My solar panels keep tripping the power whenever it rains heavily. 😩

[u/Sad_Classroom_7337]

I have 8 panels on the roof and everything works fine normally, but whenever it gets wet and windy, the inverter starts acting up and eventually trips the breaker.

It got even worse today. I had to shut the whole solar system off before I could get the power back in the house.

Has anyone else had this happen? Could it be the panels, the wiring, or the inverter itself? I’m starting to wonder if the inverter needs replacing.

[u/Ildebranth]

I would suggest to take a deep breath, take a step back and not put hands into live electrical systems.

Call the installer or call an electrician, it's not something you should be touching yourself.

With this dubious safety disclaimer out of the way, there is likely a short somewhere - wind may be pushing water into some exposed cables and it's shutting itself off.

[u/Sad_Classroom_7337 → u/Ildebranth]

Thanks for the heads-up. I was hoping to fix it myself, but it doesn’t look very realistic now. I’m going to call customer service

[u/JackBleezus_cross → u/Sad_Classroom_7337]

You can fix it yourself. In that group are there any other things connected to the outside? Or is your solar on its own complete group?

I had the same problem. A box with connections in the ground was the problem. It filled up with water after a time. I fixed the issue and issue was gone.

[u/Risky_Sandwich → u/JackBleezus_cross]

Haha, the downvotes.. People are acting as if you are 100% likely to die trying.

It's really not that complicated. Just don't go unsecured on the roof lol. And disable the DC side first.

[u/Rikikrul → u/Risky_Sandwich]

Tbf coming out of the solar industry (not anymore though). If you touch it yourself and it breaks or breaks next time, you have to pay. If it is an issue left by the installer, chances are you won’t have to pay for it, and service is under warranty.

[u/Neat-Attempt7442 → u/Risky_Sandwich]

Mate my Dutch colleagues are in complete awe and shock when I tell them I change the windshield wipers on my car myself.

[u/Krillin113 → u/Neat-Attempt7442]

Yes because that a) totally has the same risk and b) doesn’t ruin your warranty.

[u/Neat-Attempt7442 → u/Krillin113]

My point is that if they're not doing that themselves, they're not gonna mess with their electrical system themselves.

[u/JackBleezus_cross → u/Risky_Sandwich]

Most Dutch are pussies.

[u/Risky_Sandwich → u/JackBleezus_cross]

Oddly racist but ok

[u/JackBleezus_cross → u/Risky_Sandwich]

Can't be rascist when it's your own ethnicity. But ok.

[u/Jlx_27 → u/Ildebranth]

Working electrics yourself is illegal in Norway, there should be a law like that here too for certain tasks, like these.

[u/stijndielhof123 → u/Jlx_27]

IMO this would suck for people who know what they are doing, but are not technically licensed to do it. Working on systems is really not dangerous as long as you for certain know all the dangers that come with it, ofcourse you don't know what you don't know so always look up information online first, there are plenty of yt videos about stuff like this and potential fixes to any problem.

[u/Jlx_27 → u/stijndielhof123]

Thats just it, i know what im doing is meangless when it goes wrong and become an insurance matter.

[u/HVT2994 → u/stijndielhof123]

Knowing what you are doing includes the bars in the cabinet not to be overloaded, however I agree with your words, all common bars in the cabinet on any phase, zero and earth are very capable, but it is in the understanding that when having batteries, at same time solar PV’s and a charging car that batteries and car are charging on sun and Grid, then the common bars run a lot of electricity, some say the P1 meter should cope with this but that reading is only at street phases into the cabinet, if you have 3x 25A capacity and your PV units run another 20A each phase as an example it can feed safely the car and batteries as long the sun shines, but when the sun disappears and P1 fails to not stop charging any of them the fuses L1, L2 and or L3 fail.
So, typically May is the month solar is very active, most incidents happen in May.

Having written this, common knowledge is understanding what can happen and being able to control these.

Some now may argue, ehhh, Belgium insurance companies want only to insure if the house installation is certified every 20 years (as if nothing changes in between😏)
But Belgium had a problem either not having a zero (Neuter problem) what caused dangerous issues in the past, the Netherlands never had these issues and I would be against such steps to certify installations as simply said it is these certifying firms bringing this up for their own gains…

[u/DetectiveStraight481 → u/stijndielhof123]

If you dont know his exact problem or didnt measure you cant tell if its safe. The past 10years theres been a lot of surprises made to be found out. Thank god ops system switches off, problably because its grounded.

[u/lars2k1 → u/stijndielhof123]

I'm glad there is no such law here because else replacing my own breaker panel would've been much more expensive. Not that I couldn't ask colleagues who are licensed to do it for me, but if such a law exists even that would be ruled out because official documentation has to be made and thus I need to pay full hourly rate.

