Magnum MS4448PAE Inverter Charging question

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Jenkinswt
Jenkinswt Registered Users Posts: 2 ✭
in Off Grid Solar & Battery Systems #1
Okay I installed earlier this year a MS4448PAE 48 volt inverter/charger to upgrade our old system. Its been an awesome setup. Recently we just started using 110 volt to charge the batteries from a generator so we could occasionally run a air conditioner when it gets really hot which it has been. But this is expensive. My parents live next door and are on grid, a few hundred feet away so yesterday we got the idea that I would temporarily run a 110 volt heavy cord and I would just set the charger to only 5 amps for evening hours when we don't have enough solar and I would pay him. Well I have a Midnite E Panel with a disconnect breaker for input power, I turned it off before plugging the cord in, then plugged it in and it blew a flame and flipped his breaker. I wired a new end on the cord and tried again, same results! Mind you the breaker from this cord is off so its not drawing anything. I plugged it back into generator and started it up, flipped breaker on, works just fine.

Any ideas? I don't see how it could be trickling back any power to it with it disconnected. I've been stumped on this so thought I would ask some of the smarter people out there!
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  • vtmaps
    vtmaps Solar Expert Posts: 3,741 ✭✭✭✭
    #2
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    Jenkinswt wrote: »
    Well I have a Midnite E Panel with a disconnect breaker for input power, I turned it off before plugging the cord in, then plugged it in and it blew a flame and flipped his breaker.

    Welcome to the forum,

    I don't understand the sequence of events... Which breaker "flipped"? Was the input breaker turned off, or was it the input breaker that tripped?

    --vtMaps
    4 X 235watt Samsung, Midnite ePanel, Outback VFX3524 FM60 & mate, 4 Interstate L16, trimetric, Honda eu2000i
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  • Jenkinswt
    Jenkinswt Registered Users Posts: 2 ✭
    #3
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    Sorry, the input breaker at my house was off when this happened, so no flow of electric should be coming in I assume. My dads output breaker is the one ne that would trip. We also tested a drill on the same cord coming from his house with no problems.
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  • vtmaps
    vtmaps Solar Expert Posts: 3,741 ✭✭✭✭
    #4
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    Jenkinswt wrote: »
    Sorry, the input breaker at my house was off when this happened, so no flow of electric should be coming in I assume. My dads output breaker is the one ne that would trip. We also tested a drill on the same cord coming from his house with no problems.

    My guess is that the cord to the generator is wired wrong.... perhaps the hot and neutral are reversed. I presume that the generator has a floating ground so the error does not cause a problem when you use the generator. When you hook up to your father's house you have a short circuit from hot to neutral through the bond to ground.

    Another issue (other than a mis-wired cord) is that both your father's system and your system have their neutrals bonded to ground (as they should). The issue is that there should be only one ground in a system, and when you connect the two systems you have a dual bond.

    --vtMaps
    4 X 235watt Samsung, Midnite ePanel, Outback VFX3524 FM60 & mate, 4 Interstate L16, trimetric, Honda eu2000i
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