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upnorthman avatar image
upnorthman asked

Phoenix 48-250 inverter overload.

I bought a Victron 48-250 Phoenix Inverter last September. I am having some problems with it. It can go into a overload condition when I only have a 35watt load and turn on another small load like a couple led light bulbs. Red light stays on and green does a double blink, pause, double blink, pause, ect. The loads are no where near the upper limit. I am using a "Kill-a-watt" meter to measure the output power.

The sight is a few hours away, so I can't do any immediate troubleshooting, but any suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks Ed

Phoenix Inverter
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3 Answers
JohnC avatar image
JohnC answered ·

Hi Ed. Some led lights/drivers/dimmers are notorious for issues with harmonics/power factor/inrush current. And if your 35W load is a compressor fridge, then it's start cycle will contribute too.

Unfortunately your meter won't see these things, they're not designed to react that fast. An expensive pro-grade analyzer would be nice, but maybe just take out some separate small power loads to test to see if you can nail down the offender.

In the washup, you may just need a bigger inverter. I hate suggesting that, so your challenge is to prove me wrong. :)

Just a coupla clues, maybe will help out.. Good luck.


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kai avatar image
kai answered ·

Bring a ~35W resistive load to site next time. If it works then it leans you towards the inrush issue.

Clamp meter with a peak measurement function or add a shunt and do the same in voltage domain.

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damonz avatar image damonz commented ·

You could also try running a small resistive load in parallel with an inductive load to help with startup.

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upnorthman answered ·

A couple more thoughts. I tried some testing with it when I was there. One of the circuits that was consistently tripping when Iwwould use it. It has 3 40watt led bulbs on it. I would try different combinations of the 3 lights by removing them. I found no corilation with the alarm. Eventually that circuit quit tripping the inverter. I also had a repetitive problem once when I plugged in just my radio directlytto the inverter. It has a small transformer at the plug in. It uses only 7 watts. It would trigger an alarm repeatedly also. When it works properly, I've been able to use 75+ watts with no problems. When it doesn't work, it doesn't take much to trigger an alarm. I haven't changed anything since I started using it back in November. To me it sounds like the inverter is going out or something. 4 months without issues and then now problems with even the smallest loads. I will do some testing on my next trip.

Ed

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JohnC avatar image JohnC ♦ commented ·

Yeh, even switch-mode power supplies on nearly everything you buy nowadays may have a say. I can see that on my own VRM graphs, which log per-minute, so will mostly miss the mS confusion. But it's there, plus maybe harmonics & pf. Good fun, hey?

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kai avatar image kai ♦ commented ·

hmmm. if you have a mains LC filter (i.e. power line filter) handy, try using that to differentiate between a EMC issue and an inrush issue.

edit: if really small loads are tripping it, it kind of sounds like not an inrush issue (even peak should be within inverter limits).

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upnorthman avatar image upnorthman kai ♦ commented ·

I have the inverter mounted directly below my mppt cc. Do you think there is some interference coming from it? I can't recall having any problems with it at night.

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kai avatar image kai ♦ upnorthman commented ·

I was more thinking about conducted interference not radiated - was just throwing some ideas out there. Keep chipping away at it with different tests until you know whats happened (... or try a replacement / warranty unit).

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