Hi all,
I have a 15 kW and 48V Quattro inverter with a 55 kWh battery bank and two AC-Coupled PV inverters.
With no reason and every few days I get an overload warning that always lasts exactly 22 seconds. This issue sometimes happens at night, with almost no load engaged, sometimes happens during at noon, in the evening...
This does not make any sense, I think it is just a flaw in the firmware because it always lasts 22 seconds and happens at any time of the day
Any clue?
Could be startup current on a motor or other high startup current load.
Hi @pablosol2
Don't just write this off as a flaw on the Victron side. The overload could be just the duration of a spark, the duration registered is just the time it takes for the Quattro to clear the fault (always ~20 sec). I see this too sometimes, but I know what causes it (on a smaller Multi). Might be something like a faulty start capacitor on a motor. Or even a wiring fault..
It may well be telling you there's something wrong in your system. And the odds are that it probably is. Take care, check your own side too. I wouldn't sleep too well without knowing more..
I don't think there is a chance that a 15 kW inverter feeding less than 1 kW load might occur in overload. This happens normally at night with just the refrigerator and a few lights on, everything very straightforward and neat, not even AC machines on. This is just like if you where driving a car on a highway at 60 kmh, in winter, what are the chances it overheats?
I wish I could get more information from the inverter to find out why this is happening but I am clueless. At this moment I am grid tied but I am planning going offgrid after evaluating the system's behaviour in winter, but this warning holds me back.
And I'd disagree that it's not possible. Think the length of time a *spark* takes. How much instantaneous current in that spark? Too quick for VRM to log, but the inverter knows. It'll roll on through it as it should, but those alarm logs in VRM are forever. And that's not such a bad thing if you've been offgrid for a few years and troubleshooting something.
Coincidentally, I had 2x overload instances today that aren't caused by known loads.. (RARE occurrence)
Multi 5kVA, <150W load. It was short, but maybe a little longer than a spark. Still too quick for VRM, but the solar (in float) took a little jump up, which lasted long enough to register. So I reckon it was indeed real, and will be watching for a repeat. Suspect?, maybe related to a fridge defrost cycle?? But I'll watch & wait, on alert.. Do I think it's a firmware fault or suchlike? Nope, it's almost certainly my own issue, and that will remain my opinion until proved wrong.
But it's not the end of the world. If I weren't offgrid I wouldn't even know about it. Same-'fault'-no-message stuff. So in your case I wouldn't let it influence your decision to flick the big wire. You'll just be better informed. Option to turn the alarms off anyway.
Quattros inverters had some spurious overload warnings in FW478 which were solved in FW481. I have a more recent FW but I think that it is related and might be happening again. Maybe I should update to the latest version (I haven't updated since last summer) but everything seems to be working fine (apart from this seldon warnings) and I'd prefer not messing with it.
Is this a grid-tie system? If the grid has frequency or voltage fluctuations this can case the inverter to throw a overload warning.
