An Proto-Teach Éireannach

[Scruff]

I've some archive pics of the crimp versus solder debate too.



Left is crimp. Right was soldered, I cut a meter off it to find clean copper then chucked it aside.
I use finely stranded cable for flexibility.
On bigger cables there's too much heat sinking to solder...or else I'm doing it wrong.

Tinnings not a bad idea on smaller cables. I difer to ferrules. Many ways to peel a banana...
Twisting definitely helps.



IP fuse holder 80% rated.



Wasn't the termination method. [the not burnt end was on genuine cable and heatsinked to the FLA battery terminal)

I've always compressed the ends since finding that beauty.

[dnix71]

Scruff I have replaced outlets in 2 buildings at church twice now because the internal tangs soften and fail. These are not being overloaded.  One in the front office failed completely on the top but not the bottom.

When I was in college many years ago we had a dorm room burn down. We smelled it long before it broke open but the occupant was out and we didn't have an RA with a master to check room by room. The female resident had run an extension cord under a rug by the door because there were no outlets on that side of the room to plug the fridge into. It's most fortunate she was out. I personally pulled the alarm and then we stood around for over 15 minutes waiting before we realized the campus FD would not respond unless someone from the area office actually phoned it in. We stood there at ground level looking into the room watching open flames destroy things. Me and another resident male were driven off the floor by the smoke by the time we realized which room it was. There were no sprinklers, but a fire hose was directly outside that room. We couldn't breathe long enough to even get the hose out of the cabinet. I have never seen an extension cord burn up like that, before or since.

My sister's Jeep burned down on the local toll road. Something shorted under the dash. No one could figure out why.

[Scruff]

Hardly surprises me Dnix. Our Irish plugs and sockets have about double the meat on them than Europeans and maybe 5 times than the US at half the current for the same power. I also can't fathom the logic behind split phase. I believe US shore power receptacles are routine renewal every 6 months. Far too light duty and sloppy.



US 30A



Irish 32A

Vehicle fires are a sport I rather avoid. I got thermal vision!

[Scruff]

I often joke amatuers do it right the second time.
Pros do it 4 times!



Finally got those promised compression glands.
The bricks and mortar clerk gave me that "Wise guy eh!" look when I asked them for black ones...Ireland is so antiquated...best wind in Europe, bottom of the generation charts!



Another good saying is "If it looks right, it usually is" [earth sizing)




China-0-meter Expired.




Sterling inverter lump idle/self-consumption.



Yeah, yer alright Charles...I'll get the next bus thanks. Grey's a much better colour.


Low load.



32% efficient


High load 1.87kW [indicated by flashing dot that's a camera dodger)



84% efficient.
Not terrible. You could pay an awful lot more for similar.
We'll start reducing noisey HF inverter runtime as the season changes. DC-DC will dominate. [sounds HF, weighs in like LF)




System [inverter off) base load/parasitic is 13W, that's a little high for my liking. It may have included charging phones...I'll double check again later.

[Scruff]

We'd another powercut today. It put a crimp in my plans because they involved liberal use of this beasty.



I got nothin' will start her wired.



I started work on WuPoG Mk-II appropriately enough.
3500VA continuous, 4kVA 30mins, 10.5kVA surge
...12kVA with Lead-Fi support, 13.7kVA with solar.

I was chatting with Studer...they say I can't AC couple their AJs or XPCs
Well that's what I spent the day doing!
I even added some current limiting!



WuPog has a new Master Fuse...I heat molded the insulator that it came without.



5 outtov 5 onsite vehicles have something wrong with them...
I like it when it's raining..it means I'm not fixing a motor...unlikely I'll make much headway on WuPoG until the next monsoon..

[SparWeb]

I also can't fathom the logic behind split phase.

Long story.  Goes back a century, too.  But yeah I have definitely noticed the extra bulk in electrical outlets when I was in Europe.

I could quibble about your photos...  The US plug is for 125V and the Irish one for 230V.  And the US one was exposed to an unfused load - the Irish one would be damaged about the same way if it got the same treatment.  The lesson is to protect your wires and connectors according to their current ratings - which is what I'm seeing in that big Axxed fuse in that last pic.

