Cius

So just an update. COJ did fix the local transformer and the voltage into my home dropped from the 250 to 258V range down to 230 to 240V. Since then things have been quieter with no additional loss. Hopefully its at an end now. An electrician I had out to do some work indicated after me relating the story that because my home was closest to the transformer in the complex I could expect worse damage than units deeper in the complex for surges in particular. So hopefully all is good now.

Several other people in the complex have now responded saying they also noticed a surge. No one else reporting lost fridges though. So I can now somewhat confirm its an issue with power in the area. However it seems to hit me harder so I still think the inverter is somehow amplifying the problem. Not sure. Going to try contact CoJ tomorrow to raise our local transformer as an issue.

So an update. I eventually got an independent electrician out and he found no evidence of the neutral split error. He did find that some wires where lower gauge than the trip switches they where on, so I had him replace those. He found two plugs without an earth (due to a dodgy builder I had years ago). Do not use the one plug at all and the other one only has two pin garage motor chargers on it. He also found a few neutral wires that where twisted together rather than bonded via a bridge. I have fixed those issues but just had another fridge go. A brand new Defy. If I even plug it in it trips my earth leakage. It blew while on one of those Ellies fridge protector surge plugs. Sems portal indicates that input voltage over the weekend has been a bit high. Ranging from 248 to 256V. While this is high I also seem to be the only person loosing major appliances. Have asked on the complex group again and one person noticed a surge at around the time the fridge went but no one has lost appliances other than me over the last while. It still feels like the Goodwe is somehow making the issue worse for me. The installer won't budge and just says its the power situation in the area, not the inverter. I am at my wits end. I have now spent so much money on this problem and rather than having a working system that saves me money it only seems to cost me money.

I recently installed a 5KW Goodwe ES inverter with 3KW of panels and a 5KVA battery. Shortly after installing it I lost my 2 fridges, and a chest freezer. 2 of them went and burned out their boards completely as if by a major surge (along with a garage motor charger), and my 17 year old fridge's compressor went 2 weeks later. Insurance paid out for the first two, I replaced the other fridge and the charger out of pocket. I figured it was just bad luck and a big surge but two days ago my brand new upright freezer blew with a loud pop one evening. I need to add I have in 12 years of living in the complex I stay in never lost a major appliance, but have now lost 4 in under 6 weeks. I also checked both times I lost a major device and no one else in the complex of 70+ units lost anything, so that implies it is something wrong with the install in my eyes, not a surge. My installer is adamant that its not the system though and showed me a graph from SEMS portal that showed our input voltage has been fluctuating between 240V and 253V a lot which is on the high side. Can anyone confirm this? Not sure what to do or how to proceed but I can't keep losing appliances. I eventually got the specialized fridge surge protection plugs that protect against high and low voltage yesterday. No idea if insurance will cover the new freezer which could mean either an expensive repair for me, or at worse a loss of a 10K appliance and significant risk it just continues. No idea what to do next. Considering getting an independent electrician in to check my installers work but that will cost me, and in my experience most electricians are quick to criticize others work as a matter of principle to rustle up new work for themselves. So if I do get someone else in it would have to be someone very honest and frugal not wanting to do lots of additional work that is not necessary. At this point financially we are pretty tapped out post the install of the system so I don't want to spend too much, but also can't keep losing appliances either. So where do I go from here?