Generator pops it's GFCI when I plug the rv into it after inverter install.

[Tecnodave]

I have never seen a decent AIMS product but I am very biased to high end electronics as i worked in American Industry for many years building ,designing and servicing high end equipment for a world class company and as such do not see the value in lower end electronics. Ive been off grid for years and have never had a major system shutdown. My battery banks are going on 19-20 years now, no not the cheap ones, inverters are more than 12 years,....etc. Some of the brands that I use and have great respect for....MidNite, Magnum, Morningstar, Rolls-Surette, Exeltech, Outback, Schneider.
My sound gear...Carver, Hafler, Crown, Klipsch.....Test gear....Fluke, Tektronix, etc.

OK.....I did communications at a very high end in a 24/7/365 no fail environment........aviation, land mobile, fire, police, ambulance, military, etc. then power systems up to 8 mw etc to be ready standby for hospitals, fire stations, etc so you can see where my bias is coming from.

 

[tigerwillow1]

Here's an example of the right way for an inverter to handle the bonding, from the Prosine 2.0 manual. I skimmed the Aims manual and didn't find any discussion of neutral bonding at all.

The PROsine provides an installer-defeatable system that automatically connects
the neutral conductor of the inverter AC output circuit to safety ground
(“bonding” it) during inverter operation, and disconnects it (“un-bonding” it)
when the PROsine has connected to AC shorepower.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

I have never seen a decent AIMS product but I am very biased to high end electronics as i worked in American Industry for many years building ,designing and servicing high end equipment for a world class company and as such do not see the value in lower end electronics. Ive been off grid for years and have never had a major system shutdown. My battery banks are going on 19-20 years now, no not the cheap ones, inverters are more than 12 years,....etc. Some of the brands that I use and have great respect for....MidNite, Magnum, Morningstar, Rolls-Surette, Exeltech, Outback, Schneider.
My sound gear...Carver, Hafler, Crown, Klipsch.....Test gear....Fluke, Tektronix, etc.

OK.....I did communications at a very high end in a 24/7/365 no fail environment........aviation, land mobile, fire, police, ambulance, military, etc. then power systems up to 8 mw etc to be ready standby for hospitals, fire stations, etc so you can see where my bias is coming from.

I have AIMS 12,000w ETL listed. After 2 years of operation - they have produced ~ 30,000kwh of power and counting. Not sure about 'all versions' but maybe the couple of them that are ETL listed have beefier components? In any case - so far these units are fine except I'm running an overall 83% efficiency based on kwh-out-per-cheap-amz-power-meters / Midnite Classic PV kwh in - of which I attribute at least 15% loss to the AIMS.

This 17% loss of which I attribute at least 15% to the AIMS is the one place that leaves me with regrets as I read that some inverters are much more efficient. To give you the scale, in 2020 I produced 18,000kwh of PV power but only got 15,000kwh of PV power out. At 15%, that's 2,700kwh/year of power lost because of the inverter.

 

[Whinny]

You might try disconnecting the neutral at the inverter input to test the most likely cause of your issues. If the neutral/ground bond is not being disconnected that would prove it. Turning off the a/c breaker to the inverter only disconnects the hot side and will not help much in your troubleshooting.
If that is the cause adding an external RV transfer switch could clear your issues....

 

[Sean Steele]

You might try disconnecting the neutral at the inverter input to test the most likely cause of your issues. If the neutral/ground bond is not being disconnected that would prove it. Turning off the a/c breaker to the inverter only disconnects the hot side and will not help much in your troubleshooting.
If that is the cause adding an external RV transfer switch could clear your issues....

I kinda thought that after making that comment and re-reading everything else posted here.

Right now, I am boondocking and need the inverter to run a box fan to keep the inside of the camper below 80°. I'll try out some of these ideas at another time and try to report back.

Thank you everyone for your help.

 

[Tecnodave]

I have AIMS 12,000w ETL listed. After 2 years of operation - they have produced ~ 30,000kwh of power and counting. Not sure about 'all versions' but maybe the couple of them that are ETL listed have beefier components? In any case - so far these units are fine except I'm running an overall 83% efficiency based on kwh-out-per-cheap-amz-power-meters / Midnite Classic PV kwh in - of which I attribute at least 15% loss to the AIMS.

This 17% loss of which I attribute at least 15% to the AIMS is the one place that leaves me with regrets as I read that some inverters are much more efficient. To give you the scale, in 2020 I produced 18,000kwh of PV power but only got 15,000kwh of PV power out. At 15%, that's 2,700kwh/year of power lost because of the inverter.

That is one of the issues that I speak of with the AIMS, What is your battery voltage for that inverter. My overall is a bit harder to track as I have multiple 12 volt loads supplied by a buck converter as well as 3 24 volt referigerators. But overall I am at 91-93% overall, mostly using Exectech inverter but big loads on MS-4024AE.

12 volt inverters have a lower average overall effeciency than 24 volt or 48 volt inverters, 85% or so isnt bad for 12 volts but sucks at higher voltages.