[Scruff]

It must be the Irish influence "that's the way we've always done it!"
....that and too much abundant copper.

We've at least quadruple the CSA, half the current and fused plugs that don't melt sockets (for the better part).

Ze Germans have 3 phase as standard in everyhome. 3 x 230V.

Quibble away...them yellow sockets are weapons...the fail rate is a matter of time.
Is 110v safer...sure but not when it's 220v and light duty.

  [Gets ready for flaming]

[bigrockcandymountain]

Neat to see some side by side comparisons.  Our wiring in north america is nothing to be too proud of thats for sure.  I believe china is worse. 

Talking with a swiss guy who was an electrician in Switzerland, it sounds like they do everything how you would want it done.  Everything in conduit. High quality everything, etc. 

There is a real culture of faster must be better when it comes to buildings around here.  (Canada) The neighbors are the most impressed with pole barns.  "They built it in just one day" they say in awe.  I hate that idea.  I can't help thinking if they took 2 days, maybe they wouldn't blow down every time there is a bad wind storm.  If you get an extra 30 years service from a building, for an extra day of construction, is that not good value. 

Sorry for the rant.  Ireland looks like paradise scruff.  I am very jealous of the rain. 

[Mary B]

Took them 4 weeks to build my pole barn garage. Roof is rated to carry a huge load so I can cover it with solar...

[SparWeb]

One thing I noticed in Europe was the large number of old houses and buildings that were retro-fitted for electricity.  They were built before it was invented, and still in use!
So that makes it more natural for European electrical systems to just start with conduit by default.  They can't hide it in walls because they're solid stone and brick.

Don't get me started about electrical works in China.
Oops too late...



Can't kill yourself by carrying a toaster into the bathtub?  Instead, try taking a shower with your washing machine.  200V outlet there on the right.
I found the circuit breaker panel and toggled that to Off before starting the water.

[Scruff]

China got nothin' on South Americans

Froya:

For my next trick I'm going to link 660Ah of lead to 1500CCA of lead across a 12v 4kW motor and not trip that 63A breaker. 

Bow thruster split charge installed & current limited with a cable.



Fuseblock dropped as a target of opportunity.

Unfortuntely the bow thruster now works so well it's capable of melting itself.  It's an intermittent duty only motor...turns out...
...after testing relesed much smoke...



...er we're fitting it with replacement more winding feeder insulation and thermostatic cutouts.   


I calibrated the cheep Chinese meter with a cheep Chinese meter. 4 outtov are good...buy two.

[Scruff]

WuPoG

Studer had a suggestion to make about my choice in Master Fuse



I went with theirs'

Take a trip inside Swiss Quality Engineering, ain't another like it.



ooohhh the FET fields...drool



Don't get me wrong I do open most of the things I buy...but this time I have a reason. improved cooling!
*Quiet in the back artful bodger!..I know what your other pseudo-name is! I'm not breaking any more inverters until you finish fixing the last one I sent ya!*

Studer's temperature sensor.



They really have this small and elegant thing going for them...

My temperature sensor!



Hanging Out



Brass bling...theme emerging...



Chassis fans flipped to suit the case airflow better bec!use dutch inverters push hot air down...



I deleted the 3 phase B Type RCD....too good for her 'twas



We now have input and output metering, as well as control.

Battery cable upgraded from 16mm² to 50mm²
Mains cable upgraded from 3 x 1.5mm² to 3 x 4mm²

I'm waiting on the postman to big me 4 lugs so I can attempt to teach her to speak LiFePO₄.
Incidently modern 50mm² lugs are too small to fit same manufacturer 12 year old 50mm² cable...go figure.

[Scruff]

Li­­­­Fi


Fell from favour one night she blew her not field serviceable fuse in the field.



I put a band-aid on her and pressed her back into servitude.
She wasn't happy about the hot air gun after that either.  ....Wwhhaaattt­­!¿ yes it was 1600V­­A onna 1200V­­A rated machine....listen Lead Fi's 1300V­­A rated; could do it and a laptop too­­!

