Just Purchased my first MEP803A!

[Mweiss]

Greetings to all! I'm Mark Weiss from Western CT. I'd been wanting a diesel generator since about 2010. Originally, I was considering a "quiet diesel" made by a company in the US and they were $5800, but the sticking point was no delivery up the mountain and no way to move it off a truck.
Now I have a truck and an excavator, but the same generator price went to $17K, out of my budget.

In 2011, I bought a Honda V-twin gasser and had been using that for outages. I put it in a concrete bunker with industrial fans to bring the noise to an acceptable level.

Then I started building my off-grid solar power system due to unaffordable power bills (I'm retired on a fixed income). But solar doesn't always produce power, and Dec/Jan are terrible months here in the wooded area. My gas generator burns at least 2 gallons per hour, is in a low clearance structure that requires me to drag the 400lb beast out onto a concrete pad for refueling. Then I have to push it back in and line up the exhaust port with a pipe in the wall and push it up against the pipe for the exhaust to go upt the muffler and stack outside. I must have failed to properly align it at the last refueling, because on New Year's eve, I ran it for an hour to charge solar battery bank and the wooden door and frame ignited.

Then in March I had my second heart attack, was hospitalized ($182K in hospital bills) and realized I can't be wrestling a 400lb beast in and out of a bunker every time I need to put gas in that thing. Given my impending mortality, I wanted to make it easier for my wife to maintain the system on her own. So I redoubled my efforts to find a diesel genset. Alas, all the "good" deals were 1500-2000 miles from me. I did find one in CT, but having my excavator have a major hydraulic failure at the beginning of June, and the fact that the seller didn't have a means to load it onto my pickup truck, I needed to find one with a trailer. This would give me the ability to move it around the property until I get the excavator running again and can prepare a permanent installation.

I was asking around over on Smokestak and the folks there recommended contacting Light in the Dark up in MA. Well, we worked out a deal I could afford and he got it delivered to me within 2 days of payment. Here it is. I've a temporary hookup to my battery chargers. The system has an EG4 Chargeverter 5kW 100A charger, with another one on the way. I plan to run two of them in parallel to charge battery bank (42kWh LifePo4) at a decent pace, about 23% per hour on days when it's raining or in winter when the sun angle is too low to clear the trees across the road from my property.

My summer project is to sell the old generator, modify the bunker by removing roof and most of three walls, leaving the back wall as a firewall, and mounting this genset on the pad. Anyway, here she is, bought with 2 hours on the clock after a "reset", so she should last a lifetime:

 

[Light in the Dark]

Welcome to SS Mark, glad to see you here.

 

[Mweiss]

Glad to be here!

We just had a bad T-storm. Lightning struck my east solar array, took out the 6kW inverter (being used as a charger), and the the solar charge controller for that array, plus scrambled the display on our 18kW inverter. Generator is still running the Chargeverter so that part's just fine. But it looks like close to a grand in electronics associated with solar is going to need replacing.
The wife caught this on video through the curtains--I froze the frame:

 

[Guyfang]

Welcome Mark,

I am sure LITD set you up right, and I know he mentioned to down load the TM's and get smart on this gen set. Get in to the threads and read what others have done and what things have happened to them.

 

[Mweiss]

Welcome Mark,

I am sure LITD set you up right, and I know he mentioned to down load the TM's and get smart on this gen set. Get in to the threads and read what others have done and what things have happened to them.

He sure did.. I have a long document with all the troubleshooting and maintenance items that he sent me.

I have to deal with some lightning damage to my solar power system right now.

 

[rickf]

I always wondered about lightning protection on solar arrays. There must be someway to protect them and the associated electronics.

And that was quite some catch on the photo, no way your insurance can deny it happened!

 

[Mweiss]

I always wondered about lightning protection on solar arrays. There must be someway to protect them and the associated electronics.

And that was quite some catch on the photo, no way your insurance can deny it happened!