The AIMS low frequency inverters are notioursly low in effeciency compared to MagnaSine or Schneider which do 94-95 percentile. (at 24-48 volt)

I saw one low frequency AIMS idling at 180 watts..........My stone Antique Dynamote Brutus idles at 96 watts no load, but the Brutus was the very first high frequency electronics driving low frequency inverter marketed. Things have changed a lot.

When I use Brutus to pump water for hours I heat up my lunch on the Inverter....yep the stone antique Brutus (1984) is still working.......it has a much larger surge capability than the MagnaSine....11,900 watts surge on 3200 watt Brutus verses 5900 watts surge on 4000 watt Magnum.

And the Brutus is 120 volt only driving a Trace autotransformer.....driving a 2 h.p. pump from -320 feet!
Magnum stumbles trying to pump that well

I would like to see any Chinese inverter match these numbers

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

That is one of the issues that I speak of with the AIMS, What is your battery voltage for that inverter.

Its a 48v powerwall and the 12,000w AIMS puts out US 240v/120v - e.g. 240v@50a. Its low frequency. The 8,000 and 12,000 pure sine wave @ 48v have ETL (e.g. as good as UL) certifications - which was part of my decision because of home (fire) insurance payout considerations.

12 volt inverters have a lower average overall effeciency than 24 volt or 48 volt inverters, 85% or so isnt bad for 12 volts but sucks at higher voltages.

Interesting.

The AIMS low frequency inverters are notioursly low in effeciency

One of the issues that the Inverter load has to be 40%'ish or higher else efficiency drops to the 70% levels. I have 2 of them but have them arranged so that in winter I only use 1 to keep the load up so I get the 83% range. But performance wise - its been solid.

compared to MagnaSine or Schneider which do 94-95 percentile. (at 24-48 volt)

I would like to try MagnaSine. I just didn't understand (3 years ago) but these MagnaSines allow multiple units to cascade automatically to add power as needed to keep high efficiency and I'm sure I could DIY hook them up now .
My advice as one that is 3yrs in looking back.... efficiency may be worth extra $ so just be aware.

I saw one low frequency AIMS idling at 180 watts..........My stone Antique Dynamote Brutus idles at 96 watts no load, but the Brutus was the very first high frequency electronics driving low frequency inverter marketed. Things have changed a lot.

Yes - they have to have a significant % load to be effecient.

When I use Brutus to pump water for hours I heat up my lunch on the Inverter....yep the stone antique Brutus (1984) is still working.......it has a much larger surge capability than the MagnaSine....11,900 watts surge on 3200 watt Brutus verses 5900 watts surge on 4000 watt Magnum.

And the Brutus is 120 volt only driving a Trace autotransformer.....driving a 2 h.p. pump from -320 feet!
Magnum stumbles trying to pump that well

I would like to see any Chinese inverter match these numbers

I'd like to see a curve of GroWatt and MPP efficiencies at various load %(s).

 

[Tecnodave]

In theory the high frequency designs are more efficient and in practice they are on purely resistive loads but things aren’t so good with a large inductive load, the efficiency drops off pretty quickly. Even some refrigerator don't do too well on high frequency inverters

 

[ChrisG]

Going back to original ground question topic, I found this video today. I have a Growatt with same problem plugging into GFCI as a source. Ian at Watts247 recommended bonding ac input and output neutrals which seems to work. Plan on trying it this week myself.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

Going back to original ground question topic, I found this video today. I have a Growatt with same problem plugging into GFCI as a source. Ian at Watts247 recommended bonding ac input and output neutrals which seems to work. Plan on trying it this week myself.

This fix makes sense - will be interested to see comments on it.

My MPP Solar 3048 is physically similar. My grounds are all tied together outside the PIP.

In my case, the GFCI trips after a few seconds - maybe it happens when the PIP switches from grid to inverter mode and the neutral is disconnected (for a split second) and power goes thru the grounds during the switch over... causing the GFCI to trip.

This 'fix' would make sense to make sure the neutral is never 'disconnected'. is this safe to try on an MPP Solar do you-all think?

 

[ChrisG]

This fix makes sense - will be interested to see comments on it.

My MPP Solar 3048 is physically similar. My grounds are all tied together outside the PIP.

In my case, the GFCI trips after a few seconds - maybe it happens when the PIP switches from grid to inverter mode and the neutral is disconnected (for a split second) and power goes thru the grounds during the switch over... causing the GFCI to trip.

This 'fix' would make sense to make sure the neutral is never 'disconnected'. is this safe to try on an MPP Solar do you-all think?

@OffGridInTheCity
My GFCI pops right away when plugging into grid to feed a manual transfer panel for other circuits in my house. Goal is to use Growatt as a backup with battery for now. Will let you know if anything blows up.

 

[OffGridInTheCity]

In the youtube - I couldn't help but notice/cringe seeing the gas can sitting right in the middle of all the electronics/wiring. It just takes some fumes and a spark - Yikes! I wish the guy well - just seemed risky