System-down Alert Light

[Judgeyoung]

My 10KW grid-tied system has been occasionally tripping the breakers. Unfortunately, unless I go out and see that it is off, it might be down hours or even days before I notice. Is there a way to wire a simple warning light into the system that would come on when the juice was off? I would just like to be able to look out my back door and, if the light was on, know there was an issue. I guess that I could wire a light into the output of one of the inverters and, if it went out, I would know the system was down. Perhaps a small LED I could see from 60 feet away?

I feel certain that there is a more simple and elegant way to get the same result, I am just not enough of an electrician to come up with one.

What say you, Solar Geniuses?

Randy

[jflorey2]

My 10KW grid-tied system has been occasionally tripping the breakers. Unfortunately, unless I go out and see that it is off, it might be down hours or even days before I notice. Is there a way to wire a simple warning light into the system that would come on when the juice was off? I would just like to be able to look out my back door and, if the light was on, know there was an issue. I guess that I could wire a light into the output of one of the inverters and, if it went out, I would know the system was down. Perhaps a small LED I could see from 60 feet away?

What you described will work. There are plenty of very small 120V and 240V LED lights out there. (For example - search for QS101XXHG220 on the Digikey dot com site.)

You can also make a "goes on when inverter is off" light by connecting the coil of a 240V relay to the inverter circuit (or a 120V relay to one pole and neutral) and then use the common and normally-closed contacts to control a light on a separate circuit. As you mention above, it would be wise to choose low power lights (and relays) so you don't lose too much energy to them.

(Relay suggestion - G2R-2-AC230 same site)

[Kendalf]

It seems to me that something is not properly installed if the system is tripping the breakers, even occasionally. Wouldn't it be more beneficial to try to find out and fix the cause of the breaker's tripping rather than just getting a warning?

[Judgeyoung]

The breakers are 50 amp and probably old. They may be weak enough that with good sun, they are getting overloaded. I am planning on replacing them when I wire the light in, so we will see if that rectifies the problem. Thanks for the input, all.

Randy

[Mike90250]

This makes me think of butterfly fuses and phone exchanges.
When there were banks of fuses (hundreds and hundreds of them) some had a pop-up flag, and some had indicator lights wired in parallel with the fuse so the dead one can be located.

[bcroe]

This makes me think of butterfly fuses and phone exchanges.
When there were banks of fuses (hundreds and hundreds of them) some had a pop-up flag, and some had indicator lights wired in parallel with the fuse so the dead one can be located.

Yea, the lights didn't always work (when a second feed powered the load) but the indicator
always did, usually tied to an alarm ckt. Problem is they need to be replaced any time the
indicator goes active.

Are the operating breakers far from the house? Another check is to see how much current
is coming to the house from that feed, if it comes there. Bruce Roe

[DanS26]

My suggestion would be to install an energy monitoring system such as a TED system. Many other competing systems at lower or higher costs. Connect the TED to an app that is available everywhere such as PVOutput.org. A simple click and you will know immediately how your system is operating or not operating anywhere in the world.

+1 though.......find out why your system is tripping breakers.