I hope to live long enough to take a trip in my bus and not have to fix something on the road... Someday?
I'm having a problem with my generator or inverter charging the house bank. Just before I left home, I adjusted the freq. on the genset to 61 with no load. I did this because under a heavy load running two rooftop A/C units, the volts would drop down to 105 - 109 depending on how hot the gen was. The freq was down around 58 anyway. So, after I adjusted it, I had a solid 110 - 110 vac with both a/c units and 60 hz. Good to go!
Now, I'm having a problem getting the inverter to go on bulk charge from the genset. I don't know that it is related to adjusting the freq. I start the genset, the inverter connects and tries to go to bulk charge, but keeps dropping out of bulk. It does this over and over again.
However, if I kick on a heavy load (like one A/C unit) the inverter kicks in to bulk and sticks.
Any ideas?
Our house is run by a hydro power plant off the creek. We live off the grid. The turbine generator is set at 60 hz and 120 V. When heavy loads momentarily draw more than is available, the frequency goes down as far as 52 hz (the trip setting at which it shuts us down), and the voltage down to around 100 V. Been this way for 12 years with no ill effects to any appliances.
JC
If you have a Trace SW inverter I would check the settings for bulk charging. My SW2512MC goes to bulk charging even when the batteries are charged up whenever I change from AC1 to AC2 or the other way around. Not really a big deal, it is just the way it works.
--Geoff
Thanks, I only have AC 2 input. My Auto xfer switch handles shore vs gen and inputs to AC2. What bulk settings should I check? I still have not figured out what triggers the Trace to go to bulk? What setting does it use to determing whether it needs to go to bulk or float? It seems to me that it is looking only at batter actual volts. How do i force the Trace to go to Bulk?
How big is your generator? Since you say that reducing the load gets the inverter charging, maybe the generator is just not putting out enough power to do all you are asking of it.
I have a 6.6kw PowerTech (old one). I've never had any trouble with the genset before this. I have to Increase the load on the Genset to get the inverter to go to bulk - not decrease the load. I had the same problem today again - inverter would not charge the batts consistently until I started one of the a/c units. Then, the inverter started charging and stayed on bulk.
I tried several different types of loads - coffee maker, lights, etc. only the a/c unit seems to have the load required. I find this very confusing!
Also, my genset is wired for 120 and has 2 30a breakers. When I first start it, the inverter connects, but if I put any load on the genset, one of the 30a breaker trips off. After resetting it several times it finally sticks and then the charging problem ensues.
I appreciate any help!