Sol-Ark 15K randomly disconnecting itself from the grid

[RCinFLA]

Highly doubt the inverter will glitch release from grid because you set battery AH size incorrectly. When it has actual DC input voltage measurement to rely on why go by a user setting. Shutting down inverter due to reaching low state of charge on Coulomb count or low battery voltage shutdown is another story but that is a longer shutdown, not a glitch. It would also not affect AC pass through.

Most glitch disconnects from grid is caused by inverter circuit AC current overload, in to, or out of grid. This puts a lot of stress on pass-through relay contacts when it releases under inverter surge current limit (about 130 amps AC current for SolArk 15k). It will also disconnect if AC input voltage goes out of range for some time period. Slow variations in grid AC voltage will be tracked by inverter.

Since split phase SolArk is two 120vac inverters in series, a poor input side neutral connection would trip out of range grid voltage. If neutral imbalance is caused by 120 vac loading on output side of SolArk via pass-through this can cause a lot of grid connect glitches as when inverter releases from grid, the neutral imbalance on inverter output 120vac loads is released, so poor input neutral connection caused grid neutral voltage imbalance corrects itself and inverter reconnects to grid again. Then the process repeats.

This is a tough situation for inverter firmware to handle. To keep inverter from destroying its pass-through relay it has to decide to give up at some point and permanently shut down.

 

[Carlos_Sol-Ark]

@ Bedpan and nc73, from what I can tell by reading again my initial post, I don't see anything it saying that I didn't call Sol-Ark or that I don't know what the issue is. I was only trying to see if many other Sol-Ark 15K owners have the same issue. Sorry to disappoint you as I sense a bit of the "Oh you bought a Sol-Ark? How do you like it now? Ha Ha Ha!".

To the other posters who actually had something constructive to say (robby, RCinFLA and Solar Guppy), thank you for the suggestions and help.
From what the techs at Sol-Ark told me, they're having an issue with the units sometimes reading erroneous voltages at L1/L2 on the grid side so the Sol-Ark interpret them a something that could cause some damage and shuts down the transfer switch. According to Sol-Ark tech support, they are working on it but I just wanted to know if anyone else on this forum is going through the exact same things so we could share a few other things.
That's it, other than that the unit is awesome. I run passthrough my whole house and when on battery, I can run both my ACs and oven at the same time including all the other regular loads in my house which is on well and septic tank (2 pumps).

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to confirm that there were issues with the 15K disconnecting from the grid due to inaccurate grid voltage readings. The problem is typically shown with an F55 fault followed by a grid disconnect and presented worse in inverters that are grid-tied with no battery. This has been addressed and corrected with the latest 15K firmware (6216).

If you still have issues with the inverter dropping out you can adjust the grid setting ride through. By default, the inverter should come programmed in UL1741SA with the frequency ride through on but you can also activate the voltage ride through setting. If you know you will not be selling to the utility you can even set the inverter to be in "General Standard" mode to widen your grid and voltage protection parameters. Keep in mind that general standard does not use ride-throughs, but it allows you to increase the overall connection range. Ex: Frequency connection range 55-65Hz.

 

[chess-equality]

Yes I belong to them now. I have “Sol Ark” tattooed on my ball sac and “15K” on my ass. I can send you a picture if you want. You should join. Women love us.

Hello,
Does anyone on this forum have the same issue as me with the Sol-Ark 15K disconnecting itself from the grid at random?
It's usually for a very short time (30 sec) but creates many other issues.

Thanks

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[pat72]

As Carlos_Sol-Ark mentioned in his last message, the latest update fixed the issue. The system seems very stable so far.
For those who own a Sol-Ark and need tech support, if you get a support ticket and end up with a guy called Josh Wheaton, I strongly suggest that you cancel your ticket and get somebody else. For someone who is supposed to be a "solar engineer", his knowledge and troubleshooting skills are...well...very troubling. According to him, the sol-ark 15K isn't really supposed to handle microinverters so he basically told me to switch my PV system to DC only, or at least half of it! Really dude? After spending good money on an inverter that is supposed to AC couple, you're telling me that I have now to dump at least half of my micro-inverters and switch half of my panels to DC so that the sol-ark can handle it? Unreal. And I have the emails to prove all this BS. Then after that, his suggestion was that the 20KW battery bank couldn't take the charge fast enough so that was the reason causing all the Sol-Ark shutdowns because it had nowhere to send the extra PV power when it disconnected from the grid. Another BS, and after I showed him that the batteries weren't the issue (they could talk a much higher charge current from the grid when needed), he got frustrated because I guess the little stupid customer didn't want to listen to the very smart solar engineer and forwarded my ticket to Cooper. Well, I'm glad I didn't listen to him because, without spending loads of cash modifying my PV system, everything now works perfectly. Other than this guy, everybody that I spoke with at Sol-Ark on the tech support side was a pleasure to deal with especially Cooper. She is awesome.

 

[niktak11]

Mine actually started doing this occasionally (after the update a few weeks ago). I think it might be seeing real grid issues though. Increasing the "Grid high" voltage seems to have fixed it. Since changing that parameter the only time it has happened was about 1 minute before the grid went down last week due to someone hitting a utility pole.