This particular array was the remaining last of the used, old panels. I was to replace them in May, but had replaced the south array and found abysmal electricity production with the new panels. Sungold and I are tussling over trying to get those replaced and in the delay, I never finished the project. These 20 panels aren't grounded because they were temporary and there's too many jumpers to put in so I decided to reserve grounding for the new array. All other arrays are grounded with jumpers frame to frame and tied to a ground rod as they are finalized permanent installations.
I had to give up insurance 25 years ago when property taxes quadrupled. Just couldn't keep up with the premiums cost!

 

[2Pbfeet]

@Mweiss that is an incredible photo. Sorry for your loss.

I would distinguish between grounding and lightning protection as they aren't the same thing. Both are needed, and the sharp, grounded edges of solar panels make for excellent ionizers to contribute to attracting lightning strikes.

Personally, I am a proponent of round top lightning protection rods, but the real world data is debatable. Both work; it is just that pointed rods are apparently slightly more likely to be hit, and the resulting EMP may not be great for any electronics in the area.

Lightning rod - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

specifically

Lightning rod - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

All the best,

2Pbfeet

 

[Mweiss]

As it turns out after inspecting the damage, it was not the charge controller that failed, but the bypass diodes in the array. When I went back there to look for visual signs of damage, I could smell burnt electronics. So I popped the covers off the junction boxes. Found many exploded diodes. Measured each with a volt meter and found nearly every one was shorted. So I removed some 60 bypass diodes from 20 panels (3 each) and got the array producing voltage again. Was able to power up the charge controller and it is working to full capacity once more.

I suspect the big ungrounded (sitting on trailer) diesel generator, with extra long cable, acted like an antenna and brought that energy into the Sungold Power 6kW inverter/charger. That went up in smoke. Heard a loud pop from the solar battery room where all the equipment is. The main 18kW inverter shut down and came back up 3-4 seconds later. The pulse hitting its neighboring inverter must have reset the microprocessor. The display was blank after that, but upon doing a manual shut down and restart, everything on the 18kW inverter is fine now.

So the remaining damage is the 6kW inverter, which was being used in charger mode at the time of the lightning strike. Took it apart and the entire left side bank of MOSFETs are shorted, some have blown off legs. A surface mount transistor on top PCB also fried. Sent Sungold an e-mail asking about replacement parts cost.


Avoiding lightning is the tricky part. Whether to put a 'sacrificial' rod somewhere at the other end of the property or just make sure the frames are well grounded is a looming question in my mind. In 58 years of living at this address, I have never had lightning strike on the property. There is a 500' radio tower across the road from me that usually takes much of the lightning strikes. I'm in a bowl in the top of the mountain, so my neighbors to the west are a bit higher up and frequently used to get hit in the 1970s. Maybe I picked up some bad karma somewhere this year. Has been a tough year and an expensive one!

 

[Guyfang]

Gen set un-grounded?

I worked PV for 10 years. Everything from dog houses, 5-6 MW parks and 3-5 MW roof installations, and larger. In 2022 we put up 17% of the PV in Germany. We NEVER, EVER, put up lightning rods of any type. Depending of your mounting system, you may need, or not need, grounding straps between the modules. In the old days, when the weather was crappy we all sat down and made 400-500 straps a day, for a week. Then had enough to go a few months. After going to a better mounting system, we no longer needed the straps. Speeds up the job, a lot. Straps are time wasting and not safe. Remove a module in the middle of the string, and your grounding stops there.

But the mounting system is grounded . That is a must. And you can not over do it. Who is the makes of your modules? What type?

 

[Mweiss]

The genset was here for a matter of hours (was just delivered this weekend) and I am awaiting repairs on my excavator so I can complete the permanent installation of the generator, which is temporarily sitting on a trailer. Not great timing for this storm, that's fer sure!

My ground mounts are made of wood, so my method is to use short pieces of 10AWG wire from panel to panel frames and then from the middle strap, a drop lead to a ground rod.