I took her in for service.

I deleted the inverter heating fuse.
Keeping the smaller battery master fuses that don't blow.

I swapped the stainless hardware for brass.





I upspec'd the cabling from 20.1mm­­­­² to 30.1mm­­­­²



Found a loose terminal...for the record, it was a newly fabricated overlong tight bolt in a blind threaded hole.







System Round Trip ­­61 %




Inverter 79% efficient @ 80% duty

[Scruff]

WuPoG Mk - II

By gum, golley gorsh them Swiss make a fine machine.



Commissioned.









Dancing FET fields!


Days later I'm barely able to pilot this thing. You definately need the remote...It's rude not to. ...that XCom thing? You know what the interface is? Command prompt! Remember that!


I'm running outtov bigger test loads...I'm resorting to using my house.
She can fire up the air beasty.



Synchronise, input limit and augment.



....seemingly not while running a battery charging battery charger but I'm investigating this anomaly

Cook an electric dinner.

AC coupling, Grid Feeding, Frequency Shifting...



22W System Idle
5W System Sleep

3kWh to the load



79% Round Trip Efficiency. (100 - 0 - 100)
79%!!! That's pumped hydro country & Magnetic bearinged flywheels in zero grav!

70min recharge time



3.5kWh!!!....reloaded in 70mins!

A positive lightweight! Only 130kg in the case!

Going bigger begets the question...can it have electric drive too?

[Scruff]

Cwoar she ain't half bad this one!

Studer politely advised me to turn it off and back on again (factory default). We now have Smart-Boost!!!



Lead-Fi & Solar contributing 900W to the 4.5kW end load!

I'm using my house as a test load...it's the only consientious thing to do. We're already using 20kWh p/d.

No surprises...rainy day..



What else can it do?

Glad you asked! 

It can charge from the input and the output at the same time!



It can AC couple and feedback at the same time.




Right ho! I harmonised some of the fleet. I took Lead-Fi and WuPoG for a spin where lesser inverters fear to fly!

I AC coupled my Sunny Boy 1700 to my AJ 24-1300 which I feel obliged to remind people you can't do.

I fed this synchronised mini-grid to WuPoG with a 1kW input limit (solar goes both ways into lead and li-ion).

I gave Lead-Fi the long range battery expansion module©.





5kWh later no horses spared.





Test ended. System @ 30% SOC

Lead-Fi + (naff all) solar gave WuPoG and the load 3.7kWh, WuPoG gave the load 1.5kWh.

I know what yer thinking right!?
....yurp...needs more power. 

[Scruff]

Charger set to operate from the "AC Output" only. ie. charge from AC Coupled sources only.



Battery not full. (180W spilling to the grid (err on the positive side of zero), the grid being my house's base load and utility network there after, the rest is going into WuPoG's Battery & Quiescent) Effectively the grid is my dump load if the house can't use it, with battery charging priority.




Battery full.

Milestone reached. My house is now my test load and the source power is solar only. 
Keepin' it green!...is it?...ssshhh

[Scruff]

I took a trip to Froya to tidy some lose ends.

That DC rated switch Disconnect got fitted ages ago but I never photo'd it. I reckon if I keep saying DC Rated Switch Disconnect enough times then people will stop fitting Mickey Mouse Isolators. Abb made the box Albright made the switch.



Here's how you make 12v/24v dimmers.
Buy a bag of these;



Then go to the electrical wholesaler/thrift store and get some cheap as you can nasty mains dimmers from the bargain basket.
Ctrl+X the mains components and Ctrl+V the 12v/24v gubbins.





Fit in a standard back box.

Convince client the best ergonomic location for the dimmer is beside the 12v SubDistro! 



Since install of the metering

The inverter has produced



16kWh

Solar has produced



~65kWh

The battery has contributed



~40kWh

Lower system idle (still with phone charging) noted.

[Scruff]

I know what yer thinking right!?
....yurp...needs more power. 

