That is the exact error! But I don't think that explains how I have one string over the expected voltage and one string under. It's definitely worth checking, nonetheless. This array is 12 feet in the air and pitched at 5 degrees, so you can't see the glass from the ground.
It is conceivable that I have two issues. The voltage issue could be a wiring issue and the inverters may have faulted out due to broken modules. There were tropical force winds there at the time. Jason Szumlanski Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 On Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 3:49 PM Maverick Brown <maver...@mavericksolar.com> wrote: > Jason > > Which fault are you getting? > > This spring I was getting F23-Tz_GFCLO randomly on an upper roof array. > > After further investigation, I found several modules with broken glass. > After replacing the mods, all is well. > > Thank you, > > Maverick > > Maverick Brown > Off-Grid Solar Commander since 2006 > Maverick Solar Enterprises, Inc. > • Solar Commander Remote Power > • SunFlow Systems Cathodic Protection > maver...@mavericksolar.com > 512-460-9825 > > > > On Oct 11, 2024, at 1:39 PM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < > re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: > > > By shutting off the PV disconnects on the two affected inverters we were > able to make the system work successfully today. As I mentioned, we will > dig into the actual faults on Monday. From the historical data, I found > that this issue has actually been going on for a week before the faults > started happening in the inverters. I'm not sure why the faults took so > long to cause a shutdown of the inverters. Maybe it just "got worse" and > finally triggered a fault. The first faults would have been during the > early band of rain from Hurricane Milton, so possibly water or wind put the > issue over the top. > > Before the shutdown, each of the two affected inverters had one MPPT with > voltages out of the expected range for the last week. > > All MPPT strings are 14 modules with 7 in series, 2 in parallel. Each > string Voc is 342V and Vmp is 297V. > > On the first affected inverter, I was able to observe the bad string > operating consistently around 370V to 400V+, which is obviously well above > the Voc (and it's hot here in Florida). The good string on this inverter > operated around 260-270V during the same time, which is the expected range. > > On the second affected inverter, I observed the bad string operating > consistently around 100V to 130V+. The good string on this inverter > operated around 260-270V during the same time, which again is the expected > range. > > Graphs are attached for those of you who like that kind of stuff. These > show a typical day after the issue started to occur, but before the > inverter faults occurred. > > Incidentally, the average voltage of the two bad strings seems to be > pretty close to the normal strings, so that is a good clue. > > Jason Szumlanski > Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group > NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) > Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 > Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 > > > On Fri, Oct 11, 2024 at 6:55 AM Jason Szumlanski < > ja...@floridasolardesigngroup.com> wrote: > >> More interesting information... When the sun went down last night, the >> fault cleared and the inverters started producing power again, drawing from >> the batteries, and restarting the generator. The master inverter >> "remembered" the generator was in it's charging cycle and hadn't reached >> full battery yet. >> >> It's good that the inverters started inverting again. That's a plus. I >> actually wish the generator hadn't started because it was unnecessary based >> on battery voltage, which was near full anyway. >> >> Which brings me to another annoying behavior of the Sol-Arks that I >> discovered in how the GEN Charge and GRID Charge parameters work with >> signaling the two-wire start. If the battery voltage is 50V and the charge >> parameter is set to 49V, the generator signal will not kick on of course – >> the generator start relay is open. However, if you change the charge >> parameter setpoint to, say 51V, the generator should start because the >> battery voltage is below the setpoint. But that does not happen. The >> battery voltage must "fall through" the parameter setting for the charging >> to be triggered and the relay to close. If you are in a situation where you >> need to get the generator on a charge cycle and then leave the site, the >> only way I have found to do this is to set it to something very close to >> the battery voltage, say 49.9V, put a heavy load on to drop the voltage >> below the setpoint, let the generator start, then change the setpoint to >> the desired 51V. >> >> >> Back to the original issue – I dug into the string voltage data history >> remotely and narrowed down the fault to two of the four inverters. I am >> sending someone to shut down the PV DC switches on these two inverters >> today