R Cerva Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 Hi all. Hope you well. I have 3 mecer 5kva invertors with 8 x pylontech bateries with solar panels. My problem comes when I feed my system with generator power that the invertors doesn't want to use the generator supply but runs on solar and battery. On display you can see and even with tester I measure 220V. It sometimes switch over to generator supply for few seconds then back to solar. Any suggestions. Also sometimes 2 invertors trip on fault 80. Connected to ICC software for monitoring. Quote
Coulomb Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 (edited) On 2020/09/02 at 5:44 PM, R Cerva said: It sometimes switch over to generator supply for few seconds then back to solar. Axperts (that includes Mecers) are very picky about generator AC quality. It may be 220 V, but what about the frequency, and the stability of that frequency? Inverter based generators are best; they generate excellent sine waves with excellent frequency stability regardless of the engine's RPM. Sometimes plugging in a temporary load of 200-1000 W (before connecting to the inverter) settles down the generator's governor enough for the inverter to connect and load up the generator. It may then be possible to disconnect the temporary load. Edit: I forgot I have an FAQ for this. See FAQ 7. Edited September 4, 2020 by Coulomb Quote
GreenMan Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 Had situation at site where the UPSs for the individual PCs cycled on and off while on the generator. This happened for good few minutes until the (brand new) batteries were flat Some UPS were decent APC brand. It was a Honda generator so had no doubts about AC waveform quality.... until we put a scope on the 220V inverter output. We saw that the output waveform was severely distorted and that is why the UPSs kept kicking in ! This was a surprise as one assumes that the generator output will be a beautiful/clean sine wave ! Finally, I read somewhere that the generator output is recommended to be 1.5x the rated power of the inverters... Quote
R Cerva Posted September 2, 2020 Author Posted September 2, 2020 Thanks for the reply. Generator is 25kva and was stable at 50Hz. All load disconnected so it was only invertors that I wanted to charge the batteries. you can't even hear that the generator is taking the load. Quote
Calvin Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 (edited) Some backgound needed. Which Mecer inverter do you have? The King, MKS, MKSII? What max Util Charge current do you have set on each inverter? Have you got the inverters set to "Appliance Mode"? I use 5kVA generator for charging with my King. On startup I set the Utility charging current to 10A - once it is happy I increase that to 60A. Starting on 60A does not work with my setup. As @Coulombmentioned, these inverters are extremely finicky about frequency stability (slew rate), but a 25kVA generator should have no problem... Edited September 2, 2020 by Calvin Quote
R Cerva Posted September 2, 2020 Author Posted September 2, 2020 Model: SOL-I-AX-5NB . Normally ICC setup to use only solar for charging. Set it to utility and 10 amps. Also inverters setup as ups but changed it to appliance mode. Will test with generator tomorrow again to see if it works. Thanks. Quote
Gerrie Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 4 hours ago, Coulomb said: Axperts (that includes Mecers) are very picky about generator AC quality. It may be 220 V, but what about the frequency, and the stability of that frequency? Would installing a Constant voltage transformer make the generator AC supply any better for the inverter or is it a long shot? because it seems the bad generator ac supply is a common problem. Quote
Boerseun Posted September 2, 2020 Posted September 2, 2020 The Generator needs an AVR. Gerrie 1 Quote
George Basson Posted September 8, 2020 Posted September 8, 2020 I once tried to run my 8 KVA generator through My Mecer inverter during an extended power outage with no success. This is very useful information I have to consider in the future.Thanks Guys Quote
R Cerva Posted October 15, 2020 Author Posted October 15, 2020 Hi guys. Hope you all still well. I've just changed the setting to appliance from ups and now it work with generator. Thanks. Coulomb 1 Quote
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