The array that got hit was comprised of 20 old Trina Solar 240W panels that I'd bought used some years ago. They're probably 20 years old. They are slated for replacement with Sungold 550W panels. They would have been replaced and grounded in May, were it not for discovery that the first 8 panels are defective (low output as compared to nameplate rating) and I am in negotiations with Sungold Power trying to get replacements.

 

[2Pbfeet]

With electronics, I think it is hard to have too many surge suppression devices scattered around. EMP effects can be significant to microelectronics at large distances, but that's "can be". I was a hundred yards from a lightning strike on a tall tree that blew a chunk of bark almost to my feet, yet, none of the electronics in the buildings nearby were affected.

All the best,

2Pbfeet

 

[Guyfang]

My ground mounts are made of wood, so my method is to use short pieces of 10AWG wire from panel to panel frames and then from the middle strap, a drop lead to a ground rod.

Should work too. But like I said, remove a panel in the middle and the ground stops there. And its labor intensive. But it will work. You might want to measure your ground to see that its good. How long is the ground rod? In the Army we used 6-9 foot rods. On PV world we drove sectional rods down to 20 feet at times. The soil is sandy here. If its dry or sandy soil, a Ground system needs to be improved.

 

[rickf]

My dads house was struck by lightning twice. So there is one myth gone. The first time it was hit the lighting struck a metal cellar window casement, this is with a 70 foot oak tree 30 feet from that corner of the house, Myth #2 gone. When the lightning hit that window casement it got into the house wiring and literally blew the sheetrock off the walls along the wiring route. Thankfully my dad jumped right up in the attic and found some smoldering papers before a fire could get started. The second time it was hit it was a short tree right next to the house, not far from the huge oak tree. I was in the fire company at the time and myself and my girlfriend were driving through the storm when my pager went off. (Yes, I am that old to have had a pager). Then my dads address come over the pager! We were only a couple blocks away and shot straight there and found the house full of electrical smoke. Turns out it crispied the dryer in the basement, no other damage. While we were venting the smoke out of the house a 60 foot locust tree get hit in the front yard about 50 yards from the house. I literally saw a firemen come flying in the door feet first!! I am going to have to try to find the pics but that lightning strike blew that tree into mulch!! The entire tree was gone, all over the yard. And here is the best part, the storm was long gone! No thunder or lighting for 20 minutes before that hit. You just never know.

 

[Guyfang]

I know a guy, he lives here in town. An American. He was on active in Colorado, setting up a drop zone. He said there was not a cloud in he sky. Simply great weather. He leaned over to pick up something, and woke up in the hospital. The bolt blew him out of his boots. He is NOT the same fella I met a year or two before this happened.

We had a thunder and lightning storm on this last Saturday night/Sunday morning. The weather station recorded 22 Thousand Strikes, every 30 min.

 

[Mweiss]

The only time I would remove a panel is for an upgrade. So the grounds will be continuous. All panels have to be present for the series connection to carry current.

Those lightning stories are downright crazy. I'd heard such stories of "it was just overcast, then the dog got hit by a bolt of lightning". Getting struck on a blue sky day is really bizarre. What part of the country?

When I used to live in Bethel in the '60s, we had some downright scary storms. Over the years, we got less and less. It used to piss me off because I was into making audio recordings of thunder and every time I heard thunder, I'd set up the microphones and the storm would peter out or go off in another direction.

Sunday's storm had some of the heaviest downpours I've seen in years. I had some empty 5 gal buckets in the yard which ended up with 3" of rainwater in them in just 45 minutes of downpour. There was a lake in front of the solar array, mostly gone now.

But now I'm worried about this happening again. I'm tempted to put my generator electric ling inside steel conduit and bury the conduit for extra safety. But I'd say this EMP event was probably a good indication of how the system might react to a nuclear EMP.