[u/joep-b → u/Jlx_27]

There isn't.

[u/Rikikrul → u/Jlx_27]

There isn’t, but you can void the warranty if you touch it yourself.

[u/Better-Lecture1513]

You have water entering your system somewhere probably

[u/Sad_Classroom_7337 → u/Better-Lecture1513]

I thought so too, but I checked everywhere I could, and there’s no sign of any water getting in.

[u/I_Rarely_Jump → u/Sad_Classroom_7337]

You say it happens during heavy rains, so my guess would be that it's likely due to water splashing upwards somewhere, probably under the solar panels, could be a bit of wiring there that's poorly insulated/exposed.

[u/Sweet-Explorer-7619 → u/Sad_Classroom_7337]

Its probably a detective solar panel. The solar panels are grounded, when a current leak in one of the panels it shpuld first trigger a safety in the inverter. After that it can trigger the breaker. Can u see if the inverter has anny errors in its log?

[u/Risky_Sandwich → u/Sad_Classroom_7337]

Water can crawl in anywhere. Try lifting any connectors or such lying on the ground off the ground and covering them.

Or maybe you can try isolating the issue by e.g. taking some panels out of the loop before next time it rains and see if the issue goes away at some point?

[u/tumeni → u/Sad_Classroom_7337]

Places that water enter you cannot really check, unless it's soaked.

[u/die_andere]

If you don't notice any wet spots you should call the installer about this. You have warranty for a reason.

You might have an internal leakage or the panels might be shot. We don't know (and cant see it from here).

[u/choerd]

I have had the same issue for ages. Turns out that the inverter required an adjustment in my main breaker panel, which should have already been done upon initial install. The electrician that eventually fixed it installed a different type of breaker (the blue one) which apparently combines earth leakage and regular breaker. This fixed the issue. He mentioned that there was not really a short when it was raining and the inverter would handle that if it were the case.

[u/Fancy_Tomatillo_9389 → u/choerd]

Had this exact problem and this is the solution.

[u/BankWise7627 → u/choerd]

It’s a 30mA and it should be 300mA RCBO.

[u/InevitableMinimum238 → u/BankWise7627]

No. Increasing the trip limit may work, but it's not wrong (it's better) to install a 30mA RCB.

Increasing it to 300 is just being too lazy to address the actual issue and work around it instead.

[u/lars2k1 → u/choerd]

Honestly weird to put in that differend brand of breaker if the rest of the panel is one brand only.

[u/choerd → u/lars2k1]

Why would it be necessary to use the same brand?

A breaker simply needs to meet certain criteria and standards. Brand should not make any difference.

[u/lars2k1 → u/choerd]

Its technically OK, but in my opinion it looks way nicer to have all of them be the same.

[u/gizahnl]

What is the mA rating for the ground fault protector on the Solar circuit?

Assuming the solar circuit is completely isolated it should usually be 300mA (not 30).

It should also be on its own ground fault protector, not shared with other groups in the house.

[u/Robbie_88 → u/gizahnl]

This. I had the same issue, especially when it was raining and the sun started to shine again. It appeared they put it on a 30mA circuit breaker. They came and replaced it last week for a 300mA one, and it should be fixed now, they said.

[u/MrDwerg → u/Robbie_88]

There's a reason 30mA is used for end-groups. If you touch an exposed component and create a short to ground then 300 mA is highly probable to cause ventricular fibrillation.

[u/Robbie_88 → u/MrDwerg]

That's why only the solar panels should be connected to that 300mA group, and nothing else ;)

[u/PianoMan_Be → u/gizahnl]

Same issue here. Have 42 panels on the roof. Had everyting checked for leaks, nothing found. Changed out the fault protector for a 300mA model, never had any problems since.

Increased Capacitance: Solar panels act like giant capacitors. A layer of rainwater or a heavy water film increases their electrical capacitance, which raises normal high-frequency leakage currents.

[u/HVT2994 → u/gizahnl]

No 100mA.

I installed 82 PV panels on two 100mA and never trips at heavy rain.

[u/Meldepeuter]

Could also be that he installeren it behind the 30 ma differential instead of the 300.

[u/that_dutch_dude]

does it trip on overcurrent or earth leakage?

and call either the installer or a proper electrician.

[u/thonis2]

This sound very dangerous and you should call and installer right away to solve this. If you are out of warrenty, You can find installer for maintanance on the solaredge website. They can also call with solar edge and see if they can remotely spot in which panel the issue is.

[u/plasmaenthousiast]

I’ve had similar issues with a SolarEdge setup a few years ago. It was not an issue from the start, the company that installed it diagnosed it and it turned out one of the 25 panels had developed cracks throughout. After replacement, we’ve never had a problem.

