Hello everyone. I recently added a 200w solar panel to my system. I wired it straight to a GTI and was making power right away. I was getting 170w in full sun. Then yesterday nothing. I checked the voltage and was getting .4v the when I disconnect the GTI it would go to 30v. I tested the GTI with my turbine and its working fine. I really have no idea what's going on. Hoping that someone here can help.
Usually a bad connection. There was one that actually the wire was pulled loose inside the water proof cover on the panel. I would also mention a diode problem but even if it was you would be getting more out of the panel than you are .
Larry its a sun G 300w 10 to 30v. I do also have it wired to a powerjack 25 to 55v if the sun g can't keep up. Tom you said I should be getting more from the panel. I thought that it was about right 200w panel with 2% loss coming in and then 90% through the GTI. I come up with 176w am I thinking about that right?
Have you tried isolating the inverters? What is the wattage of the bigger inverter? 10-30GTI may be to low for that panel, try just using the 25-55v and see what happens. You may be going to voltage overvolt on the 10-30v causing a short on the system. Please try to provide as much DETAILED info as you can so we can take out the speculations. I have ran (2) Canadian solar panel 230w 32v before on (2) Sun G 22-60v inverter 500w in paraelle and they worked fine. Staying on the edge of the top end voltage of your first inverter again could be your problem. I would start with the inverters first. My 2 cents
I did try that when I got the panel but have not tried it since the problem. I linked it this way because the 10-30v would sometimes disconect and then not reconect. This way the 25-55v pulls it down and the sun G takes over. I'll have to wait till the sun comes up to see.
Ok so already you have experienced problems on the front end inverter (10-30). I think the 10-30v is the issue. It probally will not reconnect because it may be in overvolt once the panel is at full production at solar noon. Good luck tomorrow and please keep us posted.
update I think that I have finally found the problem. I first removed the front end inverter and power returned to 28v (which is where the 25-55 really likes to run). But this is where I started having trouble with the voltages and inverters. My panel has a mpv of 27.5 and an ocv of 33. So the second inverter never really gets going. It was putting out 20w. To just see I hooked it back up to the sun inverter and it started to work putting out 120w (not full sun and not at noon) So I thought that larry was right and not sure what to do about it if it happens again. Well the next day same thing no voltage. Did some testing on just the wire and fount a loose MC4 connector I fixed that and voltage came back up. So I hooked it back up to the two inverters and has been working all day. Only still have the voltage issues of the inverters not working together very well. I want to add more panels but need to match them to my inverters better. Thinking about getting two more panels and bumping the voltage up and tying it to a powerjack 1200 50-100v. Three panels should get 82.5v and a opc 99v
Hey man congradulations. Gald to see you got the problem solved and are heading in the right direction.
FYI: That 10-30V GTI may eventually die if you are exceeding 30V. Perhaps the wind version this GTI should be considered (over volt protected). I've measured 88% efficiency pretty regularly on these 250/300w solar chinese-made GTIs.