 

[rickf]

I don't think what you got was EMP, You just got flat out massive voltage through those components. The diodes did their jobs by preventing reverse current through them and into the electronics. EMP is a magnetic pulse which screws up the circuit boards and modules. We live on the Northeast Coast so if there are EMPs then we are screwed, with all of the political infrastructure and military bases around us it will be moot point. We will be fried in seconds.

 

[Mweiss]

A nearby lightning strike or any big static discharge will generate an EMP. Devices within a certain radius will be affected or even damaged.
The solar panels were isolated by the charge controller and 80' of underground wiring from panels to charge controller. However, items NOT connected to the solar panels received damage. The 6kW inverter was connected to the generator via 40' of conductors that ran parallel to where the lightning hit, making it optimally positioned to receive maximum transfer of power from the pulse of energy.
It is curious that the associated charge controller didn't go up in smoke. I'm guessing all the impulse was common mode and didn't exceed the differential voltage limits of the controller.

We have two types of EMPs to consider:

Another Carrington Event (X50 class solar flare)
Nuclear attack

The first one we can design tolerance for, the second one, possibly the only survivors will be on the ISS. If there were a limited strike, something like Starfish Prime, we'd see quite a pulse on the long electric lines. Possibly shorter wires may not receive as much of a jolt. But it's all speculation until it happens, and being right about something then would be a pyrrhic victory.

Sungold just quoted me the price of new PC boards for the inverter... $590 total!

 

[Mweiss]

My second EG4 Chargeverter arrived today. The company originally had the older yellow version listed as in stock. When I ordered, it said out of stock, so I e-mailed them and they said they have a few scratch and dent units left and they'd sell to me for a 20% discount. So I bought the new one on the left for $379. Turned out they shipped me the newest model which sells for $469. It actually runs a tad cooler than the older model. Now the one on the right is lightning-tested. Don't know about the one on the left, but hopefully it's got the same level of robustness.
I fired up the MEP803A, which booted up the Chargeverters and I went through the setup process to set the charging voltage, stop and resume voltages, etc. Got both chargers doing 100 amps at 55 V DC and the generator power meter showed 85% of capacity. So at least I meet the minimum load to prevent wet stacking.
When I get my Sungold inverter repaired, I'll be able to add an additional 50 amps of charging capacity to the system, to bring up the batteries at a good pace when solar is not producing. With the air conditioning running, I was still 130 amps positive charging into the battery bank, taking into account all the loads in the house subtracted from a 200A charge rate.
Can't wait til the mechanic fixes my excavator (cab has to come off--needs a crane) hydraulic problem, because the next project is to remove 3 walls and roof of my concrete enclosure for the old generator and just leave the back wall facing the house up. Then place this MEP803A on the concrete pad, probably on rubber shock absorbers. I'm looking for ideas for vibration isolation.

 

[Mweiss]

I got a temporary ground hooked up to the generator trailer now. (Still waiting for the crane to come and lift cab off excavator so I can get that repaired and use it to move this to a slab permanent installation).

Was cloudy all day and the air conditioning prevented battery charging with weak PV input, so I fired up the MEP803A and ran it for 30 minutes into the 10kW of chargers. That brought the battery bank from 79% to 89%, enough to get us through the night with the A/C running.

Running that load, the load meter read just under 85%. Fuel gauge read full at start after topping the tank with fuel and still reads full after 30 minutes at a good load. Coolant temps went to 190°F under load and back to 170°F after a five minute cool down following removing the load. Fuel economy seems excellent. My gasser would have blown a circuit breaker with this load, and with half the load, it would have burned a gallon of gas!

The one thing I'm not 100% on is if the batteries in the generator are really charging. In several videos I've watched, the battery charge indicator swings to the right after startup and settles back to the border of red/green. This one moved a tad to the green, maybe 5mm but mostly stays on the border. Checked voltage on alternator, read 26.5 V. So it seems to be doing something, though it seems lower than what others reported.