Solar doing ok,for now

[Ervin R Dilly]

Got a message that I am not on here enough,so here goes.I have 24 -230 panels on 1 inverter and 24 on another coming into 2 separate inverters.During the cool month all is well.but when the heat comes on outside 1 inverter will shut down and says it is getting to much sun.Early morning fine,late evening fine.Guess I really cant complain as the last 5 month they have charged me 4.00 per month.(paper work they state)Anyhow will work on the other part when it gets warmer.Just wanted you all to know that I still read the articles,but have no problem now to post.All have a great New Year.::D

[Rob Beckers]

Happy New Year Ervin!
What inverters do you have? If it's a type I know there may be a way to keep it from shutting down.

Odd though to get a message about "too much sun"; inverters don't care how much the sun shines. They only care about input Voltages and the grid parameters (Voltage, frequency etc.). Current and output power is under control of the inverter, so it'll throttle itself down if the maximum output power is reached.

-RoB-

[Ervin R Dilly]

Hi Rob and hope you aren't snowed on.I have a Renovo RN5000US and a AuroraPVI 4.2.In the summer the Renova will get to much input and shut down,have tried a lot of things and nothing has worked so far.These are all leading into 1 #6 wire leading into the main .The Renova can handle 262 input but anything over that and it will shut down until the V dropes below 262.Might be that the single wire is not heavy enough,but this is buried and cant change that.Hope you and yours have a great new years.Me not so far

[Rob Beckers]

Hi Rob and hope you aren't snowed on.I have a Renovo RN5000US and a AuroraPVI 4.2.In the summer the Renova will get to much input and shut down,have tried a lot of things and nothing has worked so far.These are all leading into 1 #6 wire leading into the main .The Renova can handle 262 input but anything over that and it will shut down until the V dropes below 262.Might be that the single wire is not heavy enough,but this is buried and cant change that.Hope you and yours have a great new years.Me not so far

So the "262" is the grid Voltage?

-RoB-

[Ervin R Dilly]

Yes,it is the input grid voltage.

[Rob Beckers]

For an inverter the DC Voltage from the panels is the 'input', while the grid side is the 'output' (the word/name "inverter" comes from inverting DC into AC).

You could ask your electrical provider if they can lower the Voltage to your house. If you happen to be on a transformer that has tabs that would be very easy to do. At 262 Volt the grid Voltage is out-of-spec for the provider, so they should do something (though that doesn't mean they will).

You could also ask Renovo how to change the central Voltage of the inverter. Most (maybe all) inverters have an internal setting that sets the Voltage it uses internally to calculate the limits, when it should switch off due to over or under Voltage. In most that I know this can be changed through the factory setup menus (for example the Power-One can be changed, I've done that many times for the same reason).

The problem may not be your wiring, but further upstream: Anything that presents a high resistance or impedance will cause the feed-in Voltage to rise, even when feeding back as little as 10 kW. You may simply be at the end of a long line. I've had to deal with it many times, and as mentioned, for the inverters we use a simple setting change will keep the inverter switched on despite the Voltage spike.

-RoB-

[Ervin R Dilly]

Rob thanks for the info,and yes I have went to the electric company and asked what they could do about lowering my input volage,and they looked at me like I was from outerspace,stated it is set at the tower and nothing could be done and also stated that I was not at the end of the line.Talked to ronova and if I remember correct they stated it was set at the factory,will try them again.I know you can do it with your inverters,but that is not the problem.My electric company is not up on the solar thing,last I heard from them is that they only have 36 houses on the solar side.So again I think that there concern is not in our best interest,money is maybe the problem.They don't really have a solar meter yet,just something that they come up with,which in turn they have got to come to my house to read the meter,probly also bothers them.Know this is a long piece ,but it is sunday morning,cold,lots of snow,and its what we old people do.Have a great Canada day.