diy solar

diy solar

Schneider Conext 4048 - Load Center set-up and Breaker requirements

@Pete B

Did I nail the terminals? If you have an ohmmeter check the continuity between Neutral In and Neutral Out, I would bet that they are connected inside. In that case you need only one connected to the neutral buss in your AC Buss

My Magnasine MS4024AE is a very similar design, they use only one transformer that serves as both charger and inverter. The connection of the neutral does not need to be broken when switching from charger to inverter. There is a 2 pole relay that shuts off the input in inverter mode. In standby mode this relay connects L1 in to L1 out and L2 in to L2 out to provide passthrough power.

These inverters were designed by the same folks....If you can read schematics I can email you my manual which does show the internal basic wiring that Schneider will not show you. They will not be exact, but you will get the picture of how they accomplish things. Its not a full detailed schematic, more of a basic layout of the transformer and charger/inverter. Its setup for the layman to understand

Also has the best grounding system layouts that I have ever seen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR......
 
@Pete B

Did I nail the terminals? If you have an ohmmeter check the continuity between Neutral In and Neutral Out, I would bet that they are connected inside. In that case you need only one connected to the neutral buss in your AC Buss

My Magnasine MS4024AE is a very similar design, they use only one transformer that serves as both charger and inverter. The connection of the neutral does not need to be broken when switching from charger to inverter. There is a 2 pole relay that shuts off the input in inverter mode. In standby mode this relay connects L1 in to L1 out and L2 in to L2 out to provide passthrough power.

These inverters were designed by the same folks....If you can read schematics I can email you my manual which does show the internal basic wiring that Schneider will not show you. They will not be exact, but you will get the picture of how they accomplish things. Its not a full detailed schematic, more of a basic layout of the transformer and charger/inverter. Its setup for the layman to understand

Also has the best grounding system layouts that I have ever seen.

HAPPY NEW YEAR......
I think you should just post it here. We're all laymen here. We can handle it.
 
I will do that, Its a pretty long doc but Magnum energy has one of the best manuals, has lots of good info in there
 
Thanks for the feedback guys.

So it sounds like there only needs to be a single neutral wire running from AC Breaker Panel Neutral Bus to the SW4048, either the Inv-Input N OR Inv-Output N can be used, or even BOTH could be installed at same time and the system would work per the descriptions I’m hearing here?

I was confused because my Schneider AC Breaker Panel box came from factory with a single white wire labeled AC Input N, however the wiring diagram Michael shared is the same one that was supplied with my Inverter and shows a single N wire connected from N Bus to the AC Output N terminal. The AC Breaker panel is supposed to be designed to work specifically with the SW4048, this is its selling feature and why I bought it. Having this discrepancy between the wiring diagram and factory supplied equipment is unacceptable in my opinion. It did not make sense to me that either SW4048 N terminal could be used. Schneider does a terrible job of explaining this, and it has cost me a TON of time and frustration trying to figure this out. I have an email in to Schneider Tech support asking about this as well, I will let you guys know what they say so the wiring configuration is officially confirmed…

In regards to other comments my system is not operational yet, still have to make balance leads and connect the Batrium BMS. All the wiring you see in my pictures is factory supplied directly from Schneider and made to work in this system. The wires in my photos came inside the AC Breaker panel and were connected on that side to breakers and Bus Bars, and there were already ferrules attached to end of each wire that got connected into the AC terminals in the SW4048. Ground wire also correctly had a ring terminal installed on Inverter end. The length of wire is about 12” so very little drop etc. In summary, the wiring and breakers that come with the unit, from factory, are sized appropriately for the duty cycle.
 
Last edited:
Additional important point, I used my Fluke117 to evaluate that Continuity does exist between the AC Input N and AC Output N terminals on my SW4048 confirming that these are electrically tied at the Inverter terminals. I really wish this was more clear in Schneider documentation, I have been reviewing the Conext SW Installation Guide I received with my system and there are photos that show both Neutral Terminals being used however it does not state that these are tied together - see photo attached.
 

Attachments

  • 5E7FEB4A-8858-4931-855D-F3A8DA519E41.jpeg
    5E7FEB4A-8858-4931-855D-F3A8DA519E41.jpeg
    266.9 KB · Views: 9
FYI - I received a response from Schneider in regards to my questions about Neutral connections between the Schneider AC Switchgear and the SW4048 Inverter. I asked them why the AC Switchgear document says to connect Neutral Bus in Switchgear to AC Input N terminal in the SW4048, however the wiring diagram for the SW4048 says to connect this to the AC Output N. Here is their ‘answer‘ for everyone’s reference:

‘I understand the confusion, as both documents say two different things and do not further explain the situation and I agree with you that they should be more clear.

The main function of the Neutral bus bar is to unify the neutral connections of all the components of the system, so in the end, it should not matter to which neutral terminal of the inverter you were to connect it. But if you would rather have a response, you can follow the wiring diagrams included in the SW Inverter Installation guide that says to connect it to the output terminal.’
 
That sounds about right. Their support is mostly useless.

The neutral connections are duplicated on the inverter for use without the AC distribution panel with integrated neutral bus bar.

So if you are running just wire to and from the inverter, you'd run something like 6/3 with the 2 hots and one neutral connected to the listed input/output connections.
When using the he distribution panel, only the hot lines need to go through the inverter. The inverter just needs a single. connection to neutral.
 
Back
Top