Need help troubleshooting solar system

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shorts

shorts

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Indiana
We just returned to our RV after a 2 month overseas trip. It was stored but the solar was keeping the fridge and a couple other items powered while we were away. Everything seemed to be fine but when we arrived from the airport about 1:00 am and started using more power, the power started tripping off and on. The overhead lights (wired directly to 12v) did not go off but everything else that is set up to be powered by the inverter does.

We thought the inverter might be the problem but in looking at the manual and troubleshooting it, the lights all show correctly, no error codes, did a soft reset and no change. We can hear a clicking noise coming from the compartment where the controllers and batteries are. The inverter is in the compartment next to them. The power doesn?t constantly go off and on. It will stay on for awhile then go thru a few minutes of off and on. When hooked to shore power, no problems.

We have 12 165 watt panels, 3 blue sky controllers, magnum ms2812 2800w inverter, and 10 100ah lithium batteries.

If anyone can offer any suggestions of what we can start checking or looking for, we would sure appreciate it.

Vicki and Mark
Traveling today but should arrive later this afternoon at our campground.


 
Ahhhh  I assume this is a reaidential setup?
Good chance you have one or more batteries bad.  First check water levels, then start load testing each battery.

Oops read again, lithium batteries.  Still a chance you have some bad batteries.  But check the input from the panels, then output from batteries, input to the inverter, oitput from the inverter.
 
could be a low voltage disconnect tripping..

can you please post more detail on your controllers, panels and batteries

thanks



 
solarman said:
could be a low voltage disconnect tripping..

can you please post more detail on your controllers, panels and batteries

thanks
Click to expand...

What kind of details do you need?
 
solarman said:
panel type, controller model, battery model would be beneficial..

.
Click to expand...

The panels are actually 160w but I could not find a manufacturer name. They are pretty standard frame panels we are able to tilt, wired 4 together to each of 3 Blue Sky SB3024iL Solar Boost MPPT Solar Charge Controllers. Below is a picture of the panel. The batteries are Battle Born LifePO4 100 ah

Thanks for any suggestions you might have.

 

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Lithium batteries have a pretty flat discharge curve, then they shut off hard and fast.  Not like lead acid batteries that slowly fade out when they're discharged.

Your inverter is probably set to disconnect shortly before the lithium batteries get to end of charge.  Was your RV stored in full sunlight, or were the panels shaded?  If the latter, it may be your batteries are close to fully discharged because the solar didn't provide enough power while you were gone.

Plug in overnight to let the converter help recharge the batteries and see if the problem is still there the next night.
 
Lou Schneider said:
Lithium batteries have a pretty flat discharge curve, then they shut off hard and fast.  Not like lead acid batteries that slowly fade out when they're discharged.

Your inverter is probably set to disconnect shortly before the lithium batteries get to end of charge.  Was your RV stored in full sunlight, or were the panels shaded?  If the latter, it may be your batteries are close to fully discharged because the solar didn't provide enough power while you were gone.

Plug in overnight to let the converter help recharge the batteries and see if the problem is still there the next night.
Click to expand...

We stayed 2 nights at a campground plugged in so batteries fully charged then boondocked the next night and the same thing happened. So don?t think it?s the batteries.
 
The behavior of the inverter seems like it's a low voltage/low current issue to me too (We have the same inverter.) Do you have a way of determining your Li battery's SOC? Any idea of the temps the batteries were exposed to during your two month trip?

Kev
 
Also check all of the connections between the batteries and inverter.  A little bit of corrosion can restrict the current flow into the inverter, making it shut down when you apply a load.
 
The battery monitor shows SOC at 100% and also showed that they never went below 70% while we were gone. The RV was stored just outside of Houston and we did keep watch on weather and temps. Think the highest outside temperature got to 89 degrees the day before we returned.

Not sure how else we can check the batteries other than the monitor. Thanks Lou, we?ll check the connections.

 
We can all guess at what is the problem.

I assume you had someone install the system.  By this I am inferring that you didn't have extensive knowledge and input in the design and installation of the system.  Nothing wrong with that, however when there is a problem the person who designed and installed the system would be the first person to consult on what could be wrong and what to do.

You have a wonderful system with enough power to actually run a single air conditioner(if it is wired into the system) for a few hours if everything is working properly.

What is needed is battery voltages, preferably the voltages of each lithium cell when the problem is occurring.  Each of your 12V 100AH lithium batteries has 4 lithium cells.  A top of the line lithium system has a BMS (Battery monitor System) which will display individual cell voltage. 

This could just be a failure which just happened to occur while you were away, or it could be too much power was taken during the 2 months and damaged something.  The fact that the battery monitor shows they never went below 70% full (or does the monitor show 70% discharged?) basically means the batteries probably where not over discharged.

Voltage readings are very, very important to trouble shoot the problem. 
 
Yes, we had the system installed by someone else and have been trying to reach him but he?s traveling right now and is hard to connect with. Mark is pretty handy and does most of our repairs. He did install the lithium batteries when we switched from the 6v GC batteries we originally had. But that was quite a while ago.

Today is the first day Mark is really getting a chance to start checking out all the suggestions made so far. Thanks everyone.

Vicki
 
Just reporting back, Mark found one of the batteries SOC was only 10-11v while the other 9 were fully charged. We?ve contacted Battle Born and sending it to them for further diagnosis and possible replacement. So thanks for the suggestions of where to start checking. We had not run into this problem before and wasn?t sure what was happening to know where to start.

Vicki
 
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