Product review. Guy buys inverter. Thinks it might be broken but it's so good that seems unlikely. Then goes and buys another before solving the issue (Smart-boost charging..since sorted). It's so nice finding a genuine product, I tell ya they're a damn sight cheaper than throwing Dutch marketing manifestations in the garbage (that includes blue ones too).

WuPoG is running an experiment to flatline my solar output. She's feeding 200W into the house 24hour and recuperating from solar input only...I think it'll offset more in the long run. There's neater ways of doing it but I've only one cable set running from the house to the powerplant at the moment so it's not straightforward....I'll have to do something about that soon. We're fast approaching being able to melt the current workshop wiring (but not the feeder).


We don't get feed in tariffs in Éire that's why I've gone rogue. You normally have to pay a quite a lot to donate the utility network power. They like their monopoly. It's the current trend to spend €12k on a battery system to save ~€0.40 per day in what would have been donated to the network minus hardware losses and all that. It's a big loada b8ll8x the only reason for the uptake is the grant (same end-user price as it ever was, if not higher because the installers are keeping it...but the users think they're getting a deal). It's all a sham, it'd be greener offsetting coal than heating transistors but nobody measures anything so they just tell me I'm a voice in the wilderness.

Anyways I have the hardware to build microgrids for events. I'm testing it and battery mortality. I'm not trying to get rich spending thousands to save cents.
WuPoG is going out on hire for MegabuckS per day once I have her dialled in.


...where was I...way off track...
That 24V XTM is going into my truck. I'll be grid tying it and syncing inverters to it.
....I thought about 3 phase and I think I'll start with a humble 7kVA single phase. Mrs Scruff just doesn't understand how a person can need 15 inverters...she'll come around after they start breadwinning.

So meanwhile my house has inherited my truck system for testing and backup.



9kWh usable

Soooo errr I think I've ~12kVA & 13kWh at my disposal....plus three other small independant sets. That's a good start I reckon. Should last us an entire day. 

(Edit: I forgot the hover van...+300VA + 1.4kWh)

Didja ever hear the one that lead has a 10 year shelf life?
It's another internet untruth.






Leadite is making a comeback! She'll be making an appearance in a coupla weeks.

[Scruff]

Another system online. 3.5kVA synchronising hybrid with ~10kWh usable mixed battery.



Wouldya believe I'm less than 1k€ into it?! 

Used gear. If you buy reliable gear you can make a killing.

...and there's perks that you can't buy too!



Inverter input & output metering



Battery monitor...I am keeping my word, I did not buy another teal lemon...I had this in storage, it'll do I'll just get me spectacles to read it, there wasn't enough room for a legible display. Them TriMetrics are far superior and 60% the price.




Now that's what I call a Switch-Disconnect!



400A!



She came from a hybrid ferry courtesy of a character from the end of the road.



Routine renewal...they replace them twice a year I think.


If anyone is looking for a temperature sensor for a Studer there's not much in 'em





I always thought it was a bittova rip-off charging a premium for thermistors...at least Studer had the decency to get a posh wan.

Here's a MorningStar version I reverse engineered earlier. They work very well.



Compact Distro; Battery combining Buses, Master Fuse (400A Mega), 500A Shunt for the SOC meter, Sense fuses for the SOC Meter and the upcoming TriStar MPPT versus PWM battle. That'll be good. I'm optimising it for PWM...place yer bets!
....yee might have to wait until Spring...solar's about to tank for the season.



A wee bit tidier...I must reinstate the battery hospital tomorrow.

The only load is the inverter...I've never done that before..

It'd be nice to sync the fleet and get some serious kVA happening but I have to up-spec the workshop and house distribution because it won't take it, I have some changeovers and gubbins to fit also.
I'm not a qualified sparks by the way...I'm supposed to get someone who spent 4 years hanging cables off rafters to do all that for me and it's illegal to fix it after them...ha!


