 Our Photovoltaic Expansion 2
Do you sometimes feel like everything is going wrong or that the world is out to get you? This can't be happening, just when we've barely managed to get the new system up and running
(not quite yet, more on that later), the old system has failed.
That's it: The inverter, which is usually so loud, isn't making a peep anymore. What should I do? Hopefully, ChatGPT can help. The AI wants a detailed description of the error, including the error code.
I'm supposed to take pictures of the circuit boards, first a general shot, then from a specific angle.
Strange, but very good suggestions from the AI. Before any electricians among you get upset, yes, I should tap these while they're under voltage using an insulated object. It could be that
the relays are somehow hanging, meaning they can't move from their current position. I'll talk more about whether the tip was worth it later.
Before I try it, I discover on eBay that someone is selling the entire motherboard, including the ENS component, for a whopping 50 €. I'll go for it then, and now I have to
wait a few days. And why is the new system running, as we auto mechanics say, on only three cylinders?
Yes, I've already mentioned that I noticed the negative terminals on the inverter are all connected to each other. And, smart as I think I am, I've already bundled the four
wires together in a nifty new junction box up on the roof.
And that's exactly what's going wrong right now. The wire is getting pretty hot, it's too dangerous for me. The only solution: Disconnect one collector. And that's how it's been going all this time.
At the moment, however, due to the lack of a new meter, it can only reduce the load on one phase by 700 W.
Current status: The old system isn't running at all, and the new one is running with only three collectors. But it's still a lot of fun. She has already run the washing machine four times at 40° and 60°
using her 230V outlet. That's right, the machine was running and didn't make a peep.
In addition, our concerns about the two collectors that protrude so far have been growing. If we want to sleep peacefully again at night, we'll have to come up with a solution. As it just so happens,
something about Solakon's ad catches our eyes.
Did we overlook this on our invoice because the individual items were only listed as a package? A single collector with an area of more than two square meters costs only 100 €. Being able to sleep
soundly for 200 €, that's something, isn't it? We position two collectors at an angle from the north.
Right now, we're only interested in stability. But can we even feed the reduced amount of electricity generated by the north-facing panels back into the system? Solakon says yes. In fact,
a total of 2,600 W would be possible. That would be possible using a Y-connector.
In summary: In addition to our 4 mm2 cables, we ordered one 6 mm2 cable, which allows us to connect the four new collectors using two negative wires. The
6 mm2 cable connects to the collectors, which are connected to the two that were just purchased.
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