Break keeps jumping

[Brenden.lyman]

I have a 50amp breaker in between the charge controller and the inverter, not sure if it goes straight to battery or inverter but it keeps jumping when it does the lights on the charge controller go out and my battery's stop charging I believe. Does anyone have any solution to this problem. I have ordered a new breaker to replace it on tuesday and I hope that is it but if anyone else have any other solutions I am all ears. Thank you I can provide pictures if needed.

 

[curiouscarbon]

Dear @Brenden.lyman thank you for posting

More info available about breaker? Brand?

May I ask what charge controller brand and model?

sorry it’s causing you trouble. thanks again

 

[Brenden.lyman]

Dear @Brenden.lyman thank you for posting

More info available about breaker? Brand?

May I ask what charge controller brand and model?

sorry it’s causing you trouble. thanks again

 

[Brenden.lyman]

Dear @Brenden.lyman thank you for posting

More info available about breaker? Brand?

May I ask what charge controller brand and model?

sorry it’s causing you trouble. thanks again

 

[Brenden.lyman]

I hope that helps as you can see the breaker is tripped and the charge controller is off but the inverter is still on.

 

[Brenden.lyman]

This is the breaker

 

[JoeHam]

Well a 3000 watt inverter at 24 volts will pull 125 amps ignoring inefficiency so you probably need bigger wire (can’t see size) and a bigger breaker.

And for something as important as a breaker I like to use a brand name.

Edit: now I see the breaker is not feeding the inverter I think. My mistake.

In that case either the Epever is putting out more than 50 amps or the breaker is malfunctioning.

If the breaker is the problem I would replace with a brand name like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B00514XIO0/

 

[Brenden.lyman]

Well a 3000 watt inverter at 24 volts will pull 125 amps ignoring inefficiency so you probably need bigger wire (can’t see size) and a bigger breaker.

And for something as important as a breaker I like to use a brand name.

Edit: now I see the breaker is not feeding the inverter I think. My mistake.

In that case either the Epever is putting out more than 50 amps or the breaker is malfunctioning.

If the breaker is the problem I would replace with a brand name like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B00514XIO0/

Thank you for your reply, so it goes from the charge controller to the breaker to the bottom of the inverter to the batteries I believe here are more photos. It only jumps at peak times

Well a 3000 watt inverter at 24 volts will pull 125 amps ignoring inefficiency so you probably need bigger wire (can’t see size) and a bigger breaker.

And for something as important as a breaker I like to use a brand name.

Edit: now I see the breaker is not feeding the inverter I think. My mistake.

In that case either the Epever is putting out more than 50 amps or the breaker is malfunctioning.

If the breaker is the problem I would replace with a brand name like this:

https://www.amazon.com/Blue-Sea-Systems-Circuit-Breaker/dp/B00514XIO0/

Thank you, it only jumps during peak hours morning and evening it's not bothered. I did not install the system and didn't realize they used cheap breakers till I did a search online looking for them. I agree a better brand breaker is a must. I'm just concerned because summer hasn't even hit and I don't need to be without air-condition this summer. Here are more photos where the wire goes from charge controller to breaker to bottom of inverter and I'm guessing to the batterys

 

[JoeHam]

I would start by replacing that breaker and you must also check to be sure that there is a breaker between the battery and the inverter.

Also please post the model number of your Epever controller and we can see if it is capable of producing over 50 amps to be sure the breaker is appropriately sized.

The only thing worse than not having AC would be having a fire!

 

[Brenden.lyman]

I would start by replacing that breaker and you must also check to be sure that there is a breaker between the battery and the inverter.

Also please post the model number of your Epever controller and we can see if it is capable of producing over 50 amps to be sure the breaker is appropriately sized.

The only thing worse than not having AC would be having a fire!

 

[Brenden.lyman]

Model is tracer 4215BN

 

[HRTKD]

40 amp controller going into a 50 amp circuit breaker should be OK. Cable coming out of the solar charge controller appears to be ~6 awg, so that should be OK too.

As others have said, replacing the breaker is a good place to start.

