low output until all panels in sun

[davey_b]

What do you mean about the white cable? At the moment that runs to the generation meter, then to an isolator and then to the consumer unit.

 

[solarfred]

The three connectors on the far left are positive DC inputs and the three on the right are negative DC inputs. There is a DC isolator inbuilt on the unit. No way of knowing if the cables are wrongly marked. It's just a nasty lazy installation.
How did they test each string without DC isolators - well of course they didn't. Normally if you reverse the input polarity the unit will not work but this puts out 3kw so who knows what is going on.
Is there a test report sheet in your customer pack?

 

[whinmoor]

What do you mean about the white cable? At the moment that runs to the generation meter, then to an isolator and then to the consumer unit.

Does it connect to the main house consumer unit or did they install a dedicated "mini-consumer unit"?

 

[davey_b]

No test report sheet that I can see.

Connects into main consumer unit.

 

[oliver s]

The white cable is way too small it should be 6mm the same as you would use for a shower/ cooker supply.

 

[davey_b]

The white cable is way too small it should be 6mm the same as you would use for a shower/ cooker supply.

Would that cause the inverter to give the errors shown in the videos?

 

[The Solar King]

DC isolator should be on left side of unit, slightly recessed, not in view on photos.

 

[1Justin]

We had the system installed last September. There was issues with low output and they came back in April and looked at it and output was better. Then I noticed that when it was at peak power it would suddenly drop to 0 and then climb back to nearly 4kw. It was saying "Vac 10 min too high" and "Frequency too high"

The inverter was replaced but now this inverter is saying "Failure fan2" so I'm going to contact solarmax about this tomorrow.

It's a Solormax 4200s inverter and we have 16 Canadian Solar CS6P panels.


As you can see we're getting full sun, it's pretty much straight on the panels and there is a wee bit of shading on the end panels and we're only getting 0.37kw!

Davey_B. I can vouch for that, and I have the same. It's pretty much expected as has been mentioned already. I have trees to the East.

I don't think many people realize the extent of a very small bit of shade till they see what you have there.

I did the same set of photos with mine one morning last summer, and I have a series of photographs every ~ 15 seconds as the panels come out of morning shade of a tree. I am on 2.3KWP, and exactly like your system, the reduction is massive, probably 90% loss, even with just a minute piece of shade left on one of the panels, - maybe half an A4 sheet. Loose that last leaf shadow, and Pow.. right up there!

I am on single string, some unspectacular Yingli's, and fairly conventional 4 year old Fronius, nothing extraordinary.

 

[davey_b]

DC isolator should be on left side of unit, slightly recessed, not in view on photos.

Do you mean the switch on the side of the inverter?

 

[solarfred]

S series | SolarMax

 

[oliver s]

I think its hard to say exactly what is causing that as there are a number of issues that need to be sorted as others have said any shading is also a big issue in general it all needs sorting

 

[The Solar King]

Yes, that's the one. Would have been amazed if DC isolation had been excluded.
The AC side is somewhat interesting to say the least. The run to the the consumer unit is unlikely to be very long so 4mm T/E would be adequate. Without knowing the rating/sizing of the cable currently fitted it is difficult to comment further. It does however look a little small.

 

[dansk]

I'll second that, take a look here for examples of how it should be done http://www.electriciansforums.net/p...87-ef-members-installs-show-us-your-work.html

 

[davey_b]

Ok so what would your list of things to sort be? That gives me an idea of what to ask of the installer.

 

[davey_b]

Yes, that's the one. Would have been amazed if DC isolation had been excluded.
The AC side is somewhat interesting to say the least. The run to the the consumer unit is unlikely to be very long so 4mm T/E would be adequate. Without knowing the rating/sizing of the cable currently fitted it is difficult to comment further. It does however look a little small.

Run to the consumer unit is about 40m because our house is a u shape and the consumer unit is on the other side of the house.

Just to clarify there is no separate isolator like the ac ones between the panels and the inverter. The cables come straight from the panels to the inverter. The inverter has a switch on the side of it which is called dc insulation switch in the inverter documentation. How though would you stop current coming down the cables from the panels to swap them over etc.? Or isn't that an issue?

 

[dansk]

http://www.electriciansforums.net/a...stalls-show-us-your-work-dsc04699-medium-.jpg that's an example of a decent set up. can you see the differnce.

 

[oliver s]

1, install cables from array in conduit. 2, Install correct size cable from the isolator to the generation meter (either 4 or 6mm depending on calculations) 3, Install DC isolators even though already included on the inverter just makes a better job, and ease of testing, 4, Full test report on all individual panels and strings including polarity, 6, Fire proof board behind inverter 7, All warning labels system schematics to be in the right places. 8, Resolve shading issue by moving panels, optimisers etc Once all resolved you should have got to the bottom of what is causing the poor generation or could just be a combination of a few things

 

[solarfred]

ie. an MCS approved installation following the DTI guidelines which is what you were paying for. And you need another AC isolator at the consumer unit which is not in the same "room" as the inverter. So the installer is going to have to spend cash sorting this out correctly which is most unlikely in my opinon. If it was not for the shading issue this installation would never have been highlighted. Quite how you are going to test the individual panels now is another issue.

 

[The Solar King]

With built in DC isolator not an issue. Start up and shut down procedures must be followed. Like others commenting, I made an assumption about your property from the external shots. At 40m, 4mm cable would not be adequate as the voltage drop would be over 3% where the regs require less than 1%. Therefore 6mm is required.

Please leave everything to a qualified installer.

 

[davey_b]

With built in DC isolator not an issue. Start up and shut down procedures must be followed. Like others commenting, I made an assumption about your property from the external shots. At 40m, 4mm cable would not be adequate as the voltage drop would be over 3% where the regs require less than 1%. Therefore 6mm is required.

Please leave everything to a qualified installer.

I'm not thinking of doing it myself. I just want to understand how and why so that if am told something I know if it's crap to palm me off or not.