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Titan 500 - Inverter keeps blowing up

I Live Here

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Apr 27, 2021
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Hey Will (or anyone)... HELP!!! I bought the Titan 500 kit. Only have room for four 100 watt panels on my van roof, so I put up 3 rigid 100 watt panels (supplied by Point Zero Energy) and one flexible 110 W panel (SunPower--specs are almost identical to the rigid panels supplied). I got it set up and it went for a couple weeks, working great, then while under minimal load (running roof fan and charging a phone) I heard popping and saw smoke. I sent the unit back to Point Zero. They said it was the inverter, and replaced it. I got it back yesterday, plugged it in, and again, everything was fine. I plugged my shore power cord into the front of the unit and gave it a test with the roof fan on, some things charging and then ran the microwave to deplete the battery to about 98% charged. I plugged in the solar panels. I have two rigid 100 watt panels, in series, coming into one of the MPPT ports; I have one 100 w rigid panel and one 110 w flex panel (from Sunpower) wired in series, and plugged into the second MPPT port. Together, they are bringing in 90 V of DC power. I got it to charge completely (29 v and 100%). I was working great. I was satisfied until about half an hour later, same pops, same smoke, and in dealing with Point Zero they tell me they have thousands that are working great, but there are about 4 of us who keep blowing inverters, and they cannot figure out why. Can you/anyone give me any trouble shooting advice? Point to any possible issue? Point Zero says the only thing they know for sure is that the 4 of us with issues are using it off-grid in an RV, but plenty of other users are also living off-grid in an RV with no problems. Any help/advice/ideas are greatly appreciated.


REPLY
 
I plugged my shore power cord into the front of the unit and gave it a test with the roof fan on, some things charging and then ran the microwave to deplete the battery to about 98% charged.

You plugged your shore power into the inverter AC outlets? Sry, that statement confused me
 
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What is a Titan 500 kit? I've found getting info a specific kit very difficult.

What is the inverter rated to? What is the battery size in amp hour and voltage?

Running an inverter may put quite a strain on a the inverter. My microwave pulls 155 amps off my battery, which at 14.6 volts is about 2000 watts, the same it is rated for. Even with a good 2000 watt inverter, it is probably rated for so many minutes at full output.
gave it a test with the roof fan on, some things charging and then ran the microwave to deplete the battery to about 98% charged.
400 watts of panels is not a lot to power an inverter. Also, a small battery pack and skinny wires could cause a lot f voltage loss which could cause the low voltage. Most inverters should have a low voltage shut off that is not blowing stuff up inside. Without doing any voltage calculations for your wires, I think anything less than 2/0 on a 12 volt system for a microwave is too skinny.

Also, you need to look at the way your mismatched panels are wired together to see if that effects output. Here's a good article with math:

 
NO. The Titan unit has a 30 amp shore power connection. I plugged my shore power cord into the shore power (30 amp) connection on the front of the Titan Solar generator.
Dude. Everything on the front of that unit is an output.

Just re-read what you said... retract my previous message
 
Is this the kit?
 
And it seems that TomC4306 is correct. It's been fried if you plugged anything other than solar into it.
I read that the OP plugged the RV main cord (I assume) into the 30-TT connector.
This should work perfectly fine.

My only question is to ask if the unit is isolated from the RV? Some of these may not like sharing chassis ground with the RV battery negative tied to the frame. I believe this power unit is designed to operate on the ground and the panels off the RV. Did not see a link to the manual.
 
What is a Titan 500 kit? I've found getting info a specific kit very difficult.

What is the inverter rated to? What is the battery size in amp hour and voltage?

Running an inverter may put quite a strain on a the inverter. My microwave pulls 155 amps off my battery, which at 14.6 volts is about 2000 watts, the same it is rated for. Even with a good 2000 watt inverter, it is probably rated for so many minutes at full output.

400 watts of panels is not a lot to power an inverter. Also, a small battery pack and skinny wires could cause a lot f voltage loss which could cause the low voltage. Most inverters should have a low voltage shut off that is not blowing stuff up inside. Without doing any voltage calculations for your wires, I think anything less than 2/0 on a 12 volt system for a microwave is too skinny.

