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18kpv Refrigerator causing light flickering

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dmkjr

Solar Enthusiast
Joined
Mar 19, 2023
Messages
204
Location
South Carolina
Are there any power conditioners or something that can assist with a commercial refrigerator compressor causing lights to flicker and flicker bad.

Narrowed it down to the refrigerator and potentially the ice maker. Same circuit, in the garage. 18kpv is running the entire home. When on line power going through the inverter (standby) we do not see these issues.

We are on an unreleased firmware to help with HVAC startup on a package unit with soft start.

(No need to regurgitate every other post about light flickering issue with “get better LEDs”)
 
Do you experience the problem while solar is available or at night?

In my early solar days, PWM charging and running DC powered LEDs caused flickering.
 
pollenface said:
Do you experience the problem while solar is available or at night?

In my early solar days, PWM charging and running DC powered LEDs caused flickering.
Click to expand...
Typically don’t have a lot of lights on during the day, so can’t call that. Night for sure.
 
I recently learned that some LED light switches are adjustable. You may try that...
 
This is every light in the house. 60 lights or so. It was something recent with the firmware changes that introduced it. Didn't happen this bad before. Moreover, the refrigerator circuit is 100% causing it. We flip that off, and the issues go away entirely (at least the light flickering)(
 
dmkjr said:
This is every light in the house. 60 lights or so. It was something recent with the firmware changes that introduced it. Didn't happen this bad before. Moreover, the refrigerator circuit is 100% causing it. We flip that off, and the issues go away entirely (at least the light flickering)(
Click to expand...
If this beta firmware caused it (I'm calling it that since it isn't officially released yet), I would hope that the engineers could look at it and figure it out.
 
I see why don't just want to change the LED's now, that's a lotta bulbs!

I've been interested to see whether adding synchronous motor loads to an off grid system helps smooth out the power. But I'm still working on that idea.
 
Plug in a hair dryer into the same circuit and turn it on (don't overload the circuit). Does that solve the problem? Do you have a high efficiency fridge? Maybe an inverter style compressor that doesn't play well with the inverter.
 
SparkyJJO said:
If this beta firmware caused it (I'm calling it that since it isn't officially released yet), I would hope that the engineers could look at it and figure it out.
Click to expand...
I've been working with the development. This question was really to see if anyone knew of anything that could 'cushion' the load draw from the refrigerator. I thought a power conditioner may hold a more steady voltage. When this refrigerator isn't running there aren't any issues.

The 'beta' or test firmware was to correct a hard startup (even with a soft start) on a 3.5t HVAC unit.
 
SparkyJJO said:
If this beta firmware caused it (I'm calling it that since it isn't officially released yet), I would hope that the engineers could look at it and figure it out.
Click to expand...
They might be right on the ragged edge of what the hardware is capable of in an attempt to gather enough amps to start the AC unit. Prob not a lot left over for niceties like voltage stability.
 
Probably first thing I would do is plug the fridge into an outlet on a different branch. Even if it took an extension cord. I'd want to eliminate house wiring as the issue.

I had kind of a similar situation before solar. Once in a while, my lights would start flickering. I can't remember what I thought was triggering it, but it was definitely more prevalent when something was running. Turned out to be a loose lug in my panel box. An older panel box that had the grid lugs bolted to the busbar under the wire. The neutral wire was tight in the lug, but the lug was loose on the busbar. And the only reason I found it was that there were a couple strands of ground wire from the main service loose in the box that were just touching the box. I noticed very small sparking that led me to find the loose neutral lug. This all from the previous owners, electric was a mess in this house.
 
Last edited:
Are your LED’s dimmable? If so do they still flicker while being dimmed ?
 
What happens if you turn off seamless switch? Just to see if that makes a difference.
 
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