PV system

[daveg]

Just a quick reminder to those of us who have PV system....
My Inverter has failed, after 2 1/2 years ,luckily I noticed that it had gone quiet, looked on line to see that it had stopped producing electricity on Saturday...
So keep a check on the system!
Luckily the Inverter is still under warranty....

[trevnhil]

You certainly seem to be unlucky that the inverter has failed after such a relatively short time..
I think we have had our system around 5 years now and no problems..
It would be interesting to know when someone comes out to look at it, just why it has failed..

[71 Trans Am]

Probably a crazy thing to say if your living in Cyprus but the main cause of inverter failure is overheating

[daveg]

Inverter not overheated, it's sites in permanent shade...
The Inverter is not seeing the production of power from the PV panels.....the computer says " no".... An unusual fault apparently.......

[mike strand2]

Mine was reporting 'Network Voltage too low". Upon checking the system, the Grid voltage was 215-220V so clearly not true. The message then changed to "No connection to Energy Meter". That's when I called Andi at Solartech. Although my system had been running OK for just over a year, Andi found an internal parameter in the inverter was set too high. Adjusted & now producing 20kWh a day.

[jeba]

Adjusted & now producing 20kWh a day.

Is that a 4kWp system?

[daveg]

Andi at Solartec is our installer, excellent service....
He's on the case, a replacement Inverter on its way....

[JimX]

Failure of PV converters is not that unusual, it is an expensive fix and like the systems themselves you need to take this into account, and why I thought at 70 I would never recoup the investment, there is only two of us in our small property and we decided to go down the insulation installation, good UPVC glazing and roof insulation, it was the best investment in twenty years we made here, but if I was of a younger age I would have probably had a PV system, not now though.

[cyprusmax47]

Adjusted & now producing 20kWh a day.

Is that a 4kWp system?

You should produce at least 5 kWh/day pro installed KW's with your PV system, even with this high temperatures at the moment.

Max

[trevnhil]

I think our system is 3 kw ie 12 panels, and produced 16 kw yesterday ..

[Jimgward]

That sounds about right, our 5kW system produced 26kWh yesterday

[daveg]

Manufactuers must be fairly confident of their Inverters to give a 5 year warranty....so I think a failure is pretty unusual after less than 3 yrs.....

[jeba]

Adjusted & now producing 20kWh a day.

Is that a 4kWp system?

You should produce at least 5 kWh/day pro installed KW's with your PV system, even with this high temperatures at the moment.

Max

My system is producing almost exactly that. Which is consistently about 5% less than in previous years.

[cyprusmax47]

Manufactuers must be fairly confident of their Inverters to give a 5 year warranty....so I think a failure is pretty unusual after less than 3 yrs.....

Green Air give 15 years on the inverters they sell and guess why: the inverters they are using are very reliable and if the modules are installed properly there is no reason for failure.

Many installers forget that the module voltage varies a lot with temperature, which is specially in Cyprus winter dangerous with strong winter sun and clouds together. The sunlight is being magnified as it passes through the moisture droplets in the edge of the cloud. The other conditions (temperature, sun angle, minimal shading, etc.) all combine to give an solar output which perhaps is over the limits of the inverter input and can damage the inverter. It is the so called "edge of cloud effect". I checked with my own system this phenomenon in the past and sometimes it was 25% more electricity produced when it happened. So when the inverter is already on its limits in normal conditions there is a real danger. On the other hand if the inverter's capacity is too high you will have less electricity production...

Max