40 minutes ago, Nic Holmes said:

Thanks for the follow up.

 

I am in the process of employing the services of an electrician with experience in the Axpert King inverters, I cannot figure out where all these neutrals go for the circuits I need, so time to pay someone to fix it correctly and get a new CoC!!

Ok,good! Please share with us what you have discovered and subsequently rectified, so our forum can draw from the experience.

Good luck.

Very useful thread. One seems never to end the learning curve. Inverter is not Inverter.
Same scenario I walked over this week. Old defect RTC inverter removed and replaced with newer Axpert model PIP 3024MSE.
Tripps the Mains now when switching over. The neutral to feed in to inverter is connected downstream after the Earth leakage.
Lets see what happens when I connect the feed side neutral in front of the Earth leakage.
Will report back.

56 minutes ago, Joost said:

Old defect RTC inverter removed and replaced with newer Axpert model PIP 3024MSE.

Some really old models did not have the automatic grounding of AC-out neutral when not in line mode. All newer models presumably do have this.

This installation presumably has some sort of work-around for this, which is now providing two paths from neutral to earth when the inverter isn't in line mode. The fix is likely to remove whatever work-around was installed.

Forgive me for asking Mike but that means that the grounding is always common in both cicuits (in case you have only a partial circiut with own DB on inverter backup) and the neutral has to be strickly separate in the two circuits. (meaning that the feed to the inverter circuit's DB has to be taken from the mains before the Earth Leakage of the Grid DB)......
Yeah. With exeption to the very old inverters that are actually not conform to regulations anymore to be grid fed.
So with the lap over here in SA from "solar installers" and "certified electricians" we got some gaps that can leave the client in some interesting space.
Saying that I problably going to add that with LS in SA going on for a good while (and into the future) I see that a lot of urban folks go the partial route and add an inverter to secure the basics into their current situation as the common UPS's for PC's won't do the job.
They then need the electrician to separate that circuit onto a sub DB that secures power for the essentials.
(given that most households here just do not have the money to convert the full system)
And this is where the fun starts........

Edited November 20, 20223 yr by Joost

Hi @Nic Holmes,
 

Did you sort your issue out? 
 

I have the same/similar issue on my Kodak 5.48 OG plus. Every time the utility power returns my Main DB ELD trips.

I didn’t do the install so I need to look in there and trace wiring. I wanted to avoid this for insurance and COC purposes but the installers I used are no longer responding to my communications.

I have a DB for my Solar an AC DB with change over switch and basically I need to figure out how it is connected up.
 

Any leads will be appreciated.

On 2021/11/05 at 8:20 AM, isetech said:

One of the most common faults with earth leakage units ... mixing up neutrals and series connecting earth earth leakage units. 

Add in an inverter with bonded earth/neutral ... even semi skilled sparkies get confused.

Understanding the SANS regs helps with positioning of the earth leakage in the circuits. 

One of the most common comments I hear ... "but it has worked for years now suddenly".

Make sure the earth leakage devices are not in series and make sure the neutrals and allocated to the correct neutral bar ... then make sure you earth neutral bond is before the earth leakage ... as close to the inverter as possible. 

I still need to see one of those external neutral/earth bonding units.  

 

What does SANS say about connecting 2 or more Earth leakage devices in parallel on the output of an inverter?

I have an issue where the EL on the out put of the inverter randomly trips. I have 2x sub-DB's that have their own RCD's which are connected after the main RCD from the inverter in series to the main RCD. Can I connect the sub-DB's in parallel with the main output from the inverter instead or can you only have one Rcd on the output of an inverter?

Inverter = Kodak OG-PLUS 5.48rm

Edited March 5, 20233 yr by Foot

The Inverter manufacturers should provide a complete circuit diagram that includes the DB connections complete with split neutrals, changeover switch, isolation/overload switches and ELD's compatible with their inverter design. Most Inverters require that utility powered only circuits such as the geyser and stove ( not backed up by the Inverter) must have their own neural bus and the Inverter output circuits on another neutral bus. Beware that you might have neutral jumpers in the roof, therefore imperative to make sure that the inverter neutral bus is floating when all power (Utility and inverter) have been removed.

Please unsure to measure for power and make sure that that the power has been removed before measuring for non-continuity between the two neutral busses.

 

 

3 hours ago, TOMSOLAR said:

Beware that you might have neutral jumpers in the roof, therefore imperative to make sure that the inverter neutral bus is floating when all power (Utility and inverter) have been removed.

Can you elaborate here? . I am not sure what we trying to achieve. 

When you say utulity and inverter power removed, do you mean  disconnect cables? 

Many modern machines today has an internal bonding relay, of which the n/c contact  bonds the neutral to earth. So even if the machine is turned off will the bond make. Is this a problem from your point of view? 

Edited November 1, 20232 yr by BritishRacingGreen