Stand-alone UPS always clicking

[30362]

Anyone else have a circuit connected to their inverters that gets UPSes clicking randomly throughout the day?

One of the first loads I switched to my dedicated panel was my office outlets, since I work from home and I spend all day in here. Prior to the solar installation, I had 2 APC 800va UPS in the room, one for my laptop \ monitors and the other for my NAS and gaming rig.

Usually these UPS only clicked when there were brownouts, or other questionable power events.

However, now that they are connected to my pair of EG4 6500-EX 48 inverters, they click probably 20+ times a day. They will both click, then a few seconds click again. The sort of click you'd normally hear when they're switching to battery and then back again.

My inverters are set in UPS mode.

Anyone else seeing this?

 

[Adam De Lay]

Yup. Had to disconnect all mine because they're constantly clicking off and on.

 

[30362]

@SignatureSolarTech any thoughts why UPS behave this way? I'm planning to switch the whole house to solar but don't want to disconnect the UPS and waste the investment I already have in those devices...

 

[Adam De Lay]

I was told "they must just be very sensitive".

 

[Adam De Lay]

I will add that mine are older. Some have newer batteries and some don't. They all act the same way though. All different models.

 

[30362]

I have a variety, the 2 in my office are probably 2 years old, the 1 in my network closet was just replaced in January and I have two others in my workshop that are directly connected to the dedicated load panel as well that I bought in the last month. All of them click, constantly, throughout the day.

I don't accept the "they must be very sensitive" answer, too easy to just throw that out and not actually address the real issue.

They wouldn't do that, pre inverters, when on utility power unless the power went out, so to do it constantly on inverter output makes me wonder just how clean \ reliable the output from the inverters is...

 

[SamDeleted]

Can you change the voltage sensitivity?

 

[TomC4306]

Try changing the inverter mode from UPS to something else.
I believe in that mode you are in pass-through

 

[Adam De Lay]

Try changing the inverter mode from UPS to something else.
I believe in that mode you are in pass-through

He's talking about Option 3. You can be in Appliance or UPS mode.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Can you change the voltage sensitivity?

Not sure if some of the smaller UPS models have that option in powerchute.

 

[TomC4306]

He's talking about Option 3. You can be in Appliance or UPS mode.

Okay, then change it to appliance. This is troubleshooting. Trying different things to gather data.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Okay, then change it to appliance. This is troubleshooting. Trying different things to gather data.

I know with mine I've tested both ways and didn't make any difference.

 

[30362]

As @Adam De Lay mentioned, there's an option 3 in the inverter that allows you to switch between Appliance and UPS, both options seem to control AC input voltage, and the behavior is the same no matter which option I use.

 

[ojames600]

I have the same issue with my 6500 I really do not want to remove the UPS. I did not have this issue with my Growatt inverters

 

[ojames600]

I made a change to my Eg4 setting that seem to fix the light flickering and UPS flipping. Setting #10 is set to 120v as default, I change that setting to 127v and that seen to provide a steady voltage. Its been a few hours and no flickering or UPS clicking

 

[SolarScott]

Try changing the inverter mode from UPS to something else.
I believe in that mode you are in pass-through

It does it in appliance mode also....mine will click like crazy sometimes, and other times it will go all day without doing it.

 

[Brett V]

The UPS should have a sensitivity setting, my 1500 watt APC does. I never have a problem with the Growatt making it click but had adjusted the sensitivity to a lower setting back when my only backup was a dirty open frame generator. The Growatt switches so fast I'll probably not keep the UPS the next time the batteries need replacing.

 

[fmeili1]

As @Adam De Lay mentioned, there's an option 3 in the inverter that allows you to switch between Appliance and UPS, both options seem to control AC input voltage, and the behavior is the same no matter which option I use.

View attachment 147393

If you use more than 1 AIO in parallel, the option does not make a big difference and it'll take at least about 50ms while switching to/from bypass mode (because the AIO's in parallel needs to synchronize it's switching moment which also takes time). With just one AIO, in UPS mode it will take 10ms and in APL mode about 50ms switching time to/from bypass mode.

But with my experience, it has nothing to do with the "clicking" while the AIO's are just in usual continuous battery mode. I have this "click" in APC UPS's when a huge load suddenly kicks in. It looks like the inverters output is not very stable under heavy load changes. Even if I set my APC UPS's sensitivity to (L)ow, they do "click".

Maybe, this will get better if you have more battery capacity to be able to deliver enough peak load current to the inverters - but I don't know. EG4-6500EX requires at least 200Ah battery capacity per AIO (see manual)! Currently I drive six EG4-6500EX in split phase with "only" 9 EG4-LL batteries - which is not enough to fulfill the 200Ah per AIO requirement. I've ordered 3 more to get 12 batteries and I will find out if this will help against these APC UPS "clicks". Currently I have about 2-3 clicks a day (working full time in home office, so I can watch this) but they do not always click when a huge load kicks in.

 

[Adam De Lay]

If you use more than 1 AIO in parallel, the option does not make a big difference and it'll take at least about 50ms while switching to/from bypass mode (because the AIO's in parallel needs to synchronize it's switching moment which also takes time). With just one AIO, in UPS mode it will take 10ms and in APL mode about 50ms switching time to/from bypass mode.

But with my experience, it has nothing to do with the "clicking" while the AIO's are just in usual continuous battery mode. I have this "click" in APC UPS's when a huge load suddenly kicks in. It looks like the inverters output is not very stable under heavy load changes. Even if I set my APC UPS's sensitivity to (L)ow, they do "click".

Maybe, this will get better if you have more battery capacity to be able to deliver enough peak load current to the inverters - but I don't know. EG4-6500EX requires at least 200Ah battery capacity per AIO (see manual)! Currently I drive six EG4-6500EX in split phase with "only" 9 EG4-LL batteries - which is not enough to fulfill the 200Ah per AIO requirement. I've ordered 3 more to get 12 batteries and I will find out if this will help against these APC UPS "clicks". Currently I have about 2-3 clicks a day (working full time in home office, so I can watch this) but they do not always click when a huge load kicks in.

I had 560ah between my two 6500s and all my UPSs still gave me fits. Some would just switch constantly. I expected them to possibly switch when a large load was kicking in, but not all the time.

 

[redalertdt]

I get similar things on my Magnum 4448 LF inverters. The UPS's in the house will click sometimes. Seems like mostly with a large load. Plus the lights dim sometimes when the oven is clicking on and off.

Does the new 6000x or the 18k manage power changes/stability better (no clicking UPS's due to voltage drops)?