Hello All,
Suzanne Csejtey of Design Energy contacted me with an Outback Radian /
Flexmax 80 system problem. I don't know what is going on with this
system. Below is her description of the problem. Any help would be
appreciated.
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System installed 2014.
6.6kW PV, Outback Radian 8048 inverter, (2) x Midnite Classic 200 charge
controllers, 600Ah
Battery bank (12 x 12V 200Ah Outback Energycell ) for backup of 100A aux
panel
It worked great, but the customer was always disappointed that she
couldn’t show her system
online on one screen, because the Midnite charge controllers didn’t talk
to the Outback Mate 3.
In 2017 the charge controllers were changed to (2) x Outback Flexmax
80’s, and problems
started a couple years after that. The system would shut down at least
once a month, start up
the next day, and the electrician couldn’t find the problem but
suspected grid instability. Outback tech support couldn’t help until the
system was on OpticsRE, late 2021. Tech support resolved the shutdown
issue this year with 2 nd firmware upgrade and a few settings adjusted
on Mate3.
Radian GS8048 updated 2021, verified 8/2022 from tech support but I am
not finding the
firmware number. August 2022 tech support walked through our settings
and verified all ok with batteries, CCs. Adjusted Mate3 to establish
OpticsRE connection, verified not selling from
battery/backup only.
Worked very well until this September when a lightning storm apparently
took out the internet
modem and inverter comms with it. Solar and battery still working.
Outback told us to replace
the Mate3 and Hub, and then the FlexNet DC monitor. Latest firmware
update attempted on
new Mate3s when received, 001.004.007 but it was already installed and
ready to go.
Instead of setting everything up again from scratch after replacing
Mate3 with Mate3S we
decided to see if the charge controllers would repopulate the old
information, as recommended
in the Outback forum. Then tried to get help to verify settings from
Outback support. Support
had been very helpful in the past but this time we weren’t so lucky and
the person just let us
know that wasn’t their job and sent a link to the manual. But the
batteries appeared to be at
100%, set not to sell, backup only, max PV self-consumption. The plan
was to find more help to
verify settings and keep an eye on the system.
Seemed to be working very well until it went
crazy last week, when the Mate showed alarm, batteries discharged down
to 6%, then up to
100%, then everything shut down completely.
Programming may be a big part of the issue. Also hearing that the age of
the AGM batteries may have been a factor, 8 years. That sometimes dying
batteries cause odd behavior?
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Thanks in advance.
Drake
Drake Chamberlin
Athens Electric LLC
Ohio Electrical Contractor’s License 44810
CO Master Electrician’s License 4526
NABCEP Certified PV Installation Professional
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