Strange behavior with XW6848+ today

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Comments

  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    ok, I'm almost sure it is the grid utility now. around 1100-1130 it got really dark and overcast and PV output was in the 1k-2k range but still doing what it does with the amount of sunlight. at 1208 the error came back, so I want to say 3 days in a row around noon it triggers. I went in and moved the AC L1 high trigger from 132v to 137v which seems to be the max, and it counted down the error and went away. so something around noon is prompting the utility to increase power around noonish. I'm still waiting on response from the power company to see what is going on but I think it is safe to say it is something with the incoming power from outside which I have no control over.
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,728 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
     Sure you can do something. You could go offgrid  ;)
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    I think about doing that a lot, but I would have to drop a lot on a much larger battery bank than I have right now, or just replace it alltogether with FLA batteries. Still a consideration though!
  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    Another new day! lets see if it borks on me again, presently the house tested at several plugs in several rooms is hovering at/around 127-129 volts using the kill-a-watt as my testing medium... which is par for the course the past week or so, and my UPS units are all reading about the same. I know for certain my UPS used to read around the 110 range. Still no word back from the utility company, but over the weekend I imagine they are closed unless emergencies arise, and this doesn't technically qualify as an emergency. I've been scouring the Schneider forums and seems what I am experiencing is the "Anti-islanding" feature which prevents power from going back into the grid in a Grid Support-on scenario and something doesn't meet specification. Does this affect the built in transfer switch? like if the error were present, and I lost grid power due to a blackout, would the transfer switch kick in and I start running off battery-bank power like it should, or if there is an f33 error and the power goes out I'm just ass-out with no juice in my house? I've actually had several short power outages over the years here but I never noticed, only way I found out was my neighbors calling to ask if power went out and I would have to walk out to the garage to see if the inverter was switched into that mode.
  • BB.
    BB. Super Moderators, Administrators Posts: 33,431 admin
    Not sure, but I think you need to look at the setup for your AC in section. I would be surprised if too high of input voltage did not force a transfer, just like too low of input voltage/out of specification frequency, etc.

    -Bill
    Near San Francisco California: 3.5kWatt Grid Tied Solar power system+small backup genset
  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    Makes sense, somewhere in one of the Schneider forums it said that in some areas anti-islanding feature can be turned off with permission from the power company, but in my mind it sounds like that would possibly mess with the transfer switching capability and could accidentally backfeed power into the utility lines during a power outage and potentially fry someone working on a line somewhere and I wouldn't want my equipment to be the cause of that. I'm pretty unsympathetic to a lot of things, but I would feel pretty shitty if my setup was the cause of someone getting hurt like that.
  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    1145, nearing the normal noon break time! the suspense is palpable
  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    14:59:49 the error came, combing logs now to see if maybe I can see the voltage spike

  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    so it came, and went away. so it only stuck around for about 2 hours plus or minus. so the messing with the high voltage limit seemed to have made a difference, meaning that whatever is throwing it means the the utility is throwing at least 137v on one line or the other for at least a few seconds? whatever the time limit is required for an error to trigger.
  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    Got in touch with someone at the utility yesterday, about an hour ago there was some sort of outage in the area (they notify everyone with the mobile app that there is an outage) and when it all came back online my AC L1:L2 voltages are hovering right at 120v and all is well again! 
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,728 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    There has to be some way that Schneider did all of this  ;)
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net

  • DickyDck
    DickyDck Registered Users Posts: 164 ✭✭
    So I got the technical explanation, something at the "station" was wrong, a regulator was intermittently failing, causing spikes here and there which sounds about right with my symptoms. They said they usually get alerts for this, but since it was intermittent it didn't flag, and apparently I was the reason for them finding out so they thanked me :) I also apparently the only person with Schneider gear, they are familiar with Sunny-Boy stuff? So I will also can assume that Sunny-Boys don't have the same level of monitoring or fail-safes?
  • Dave Angelini
    Dave Angelini Solar Expert Posts: 6,728 ✭✭✭✭✭✭
    I think they mean grid based inverters like the sunny boys. The grid forming (battery) inverter from SMA is the sunny island.
     Different animals.
    "we go where power lines don't" Sierra Nevada mountain area
       htps://offgridsolar1.com/
    E-mail offgridsolar@sti.net