Hi,

My Sunsynk 5kw seems to have died yesterday. Just the blue light at the bottom switches on. Display and LEDs above display are dead. No output from inverter.

We have essentials and non-essentials. Pool pump, geyser, microwave, aircon (big), washing, dishwasher, etc. all on non-essentials (i.e. dead when there's loadshedding).

Yesterday the (non-essentials) pool pump (750w), aircon (big) and washing machine was on. I think the load on the essential side was probably no more than 2.5kw (PCs, small aircon).

Someone at installer sent me this, saying we overloaded the inverter and would potentially have to pay for repairs. I don't see how we could have done that?

Thoughts?

 

5 minutes ago, kripstoe said:

Someone at installer sent me this, saying we overloaded the inverter and would potentially have to pay for repairs. I don't see how we could have done that?

They are talking rubbish. The inverter has protection incase of overloading . Even if it did break with an overload it should be covered under warranty.

My inverter often goes over 5kw albeit only for a few seconds or minute at most.
There are audible warnings if enabled that will alert you to overload and if ignored the inverter will throttle back and shut off the loads.
That is normal behavior and should not affect the warranty at all in my opinion and if your installation was done correctly.

 

Sounds like the manufacturer rejected the warranty due to fault of the installer, and he "found" a different reason to give to the client.

The 5kw can do 8kw pass through total with grid present. You absolutely did not overload it

Even if you did they can pull the error logs, and that requires the inverter to be examined

More details. I don't understand why this would have been an issue? If the load is higher than 5000W, then surely that would have been supplied by the grid? The inverter should supply up to a max of 5k, and the grid the rest. We're not talking thousands of watts here. We're talking less then 500w....

Quote

...inverter can still provide power for items on the non-essential loads, in that graph your load was 5107W and what you pulled from the grid was 107W so inverter was maxed at 5000W, if anything else on the non-essential side came, even briefly on it would have exceeded. 

 

11 minutes ago, kripstoe said:

 

Nvm

Edited December 1, 20232 yr by madness_za
mistake

7 hours ago, kripstoe said:

More details. I don't understand why this would have been an issue? If the load is higher than 5000W, then surely that would have been supplied by the grid? The inverter should supply up to a max of 5k, and the grid the rest. We're not talking thousands of watts here. We're talking less then 500w....

 

The rated output from Ac & UPS power according to that data sheet I've posted says 5,000w so if your load as shown was at 5,107w your alarm should have been going off, unless it was switched off. Did the alarm go off? The inverter is also touted to have "Output Over Current Protection - Integrated", which means it should have just shut off and not got damaged unless there was an in-rush of load and the protection systems, other than the inverter put by the Installer are inadequate which makes the installer liable, in my view. Do you have a schematic from your installer or photos of your installation for us to see the installation setup?

19 hours ago, kripstoe said:

More details. I don't understand why this would have been an issue? If the load is higher than 5000W, then surely that would have been supplied by the grid? Correct

The inverter should supply up to a max of 5k, and the grid the rest. Also Correct ,on the essential side up to about 8kw with grid present. 

 

19 hours ago, kripstoe said:

...inverter can still provide power for items on the non-essential loads, in that graph your load was 5107W and what you pulled from the grid was 107W so inverter was maxed at 5000W, if anything else on the non-essential side came, even briefly on it would have exceeded. 

Not sure who this quote is from but they obviously have no clue what is going on. The non essentials have absolutely zero impact on overloading of the inverter as it does not go through the inverter. To add to that the picture they sent you is combined essential and non essential loads of only 5,1kw . I can generate a picture like that with a much larger load and the inverter wont be overloaded so using that picture as an argument is silly. 

Edited December 2, 20232 yr by Nexuss

2 hours ago, Nexuss said:

Not sure who this quote is from but they obviously have no clue what is going on. The non essentials have absolutely zero impact on overloading of the inverter as it does not go through the inverter. To add to that the picture they sent you is combined essential and non essential loads of only 5,1kw . I can generate a picture like that with a much larger load and the inverter wont be overloaded so using that picture as an argument is silly. 

