the_uglydog
New Member
Hi, We are in The Philippines but use the same type split phase electric grid as at home (US). We have an Aims 10kw off grid inverter that is powered by separate charge controllers which produce about 14kw. It is set up to clip the excess when it's sunny and in the middle of the day so that when it's cloudy and rainy we still have power. When I first installed it last year in March it would only take a 20% load then shut down with an overload fault. That is the end of hot season and the beginning of typhoon season here and we had been having a lot of heavy rain and heat, 100*F and 95% humidity. I used it with only a small load till mid summer and I then noticed it took a larger load. It kept taking a bigger load and after about a month it would load to 90% no problem and was working fine ever since. UNTIL the first Typhoon this year in May, now it won't load beyond 30%. A repair tech here found a couple of bad chips and changed them but it still won't load beyond 30% most of the time. He says he thinks the relay is bad. Aims is no help at all, either to me or him. This unit is supposed to be for marine use so it should be able to take humidity, right? I thought maybe there was water getting into one of the building's circuits, so I shut them off one at a time but the problem persists. Could an input wire from the utility that is leaking electricity cause something like this? The grid here has wildly varying voltage from 230 down to about 175. I have it set for the wide range down to 173 and it worked fine all year. Any thoughts would be appreciated. That's about it, the dog