appliances stop working on system

8 Posts
Sep 18, 2008 01:17 am
appliances stop working on system

Hello,
   I have a system setup and running for the last five to six months, four gulf cart batteries, 170 watt solar panel, 1500 watt inverter and a solar boost 3024i charge controller. Five days ago my radio stops working with it, but will work fine on the grid. I though several of my 5 watt cf lights blew, but they worked on grid power as well. The higher wattage cf lights worked on the inverter (14 and 22 watt). Does any one know why this would happen?

Thanks for any suggestion.
 
184 Posts
Sep 18, 2008 09:28 am
Re: appliances stop working on system

I suspect that you're using a Modified Sine Wave Inverter.  The solution then is to switch to a pure sine wave inverter.
John
 
163 Posts
Sep 18, 2008 11:23 am
Re: appliances stop working on system

Hello,

The higher wattage cf lights worked on the inverter (14 and 22 watt). Does any one know why this would happen?

Thanks for any suggestion.

It sounds to me like perhaps your inverter is going into "sleep" mode when the power drain is very low. You can confirm this by plugging your radio in at the same time that you are using the 22 watt lights. If the radio works then is proves that the 5 watt lights and radio alone are not enough to "wake up" the inverter.

If it only started happening a week or so ago then I suspect that perhaps there was a load that you previously had on continuously that was sufficient to keep the inverter "awake" and you have since removed that load.
 
8 Posts
Sep 18, 2008 10:15 pm
Re: appliances stop working on system

Even when the higher wattage lights are on, the radio and the lower wattage bulbs wont come on. The inverter does not have the sleep feature. the inverter is a WAGAN 1500 (3500 surge) It is kind of strange to me!!!I am typing now with the lights on, and the radio won't come on, use to work.
 
8 Posts
Sep 19, 2008 12:17 am
Re: appliances stop working on system

I suspect that you're using a Modified Sine Wave Inverter.  The solution then is to switch to a pure sine wave inverter.
John

I am in low income earner in Jamaica, going for a pure sine wave inverter is going to kill me now
 
184 Posts
Sep 19, 2008 10:04 am
Re: appliances stop working on system

I understand.

The loads that you've mentioned are all low-power, and so you wouldn't need a big (expensive) sine-wave inverter for them. A small one, powering small loads, would be more efficient than a large one anyway. You could still power-up your 1500-watt MSW inverter for larger loads of course.

If a small pure sine wave inverter is still beyond your budget you might want to get a radio and lights that can be powered directly from your golf cart batteries. You might also consider rechargable batteries for your radio, and a charger for those small batteries.

I hope this helps.

John
   
 
163 Posts
Sep 19, 2008 11:29 am
Re: appliances stop working on system

Even when the higher wattage lights are on, the radio and the lower wattage bulbs wont come on. The inverter does not have the sleep feature. the inverter is a WAGAN 1500 (3500 surge) It is kind of strange to me!!!I am typing now with the lights on, and the radio won't come on, use to work.

I had a look at a picture of your inverter and noticed that it had two output receptacles. I know this is a long shot, but did you have the radio and lower wattage bulbs plugged into the same receptacle as the higher wattage lights that still work fine? And at the same time by using a multi-strip outlet? I suppose it is possible for one receptacle to work and the other to be faulty, depending on how they are wired.

A modified sine wave is an ugly thing to look at on a scope when compared to a pure sine wave, but it has little effect on most equipment. I have a 1500 watt modified sine wave inverter that I keep in my truck and I have run a 13A power saw from it on many occasions without any problems.

I have also heard of people experiencing problems with cell phone chargers on modified sine wave inverters. Your radio works on the same principle as a cell phone charger where a transformer steps down the voltage from 120V to around 20V or less and then converts that to DC voltage in the 6V to 20V range depending on the requirements of the equipment being charged. But if your radio worked before, then there is no reason for it to not continue working unless the inverter has a fault.
 

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