On 2023/10/05 at 4:29 PM, Scorp007 said:

Holding thumbs. It would be interesting to know the reason for it working if it does. 

👎😭

On 2023/10/05 at 4:38 PM, BritishRacingGreen said:

Ouch that is out reach by far for me as I am in the Republic of Germiston 😊  . Wolseley is in a beautiful part of our Country. I grew up in Somerset-West and Paarl .

👍

On 2023/10/05 at 4:38 PM, BritishRacingGreen said:

Ouch that is out reach by far for me as I am in the Republic of Germiston 😊  . Wolseley is in a beautiful part of our Country. I grew up in Somerset-West and Paarl .

👍

On 2023/10/05 at 4:40 PM, BritishRacingGreen said:

Good , I have a particular interest in this mode failure , as there are a number of users in the wild that may experiencing this problem.

👍

On 2023/10/05 at 5:22 PM, Bobster. said:

This I know: something has changed. According to the time line you gave at the top of this thread, you made some changes and everything was working fine. Then at some later time the system started tripping as load shedding started. 

So something has changed since you reconfigured the system. 

And then it's either external to you or internal (on your side of the inverter). 

This is large chunks of my working life, looking for the "something". 

Hi, so the only thing I changed was the battery and the corresponding required settings on the inverter, then we noticed the problem when loadshedding starts. When I replaced the gel batteries with lithium, I tested the setup, by manually switching off the Eskom supply to the inverter, to see if the battery and inverter were working correctly, which they were. The next day I received a phone-call informing me that the system shut down when loadshedding started. Then I started checking for possible causes, to no avail.

On 2023/10/06 at 2:06 PM, Thunderdolt said:

Did the issue arise immediately after installing the new battery or later? It's not quite clear in the original post.

 

I am not to sure. The client informed me that he only has power from the inverter for about 2-5min after loadshedding starts. I went to test his batteries, did various diagnostics incl loadtests on his batteries and found one gel battery to be faulty. Then we quoted on a lithium battery, which he approved and we installed. I tested it manually and then the next day the client phoned and explained the problem.

Hi all, hope you all had a great weekend.

So just to give feedback re the SPD installation and whether it worked, well unfortunately it made no difference and the inverter still shuts down when loadshedding starts.

13 hours ago, Ralf said:

Hi all, hope you all had a great weekend.

So just to give feedback re the SPD installation and whether it worked, well unfortunately it made no difference and the inverter still shuts down when loadshedding starts.

Unfortunately I do not know the Rio Sun inverter and it is definitely not a Voltronic brand . It looks like a very robust transformer-based inverter . So the only recommendation I can make is to try and reconstruct the same conditions during load shedding as you manually do by interrupting a breaker.  So you can try out the following simple relay-based arrangement as shown below:

The working is very simple , the 220VAC coil of the relay is wired across the incoming grid. It requires two normally open contacts which is then wired onto the output live and neutral as shown. The rating of the relay can be in the order of 20A as you have 3kW inverter system.  When the grid is available , the relay picks and the contacts feed the grid thru to the inverter. When the grid falls away , the contacts open , effectively isolating both neutral and live like a circuit breaker  does.

I think its worth a try as it is inexpensive . You may also consider a voltage sensing relay that is nowadays very popular and also not expensive. @Steve87 can provide you with details on this relay.

EDIT : the typical AC relay has a relatively low holding voltage, example 150vac for a 220vac relay. The electronic grid voltage sensing relays are programmed to release already at a higher voltage  margin, say 190vac. Wether this holding threshold  be important, I dont know. Its worth experimenting with the simple relay as a start. 

EDIT2 : there is shown a plus sign on the relay coil. Ignore it. 

 

 

Edited October 10, 20232 yr by BritishRacingGreen

1 hour ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

Unfortunately I do not know the Rio Sun inverter and it is definitely not a Voltronic brand . It looks like a very robust transformer-based inverter . So the only recommendation I can make is to try and reconstruct the same conditions during load shedding as you manually do by interrupting a breaker.  So you can try out the following simple relay-based arrangement as shown below:

The working is very simple , the 220VAC coil of the relay is wired across the incoming grid. It requires two normally open contacts which is then wired onto the output live and neutral as shown. The rating of the relay can be in the order of 20A as you have 3kW inverter system.  When the grid is available , the relay picks and the contacts feed the grid thru to the inverter. When the grid falls away , the contacts open , effectively isolating both neutral and live like a circuit breaker  does.

