[cloddopper]

Sorry to hear of the problem but a big thanks for posting it as all ofnus could have probs at any time.
 
My mate Stewart has recently seen the  EB change the local failing transformer PDQ , as it was kicking out over 280 volts. Initially the EB said nothing was wrong.

 They are hoping to get recompensed for two months loss income as their control panel kept dropping out many times a day  . He's using the average generation of March & April over the last three years 2012 -2014  in support of his claim. 

[honeyend]

 
 My husband checks all the readings and is not very good at keeping a record apart from when he sends it in. Today I got him to read the leccy metre to see how much we have used, after much nagging, and we are producing more than we use.
 We have an air source heat pump which has not heated the house since April, it does the hot water, all bulbs apart from about 4 are led, and daughter has moved out so it should go down even more. So we are making money!!! Well not spending it.

[Sudanpan]

We are still having a torrid time with our inverter. First of all the installers changed the inverter (a Samil Power inverter) but this made no difference. Then they upped the settings parameters (currently as soon as our panels generate about 4kw the grid voltage side goes up to 265V and the inverter disconnects) - so they upped the upper level to about 270V but this has not made any difference.
So, apparently now the next stage is to get Western Power involved - but no idea what that is going to entail.
Not exactly what we envisaged when buying into the PV panel setup.
 

[cloddopper]

It took me several weeks  till i eventually got the address of the local area's certified  electrical engineer for our electricity board . Once I laid out my problem as I saw it and added all manner of pertinent notes , I asked him to come and visit me face to face with one of their senior testing engineers such as a foreman so we could talk the problem through.
 Two days after that comunication he and his assistant visited me . They made some very useful comments which I sent on to my insurers wrt lightening strikes within 400 mtrs of my home ( the insurers had refused to acknowledge these at the time as no one else had made  a claim  )
End result nearly six months later I got several thousands pounds of insurance claim to pay for my losses.

Do you have any recorded date of when you found some thing wrong with your system ?
If so see if you have any locall weather station type enthusiasts who use the Norwegian lightening strike satelite data system and see if they can get dates of strikes , within say 800 mtrs of you during the period and about 15 days either side .

[Big Light]

412 for July a good 130 down 

[Loobylou]

I must admit I'm useless at remembering to give my readings. I've just given one and it's well overdue bug I'm well impressed with my payment.

[Dan]

484 for July, down from 571 in 2014. 

  for  in August.

[Greenerlife]

Well don't feel too despondent Dan!  My reading for the 'sunny' south was 393!

[Sudanpan]

Don't really have a clue what July's generation was as the changeover of the inverter etc has messed up the recordings. However, I do know that on days where we would have expected generation in the region of 30+kw we have only got 18kw because of the inverter constantly disconnecting and reconnecting. I reckon we will be down about 40% when all is said and done on what we should have generated.


Our installers have been monitoring the inverter loads and the corresponding grid voltages - basically the grid voltage ranges from the low 220's up to 270+. When our panels get to about 70% generation, without a drawdown due to demand on site, the grid voltage gets upwards of 260, tripping out at 265v.


They are going to be in further discussions with Western Power - but in the meantime their recommendation is to try and switch on as much stuff as poss when the sun is strong! I've looked into the possibility of an intelligent switch (ie immersun) to kick in when our generation gets up to 3kw and switch on some high load - however an immersion heater is not the answer as we are already drowning in hot water as we have solar thermal panels. We're thinking that maybe we should get some sort of storage heater in the garage or something - though it is irritating that we will have to fork out more money in order to stop our PV system from tripping out all the time.

[cloddopper]

Sudanpan , have you put the problem & symptoms to the guys on the " Renewables " website ( I can't remember the actual website details ).  They gave me several useful ideas to mull over when i started out onn my renewable's quest  Knowing that there are so many fairly well qualified to comment guys using the site with real time knowledge might be to your advantage .

[cloddopper]

Reading    31 Mar 2015       3807.12    =   259.99  produced
Reading    3  May 2015       4314.72    =   507.60  produced   
Reading    31 May 2015      4745.77     =   431.05  produced
Reading    30 Jun 2015       5336.11     =   590.34  produced
Reading     8 Aug  2015      5878.22    =   542.11  produced .. ( late July reading ..on holiday so let's call it as 515  units for July )

 The recent lousy weather certainly has had an impact  my garden is about three week behind .. so are the tomatoes etc.in the glasshouse.
UK grown veg might just be a bit more expensive over the next six months or so.

[Sudanpan]

Thanks for the tip Cloddopper - have registered in the renewables forum and will see if I get any further pointers. One reply has suggested I take it up with the suppliers (Western Power) as the voltage range should be 230v + 10% (so 253v) top end which should be fine.

[cloddopper]

That sound a bit like you are on a dirty branch line where the boards transformer is degrading..... every time there is a spike on the branch due to someone switching on or off heavy current you get the electrical echo of the spark jumping across the switch contacts .
 At our small farm  a simple lie detector type moving arm trace showed a steady 233 volts
 With some large digital storage device and a special dual trace beam oscilloscope  it showed that we were getting hit every few seconds most days between 07.00 hrs and 21 .00 hrs with spikes of over a thousand volt for a millisecond or slightly less. which kept tripping our breakers .

It turned out to be a small industrial machinist/welding unit who was working double shifts every time the struck or broke an arc we got tripped out.
 The incoming mains to our pole transformer we were both running from was also dirty so the industrial units welding  just amplified the mess  .
 

[cloddopper]

We are still having a torrid time with our inverter. First of all the installers changed the inverter (a Samil Power inverter) but this made no difference. Then they upped the settings parameters (currently as soon as our panels generate about 4kw the grid voltage side goes up to 265V and the inverter disconnects) - so they upped the upper level to about 270V but this has not made any difference.
So, apparently now the next stage is to get Western Power involved - but no idea what that is going to entail.
Not exactly what we envisaged when buying into the PV panel setup.
 

 I've been talking with Stuart the guy who had the transformer problem ..it turns out he's been fitting solar systems for quite a time ..(He showed me his notice letter  for £100.67 p for his last quarters FIT payment  He put it in when the FIT's were a lot more generous & it's certainly paid for itself said he grinning form ear to ear.

  I kind of described what i think you have been saying , his comment was , " Every system has to push electricity at a higher voltage into the mains .. this has the effect of causing the mains to rise by a volt or so . If you are on a branch line with a dozen other solar systems pushing power into the network you will see the mains voltage rise considerably . This can and does cause problems of so high a voltage that it trips solar panel rectifiers out .

Then he asked me to say to you , Do you get trip outs when it's dark ??

[Sudanpan]

Then he asked me to say to you , Do you get trip outs when it's dark ??

We only get trip outs on the inverter itself so no we don't get trip outs when it's dark as the inverter is not working in any event.
The message we get from the inverter is that it detects a Grid Over Voltage so it disconnects and then takes 30 secs to reconnects.
Western Power came last week and has put a data logger on the line in so that should be able to be compared to what the inverter record is saying to determine more specifically where the issue lies