 

[diyernh]

I have a 50amp breaker in between the charge controller and the inverter, not sure if it goes straight to battery or inverter but it keeps jumping when it does the lights on the charge controller go out and my battery's stop charging I believe. Does anyone have any solution to this problem. I have ordered a new breaker to replace it on tuesday and I hope that is it but if anyone else have any other solutions I am all ears. Thank you I can provide pictures if needed.

That breaker ( and most other DC breakers) have a polarity. The bottom is labelled "BAT". Do you have the correct polarity? There are videos of DC breakers for solar that don't operate correctly if they are reversed. One video showed them catching on fire.

 

[Hedges]

40A charge controller, 50A breaker would be correct size.

"ZooKoto" brand? Never heard of it.

There are many bad breakers in that style, which either trip to low or don't trip at all.
More expensive breakers of that style from Busman, Blue Sea, other known names would be OK.

A quality fuse and quality disconnect switch would be another option. Or a different style of breaker.
Breaker needs to be DC rated.

As Diyernh notes, some are polarized. They won't fail to trip if wired backwards, but they might fail to interrupt the current and just burn up.
For a charge controller, a polarized breaker is not a good idea. It has to carry current in one direction when charging, and interrupt that when turned off. It also has to trip and interrupt a high fault current from battery in the event charge controller develops a short.

 

[HRTKD]

I'm using the Zookoto brand circuit breaker on my inverter. The breaker used to be located under my trailer, exposed to the elements. I now have it inside the trailer with my LiFePO4 upgrade. It's a 150 amp breaker, feeding into a 1000 watt inverter. I've never had any nuisance trips like the OP is experiencing. Did I wire mine in the right polarity? Maybe?

 

[Hedges]

Maybe you got the model that never trips, not the one that nuisance trips?
Out of curiosity, how about measuring voltage across it while carrying a known current, report the resistance?

Whether polarity is right or wrong, I don't think it will stand a chance against the short-circuit current LiFePO4 can deliver.

From Blue Sea:

Interrupt Capacity

5000A @ 12V 3000A @ 24V 1500A @ 42V

 

[HRTKD]

Maybe you got the model that never trips, not the one that nuisance trips?
Out of curiosity, how about measuring voltage across it while carrying a known current, report the resistance?

Whether polarity is right or wrong, I don't think it will stand a chance against the short-circuit current LiFePO4 can deliver.

From Blue Sea:

Interrupt Capacity

5000A @ 12V 3000A @ 24V 1500A @ 42V

When I ordered, I specified the non-nuisance trip version.

Seriously, I have no idea. I got lucky, I don't push it close to the limits, I wave a dead chicken over the system periodically...

Another thing to consider is that maybe the solar charge controller is flawed and it's producing more amps than it's rated for.

 

[Hedges]

Yeah. Right.
And the PV panels are flawed too, produce more watts than they're rated for.

Charge controller can only deliver more amps (from a given wattage input) into lower voltage.

Well, maybe not ... by delivering unfiltered pulses of amps, it could make a square wave of twice the current, half the time. Same power delivered but 2x the heating of wires and breakers. Worse than that if other than 50% duty ratio pulses.

Measure DC volts across the breaker. Then measure AC volts.
If you have the equipment, measure AC amps in the charge controller wire.

My study of battery ripple feeding an inverter that delivers sine wave current indicates 11% extra RMS amperage to heat the breaker/fuse.
Pulsed square wave can drive that arbitrarily high depending on on/off times.

I expect an MPPT charge controller to draw approximately steady DC from PV panels, current through an inductor with a bit of ripple.
But output to battery is going to be pulses. It will have a capacitor to catch the current, but unless there is also an (expensive, bulky, heavy) inductor on the output, there's going to be square-wave ripple.

Looks like I'm going to have to repeat my ripple current tests with an SCC.

Edit: Oops, I got that backwards. SCC is a buck converter, not boost. Inductor is on battery side, not PV.
Battery should see approximately DC, with a triangular ripple.
If input capacitors aren't large enough, PV voltage will vary a larger amount, be further from MPPT and deliver less power.

I'll see what I can measure for ripple, but I only have 650W PV on a 2000W SCC at this time.