inverter fuses blown

[almac]

1700w inverter was dead, upon removal of cover 2 blade fuses were blown. what might be the cause? the inverter had no load on it when this happenedDSCN0398.JPG

[almac]

i might have discovered the answer to this. some old power boards that were plugged in to the lead from the inverter. my backup inverter was tripping into overload till i unplugged these power boards. DSCN0399.JPG

[Mike90250]

And that's the problem. Surge strips should not be used with mod-sine inverters. ModSine has high peaks that activate the MOV's in the strip, and they are constantly being degraded, and eventually fail.

[almac]

this is a pure sine wave inverter, would a simple double adaptor / splitter be ok?

[solarix]

When inverters die, it usually involves the output transistors shorting. Since they are arranged as a bi-polar pairs this puts a dead short across the DC power and kaboom. Being a switcher type circuit running at elevated frequencies, usually other components get taken out as well, and if you don't repair all the damaged parts, it goes blows it all up again when powered. Very difficult to repair I'm sorry to report. You can try testing and replacing all the big transistors (the ones mounted to the heat sinks) but usually hard to find all the damaged parts.

[almac]

ok, thanks, so this is just a cheap inverter about $200 off ebay. when i took off the bottom plate there was a puddle of brown goo. would that have leaked out from the capacitors?

[almac]

When inverters die, it usually involves the output transistors shorting. Since they are arranged as a bi-polar pairs this puts a dead short across the DC power and kaboom. Being a switcher type circuit running at elevated frequencies, usually other components get taken out as well, and if you don't repair all the damaged parts, it goes blows it all up again when powered. Very difficult to repair I'm sorry to report. You can try testing and replacing all the big transistors (the ones mounted to the heat sinks) but usually hard to find all the damaged parts.

i thought just 2 fuses were blown but in fact all 6 were blown. i replaced 2 fuses reconnected and they blew again. should i try replacing all 6 fuses or would i be wasting my time.. and fuses

[Bala]

Have you had rain in the days prior to this happening?

[almac]

Have you had rain in the days prior to this happening?

yes but its bone dry under the panels, will try the 6 fuses see what happens.

[bcroe]

yes but its bone dry under the panels, will try the 6 fuses see what happens.

The fuses blew because of a hard fault. The more fuses in, the more fuses you blow. Bruce Roe

[almac]

The fuses blew because of a hard fault. The more fuses in, the more fuses you blow. Bruce Roe

you are right, just blew 6 more fuses. this unit is stuffed, solarix is correct

[Bala]

you are right, just blew 6 more fuses. this unit is stuffed, solarix is correct

Just another cost and inconvenience of free power.

You have used cheap poor quality components,

you have built a system that has little to no safe guards on the AC or DC sides,

You had all the components inside a shed, now you have all the components outside sheltered only by the panels.

All you have is a 240V AC power supply that is unreliable and exposes anyone who comes to your house to a deadly electrical hazard.

[almac]

Just another cost and inconvenience of free power.

You have used cheap poor quality components,

you have built a system that has little to no safe guards on the AC or DC sides,

You had all the components inside a shed, now you have all the components outside sheltered only by the panels.

All you have is a 240V AC power supply that is unreliable and exposes anyone who comes to your house to a deadly electrical hazard.

thats a load of crap! the inverter is under warranty so no loss. the initial cost of this set up is about $1500. $800 for the panels $80 for the charge controllers. batteries free. inverters $450 (2 one for backup) . cables $50. in just 1 year initial cost has would be recovered in zero power bills. the setup has been 100% reliable i am 100% in control of access to power. the grid was very unreliable and that is how i came to be here. i get useful advice from SOME members to make this system safe. not there yet but the batteries will be fused within a week . the reason i share this project is so i slowly but surely get the knowledge i need. i didnt know the batteries needed fusing till mike told me last week. why didnt you tell me that bala? if you want to spend $10,000 on off grid good luck to you thats your choice. affordability is an issue before off grid can ever be a real alternative. as for the AC side being unsafe bala... i did ask you before for suggestions... but you never offer anything but unconstructive criticism

[Bala]

Its ok, I wont bother you any more, this will be my last post to you.

Im pretty sure I told you not long ago that you had no AC protection and that you should get an electrician to come and wire it but you chose not to respond to that part of the post. If I didnt say it before then now I have.

It cost me approx $1000 to get my house and generator circuit breakers/safety switches and change over switching all set up to standards by a qualified licensed electrical contractor. My generator alone cost more that 10K the whole system 40+

[almac]

sure, well im on an experimental off grid exercise , seeing if the average broke powerless person can secure reliable access to electricity for peanuts. $40K for an offgrid system? i can see why you miss the grid. paying qualified contractors = big $$$. i dont see any reason why i cant set up this to comply with safety regulations. fused parallel batteries makes perfect sense but i would not have thought of a battery exploding from a shorted cell and 1000 amps being dumped into it by a ton of car batteries wired to it in parallel. so thank you forum for pointing this out. when you buy a 2000w inverter off the net to hook up to your car battery for camping... do they tell you to get a qualified licensed electrical contractor to make it safe? my set up is a small step from camping out why do i need qualified contractors.