To be fair, the poster @kripstoe is also the OP who is is trying to make sense of his problem in the first place.

Key message remains: There is nothing in the graph that proves or even suggests that the inverter was overloaded relative to its specification.

Only thing I'm wondering, looking at the sum of PV (3580W), battery (1816W) and Grid power (107W), less the Load of 5107W, there's a surplus of 396W that must go towards the inverter's self-consumption or heat dissipated in the conversion process. I'm still thinking the inverter should have had built-in algorithms to reduce generation if needs be, but I'd also wonder whether anything in the fitment environment could have impacted the cooling. 

19 minutes ago, GreenFields said:

To be fair, the poster @kripstoe is also the OP who is is trying to make sense of his problem in the first place.

No ,that is what he quoted  from someone else as far as i understand. Its not what he said ,because i quoted it from his post it looks like he said it lol. 

21 minutes ago, GreenFields said:

Only thing I'm wondering, looking at the sum of PV (3580W), battery (1816W) and Grid power (107W), less the Load of 5107W, there's a surplus of 396W that must go towards the inverter's self-consumption or heat dissipated in the conversion process.

This is a pretty common issue ,the figures displayed by the Sunsynk are not totally accurate and often there will be a missing 200-300w when solar is active.

Sunsynk are very sticky with repairs at the moment. They behave like insurers. They want to find every possible reason not to repair & if so want that bill to fall out of your pocket. 

Tried to mess around with 2 installs I have done. Luckily my work & installation was water tight. I contested both & managed to get the warranty repair done on 1, the other I purely refused to accept the machine back & got a brand new one for the customer. 

Honestly just poor business practice on their part and some of their actions were not above board at all. I am advocating Deye for this very reason. An installation is only as good as the support that you can provide a customer. If that is question then I'm sorry I won't install that piece of kit in anyone's home. 

Livoltek springs to mind of the same poor practice. Happy to sell the product. Not very happy to attend to anything that may go wrong. Pylontech the same. This market is fascinating...

Edited December 2, 20232 yr by Steve87

4 hours ago, Steve87 said:

Sunsynk are very sticky with repairs at the moment. They behave like insurers. They want to find every possible reason not to repair & if so want that bill to fall out of your pocket. 

Tried to mess around with 2 installs I have done. Luckily my work & installation was water tight. I contested both & managed to get the warranty repair done on 1, the other I purely refused to accept the machine back & got a brand new one for the customer. 

Honestly just poor business practice on their part and some of their actions were not above board at all. I am advocating Deye for this very reason. An installation is only as good as the support that you can provide a customer. If that is question then I'm sorry I won't install that piece of kit in anyone's home. 

Livoltek springs to mind of the same poor practice. Happy to sell the product. Not very happy to attend to anything that may go wrong. Pylontech the same. This market is fascinating...

Was about to pull finger and get a 5kW inverter installed and now am back on the fence @Steve87 I had really raved on how good a kit this inverter was for the price to my neighbour and I'm thinking about telling them not to get it installed either, given your comment. I wonder if anyone at Sunsynk is ever part of this forum or their priority is just product sales and not the after-sales support?

Edited December 2, 20232 yr by Moffat

@Steve87

If product is bought from an authorised reseller but installed by a non-sunsynk approved installer, I take it, well it clearly means if there's an issue Sunsynk can worm out of honouring warranty right?

On 2023/12/01 at 12:38 PM, kripstoe said:

Hi,

My Sunsynk 5kw seems to have died yesterday. Just the blue light at the bottom switches on. Display and LEDs above display are dead. No output from inverter.

We have essentials and non-essentials. Pool pump, geyser, microwave, aircon (big), washing, dishwasher, etc. all on non-essentials (i.e. dead when there's loadshedding).

