When testing out the new Phoenix Smart Inverter in the weekend I got into several issues I had not seen described in the manual. I was trying to figure out if it would handle the load of my 1200 Watt water pump (it did not, stopping after 2 minutes) or the 400 Watt heating cable (cut immediately, so the initial load seems too high), but it handled neither
When doing this testing, I had to go outside and try turning on the loads before returning after seeing that the voltage disappeared. I would assume on return to see lights indicating “Overload alarm” or similar, but I did not. The online manual lists a number of different LED combinations and what they mean, but the one I encountered is not listed: a sole blinking red light.
Does anyone know what this means? “Overload Alarm” is supposed to be solid red combined with "
the green inverter LED blinking with a fast double pulse."
@LifeInGalicia Thanks for that, but may I ask where you found this? This deviates quite a bit from the manual that came with the box, which is identical to the HTML and PDF version found here.
I am not quite sure if the blinking in that video would constitute fast or slow blinking or fast single pulse, as explained in the table from your PDF, though. I am guessing Fast single pulse, meaning “High DC Ripple”?
I am not quite sure how this could be: I have 50 cm long, 35 mm2 cables to a bus bar where the batteries are connected (also with 35 mm2 copper). The AC cable is 3G4mm2, which is “industrial” size, to cope with the 70 m long cable.
The manual asks for 50mm² cable for the shorter runs. The 1600 can pull 133A out.
You are definitely getting DC ripple.
You especially need to size up the cable if you plan on running it hard for periods of time. Warm cables are not a good thing.
Hmm. I know you can usually get away with thinner cables the shorter the stretch was, so I thought 35 mm2 would be OK for such a short stretch. Should be fine to just double up the cables then? As in 2x35mm2 per connection point (2x2 M8 terminal lugs). That would mean 70 mm2 per “polarity” (+ and -), which is the recommendation in the manual.
To simplify wiring, I have a set of 4 terminal M8 bus bars with 5 batteries and 2 regulators connected currently. All using about 50 cm connections of 35 mm2 cable. If running double sets to the inverter, it would mean most terminals will have two lugs connected per screw. Should be fine, no?
In my case, it stopped within seconds of attaching the supposed 400 W load, so no cables were able to heat up I found that I could connect the heating cables if I ran the initial load on the generator and waited for them to heat up over a few minutes. That reduced the resistance enough to have the Victron unit handle it.
Aha. New term. I just spent ten minutes not fully grokking what it is reading Quora, but the practical gist I extracted is that in transformers you need some wiggle room above what the load supplies. So maybe 35 mm2 could suffice for some given load, but I additionally need some extra capacity to handle some secondary current which is related to the inner workings of the transformer when magnetizing, otherwise it will not be able to work properly and could get damaged.
Back to practicalities: would simply doubling the wires work just as well as a single wire of the equivalent cross sectional area?
I found that I could connect the heating cables if I ran the initial load on the generator and waited for them to heat up over a few minutes. That reduced the resistance enough to have the Victron unit handle it.