I think its worth a try as it is inexpensive . You may also consider a voltage sensing relay that is nowadays very popular and also not expensive. @Steve87 can provide you with details on this relay.

EDIT : the typical AC relay has a relatively low holding voltage, example 150vac for a 220vac relay. The electronic grid voltage sensing relays are programmed to release already at a higher voltage  margin, say 190vac. Wether this holding threshold  be important, I dont know. Its worth experimenting with the simple relay as a start. 

EDIT2 : there is shown a plus sign on the relay coil. Ignore it. 

 

 

What would the advantage be to use the relay for testing than just switching off the grid apart from that switching off the main Grid means everything in the house is off instead of just what is connected on the load side of the inverter? 

1 hour ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

Unfortunately I do not know the Rio Sun inverter and it is definitely not a Voltronic brand . It looks like a very robust transformer-based inverter . So the only recommendation I can make is to try and reconstruct the same conditions during load shedding as you manually do by interrupting a breaker.  So you can try out the following simple relay-based arrangement as shown below:

The working is very simple , the 220VAC coil of the relay is wired across the incoming grid. It requires two normally open contacts which is then wired onto the output live and neutral as shown. The rating of the relay can be in the order of 20A as you have 3kW inverter system.  When the grid is available , the relay picks and the contacts feed the grid thru to the inverter. When the grid falls away , the contacts open , effectively isolating both neutral and live like a circuit breaker  does.

I think its worth a try as it is inexpensive . You may also consider a voltage sensing relay that is nowadays very popular and also not expensive. @Steve87 can provide you with details on this relay.

EDIT : the typical AC relay has a relatively low holding voltage, example 150vac for a 220vac relay. The electronic grid voltage sensing relays are programmed to release already at a higher voltage  margin, say 190vac. Wether this holding threshold  be important, I dont know. Its worth experimenting with the simple relay as a start. 

EDIT2 : there is shown a plus sign on the relay coil. Ignore it. 

 

 

Thank you BRC, I will try your advice and see if it makes a difference. I have a few relay boards here that I was using for my Raspberry Pi4 to create an autostart for my generator, but have dropped that for now, as I will be installing a micro Hydro pelton soon, to cover my own baseloads 14/7. So at least I have the relays. Thanks

57 minutes ago, Scorp007 said:

What would the advantage be to use the relay for testing than just switching off the grid apart from that switching off the main Grid means everything in the house is off instead of just what is connected on the load side of the inverter? 

hi @Scorp007  there is  mark difference in  the inverter loosing grid via load shedding as opposed to interrupting the grid manually via breaker .in the latter case the inverter does not fail. So the indication is there that the inverter is affected negatively by the loss of grid , but with the entire grid loop still in place. The test to break this loop at the inverter grid input is therefore to isolate the inverter from the grid in more or less the same manner that a circuit breaker would double cut the grid towards the inverter.

1 minute ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

hi @Scorp007  there is  mark difference in  the inverter loosing grid via load shedding as opposed to interrupting the grid manually via breaker .in the latter case the inverter does not fail. So the indication is there that the inverter is affected negatively by the loss of grid , but with the entire grid loop still in place. The test to break this loop at the inverter grid input is therefore to isolate the inverter from the grid in more or less the same manner that a circuit breaker would double cut the grid towards the inverter.

Another reason for carrying out the test at the inverter grid input  as opposed to mains input , is for the latter a 63A capable relay is required , as opposed to only 13A required at the inverter input.

2 hours ago, BritishRacingGreen said:

Another reason for carrying out the test at the inverter grid input  as opposed to mains input , is for the latter a 63A capable relay is required , as opposed to only 13A required at the inverter input.

OK I then missed something. I saw it as cutting the AC on the DB main breaker vs the relay. Not comparing a LS trip vs with relay or main switch on DB. This means a LS is still not simulated but will have to wait for the schedule. 

Hi guys, just some feedback re this issue. I have spoken to another installer who had exactly the same problem and after installing a second UP2500 battery, the issue was resolved. He also said that a firmware update was also done. We will be doing the firmware first and then report back.

Hi yáll, hope you are all well. Just some feedback re this Riio Sun inverter shut down. After doing a software (firmware) update the problem has been solved. Agents did it remotely and now the system works without shutting down at the start of loadshedding.

Regards