 

[SolarRich]

Yes, the thought occurred to me that, in my similar situation, that there are voltage spikes on the grid wires that the Sol-Ark should be filtering out in it's voltage/frequency sensing hardware and software.
I think that field is set to 270 on my 12k. What did you set your to?

 

[niktak11]

Yes, the thought occurred to me that, in my similar situation, that there are voltage spikes on the grid wires that the Sol-Ark should be filtering out in it's voltage/frequency sensing hardware and software.
I think that field is set to 270 on my 12k. What did you set your to?

I'm been changing mine around a bit. I first changed it to 275V to see if that was the issue. I've since lowered it to 262V.

 

[Danke]

I was told by Sol-Ark any excess AC coupled not used by load goes to grid. But I don’t sell back to grid…

 

[BlueMarblePA]

I installed a solark 15k with 20kwh pytes batteries. I have dc PV. I do have solaredge ac coupled pv also, but this is on the grid side. Hence, it is neither load side nor generator input ac coupled. Functionally, the solark 15k does not see it.

After several rainy days, today was the first day that the solaredge generated up to 4.5kw DC. Could this be the cause of solark 15k disconnecting from the grid (which includes the solaredge? High voltage?

In any case, I called solark in Texas four times and left two voicemail messages. I emailed them twice and have not heard back in the past six hours. My batteries will deplete probably 2am or so, and I do not have any grid connect. I am away from home and I am wondering if I can simply adjust parameters through the powerview app. I did increase the grid voltage that is allowed. I also allowed lower frequency.

Do I have to physically switch the breaker? I will have to have my wife do that when she gets home. Fortunately I did have. A manual bypass Installed, so I can just have my wife flip the three way

 

[robby]

I installed a solark 15k with 20kwh pytes batteries. I have dc PV. I do have solaredge ac coupled pv also, but this is on the grid side. Hence, it is neither load side nor generator input ac coupled. Functionally, the solark 15k does not see it.

After several rainy days, today was the first day that the solaredge generated up to 4.5kw DC. Could this be the cause of solark 15k disconnecting from the grid (which includes the solaredge? High voltage?

Don't have any real experience with Solaredge equipment so I don't know.

In any case, I called solark in Texas four times and left two voicemail messages. I emailed them twice and have not heard back in the past six hours.

Almost all there Staff are gone during Christmas/New Years week.
They keep a skeleton support crew on duty for support but it's not easy to get through.

My batteries will deplete probably 2am or so, and I do not have any grid connect. I am away from home and I am wondering if I can simply adjust parameters through the powerview app. I did increase the grid voltage that is allowed. I also allowed lower frequency.

Yes you could do that remotely but I think your wife will need to power off and power back on the Inverter manually. After you make the changes have her wait for 3-4 minutes and see if it self corrects, if not cycle the Inverter manually.

Do I have to physically switch the breaker? I will have to have my wife do that when she gets home. Fortunately I did have. A manual bypass Installed, so I can just have my wife flip the three way

I would have her bypass it and then if the Inverter comes back on normally have her switch back over.
Tell her to shutoff any heavy loads like the hot water heater etc. before switching back to the Inverter.
If everything is fine then turn them back on. If the Inverter is still out then just Bypass it until you can get back home. I prefer not changing grid settings remotely but it should work.

 

[JRH]

I got sent to diysolarforum jail for being that rude before LOL

Yea , I get smacked around now and then too. But I usually deserve it….

 

[BlueMarblePA]

Don't have any real experience with Solaredge equipment so I don't know.

Almost all there Staff are gone during Christmas/New Years week.
They keep a skeleton support crew on duty for support but it's not easy to get through.

Yes you could do that remotely but I think your wife will need to power off and power back on the Inverter manually. After you make the changes have her wait for 3-4 minutes and see if it self corrects, if not cycle the Inverter manually.

I would have her bypass it and then if the Inverter comes back on normally have her switch back over.
Tell her to shutoff any heavy loads like the hot water heater etc. before switching back to the Inverter.
If everything is fine then turn them back on. If the Inverter is still out then just Bypass it until you can get back home. I prefer not changing grid settings remotely but it should work.

Thank you for this. I finally got through to Trevor at Solark who is alone and swamped it seems. He tried to fix it over the internet, but then he lost all power and all internet. He could not troubleshoot it completely. For example, he said he needs me there to test the frequency of the grid with a multimeter.

Hence, the home was out of power for several hours until my wife got home, and she switched the manual bypass. She said the solark inverter is still beeping, so I had her shut off dc and the on/off blue ring switch

At this point, I am just happy that she has power. I had her shut off the DC also. I will have to do some skiing and figure it out when I get back.

 

[robby]

I am glad she has the power back.
My wife was very skeptical at first about going Solar, so any problems early after the installation would have made her more upset.

If cash allows it I would suggest that even after you solve the problem it would be wise to replace that manual transfer switch with an Automatic one.

 

[ArthurEld]

Yea , I get smacked around now and then too. But I usually deserve it….

A couple years ago, site management deleted some of my posts. It really made me mad.
But this is the best site on diy solar that I know of. And babysitting a forum that is this popular is a tough job.