Quattro overload and we are away

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freddyuk asked Jan 26, '19

Quattro overload and we are away

Quattro 10kva with CCGX and Batteries. I checked my security cam today as we are abroad and it was off. I phoned a friend who went round to the installation and confirmed no power and over load light was on. I explained how to turn off batteries and grid incoming and try to re boot. Nothing until he disconnected the CCGX then system re booted. I checked VRM and system went down about mid day. There was some solar but the grid/solar dropped off.

We never had over load before

The loads were around 400w as we are not there so nothing heavy being used.

It is now running but I need to know why it would trip off as we have 3 freezers. Lucky I was checking and losses were avoided.

No warnings on CCGX/VRM when this happened.

MultiPlus Quattro Inverter Charger

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Phil Gavin commented · Jan 27, 2019 at 12:25 PM

"No warnings on CCGX/VRM when this happened. "

Sorry for asking the obvious, but does any part of that warning chain require an AC supply?

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freddyuk Phil Gavin commented · Jan 31, 2019 at 06:41 PM

Inded the system would lose AC power for all function but the power dropped and then switched off so something happened just before it switched off. I would expect this to flag up before it all switched off but clearly it didn't. I will install my CCGX on it's own small battery/PV so it will keep running in future.

I wonder what would cause an overload when there is no posibility of such loads as no one was at home.

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Modifications Space

Node Red Space

Answer 1 · 2019-01-27T11:59:01Z

boekel answered · Jan 27, 2019 at 11:59 AM

webinar about overload:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SXtGIx0x5w

If the installation and setup is don right this sounds like a defect, I'd ask you installer / dealer to check your system, as like you write you can suffer losses and annoyance when things stop working.

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Answer 2 · 2019-02-01T05:51:41Z

freddyuk answered · Feb 01, 2019 at 05:51 AM

Update on this issue - having checked my systems I noticed the secondary immersion heater panel was flashing in fault mode. I then checked the records for this immersion and found that the power spiked at the same time as the overload problem. The immersion has gone faulty and spiked at 7kw (according to the records) before tripping the system. The Quattro should be able to cope with a momentary spike?? Clearly this is what caused the issue and I will investigate further. The immersion was not switched on by me as we were away so the wireless Ecodhome system which can remotely control and monitor various loads had gone rougue again and caused the immersion to activate without any input. These "moneysaving" wireless systems are worthless if they turn on loads randomly thus wasting more power than they save.

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ben ♦ commented · Feb 02, 2019 at 04:25 AM

How do you know it had a 7kW spike? What records are showing you that?

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Answer 3 · 2019-02-03T06:43:09Z

freddyuk answered · Feb 03, 2019 at 06:43 AM

The wireless smart control system has an app to monitor everything so I can see on the history that the spike occurred at the time of the overload. I checked and the immersion is still working but the temperature sensor monitor has failed. Something happened but I am still not sure how it tripped the Quattro which can take 16kW momentarily.

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ben ♦ commented · Feb 03, 2019 at 06:52 AM

I see. I have a few thoughts, but is hard to reason about your system without a lot more detail (and probably without looking at it). Also, you stated "no power," but clearly at least the Quattro is still powered in some way, since it had an error LED on.

First, 7kW may not have been the true peak load. A lot of monitoring devices aren't fast enough to see fast transient peaks. Is there any chance your failing immersion heater actually spiked higher? (What circuit protection device(s) do you have installed for it? Did any of them trip?)

Second, what happened on grid incoming? What's the power limit there, and what does the VRM history show? Did you have a grid fault?

Third, what happened with your battery? What kind of battery is it? What BMS is in use? Is it possible your battery couldn't handle the load? Have you ever applied a 7kW load on your system in normal use? What about higher than that, say 10kW or 12kW for a few seconds?

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ben ♦ commented · Feb 03, 2019 at 06:53 AM

I ran out of characters to say: you could certainly have a faulty Quattro, but I think there's at least a good chance something else is the real problem.

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