in hopes that we can keep the power flowing during the day and >> through the weekend. I'm planning on a Monday boat ride out there to see >> what caused the fault(s). I will report back. >> >> Jason Szumlanski >> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group >> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) >> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 >> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 >> >> >> On Thu, Oct 10, 2024 at 6:00 PM Lou Russo via RE-wrenches < >> re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: >> >>> Aloha All, >>> >>> Thank you Jason. This is a huge and surprising issue. So much so that I >>> dropped what I was doing and called Sol-Ark to confirm. Mind you this was >>> level 1 support, but I was told this is what the Sol-Arks are supposed to >>> do and it is a feature not a bug. Their take is if there is any fault on >>> any one string, the Sol-Ark assumes the worst and shuts everything down. >>> >>> I wonder what solutions could be implemented on future installs to >>> prevent this from happening? >>> >>> Aloha, >>> >>> Lou Russo >>> Owner >>> l...@spreesolarsystems.com >>> Office - 808 345 6762 >>> Spree Solar Systems LLC >>> CT-34322 >>> >>> >>> >>> On Thu, Oct 10, 2024 at 11:45 AM Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < >>> re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: >>> >>>> I think it's more likely water in a J-box or possibly physical damage, >>>> but someone passed by the property and did not observe any physical damage >>>> to the array. >>>> >>>> Jason Szumlanski >>>> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group >>>> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP) >>>> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956 >>>> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208 >>>> >>>> >>>> On Thu, Oct 10, 2024 at 5:41 PM Jay <jay.pe...@gmail.com> wrote: >>>> >>>>> Jason >>>>> What’s the possibllity it was a lighting strike? >>>>> >>>>> Jay >>>>> >>>>> On Oct 10, 2024, at 2:57 PM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches < >>>>> re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> We have been talking a lot recently about all-in-ones. I just had a >>>>> massive fail during Hurricane Milton with a quad Sol-Ark 15K off-grid >>>>> system that deserves some discussion about whether AIO is a good idea if >>>>> it >>>>> can't build in some resilience to errors. I'm not sure if the new Midnite >>>>> unit is better in this respect, but this is what happened to the Sol-Ark >>>>> system... >>>>> >>>>> Four inverters, each with 4 strings of PV paralleled to 2 MPPT per >>>>> inverter. One of the slave units developed some sort of PV DC fault during >>>>> the storm. This caused the slave inverter to shut down and throw an error, >>>>> which in turn caused a parallel fault across all four inverters. Power >>>>> output ceases at that point. Apparently the system keeps resetting because >>>>> I have a cell modem that uploads data to Sol-Ark, but that cell modem is >>>>> powered by the inverter outputs, so it must be getting power at least >>>>> intermittently. The rest of the loads are basically flatlined according to >>>>> the Sol-Ark data. It's mostly air conditioners, so they probably can't >>>>> turn >>>>> on fast enough before the PV fault causes another shutdown. >>>>> >>>>> So, in essence, one of 16 strings of PV develops a fault, and that >>>>> causes all four inverters to malfunction? What is the point of redundancy >>>>> if a fault of one results in a fault of all?! If there is a true PV input >>>>> fault, shouldn't that just shut down that MPPT, or perhaps all of the PV >>>>> DC >>>>> input to that inverter? And why can't this inverter continue to invert >>>>> power from the batteries and charge from a generator when there is a DC >>>>> input fault that could be programmatically isolated and ignored? >>>>> >>>>> This is a bad design in my opinion, and something I hadn't considered. >>>>> If the faulted inverter can't function with a DC input fault, it should >>>>> just take itself out of the game. (This is 120/240 split phase, BTW). Is >>>>> this how all AIO inverters work? One inverter fault on the DC side kills >>>>> all paralleled units' AC output? Not good. >>>>> >>>>> This is a completely off-grid system on a remote island with no >>>>> vehicle access, so it's not exactly easy to do a "truck roll" on this one, >>>>> especially post-hurricane. To make matters worse, the generator was >>>>> running >>>>> at the time of the fault, as it was being signaled to run because the >>>>> battery had reached the assigned charge voltage. The fault also killed the >>>>> 2-wire start signal from the master, so the system also stopped passing >>>>> through generator power to the loads. The house is dark. >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Jason Szumlanski >>>>> Florida Solar Design Group >>>>> >>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>> 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. 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