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Martin Herzfeld, Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC) Certified Master Trainer™ Emeritus California Solar & Electrical Contractor License #00833782 C-46, C-10, C-7, C-61 - D-56, D-31 Solar, Electrical, Trenching, Pole Installation & Maintenance, Instrumentation Underwriters Laboratories (UL) Certified PV Systems Installer #17, OSHA 30 Certificate OSHA-Authorized Construction Safety Trainer #32-0106614 CompTIA® Certified Technical Classroom Trainer (CTT+™ Certified) #T3NSZCNBBKB4QTQG Solar & Electrical Construction Consultant - 2nd Party Evaluations International Code Council® (ICC) Certified Residential Electrical Inspector - E1 #8343181 International Association of Electrical Inspectors (IAEI) Member - #7035507 Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Training Program (EVITP™) Certification #4039206 Contract Solar (PV) Technical Inspector - 3rd Party Inspections Certificate - Stanford | Center for Professional Development - Energy Innovation and Emerging Technologies (EIET) On Mon, Jun 19, 2023, 11:33 AM August Goers via RE-wrenches < re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: > Hi William - Is this a TL-21 inverter > <https://files.sma.de/downloads/SB3-5TL-21-IS-xx-14.pdf?_ga=2.101814081.1325009506.1687199204-2010138759.1678983058> > line from maybe 8 or 10 years ago? If I recall correctly, that was around > the time period that SMA was first shipping with AFCI detection - we had a > few SMA inverters from that vintage producing false AFCI errors. I think > that long home runs can be part of the issue and the inverter circuitry was > a little too sensitive. You might try calling SMA to see if there is a > firmware update or a way to disable AFCI if you feel comfortable > with disabling that safety feature. > Simply, would this be 690.11 and not be a situation of comfort, but "not in or on buildings," "metal(lic) raceways" or other requirements to comply with the exception? Separately, we've had a few phantom type AFCI errors on older modules and > after tons of troubleshooting we think that it might have been internal to > the modules themselves. > > Good luck! > > Best, August > > > On Mon, Jun 19, 2023 at 11:11 AM William Miller via RE-wrenches < > re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: > >> Friends: >> >> >> >> We installed a bunch of Shell SQ-150-PC modules on a ground mount almost >> 20 years ago. The original SB2500 inverters died so we upgraded to >> SB4000US-21 inverters. We had some ground fault or AFCI issues a number of >> years ago so we replaced all homeruns with PV wire which resolved the >> problem. >> >> >> >> These panels have J-boxes which we interconnected with 1/2” NMLT. The >> home runs are with PV wire with absolutely no splices and the inter-panel >> jumpers are THWN. >> >> >> >> Recently we started getting AFCI disturbances on one inverter. We >> isolated the fault to one string. We opened every pull box and panel J-box >> and all of the wiring looks dry, clean and tightly connected. We inspected >> every panel front and back and see no hotspots or visible corrosion. >> >> >> >> I have a megger I have never used. The homerun is kind of long so maybe >> it has insulation problems. I could isolate the homerun and megger those >> leads. I am researching if I can megger PV modules. It looks like this is >> commonly done. That looks like my next step. >> >> >> >> Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do next? I suppose I could >> start swapping each of the 10 modules in the problem string with panels in >> the non-problem strings, but that seems like a lot of work. >> >> >> >> Thanks in advance. >> >> >> >> William Miller >> >> >> >> Miller Solar >> >> 17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422 >> >> 805-438-5600 >> >> www.millersolar.com >> >> CA Lic. 773985 >> >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance >> >> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org >> >> List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org >> >> Change listserver email address & settings: >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the >> other: >> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/ >> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org >> >> List rules & etiquette: >> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm >> >> Check out or update participant bios: >> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org >> >> _______________________________________________ > List sponsored by Redwood Alliance > > Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org > > List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org > > Change listserver email address & settings: > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the > other: > https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/ > http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org > > List rules & etiquette: > http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm > > Check out or update participant bios: > http://www.members.re-wrenches.org > >
_______________________________________________ List sponsored by Redwood Alliance Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org Change listserver email address & settings: http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the other: https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/ http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org List rules & etiquette: http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm Check out or update participant bios: http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
