Hi all 

My electrician has been trying to hook up my inverter to the DB for 2 days now and no luck. I have a 3 phase system and trying to power up 1 phase(Blue phase).

When I turn my Changeover switch to inverter mode(switch position 2) , the earth leakage on the main DB drops IF eskom power is on, but if Eskom power is OFF then the earth leakage stays on and my batteries power the phase.

When I turn my changeover to Eskom supply (Position 1) , earth leakage stays up and I'm getting supply from eskom.

Problem is , I've got to go manually change the switch during loadshedding.

Can the experts please have a look at the way it is connected and advise.

 

 

Are you sure Neutral Bar 1 is fed from BEFORE the RCD and not after it? Neutral bars are typically connected after the RCD. If that is the case, your Axpert's live side is possibly fed before RCD and the neutral after it. Easy mistake to make.

Looking at it now , I think its fed after 🙄

 

What should the electrician do to correct this?

There is more wrong with this. What the heck is going on with Neutral bar 2? That is fed from the grid-side RCD, as well as by the inverter, with the changeover apparently just switching it back on itself (ie doing nothing). Wired like this, the bypass switch in the inverter is also bypassing the neutral on the RCD. No wonder it is tripping.

May I humbly suggest a different electrician? Is that being too forward? 😛

 

That's exactly what I need to do. I think he's taking chances. Thanks for spotting that!

Also,

That yellow wire with the ugly strip-frayed insulation, that is temporary right? Obviously no good in a finished installation 🙂

Red wire from neutral bar to changeover... wutt?

The blue wire going around the red/yellow to get to the earth bar... blue for earth?! And it looks like it is only 1.5mm^2. Earth must be sized for the full fault current.

Edited March 24, 20197 yr by plonkster

I can't believe how many things are wrong from this picture. You wouldnt happen to know a good electrician around durban would you?

3 minutes ago, ShaunKZN said:

You wouldnt happen to know a good electrician

I've been in Durban exactly one and went directly from the airport to the harbour and back for a work project... 🙂

Lol next time you down for a project swing by 🍺

Hi guys, I purchased a Mecer kv5 inverter hot wired with stove thickness cable to a plug that is directly connected to the DB board so has no other load(I think its a 10 gauge) I have no battery nor PV as source only Eskom but the unit does not power up. What can it be? Regards Mr A

1 hour ago, ShaunKZN said:

Lol next time you down for a project swing by 🍺

You are lucky. Wait till his OCD / ADD / ACC / HTTP kicks in ... @plonkster hates things not being neat and tidy. 🙂 

2 hours ago, The Terrible Triplett said:

hates things not being neat and tidy

That's the weird thing. I am equally good at cutting a corner, sticking on band aids, procrastinating, and so on and so forth. When I was a sysadmin I would leave some "lesser" security updates for later (remote exploits are important... but local exploits aren't anything to lose sleep over... you need access to the machine already to run one of those, so you're already in trouble at that point). In any case, despite all this, I am amazed to find that my attitude to such things still rank just south of OCD compared to some others... 🙂

 

10 hours ago, Mr.A said:

I have no battery

All models except those from around 2013 need battery power to even light the display. [ Edit: except those very few new models that advertise operation without a battery. ]

Edited March 25, 20197 yr by Coulomb

Got a new electrician to come around today. He spent an hour , and its fixed! 

He says he has to clean the box up a bit but it should be working fine. He says my changeover switch was reading voltage even in the "off" position.

 

Here's what it looks like now.

 

Glad you got it fixed. This is what happens when you have too much time and OCD:

Looking back at it now I feel like I can do better

1 minute ago, Gnome said:

Glad you got it fixed. This is what happens when you have too much time and OCD:

Looking back at it now I feel like I can do better

I would actually put a picture frame around that if it were in my house 😀

11 hours ago, Gnome said:

Glad you got it fixed. This is what happens when you have too much time and OCD:

Looking back at it now I feel like I can do better

That one red wire link on the top, come on you can do better😂. Very nice

Need a good electrician in the Durban area does anybody know need for a friend of mine