There is a great article on this forum about preventing a floating neutral. This article explains the whole concept of separating the Neutral UPS side of the inverter from the Grid neutral on the Grid side of the inverter. One thing to remember is that the EL name is misleading. The EL device compares the Live and Neutral and as soon as it picks up a +- 30ma difference it trips. The name comes from the assumption that any difference between live and neutral is an earth fault. I suspect that the trip on earth leakage on the main board is not happening because the EL is no longer where the power flows through when the grid is down.

 

My old Axpert did not Bond the E & N while "islanding" (no Mains). I used a 5A circuit breaker (to prevent the issues mentioned above by Peter) to connect the OUTPUT side of the Axpert E & N together. This worked, but later added a 220VAC Normal Closed Relay on the Mains side to control the switchover. So when Mains Fails the Relay would de-energise connecting the OUTPUT E & N together - still via the 5A breaker, and would energise when mains came back. Due to Axpert delay in switch-over back to mains it did mean that for a second or two the Earth floated, but it didn't seem to cause any issues.

I suppose you could use a simple 12V Car relay to do this, connected to a 12VDC adapter plugged into a plug that only connects to Mains Power, as you are not running current through this and just supposed to provide a bonded voltage.

Does my 1st sentence make sense to everyone?

PS: I have no idea where to get a 220VAC Normal Closed Relay - Mine was from an obsolete piece of equipment at work that I had to unsolder from a circuit board. Clunky huge thing, wish I had thought of the 12VDC thing back then instead of only think about it while typing this message *FacePalm*

Edited August 6, 20224 yr by KLEVA
Mistakingly suggeting that you connect E & L together (typo) - Don't do that you will break yourself and kit!

12 hours ago, KLEVA said:

I used a 5A circuit breaker (to prevent the issues mentioned above by Peter) to connect the OUTPUT side of the Axpert E & L together.

I hope that you mean E and N, as you state later.

12 hours ago, KLEVA said:

My old Axpert did not Bond the E & N while "islanding" (no Mains).

Not quite. The problem exists any time that the inverter is in battery mode, whether utility is present or not. If you are in UTI output source priority, then that's fine. Otherwise, if there are occasions when you are in battery mode yet utility is present, your AC-out neutral won't be earthed, and RCDs won't work. On a few of the older Axperts, there was a setting where you could reconfigure the clean contacts on the communications board to switch when the inverter was in battery mode. If you have that, you could rewire your external relay to always be correct.

@Coulomboops, yes, meant E & N - will edit the post shortly so as not to damage someones life and kit *FacePalm*

Regarding the "dry contacts" on the Axpert - for some reason I couldn't get those to work properly, even followed your advice from another forum, but eventually had to give up and go another way. Maybe there was a problem with mine or I didn't follow the advice correctly. So this is the way I went after getting shocked a few times when "islanding"

Ground leakage is the flow of current from a live conductor to the earth through the insulation.

On 2022/07/16 at 8:44 PM, Gerrie said:

A quick indication will be to test the voltage at one of your socket outlets when on inverter mode. You will get about 220V between Live and Neutral and from Live to earth about 110V and from Neutral to earth again 110V if this is your voltage it mean you need a earth/neutral bond to get rid of the 110Volt and that should should solve the problem to get the earth leakage to trip on earth fault.

My SunSynk inverter does that. Flat and House install.

That is when Eskom falls a way. See above description that is what I also measure.

On earth leakage test I see Live an Neutral but no earth.

When Eskom returns I can trip my sockets with earth leakage tester again.

 

I ssume this has to do with Earth Neutral bond absent while running inverter.

I have seen a drawing here. When eskom fails, the relay contac has a neutral connection. Once enegised the Neutral is feed to Earth Bar.

When Eskom returns the relay energizes and you lose the connection, Dont look at the resitor in the drawing. Leave that part out.

That is my understanding.

Edited September 5, 20223 yr by HowTo

3 hours ago, HowTo said:

My SunSynk inverter does that. Flat and House install.

You can also use the ATS 240V terminals on the inverter where you can get 240V supply for your bonding relay. The ATS has a built in delay to prevent nuisance tripping when Eskom returns after a power failure.

22 hours ago, Gerrie said:

You can also use the ATS 240V terminals on the inverter where you can get 240V supply for your bonding relay. The ATS has a built in delay to prevent nuisance tripping when Eskom returns after a power failure.

Yes I know as you said think 1min delay.

Any body knows installer that can fix my two installs. Both SunSynk inverters.

Flat and house install does not have a earth if supply falls away. Once back it works again.

I also measure between earth and neutral 117VAC. This wrong.

My earh leakage does not work once supply falls away

I have two two units availble for install. (Earth Neutral Bond kit)

Pls PM me with a number to contact. I did e-mail Steven he did not respond.

 

Edited September 25, 20223 yr by HowTo

guys i need help my lights are working but my plugs are not and the earth is down