TL4000 high pitched whining

[kevineaton]

hi i hope you are well.

i have an Eversolar TL4000 GB inverter and 16 x 250watt et solar panels. the system is generating fantastically - ive got 630 kwh since the 2nd march

however, the inverter makes a loud high pitched whining noise when it gets over about 3 Kw - its unbelievably irritating. i was told that it would be virtually silent, so they have installed it in my office.

the company who supplied it have been very good, i dont have a problem with them, and they have replaced it today - but the new invertor is doing the same thing, even more so at lower watts. they are checking into it but i wondered if anybody has had a similar problem and if so did you get it solved?!

thanks very much for your time and help

cheers

kev

 

[whinmoor]

Didn't you ask about this a couple of weeks ago? Isn't it time to get your installer back to look at it if you're not happy?

http://www.electriciansforums.net/p...000-inverter-get-data-pc-other-questions.html

 

[kevineaton]

yes you are correct - they have come back and replaced the inverter today, but its still doing it. installer says that they are going to run it as 2 strings of 8 instead of one string of 16 to see if that helps.

just wondered if anybody had had similar issues and if they had a solve for it.

 

[Gary K]

put something dark over the panels when it gets to 3Kw-that'll sort it.

 

[kevineaton]

haha! yeah, maybe i should only run them at night.....

 

[Earthstore]

The Eversolar is quite a basic Chinese Inverter, even though they appear to perform quite well, they are still quite basic.
It is a little like if you had the base model of a car, it has no extras but will get you from A-B but may be a little noisy inside, or you could buy the top of the range, which will have comfy seats, electric windows, power steering etc, it too will get you from A-B but will be a much nicer journey.

Swap the inverter for a SMA, Fronious, or something similar.

By changing to 2 strings, you may find that the it struggles to meet the start up voltage anyway.
I hope this helps.

 

[kevineaton]

hmm...ok. i was told this was decent inverter. my mum has the same one and it doesnt whine, also the installer says that they have used loads of these and havent had problems.

regarding the startup voltage - ive looked at the data sheet for the invertor http://www.pvpro.co.uk/download/G83_inverter/EverSolar-3200TL-4000TL-4600TL-5400TL.pdf

and it gives startup power as 10watts. cant see anything for volts. dont know how to work out the startup voltage from that as i dont know what the current is! im guessing it changes too!

this morning at 8.50am on a bright, sunny, cloudless morning its sat at about 500v and 2Kw.
its already produced 2KwH this morning. dunno if that helps!

 

[jupestar]

Move the inverter, or Move the office!

 

[kevineaton]

sure, but theres nowhere i can put it in my house that it wont be audible - it shouldnt be squeeling like this apparantly or is that not true?

 

[whinmoor]

We've installed a couple of Eversolar inverters and haven't had reports of noise.

 

[kevineaton]

ok thanks for that. any ideas what it could be if not the inverter (theyve changed it once already>) unless ive have 2 duff inverters...

 

[whinmoor]

Nope! There's a whole load of things it "could" be but they are all highly unlikely - cables, connections, isolators. It's much more likely imho to be the inverter itself or the location. Is it tightly fixed to a solid wall with plenty of ventilation? You're not using it to keep your coffee warm when you work at your desk, are you!?! By switching the inverters, you've ruled out the possibility of a foreign object dropping inside.

I'm taking a risk here of being shot down, but here's a snap of one we did a while back in a loft. Notice the space for ventilation all around it.

How does yours compare? This photo was taken before commissioning hence no warning labels etc.

Our customer's system is performing very well and we've not had any reports of noise although it is some distance away from the main living area.

Best plan might be to ask your installer to swap it for another brand and come to some deal on the difference in price.

 

[GaryM]

I'm taking a risk here of being shot down

BANG! Lol
Ditch the 3 boxes of clips and use pvc trunking and conduit

Out of interest, what's the unit above the AC isolator?

 

[whinmoor]

BANG! Lol
Ditch the 3 boxes of clips and use pvc trunking and conduit

Out of interest, what's the unit above the AC isolator?

The inverter is in a little used loft above the garage which is cooler. The DC cables run thru the partition into the main loft where we did use trunking along the wooden beam.

The "Solar Bee" is above the AC isolator. It transmits data to the Solar Eye which is in the customer's living room. It's pretty easy to configure but doesn't have the functionality of other brands (e.g. you can only export using a memory card, not wirelessly). We only use it where the customer isn't tech-savvy and wants a simple display to tell them what's happening. If you like fancy graphs and viewing it on your mobile phone, it's definitely not for you!

 

[jupestar]

you could always move the inverter outside if you have a siutable place. not sure about the ip rating.. but you could always get a out door cabinent.

why would you want an ugly inverter in your office!!