 

[Scruff]

WuPoG is still running a so-called soft-griding viability test. Early days to call yet but it's not looking good for the faux-greens. I keep saying "Don't buy a battery if you have utility", buy twice as much solar instead.
The hardware is state of the art and the numbers are not great. I've double conversion efficiency losses, extended quiescent parasitic and the latest discovery is the power factor penalty.
Grid-tied inverters are unity power factor, the utility has to generate the reactive power. With a hybrid inverter the battery is doing it. Deration after deration and all this extra expense...keep it simple folks.
Batteries are for wireless applications.

I have to laugh though all these new fangled wannabes...

The Xtender used to be a Multimode Power Centre until everyone tried to copy them with MOSFETs instead of transformers, re-inverted the wheel and called it hybrid.



Studer had to change their stickers to keep up with the market...but not the hardware. 

[Scruff]

I reconnected the battery hospital today and had an interesting result; actually it didn't surprise me in the least but I'm sure someone will appreciate it.

I left the XTM on charge overnight. I set it to hold absorption 28.8V + temp compensation to a tail current of 1amp (of 90A capability). I turned off the Studer after midday when it was floating at 0 current.

I connected the truck batteries (engine and house...the house battery being the temporary grid back-up battery on the XTM) to the battery hospital as well as the 12v regulars.

Low and behold the SunSaver took the reins and went full output (28.8V + temp compensation). "You call that charged?" It asked. "That's not charged!" It's still in absorption now hours later.



MorningStar do this to every other charger I put it beside, hence my aversion to all pretenders. As far as I have found they are the best charger manufacturer and I have many happy batteries SG 1.28 to attest to that.

It'll be interesting to see if they can build a comparable inverter

I'm not holding my breath it'll be a decade before there's enough of them out there to start appearing on the second-hand market.

[Scruff]

This box is phenomenal.



It's more efficient AC coupled! (Or my data has a misnomer!)

After a coupla of days linked to 2.4kW solar and a back-feed set to 2A (including power factor) 24hour and a back-feed bleed of 180W.



88% efficient @ normal operation (power on demand with overnight back-feed)


Followed up with a more constrained test

Solar Gen on Sunday (seasonal shading issues)





Of which 1.7kWh went direct to load





4.24kWh - 1.69kWh = 2.55kWh went to battery charging.


of that 2.22kWh extracted from the battery after losses went to load.



87% efficient.

I'm well impressed....and still claiming soft-gridding isn't viable...because pricetag.

Next up synchronised off grid endurance test.
Then Lead efficiency same test.

Then MPPT vs PWM; the truth.

Then Leadite might show up late to the party.

[Artful Bodger]

You'll have to do a sketch so I fully understand what's connected where.
I'm thinking that you need to do the tests with kVA, not kW, and that the grid is eating your kVAr ie you're getting a free lunch. kVAr is the bit that that gets returned to the generator as wasted energy when PF is not 1. (Think I've got that right)
Still really good figures you're getting.

[Scruff]

tehehe sketch sure, how about a verbal one? I know it can be confusing when all the power cables are omnidirectional!.

The mains input (house) is the backfeed with the charger disabled.
The mains output (GTI) has AC Coupled charging enabled.

Basically I haven't enough cables to and from the house to do it any better at them moment.

Yes, unfortunately, my meters don't kVAh count. I have noticed that when I tell the XTM to back feed 2A at 230V its only pushing ~200W @ 0.6pf (ish)
And the grid is powering the quiescent when the battery is empty which is reducing the back-feed total.

The GTI is pushing unity pf. At night the XTM is powering it from the battery.

Science is hard. Those DIN meters are amazing value for €25. Even if the occasional one cr@ps out every now and again. The calibration is bang on.
I don't fancy spending more on them the amount I buy for all the stand alone systems I have.

Relatively speaking the XTM is 20% better than anything else I have on efficiency.
I will still be using MorningStar to charge the lead though. I might cascade them. I wouldn't be kicking a 90A charger outtov bed but it's clearly (to me) not as good in terms of maintenance charging.

[Artful Bodger]

Omnidirectional eh? You're just making this up as you go.

