byteharmony
Sunny side up please.
I recently was testing high voltages 200 - 360V to debug a string issue (turned out to be an MC4 connector issue) using an OLD set of multimeters that had always worked just fine.
rotating switch to scale voltage: 20V, 200V, 600V
Another went up to 1000V
I love having extra meters around the house.
I was shocked when my 2 strings of 9 panels (40Voc) were over 500V. Especially shocked since my sol ark 15k maxes out at 500 V for the input.
It didn't make any sense unless I wired more than 9 panels together. Which I know I didn't. I had tested the first 9 before installing the 2nd so I couldn't have mixed up the wiring.
After about an hour on the phone with APSmart trying to find out a way to activate the devices to give me the VOC voltage (Options included a device they sell, a high voltage capacitor (I have one rated for 370V I'm considering doing testing with on a single panel for fun) and a resister), I thought maybe it's the meters. I got a relatively new toy meter (not a fancy fluke or Kline) and sure enough, the numbers were all in the proper range. Ran the wires into the sol ark and everything has been working dandy.
Since doing that testing, both of the old meters that gave me wrong results have given me wrong results on lower voltage tests as well.
54 Volts today came back as over 70 on both old meters.
Is this consistent with what you've seen? I was surprised when I didn't get any search results on this topic on this form. My google searches came back with a full page of people going over the rated amount of the meter. I did NOT do that. 9 panels in series even with temperature adjustment for cold which was not an issue maxes out at 360 V, well below the 600V and 1000V values.
I even made sure I had the correct scale selected on the meter.
Thoughts?
rotating switch to scale voltage: 20V, 200V, 600V
Another went up to 1000V
I love having extra meters around the house.
I was shocked when my 2 strings of 9 panels (40Voc) were over 500V. Especially shocked since my sol ark 15k maxes out at 500 V for the input.
It didn't make any sense unless I wired more than 9 panels together. Which I know I didn't. I had tested the first 9 before installing the 2nd so I couldn't have mixed up the wiring.
After about an hour on the phone with APSmart trying to find out a way to activate the devices to give me the VOC voltage (Options included a device they sell, a high voltage capacitor (I have one rated for 370V I'm considering doing testing with on a single panel for fun) and a resister), I thought maybe it's the meters. I got a relatively new toy meter (not a fancy fluke or Kline) and sure enough, the numbers were all in the proper range. Ran the wires into the sol ark and everything has been working dandy.
Since doing that testing, both of the old meters that gave me wrong results have given me wrong results on lower voltage tests as well.
54 Volts today came back as over 70 on both old meters.
Is this consistent with what you've seen? I was surprised when I didn't get any search results on this topic on this form. My google searches came back with a full page of people going over the rated amount of the meter. I did NOT do that. 9 panels in series even with temperature adjustment for cold which was not an issue maxes out at 360 V, well below the 600V and 1000V values.
I even made sure I had the correct scale selected on the meter.
Thoughts?
