error 35 on sma

[Eco Deal]

had a customer call today fitted his system in sep 11 no probs

now the install is in wales crazy weather this week,

his inverter sma 4000tl says error 35 (no ground)

this tell me no earth

possible faults

1. no earth to house
2. no earth to 2 way con unit
3 earth come out in a.c isolator
4. earth come out in inverter


any body else seen error 35 before?

 

[moggy1968]

has the main earth failed? Does he have an overhead supply? If the weather is wild could it be something like this connected to his main electric supply?

 

[MCS Renewables]

has the main earth failed? Does he have an overhead supply?

If he does have an overhead supply (true TT) he should be getting a better earth reading with the earth rod in these very wet conditions !

 

[SolarCity]

If he does have an overhead supply (true TT) he should be getting a better earth reading with the earth rod in these very wet conditions !

A few years ago we went back to a job that we had done on a shop in the Cotswolds that was on a TT system. The place had flooded and we went to sort the electrics out. Out of curiosity we checked the Ze reading and to our great surprise the reading had actually gone UP. I forget the actual readings but it was actually quite significant.

I agree though that you would expect the reading to get better.

 

[MCS Renewables]

According to SMA troubleshoot guide Code 35 is a ground fault but not on the AC side . Page 80 Install guide 4000TL.

Either one of your strings is faulty and grounded, possibly water ingress

or one of the thermally monitored varistors is defective.

 

[Earthstore]

According to SMA troubleshoot guide Code 35 is a ground fault but not on the AC side . Page 80 Install guide 4000TL.

Either one of your strings is faulty and grounded, possibly water ingress

or one of the thermally monitored varistors is defective.

That is interesting, maybe, just maybe another reason why SMA TL systems should have the array bonded/earthed.

Just a thought.

 

[moggy1968]

If he does have an overhead supply (true TT) he should be getting a better earth reading with the earth rod in these very wet conditions !

not all overhead systems are TT.

 

[SibertSolar]

I could be wrong but bonding/earthing the array is not the same as having the provision within the inverter to earth the +ve or -ve DC branch (for when using thin-film modules, for example) and, as such, the inverter's ability to report an "earth fault" on the DC side is probably more likely to be related to this provision for DC earthing. Failure (or positive function) of an MOV (effectively a Type3 SPD) "might" be recognised as an earth fault by the inverter but I would have expected such an occurance to have a definitive fault code within the inverter, rather than a generic earth fault. Curious occurrence, will be interesting to see the outcome.

My money's on water ingress somewhere on the DC side causing the ground fault, as per MCS Renewable's comment above.

 

[Earthstore]

So a bad joint or a cable worn through maybe?

 

[steve Leese]

Hi When we had this fualt with a 4000TL it was due to intermitent earth, so after much messing about stripping the system down looking for wet joints, there were none , we put a earth mat in plus a couple of extra rods and everything as been fine since, this system is on the welsh coast. not tripped in the last 12 months