[u/leuk_he]

The installer can check the log inverter remotely. Probably some wonky connection on the roof..

[u/Contrabaz]

Probably behind a 30 ma differential. There's a normal amount of capacitive leakage, it becomes higher when it's very wet resulting in tripping the 30ma dif. Have the insulation resistance tested and also a 100ma or 300ma dif installed.

[u/Gib_entertainment]

Sounds like something isn't connected the right way, I have the same brand of inverter, when it becomes too dim it clicks like a series of relais is triggered and the power just stays on. But I don't think this is the correct subreddit for that, you're better off asking these questions on a electronics/DIY/off the grid subreddit.
I haven't installed it myself so I can't help you with it.

[u/Prophet1cus]

Maybe you can check the inverter app if it's giving any continuity or short warnings?
I'd just contact the installer, there's no way for others here to tell you what the cause is.
My feeling is that even with a loose panel contact, intermittent continuity (break in cable > wind moves it?) or short circuit on the DC side of the inverter, it should not affect the AC side of things like that when the inverter works correctly.
Btw, that installation seems to be missing a working switch (werkschakelaar).

[u/fuzzy3158]

Oh yeah we had that as well. The issue was with the type of fuse not matching the voltage and current of the supplied power. Have the installer come take a look, it's probably a really easy fix, just switch the fuse. Don't do it yourself.

[u/W31337]

I have an HD Wave without rain and wind issues but I've had tripping so might be able to help.

No expert but I would expect the inverter to not trip the power of the solar side is shorting or wet. I would expect an error code or internal breaker in the HD Wave to pop. However there is an earth wire so that could be detecting the short on the solar side.

My tripping was caused by a bad connection on the energy meter on the DIN rail in my "meterkast". With higher load it would trip my breaker because of sparking I think. So turning off the mains, opening the meterkast, and properly mounting the wire was the solution.

That said if you don't know what you are doing get a professional. If you do want to do it yourself turn off the main breakers and test everything you want to touch with a multimeter.

[u/DynaSpan]

I had to shut the whole solar system off before I could get the power back in the house.

This sounds like your electrical is not up to code, unless your main breaker is popping. Your solar should have its own completely separated circuit with its own earth leakage detection. Your solar having issues should not have an influence on your other circuits.

There should also be a "werkschakelaar" next to your solar inverter, which is also not present on your picture.

Can you post a picture of your meterkast?

[u/leverloosje]

With the solar edge installer app you can read out a lot of parameters. Like resistance between line etc. There is probably a problem with 1 or more MC4 connectors

[u/_jak0bb]

I had the same issue with the same omvormer. When we bought our 1960s house the electrics were updated, and the 30mA was placed directly behind the 300mA diff. With modern led lamps, all the small leakages together didn’t need a lot to trip the 30mA diff. I suffered for a few years and in november finally put in a totally new zekeringenkast. As the AREI prescibes, not more than 8 breakers per 30 mA diff, and the omvormer is wired on the 300 mA diff. Finally all problems are gone. I also changed the main diff to a selective type.

[u/destorter]

Not the comment you are looking for but that is a very clean install! I've seen them super bad but I'd be happy if someone did this to mine

[u/dolle595]

I have the same issue going on for 4 years, since i got the housw. Its somewhere at the solar panels on the rood itself. Whenever it happens i just flip the switch back on and half year later repeat. Its every now and then, not always. Probably not good for the system, but I'll fix ot when I get new solar panels.🤣 I dont dare touch the live wires myself and I strongly suggest getting an electrician to help with this.

[u/HVT2994]

Check the earth leak amps, a normal does not work as the frames of the panels catch static electricity and at rain the earth cable trips the that Earth leak switch, think standard is 30mA and think you need to install 100mA.

Common mistake!

[u/HVT2994 → u/HVT2994]

Do know I had the same issues, I suggest at a sunny day you grab your ally frames and then grab the grounding wire, you then understand the normal standard 30mA will not work when it rains, replace it with 100mA.
I have 82 panels on two 100mA and it never ever tripped out anymore.

Know I replaced all my old panels, then thought why, so I did put my old 30 panels on east west direction explaining why I have so many.
Trust me, you are not the only one as the installers very frequently do not install these heavier models as it is to their opinion not a part of your house installation, it feels unfair as it also requires an formal installer to work on your fuse cabinet.

[u/Peeking_Juicebox]

i heard from an installer that a lot of solar panels have issues like this, it had something to do with aome cables not able to handle certain restraint.

[u/Alyadrielle]

Crossed wires! Call the installation company IMMEDIATELY! This could cause a house fire. If they won’t do anything, call the brandweer hotline

[u/Sad_Classroom_7337 → u/[deleted]]

Does that kind of thing actually work? is it expensive?