Also, you need to look at the way your mismatched panels are wired together to see if that effects output. Here's a good article with math:

Titan is a plug and play package that incorporates the solar controller, inverter, converter, etc. all into one package.
It has a 3000 w inverter. I have two lithium batteries--each rated at 2000 amp hours.
Is this the kit?
yes
 
I read that the OP plugged the RV main cord (I assume) into the 30-TT connector.
This should work perfectly fine.

My only question is to ask if the unit is isolated from the RV? Some of these may not like sharing chassis ground with the RV battery negative tied to the frame. I believe this power unit is designed to operate on the ground and the panels off the RV. Did not see a link to the manual.
The OP mentioned shore power. Not being knowledgeable about such things I believed he meant the power outlet box you see on RV sites which basically gets power from the grid and feeds it into the RV.
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When you plug into the titan with the 30 amp plug. Where is the other end plugged into, the shore power box or the 30 amp male connection on the van?
 
The OP mentioned shore power. Not being knowledgeable about such things I believed he meant the power outlet box you see on RV sites which basically gets power from the grid and feeds it into the RV.
View attachment 47031
My Van (Class B RV) has a shore power cord. This cord normally plugs into the 30 amp outlet at campgrounds (pictured above). In this case, I have run the shore power cord through the floor of my RV and plugged it directly into the Titan Unit, which has the exact same 30 amp outlet as they have to plug into at campgrounds. This will power the entire van, both AC and DC sides and (I think) charge up the coach battery at the same time.
When you plug into the titan with the 30 amp plug. Where is the other end plugged into, the shore power box or the 30 amp male connection on the van?
 
The 30 amp plug is connected to the van's electrical system. I own a 1998 Roadtrek Versatile 190. I didn't wire it, but I assume that this cord goes directly to the electrical box so it can run both the AC and DC sides of the system. This cord is for GETTING electricity into the van by plugging it into a power source. So I plug it directly into the 30 amp shore power outlet on the front of the Titan unit itself and it draws up to 30 amps from the lithium batteries that I have which are charged by solar panels on the roof.
 
The 30 amp plug is connected to the van's electrical system. I own a 1998 Roadtrek Versatile 190. I didn't wire it, but I assume that this cord goes directly to the electrical box so it can run both the AC and DC sides of the system. This cord is for GETTING electricity into the van by plugging it into a power source. So I plug it directly into the 30 amp shore power outlet on the front of the Titan unit itself and it draws up to 30 amps from the lithium batteries that I have which are charged by solar panels on the roof.

I have the Titan and I have a similar use case. I use it to power my RV when I am boondocking. I have 8x100 watt panels on the roof connected in 4S2P configuration into one solar charge controller. I use the other SCC for any ground mounted panels that I might need. I connect my Titan RV plug outlet as one input to a transfer switch, with the other input of the transfer switch fed from actual shore power if it is available. The output of the transfer switch feeds my RV distribution panel. The transfer switch defaults to shore power if it is available otherwise it powers the RV from the Titan. I do not have the Titan directly grounded to my RV, however there is a ground connection thru the RV plug ground back to the distribution panel through the transfer switch wiring. I have not had any issues with the inverter so far in this configuration.

Here are a few things that you could consider:

1) Make sure that you haven't inadvertently plugged the Titan's wall charger into the van's 120V when the Titan is powering your van's 120V system and then try to charge the Titan from the wall charger. That creates a power loop that in a best case scenario would drain your battery pretty quick and unnecessarily place 500-600 watts of load on the inverter.

2) Make sure that the Titan's fans come on if your inverter load is over 500 watts. If not, the inverter could be overheating.

3) Make sure that you haven't inadvertently overloaded the inverter. If you have a coffee maker, an electric water heater and/or an air conditioner, make sure they aren't on at the same time.

4) Since you didn't wire the distribution panel, check the wiring in the van's AC distribution panel to make sure the ground and neutral leads aren't crossed or that you have some other wiring issue in the RV's electrical system.
 
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