My Conext SW 4024 Inverter Keeps Flashing the Lighs

[travissand]

I found the link but they are no longer available at that price. https://www.amazon.com/SCHNEIDER-SW4.../dp/B01N7J1885

[Matrix]

You could buy another unit of the same model number and stack it. I found a source for my SW model number for only $1,200 I'm searching through my email history trying to find a link with no luck yet because I'm sick and tired of worrying about balancing the load and trying not to overload and such. I'd rather just stack two units and forget about it

Thanks for the link. I am trying to decide if I want to ... and how costly it would be to switch out to a 48v system. If I can sell most of my gear and simply add to the 4 batteries that I have, I might not be out more than what it would cost to stack 2 inverters. And I would talk to Schneider about stacking 2 SW's, they also told me there was some issues with stacking, but I do not recall what or if they addressed it in a firmware update (maybe).

[Matrix]

New Twist ... I think I might have found the source of the Lights That are flashing ... And it does not seem to be the water heater load (1150W) or the well pump start load (although the well pump may very well be over loading the inverter, but the case of the extreme light flashing seems to be something different).

Introduce dimmer switches. The one on the LED lights that was the worse was an oldest dial type. the ones on the other LED lights that flashed slightly was a old (but not as old as the first one) but not anything special Leviton switch with a slide dimmer control next to the the standard typical type light switch. Which also flashed when the pump started and when the water heater element started, but not as badly. BUT, I had noticed that there was another string of lights (LED x4) that was not flashing (or at least not as badly - could not tell for sure because they were in the same room as the ones that were).

Well my worse dimmer failed today. So to test, i traded out the newest of new dimmers, the one that did not seem to flash at all (but was not totally sure on that). This dimmer required a white wire (neutral) because it is also wifi enabled to work as a smart home dimmer. After connecting it to my most offensive LED string, the string in the video that nearly shut down when the pump came on ... Low and Behold, no flashing AT ALL !! Not at any "volume" level. The dimmer worked flawlessly and was not effected by either the start of the well pump or the water heater element.

Interesting. The dimmers?

[travissand]

So that leaves me to wonder how your most offencive string of lights would act with absolutely no dimmer

[SunEagle]

So that leaves me to wonder how your most offencive string of lights would act with absolutely no dimmer

I have a couple of LED's that are rated for dimmers yet flicker if I drop the "volume" even a little bit. The full voltage at the house is normally around 122V so it is possible that the dimmer drops it too much or that the dimmer is not working properly.

[travissand]

So I Jamed the electric motor on my 1 1/2 horsepower air compressor so that it could not rotate and I turned it on. It consumes 1800 watts and 2000 VA. I tested using a (Kill A Watt). Funny thing is it used the same amount of power weather I stall tested it in startup mode or in fast running mode. And what I mean by that is there's a centrifical force switch inside the motor. Once it gets up to speed the centrifical force triggers the switch and it does something different electrically. Without the centrifical force switch the motor barely tries to spin on Startup. I thought I remember it taking an insane amount of power it must have been a different compressor or something but there was one air compressor I used to own I swear that took 30 thousand Watts to start up

[travissand]

Not that's me. SW ... No grid tie and 90 amp. It has Load Shaving and AC support which also do not work as advertised (me and text support went round and round about that back in Nov ... conclusion ... it does not work).

What exactly doesn't work? I remember messing with my settings a bunch to get it to do what I needed. Took me awhile to get it right and thinking I might be able to help

[Matrix]

What exactly doesn't work? I remember messing with my settings a bunch to get it to do what I needed. Took me awhile to get it right and thinking I might be able to help

AC support mode and Load Shaving on the Conext SW 4024 (and other SW models) does not work as stated in their manual. It has been confirmed that unless the loads are near perfectly balanced, especially at lower wattage levels, the SW will not do what is stated in the manual. In the manual it says, that in AC support mode only 2 amps of the load will be supplied by the grid if the batteries are properly charged. This is not the case. If you run a well pump on one leg at 940 watts and 120v the SW still draws most of that power from the grid.

The solution was to
1. Balance the loads as closely as possible.
2. Convert the well pump over to 240v which caused the SW to supply most of that 940 W from the battery
3. I installed an Outback Auto Transformer that helped really balance the remaining 120v loads between L1 and L2.

But Schneider actually admitted in a Tech FAQ some time mid year this year that the SW in load shaving and AC support mode does not do what they stated it would do in the manual. While the FAQ bulletin does not specifically deal with Load Shaving, the Load Shaving mode in the SW has the exact same characteristics as AC support mode, Works thru the same systems, but is only different in the times power is drawn from the battery and the voltage settings of the battery in the SW and amp setting for the loads in the SW. But AC support mode and Load shaving are basically the same thing in the SW coming at the need from 2 different angles.

[travissand]

In that case I have no experience to help. The most I've done is set up the inverter to assist a small generator. Its has been really nice to be able to nearly max out the generator which is where it gets the best efficiency but not limit myself to its low output.

[Matrix]

Ah. Yes that would be a good use of the SW too.