1972 Overlander with solar plugs won't work on battery power

[TreeMoonGirl]

Hello-

I've spent the day troubleshooting and scouring the interwebs to determine what is going on with my Airstream solar power system, I've learned a lot, but still haven't solved the problem.

I had the Airstream set up on using just the solar system which involves a 4,000 Watt inverter, 5 solar flex panels, 4 6V 240AH AGM batteries, and a charge controller. Everything was fine until a kettle was used this morning then the plugs stopped working (120V), but lights were fine (12V). I thought maybe I just tripped a breaker but they were all fine (I reset them a few times to be sure). Inverter fuse is fine. Breakers are all fine. So, I plugged shore power in and with solar on, the inverter wasn't getting power and plugs didn't work. When I shut everything down again and rebooted with just solar, no plugs and no inverter power. When I shut everything down again and rebooted with just shore power, everything worked. When turned on, solar is reading over 14V and 100% charge.

I would leave it all as is, but the control charger is loud on shore power and keeps whoever is trying to sleep awake. I unplugged it and (I think) plugs stopped working again. I'm losing track of all the things I've tried because it was late by that point and I was tired. The fuse on the inverter is fine and I can't find the GFI switch, but there is a toggle switch kind of hanging behind the toilet where the shore power comes in and I wonder if that's the GFI. I've flipped it a couple times but am not sure it's doing anything.

How can I get back to just using solar power? I have removed the electric kettle and am thinking I have to remove the convection toaster oven too...? There is no other oven in the unit. I thought with a fairly robust system it would be able to handle some small heat resistive appliances, but obviously not.

Any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. This is all very new to me. My brain hurts, but I've learned SO much today! Every day's a school day.

Thank you in advance for any help!

[richard5933]

Need a bit more information...

1) Have you been able to use these devices in the past without the problem or is this the first real test of something like a tea kettle?

2) Make/model of the inverter, solar charger controller, etc.

With four 6v batteries, you only have 480 Ah of capacity, which is not much when you start pushing a 4,000 watt inverter towards its upper limits. We had a similar setup on our coach, but we had four L16 batteries which gave us 785 Ah, and we still had a similar problem when trying to use something like a cooktop or water boiler.

Not sure which inverter you have, but my thought is that when you ran the tea kettle your voltage on the batteries dropped too far and the system shut down. Lead acid batteries cannot sustain a stable voltage for long under a heavy constant load, like one from a resistive device.

When this happened on our Victron setup, it would throw a warning code and then almost immediately shut down. The voltage drop was so fast that there was no time for us to intervene, so the system did what it was designed to do and prevented damage to the batteries.

At first I was frustrated because even though I'd tapped the reboot button on the inverter's touch pad and watched it reboot, the problem was still there - nothing happing just like you say.

Finally it dawned on me to try the old-fashioned hard reset. I crawled under the inverter and pushed the rocker switch to the 'off' position, waited a few minutes, and then turn it back on. Voila! The system came back to life and all was good again.

One other thing that I discovered another time it happened is that it's necessary to tap the screen in the correct place to acknowledge/clear the alerts before it will restart fully - it wants to know you saw the alert before proceeding.

Hopefully this is the type of system you have and all that's necessary is a hard reset.

If this is what's happening, the answer is to upgrade to four 100 Ah lithium batteries. Then you'd actually have enough capacity to make use of that 4,000w inverter, and they will hold constant voltage long enough to make use of your tea kettle and drink all the tea you want.

[Minno]

We do not have this system, but a friend once blew the 30 amp fuses that power the inverter on their solar system while trying to use a hair dryer. And the fuses are on or in the inverter, and apparently a bear to get to according to our friend. Might help?


Kay

[TreeMoonGirl]

Thanks for your reply!

Update: I found the breaker switch beside the charge controller was flipped off, so I turned it on and rebooted the whole solar system, everything came back online! I found once it reached around 47-52% charge, it wouldn't charge anymore, but it was showing 12V on the panel. I tried to reboot the controller and got an error message so rebooted everything again then plugged in shore power and this morning batteries are charged at 100%. Yesterday was a very sunny day, so not sure about the charging with solar panels stalling out at around 50%. Any ideas? Hoping nothing's wrong with the controller now.

Originally Posted by richard5933

Need a bit more information...

1) Have you been able to use these devices in the past without the problem or is this the first real test of something like a tea kettle?

This was the first real test with a heat resistive device on this system, so now I know its limit!

2) Make/model of the inverter, solar charger controller, etc.
Eliminator Power Inverter 4000W (from Canadian Tire, yeah I know, a crappier one.)

With four 6v batteries, you only have 480 Ah of capacity, which is not much when you start pushing a 4,000 watt inverter towards its upper limits. We had a similar setup on our coach, but we had four L16 batteries which gave us 785 Ah, and we still had a similar problem when trying to use something like a cooktop or water boiler.

Ok, good to know. I am removing anything that will potentially trip the controller switch again. These batteries are fairly new, so unless I can sell them for a good return, I won't upgrade for a while, but I will keep your advice in mind.

Not sure which inverter you have, but my thought is that when you ran the tea kettle your voltage on the batteries dropped too far and the system shut down. Lead acid batteries cannot sustain a stable voltage for long under a heavy constant load, like one from a resistive device.

Ok, good to know.

When this happened on our Victron setup, it would throw a warning code and then almost immediately shut down. The voltage drop was so fast that there was no time for us to intervene, so the system did what it was designed to do and prevented damage to the batteries.

Yes, I'm grateful for the fail safes!

At first I was frustrated because even though I'd tapped the reboot button on the inverter's touch pad and watched it reboot, the problem was still there - nothing happing just like you say.

Finally it dawned on me to try the old-fashioned hard reset. I crawled under the inverter and pushed the rocker switch to the 'off' position, waited a few minutes, and then turn it back on. Voila! The system came back to life and all was good again.

One other thing that I discovered another time it happened is that it's necessary to tap the screen in the correct place to acknowledge/clear the alerts before it will restart fully - it wants to know you saw the alert before proceeding.

Hopefully this is the type of system you have and all that's necessary is a hard reset.

If this is what's happening, the answer is to upgrade to four 100 Ah lithium batteries. Then you'd actually have enough capacity to make use of that 4,000w inverter, and they will hold constant voltage long enough to make use of your tea kettle and drink all the tea you want.

Ok! I will endeavour to replace the batteries when I can afford to do so. I really appreciate your input.
Thank you!