned off AC, turned off both DC waited and then reversed it).

    And not the result of tripping on this first hot sunny day since I had my install
  • pinnks
    pinnks Posts: 1,606 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    I have SMA inverters. If they cut off because of a power outage the simply kick in again when the grid comes back online. Not sure why you would need to go through manual restart steps...
  • Ectophile
    Ectophile Posts: 8,350 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    My Power One Aurora will automatically re-connect within a few minutes after power is restored. It goes through a check procedure to ensure that the mains is stable, and within acceptable voltage and frequency limits. If it's happy, then it turns itself back on again.
    If it sticks, force it.
    If it breaks, well it wasn't working right anyway.
  • jimjames
    jimjames Posts: 19,213 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    pinnks wrote: »
    I have SMA inverters. If they cut off because of a power outage the simply kick in again when the grid comes back online. Not sure why you would need to go through manual restart steps...

    My SMA went in to error condition while we were on holiday (sods law!) so we lost 10 days worth of production.

    It was as simple as turning off for 15 mins and back on but it did need that length of time - a quick power down didn't do it.
    Remember the saying: if it looks too good to be true it almost certainly is.
  • oldskoo1
    oldskoo1 Posts: 619 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    10 days off :(

    I'm going to try and simulate a grid failure and see if it reconnects.

    The power company confirmed they turned off the grid to work on a high voltage cable.

    The power was off for a while and the inverter eventually logged a consistent fault after about an hour, perhaps when this happens it stays off as theboylard says. I tried to confirm this with Samil support but they said they couldn't tell without looking at it.

    All i wanted to know was if this was intended behaviour. They couldn't say definitively if it would auto reconnect.

    I assume it will but if its still throwing a fault after x time, maybe it just stays off for safety as said.

    I intend to try this out at some point.

    thanks
  • tunnel
    tunnel Posts: 2,601 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    edited 6 June 2015 at 4:26PM
    oldskoo1 wrote: »
    I intend to try this out at some point.
    Better wait for a rainy/cloudy day thensmiley-shocked003.gif




    As an edit, we had a power outage the other night and all 3 inverters kicked back in after the 20 mins off.
    2 kWp SEbE , 2kWp SSW & 2.5kWp NWbW.....in sunny North Derbyshire17.7kWh Givenergy battery added(for the power hungry kids)
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