diy solar

diy solar

From Puerto Rico: Day 5 after Hurricane Fiona, help?

try turning off all the branch circuits that would be energized by the inverter and then try to turn the inverter on.
 
First, let me say that I mean no offense.

You say your system has been down for weeks/months.
Would it not have been better to get your solar system running prior to hurricane season?
 
so this is actually the second inverter we've had, the first was a 24V and the latest technician upgraded to this 48V one. I've removed almost all the load, and would be happy if it ran a fridge, a ceiling fan, a box fan, and an extension cord to charge electronics, mostly power battery packs. Hurricane Maria and 4+ months without taught me life with very little juice lol.

Right now going local isn't really an option. 1 million+ are out of power, and the few technicians that are professional and competent are overloaded serving their own customers. Or the ones like mine go MIA. Once we're out of this current mess and things get back to normalish I do want to find a proper professional solution but timing is a bit more pressing right now.

If I were to buy something online is there a relatively plug-n-play option with my current system? I can start to look for new vs. old possibilities on ebay and amazon that might ship to PR. That might be the easiest possibility?

Again, thank you so much!
 
John Frum said:
First, let me say that I mean no offense.

You say your system has been down for weeks/months.
Would it not have been better to get your solar system running prior to hurricane season?
Click to expand...
Yes, John, it would have been. Thank you for pointing it out lol. It's been a pretty tough summer for lots of reasons. And this week knowing I was an idiot on top of everything is a tough pill to swallow as well. Just doing what I can to recover and get back on track and try to run my business. I don't live in the space with the solar panels. My own house has no power or water and I am trying to get my business and employees back up and running through the solar system.
 
we disconnected everything, turned everything including all breakers and switches off in sequence, and reconnected everything and turned everything back on.
John Frum said:
try turning off all the branch circuits that would be energized by the inverter and then try to turn the inverter on.
Click to expand...
 
Perhaps I should have included that there is a transfer switch, and it was designed and at least seemed to be running at one time completely independent of the grid. I have not 'registered' this or licensed through the local evil and corrupt power company, so it's not feeding the grid at all. 20220923_124018.jpg
Hedges said:
We don't know if it is wired to have protected loads connected directly to inverter, or not. It might be wired only to feed the grid. It also has configurations, which might presently only serve as grid connected but could be changed.

However, I would expect display to remain on, allowing you to change settings and read parameters. That it powers on and off suggests input voltage from battery is too low, or can't supply any current at all without dropping. (or maybe is too high.)
Click to expand...
 
yes, it's perhaps looking like that. I asked elsewhere in this if there was a plug-n-play solution I can begin to look for?
Mattb4 said:
Sounds like you will need a new inverter or your old one repaired. Would not be surprised that during the storm a grid spike could have fried your grid tie setup. Even if on normal loss it would have transferred to the batteries.
Click to expand...
 
missy73 said:
so this is actually the second inverter we've had, the first was a 24V and the latest technician upgraded to this 48V one.
Click to expand...

Don't suppose you still have that perfectly good 24V inverter you previously paid for?
 
missy73 said:
yes, it's perhaps looking like that. I asked elsewhere in this if there was a plug-n-play solution I can begin to look for?
Click to expand...
Not really. Someone that was good at electrical repair or installation could grab any sufficient inverter and come up with a jack leg hookup to your place.
 
@Hedges, wouldn't that be great? The technician that swapped it out said that there was an issue, and he took it to a repairman (supposedly) to fix, and just before he went MIA he said it had been unreparable. Yes, I have been taken for a ride. But if it's any consolation truly 50%+ of the people I know with solar systems here are experiencing similar issues with the system, configuration, technicians, and more. This island is a huge mess these days in so many ways which is why I'm trying albeit way too late to learn and solve the problem myself without local input that isn't going to help anyhow.

I swear I'm not as big an idiot as it looks and as I feel right now.
Hedges said:
Don't suppose you still have that perfectly good 24V inverter you previously paid for?
Click to expand...
 
missy73 said:
If I were to buy something like this I think maybe we could figure it out....it seems to be pretty much like the old system: https://ebay.to/3xK94Qs
Click to expand...
Your old system has separate SCC (solar charge controller) and grid tie. This MPP unit you linked is an off grid, with grid bypass and grid battery charging, built in SCC and ATS (auto transfer switch between grid bypass AC or inverter AC from battery/solar). In order to use it your panels must be within the specifications of the unit for voltage minimum and maximum. Although not exactly the same a fellow that was trying to understand a similar EG4 3000w hybrid inverter came up with a drawing posted below that shows the basics of how it would be setup. Just substitute MPP for EG4
1663954532867.png
 
you really need a voltmeter to start poking around and ensure the inverter is getting power. weird though that the screen "blips" like that. not promising. does the inverter have any external breakers/fuses? perhaps it has a manual reset button somewhere on it?

it looks like a nice installation from what I can see.
 
@missy73 what is the aggregate voltage of the battery bank?
Have you been maintaining the batteries?
By maintaining I mean checking the specific gravity and keeping them appropriately topped off with distilled water.
 
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