Yesterday the (non-essentials) pool pump (750w), aircon (big) and washing machine was on. I think the load on the essential side was probably no more than 2.5kw (PCs, small aircon).

Someone at installer sent me this, saying we overloaded the inverter and would potentially have to pay for repairs. I don't see how we could have done that?

Thoughts?

 

To me the data on the picture they send you does not add up pv-3580+battery 1816= 5396 why is the grid supply 107? Who is the installer and who supplied them the Sunsynk inverter. I won't just roll over on this one get a reputable installer in your area preferably a Master installation electrician/ installer to do an assessment of the installation i have come across many incorrect installation on Sunsynk inverters. They are robust and i agree with above sentiment it can't just stop functioning due to load being slightly over spec these machines are built to anticipate human error's When was the installation done? If your installer has a reputable supplier they can exchange the unit for a new machine. The graph @GreenFieldspointed out does not state that the machine was abused.

Edited December 3, 20232 yr by TaliaB

Thanks for the replies so far.

To answer some of the questions. Still waiting on installer to confirm when they can remove the unit and send in. Nothing has been decided in terms or what caused the failure. The initial emails were from a tech at the installer, who I assume is still junior. It's a professional install, but I'm not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling about the support process thus far.

I'm 99% sure we didn't overload the inverter.

There was no alarm that I know of, but I've also never really checked the settings for that, since I know our essential loads are well below the max of the inverter. I assume the installer knows what they're doing with setup.

Thermals were fine. I would say typical for the fanless units. I think I saw high 50's and mid 40's for DC/AC temps. Nothing that looked remotely what I would call too high for these units. We always ensure that the inverter has plenty of airflow and open the side door of the garage for a breeze to cool it down.

I also checked previous days earlier in the year where the loads showed almost 9000w. Again, mostly non-essentials and in those cases what was pulled from the grid was everything above 5000w. So how I expect the inverter and installation to handle it.

@kripstoe it would be interesting for me to ask you to qualify when you say, "It's a professional install", is your installer a Sunsynk Authorised installer or this is an installer recommended to you by others or one you got through various searches?

From my experience some even so called sunsynk master installers do a shoddy job and the CoC isn't worth the paper it's written on. 

So I would say get an independent 3rd party to assess your install. 

If in jhb Mr Steve87 would be happy to help. 

Unit was repaired under warranty. No real explanantion by Sunsynk what exactly went wrong with it. Took them 5 weeks.

As for the the overload, it wasn't overloaded after all. Unit just failed.

1 hour ago, kripstoe said:

Unit was repaired under warranty. No real explanantion by Sunsynk what exactly went wrong with it. Took them 5 weeks.

As for the the overload, it wasn't overloaded after all. Unit just failed.

Lovely to hear you are up and running again. 👍

As for the overload nonsense, you're machine will handle just over 8 kW through the essential load with Eskom assistance.

My 8.8 kW machine can handle 12 kW through the essential load with Eskom assistance, and I have run more than 8 kW but always less than 12 kW many times, and the inverter is happily working without a problem, for a couple of years now. Oh, and I've never upgraded the firmware either. 

Hi there. Im also having the same issue….what was the faulty and cause

Thank you in advance for great response 👏🏻

On 2023/12/01 at 12:38 PM, kripstoe said:

My Sunsynk 5kw seems to have died yesterday. Just the blue light at the bottom switches on. Display and LEDs above display are dead. No output from inverter.

We have essentials and non-essentials. Pool pump, geyser, microwave, aircon (big), washing, dishwasher, etc. all on non-essentials (i.e. dead when there's loadshedding).

Yesterday the (non-essentials) pool pump (750w), aircon (big) and washing machine was on. I think the load on the essential side was probably no more than 2.5kw (PCs, small aircon).

Someone at installer sent me this, saying we overloaded the inverter and would potentially have to pay for repairs. I don't see how we could have done that?

Thoughts?