r0cket_b0y1

its interesting. on my unit when on utility power and fully charged the fans stop 
 
however on PV power .. fans never stop  even when fully charged and no load
seems to be the opposite of everyone elses 

I tested the E/L . trips perfectly between 25 and 30mA . 
however the new one trips at 15mA which makes it more sensitive but i no longer get intermittent or after load shedding trips .
 

so some update..  i switched out the earth leakage with another one of the exact same type and rating and all is working fine now.  
it strange for me that on the previous inverter this earth leakage worked fine and also i have done some mA trip tests on it and that also was fine.
beats me

hi all
so i am pulling my hair out in frustration and getting no where in the process ..
to cut a long story short . I recently replaced a cheapie 2.4kw ( solarwise axpert clone)  inverter with another cheapie 3.5kw fivestar inverter  for 2 main reason.
- its quieter
- can connect more wattage of PV to it
and before any one says anything , i know its a cheapie for a cheapie and that is probably the problem 🙂

It was a direct replacement with no wiring modifications on the AC input or output side.  After the replacement the earth leakage on the output side of the inverter for the essential load was tripping after load shedding ends and it tripped only when the inverter was running from the grid to supply the load and not when there is PV available.
Recently it started tripping randomly whenever it is running from grid to supply the loads.
So it obviously has something to do with the Grid powering the loads through the inverter.
 

However I can not replicate the tripping if i switch off the AC input to the Inverter and then switch it on again.

To eliminate sensitivity as the problem i have tested the earth leakage switch with a tester and it trips between 25 and 30ma .
I have also measured the voltage between Neutral and Earth on the output side of the inverter and i am reading in the millivolt range both when the Grid is supplying the load or during load shedding and the inverter is in "island" mode powering the load from battery.

As for the wiring side of things. The inverter draws its AC input direct from the mains and not after an Earth leakage switch. On the output side of the inverter it runs through a change over switch , then the earth leakage and then I have the homes lights and plugs CB's connected.
 
I have not installed any neutral earth bonding as the previous inverter ran perfectly fine and i am not entirely sure on the topic and how to implement it.
 

Interestingly when Load shedding ends and the inverter is powering the load from Grid , the earth leakage does not trip immediately but rather about 30 seconds in and then for a few seconds it is not possible to recover the earth leakage switch as it keeps tripping out as you switch it up.

I have by passed the change over switch as part of the fault finding method and checked the wiring at least 100 times and am 100% sure that there is no cross connection of any neutral from the non essential to the essential side. The more i check it the more blind i seem to become. Maybe i need a 2nd pair of non biased eyes.
there are no surge plugs used in the house and i have also disconnected all plugs from the wall sockets and the earth leakage still trips.
 
 
My next step is to disconnect all but one of the essential load circuits from the DB and their corresponding neutrals and wait for load shedding to end to see if the earth leakage still trips.  If it does not then start by re-connecting 1 circuit at a time , wait for load shedding to end. then connect the next one.. this could help with the following :
- isolate the circuit with that actually has earth leakage taking place
- or it could prove nothing as the total sum of earth leakage over all the circuits + the inverter is the actual problem and not necessarily one circuit considering that the earth leakage never tripped with the previous inverter.
So I will consider splitting the essential loads over 2 earth leakages but before i spend the monies surely there is something more i can test? Could the inverter actually be faulty?

any advice from the masters to the grasshopper?