Hooked up grid tie inverter, and it won't turn on

[truthalive7]

Hey guys, I'm new to the forum.

I have a grid tie system, 2 160 watt solar panels
originally hooked up to a 300 watt inverter, grid tie, plug in, on it's own breaker, with a kill a watt meter

The 300 watt inverter stopped working after a storm.
It had a fault light. I pulled it apart and found a fuse blown, which I replaced.
Then reinstalled, and it didn't come on at all.
I have voltage coming from the panels. around 35 volts.

Then I bought a new inverter, thinking this one was fried. It won't come on either. What am I looking for here?

[foo1bar]

originally hooked up to a 300 watt inverter, grid tie, plug in,

Sounds like cheap junk that fried on you.
I guess you should be grateful that it didn't start a fire.

What am I looking for here?

An electrician to install a real inverter for you - one that actually meets code.
(no plug-in inverter meets code in US)

[truthalive7]

Thanks so much for that helpful advice.
Exactly the kind of thorough, DIY- oriented response i expected. While you have done such a great job answering my question, I'm still open to an answers from people who may actually want to help me.

Sounds like cheap junk that fried on you.
I guess you should be grateful that it didn't start a fire.


An electrician to install a real inverter for you - one that actually meets code.
(no plug-in inverter meets code in US)

[foo1bar]

Thanks so much for that helpful advice.
Exactly the kind of thorough, DIY- oriented response i expected. While you have done such a great job answering my question, I'm still open to an answers from people who may actually want to help me.

Ok - well if you want to DIY, then read up on installation manual for grid tie inverter and a few articles on installing them, including rules about the backfeed breakers and "opposite end" from the main breaker.

Then go buy a good grid tie inverter (Possibly a micro-inverter would be appropriate for you since it's 2 panels)

If you have questions about that, feel free to ask.
I wouldn't expect anyone here to know much about a cheap non-standard-meeting inverter that plugs into an electrical socket.
Other than that they're cheap and they're likely to die. And that hopefully you'll be lucky and they won't catch fire when they die. If it were me, I'd be worried about the fire insurance covering a claim on a fire that started from it...

[SunEagle]

Thanks so much for that helpful advice.
Exactly the kind of thorough, DIY- oriented response i expected. While you have done such a great job answering my question, I'm still open to an answers from people who may actually want to help me.

The answer to your problem is that you installed a cheap illegal "grid tie" inverter which doesn't work.

If you want to go with a grid tie pv system then get the correct equipment that your POCO and AHJ approves not some cheap piece of junk that you plug into a receptacle.

Most legal grid tie systems require about 1500 watts of pv panels and a true grid tie inverter that is hard wired to a circuit breaker in you main electrical panel.

Using a couple of 160watt panels with a "plug in" type inverter gets you exactly what you paid for. At best, nothing works, at worst that equipment starts a fire or gets someone electrocuted.

Hope that answers your question.

[lkruper]

Thanks so much for that helpful advice.
Exactly the kind of thorough, DIY- oriented response i expected. While you have done such a great job answering my question, I'm still open to an answers from people who may actually want to help me.

You got helped, big time. No one here is going to recommend something that is illegal or dangerous or help you implement it. That would be irresponsible. That being said, I am too ignorant to help you on this

One thing you might also keep in mind. If you feed your own power into the POCO, the meter may accumulate the power as if you were buying that power and you might end up paying for it. Did you run it long enough to verify what it did to your electrical consumption?