Car charger not working on off-grid system

[joeu]

I have a completely off-grid system, not tied to grid in any way, including charging.

8 Q cell 340 watt panels
Sungoldpower SP6548 AIO
4 Aolithium 51.2v batteries, total 21kWh

Right now I just have a surge protector wired directly to the AC output. I can run lights, a 1500 watt hairdryer, shopvac etc, but not all at the same time, but I can't get the charger for my 2017 Chevy Volt to work.

What am I missing?

TIA

Homer

 

[Ai4px]

Are you using the original EVSE? does it indicate a ground fault?

 

[joeu]

I used a tester and it said open ground.

 

[Ai4px]

I used a tester and it said open ground.

That unit is a rebranded clipper creek and it needs a ground. It'll run a self test before working..... are you using it as 120v or 240v, by the way? You can easily feed it with 240v..... unfortunately you cannot set the charge current except to 8 or 12 amps. Other EVSEs like OpenEVSE allow you to make 1 amp changes and also to bypass the ground fault detection for testing.

 

[joeu]

I'm using the stock Volt charger. I can only do 120v with one SP6548.

 

[Hedges]

Sounds like the outlet has ground pin floating.
The ground of the offgrid system should go to a ground rod, and the system should provide bonding of neutral to ground.

Start with manual for your Sungoldpower SP6548 AIO, see if it addresses bonding of neutral to ground. Sometimes that is done inside an inverter, often done at the breaker panel on output. In my case, inverter is always connected to grid so it inherits neutral/ground panel from my main grid panel, whether grid is up or down.

 

[Ai4px]

Was there ever a solution or resolution to this?

 

[joeu]

I contacted Sun Gold Power and this was their solution:

The ground wire of the inverter needs to be grounded

Tomorrow I'm going to install a main panel. In the main panel, I'm going to connect the green from the inverter to the ground bar in the main panel and then run 6 AWG from the ground bar in the main panel to the ground rod.

I hope that's what they meant by their response. We'll find out tomorrow.

Here a quick video

 

[Bkord]

Where is your Neutral Ground bond?

 

[time2roll]

Yes the EVSE is looking for a Neutral-Ground bond to avoid fault condition.

 

[joeu]

The neutral ground bond is in the inverter.

 

[Bkord]

The neutral ground bond is in the inverter.

If your tester says open ground then your ground is not hooked up to your receptacle or you don’t have a neutral ground bond. It has nothing to do with a ground rod. But you still should have a ground rod for safety.