EG4 6000XP lights flickering

[doox00]

Hey all, I have a new solar system I put in, I am running 3 EG4 6000XP's in parallel. I have the grid connected, 24k watts of solar panels and over 100 kwh of storage. I am running the latest firmware.

The system has been up for a few months and things were fine until the past few weeks, I am getting intermittent flickering of lights throughout the house and my pole barn. Whether I am running on purely battery, solar or when the grid kicks in it happens, so it is not just from one source. Ideas what the issue may be?

Thanks!

 

[Will Prowse]

What light bulbs?

 

[Will Prowse]

Do you have dimmer switches on the bulb or switch for the room?

 

[Quattrohead]

Check all of your connections from the batteries through to your breaker panel.

 

[Zapper77]

Flicker like a strobe or dimming when a load kicks in?

 

[doox00]

What light bulbs?

All different ones, through the entire house/pole barn, mostly led but even a fluorescent light fixture does it.

 

[doox00]

Do you have dimmer switches on the bulb or switch for the room?

no dimmers and is happening all over the house and pole barn.

 

[doox00]

Flicker like a strobe or dimming when a load kicks in?

strobing

 

[ElkPicture]

How often are you seeing it and how long does the strobe occure... once a day?

 

[SparkyJJO]

I Would check all your connections, particularly your neutral.

 

[doox00]

Check all of your connections from the batteries through to your breaker panel.

I will double check all the connections. my battery bank is fed by 2 200 amp feeds, I have half the batteries going to the same distribution bar from 1 200 amp feed and the other half going through the other, wire lengths from each feed are the exact same length as well. Each inverter obviously has its own feed back from the distribution bar though. (the victron lynx bus bars or whatever they are called).

 

[Adam De Lay]

Have you tried turning off one inverter at a time to see if you can isolate it to a specific inverter?

 

[doox00]

How often are you seeing it and how long does the strobe occure... once a day?

It is not all the time but comes and goes, more than once a day. If I am working in the shop it will come and go, do it for awhile, then I won't notice it for a bit and then it will start doing it some more, from more than 1 light though.

 

[doox00]

Have you tried turning off one inverter at a time to see if you can isolate it to a specific inverter?

I have not yet, no.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Also anything change since it started happening? New equipment, firmware updates, heaters running that didn't used to, etc etc

 

[doox00]

Also anything change since it started happening? New equipment, firmware updates, heaters running that didn't used to, etc etc

nope no change, no firmware updates, on the same version in the batteries and the inverters from when I finished the install a few months ago, which is the current version for the 6000xp's. Nothing new as far as loads/heaters. I heat with all mini splits in the house and pole barn.

There is no flickering going on right now, but 30 minutes ago there was. Earlier there was flickering in my work shop for awhile and then stopped.

 

[TM48]

Does it when purely on grid too? Are any of your led bulbs Ecosmart brand from Home Depot? That brand puts out a tremendous amount of RF.

 

[ElkPicture]

I recently had this happen to my two 6000 xp's in parallel... But only when I restarted them. They burned up a bunch of stuff in my house. ryobe battery charger. bunch of LED lights, the transformer in my furnace and my furnace control board. Have you noticed any LED lights or other equipment going bad? I'd consider switching back to grid to troubleshoot. I posted on this already.
I called Signature solar....The tech said he usually sees light dimming when you have issues with the Ground neutral bond(No GN bond, Multiple bonds, etc). I'm still troubleshooting my GN bonding in my house... but I think it could have also been caused by the inverters not working properly in parallel mode.

 

[doox00]

Does it when purely on grid too? Are any of your led bulbs Ecosmart brand from Home Depot? That brand puts out a tremendous amount of RF.

I have the ability to switch to grid and by pass all the solar stuff, I can try that.. These are random different led lights all over the house and pole barn, not just one brand all over.

 

[doox00]

I recently had this happen to my two 6000 xp's in parallel... But only when I restarted them. They burned up a bunch of stuff in my house. ryobe battery charger. bunch of LED lights, the transformer in my furnace and my furnace control board. Have you noticed any LED lights or other equipment going bad? I'd consider switching back to grid to troubleshoot. I posted on this already.
I called Signature solar....The tech said he usually sees light dimming when you have issues with the Ground neutral bond(No GN bond, Multiple bonds, etc). I'm still troubleshooting my GN bonding in my house... but I think it could have also been caused by the inverters not working properly in parallel mode.

I have had a few led lights go out on me, but not sure if coincidence or not, the same bulbs from the same fixture. This is a fast flicker that is happening, for instance it is doing right now again, it comes and goes.

I only have the ground and neutral bonded in one place, right after the service meter from the grid, the rest of the system they are separate in all the panels. I have the ground/nuetral bond disabled on the inverter as well. (I redid the entire electrical system in my house/pole barn when doing this solar install).

 

[doox00]

Okay, I just turned off one of hte 3 inverters and the flickering was happening right away, so turned that one back on, turned off the other slave inverter and so far, no flickering, only been a few minutes though.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Okay, I just turned off one of hte 3 inverters and the flickering was happening right away, so turned that one back on, turned off the other slave inverter and so far, no flickering, only been a few minutes though.

See if you can replicate on demand. If so, then you've at least narrowed down to a specific culprit that you can investigate further.

 

[Quattrohead]

Did you get a Keurig or a new blender for Christmas per chance?

 

[doox00]

Did you get a Keurig or a new blender for Christmas per chance?

nope Still no flickering yet since turning off the one inverter, will monitor throughout the night etc.

 

[Adam De Lay]

nope Still no flickering yet since turning off the one inverter, will monitor throughout the night etc.

On the inverter with the issue, triple check that you have L1 matching with L1 on the others and L2 matching L2. Also make sure the neutral wire coming from the upper section of the inverter is connected and tight on the N bar.