I did read something recently about German GTIs having to be retrofitted for generation at less than 1pf and thus cope with kVAr, so maybe that reflects the operator having to swallow something. Anyone any ideas?

One of the off grid things I never liked was the kVA. You generate 400VA, but imperfect pf means you only get say 360W. CFLs were awful, LEDs not much better. Give me 400DC to run everything.

Can you not tweak the xtm to make it a better charger?

[Scruff]

Ok bi-directional or reversible flow. Sure I can't put DC on the AC or vice versa... ...ahem..shouldn't

GTIs are always unity afaik. It's their thing. That's why industrial plants get huge power fines when they add big solar arrays. Import decreases. Pf goes through the roof. All the reactive goes to grid with half the input making it a much higher penalty.

CFLs are awful at everything. Incandescant are unity...hrmmm ok LEDs not so bad.

Tweak it? Other than set the tail current to zero point nothing there's not much I can do I reckon the little sunsaver will still hand it it's bottom. I've looked long and hard for good chargers. MS beats them all. Have you not noticed a PSU + charge controller theme in my work? It's for good reason (well that and it's cheaper than buying a charger and a charge controller).

When you find something that works stick with it. Wanna buy some blue or teal boxes I'm throwing out?

[Artful Bodger]

There ya go. I found the info on Var for German grid tie inverters

//kaco-newenergy.com/news-and-events/notice-detail/new-vde-application-rules/

You'll have to put https on the front, I'm not allowed to.

[Scruff]

Makes sense to encourage more industrial/commercial uptake of solar.

Don't fancy it myself. Like cars with seat-belt alarms...spare me I'd rather an old beater.

I forgot to mention another upcoming project. Galvanic isolation test of my Souper Charger and LF inverter coupling. If I can get rid of isolation transformers I'll be a thousandaire spend it all on better hardware. 
How ironic that'd be...it'd mean that nothing marine rated would be suitable because they're all HF or blue.

[Scruff]

Of course the easiest way to get rid of iso traffos is to use transformer inverter combis with the thruput not wired.
That's bound to failure when the client realises that there's an idle inverter onboard...unless I sort that with that super-genius cooling mod I showed you...narf, narf..

[Scruff]

There ya go. I found the info on Var for German grid tie inverters

Don'tcha just heart Swiss Engineering...



Excerpt from the RCC-02 manual.

I bet there's a way I can use this the way it wasn't intended...

[Scruff]

Off grid endurance test underway. Dinner's made and been had, 3kW immersion running and bubbling away (like no real off-gridder would).
3kWh LiFePO₄ 4kVA
10ish kWh lead 3.5kVA
Threshold Synchronised and AC Coupled to solar array.
Short-cycling Li-ion, Deep-cycling Lead.
My widowmaker has a sawn off brass bolt in the fuse holder. Meh...tis grand! Attended appliance!

Have I just solved peukert's exponent derating?
Li-Ion being too expensive to be practical?
& Isolated Multi-Chemistry charging from a single source?

 

[Scruff]

ran outtov lead already... I should probably adopt the (use) less is MORAh POWAh! philosophy

I was tuning in the Ah counter to the apparent parameters. The bleedin' thing reset the counter and I lost the data!
€300 meter man! TriMetrics don't do that! €250 meter man! ...with way more features and legible too! Come to think of it my cheep and cheerful €50 Lead-Fi Chinese special doesn't do that!

Lead looks like 7kWh and change usable after system losses. 24v Mixed Gel (300Ah) & AGM (500Ah). Agm = 10 year old (theatre e-lighting system warranty discard, I've had it on life-support for 5 of those) Gel three-ish year old maybe (corporate gig leftovers).

How are ApprenticeVolt so bad at everything? (That relay contact...it's a transistor..I checked...the board says "relay").

For the record I did not reset it, I just changed the Ah capacity and set power-save to "off".

Total bleepin' spoofers!

------------------------------------

Dear Santa/Ebay Gnomes,

Can I have a...









and can it not be mutton dressed as lamb too pretty please?

[Bruce S]

14A on the lights?? Are you running Mercury Vapour grow lights?

Bruce S