First posting so be gentle!
I have a 4kw solar pv system installed December 2011. Appears to be working reasonably well but the system consistantly shuts down when I operate a 1500 watt electric hydraulic log splitter. (The system resets and reinstates itself after five minutes.)
Other similar electric motor driven machinery (eg 2kW chainsaw; 900W planer) connected to the same external 13 amp socket do not shutdown the system. The log splitter shuts down the system immediately it is powered up, even when it is not under load i.e. operating the splitter motor but without a log on the rail or operating the hydraulic plunger.
No RCDs are tripping.
Presumably there's a voltage drop and the solar pv system thinks the power has been cut so shuts down.
The inverter is a SMA Sunny Boy SB3800 and error display indicates: 'Disturbance Vac-Srr' , then display shows voltage values when the inverter cut-outs occur:
At 215v
Present 235v
At 225v
Present 232v
At 206v
Present 231v
Tried operating the log splitter (LS) connecting a 25m extension lead to introduce resistance and it appeared to cure the problem (operated LS several times without any problem). However, the inverter also performed ok even when the LS was connected without the extension cable. After midday the inverter reverted to cutting out, with or without the extension lead.
Not certain but it sometimes works ok when using the LS on midweek days, but not usually at weekends (perhaps DNO delivers different supply voltages according to different demands at weekdays/weekends?), or perhaps at different times of day, as demonstrated today?
Guess next step would be to contact DNO to see if they'll help, though I guess there's little incentive for them to fix the problem as I'm buying their electricity when the inverter cuts out, instead of using my pv to power the LS for free.
Any thoughts?
I have a 4kw solar pv system installed December 2011. Appears to be working reasonably well but the system consistantly shuts down when I operate a 1500 watt electric hydraulic log splitter. (The system resets and reinstates itself after five minutes.)
Other similar electric motor driven machinery (eg 2kW chainsaw; 900W planer) connected to the same external 13 amp socket do not shutdown the system. The log splitter shuts down the system immediately it is powered up, even when it is not under load i.e. operating the splitter motor but without a log on the rail or operating the hydraulic plunger.
No RCDs are tripping.
Presumably there's a voltage drop and the solar pv system thinks the power has been cut so shuts down.
The inverter is a SMA Sunny Boy SB3800 and error display indicates: 'Disturbance Vac-Srr' , then display shows voltage values when the inverter cut-outs occur:
At 215v
Present 235v
At 225v
Present 232v
At 206v
Present 231v
Tried operating the log splitter (LS) connecting a 25m extension lead to introduce resistance and it appeared to cure the problem (operated LS several times without any problem). However, the inverter also performed ok even when the LS was connected without the extension cable. After midday the inverter reverted to cutting out, with or without the extension lead.
Not certain but it sometimes works ok when using the LS on midweek days, but not usually at weekends (perhaps DNO delivers different supply voltages according to different demands at weekdays/weekends?), or perhaps at different times of day, as demonstrated today?
Guess next step would be to contact DNO to see if they'll help, though I guess there's little incentive for them to fix the problem as I'm buying their electricity when the inverter cuts out, instead of using my pv to power the LS for free.
Any thoughts?