Shot in the Dark

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tedge

Senior Member
Location
Camden, ME
Has anyone here experienced interference with digital dimmers from grid tied solar inverters? I won't get into the gory details, but I'm having some unexplainable flickering of lights in all dimmed circuits. I've been to the house a few times to try and figure it out. Sometimes they are flickering, sometimes not. No one is actually living in the house (vacation home) so it's not a load issue. The only common thread I've found is that the lights flicker during the day when it is sunny, not when cloudy, not at night (that I've witnessed). There is a large grid tied solar system installed at the home. I'm sure I'm grasping at straws here, but coincidence or not?
 
iwire

iwire

Moderator
Staff member
Location
Massachusetts
I have some first hand experience, not a lot.

That said, I think you may be onto something, when it's happening shut down the inverter and see what happens.

A total guess here but it sounds like the inverter is not providing a clean sine wave or not matching the utility as well as it should be.

Post the make and model of the inverter and we could get the specs on line.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
What brand dimmers are you using, I have a house now that I just finished that has a room with recess that flicker, its the strangest thing i've ever seen. Changed out the dimmer still a problem.
 
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tedge

Senior Member
Location
Camden, ME
The dimmers are Lightolier Onset series. The flickering is most noticeable on any light with an incandescent or low voltage lamp. Halogen lamps are very subtle, almost unnoticeable. I originally noticed the problem in a closet, and when I was troubleshooting that I realized that all of them were doing it. The homeowner hasn't really noticed it, but they are rarely there and don't have the lights on during the day.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
I'm only using a Maestro dimmer, it controls 6 recessed lights, but when its half dimmed, the lights flicker like crazy after a while... still waiting to hear from Lutron on the situation.
 
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tedge

Senior Member
Location
Camden, ME
Let me know what you hear from Lutron. Lightolier asked me to check the voltage for irregularities, but they said they had never heard of such a problem. I figured I'd try iwire's idea of shutting off the inverter next time before I pressure Lightolier into helping me.
 
stickboy1375

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
tedge said:
Let me know what you hear from Lutron. Lightolier asked me to check the voltage for irregularities, but they said they had never heard of such a problem. I figured I'd try iwire's idea of shutting off the inverter next time before I pressure Lightolier into helping me.
Click to expand...

Will do. I have never seen this before, and I can only blame the problem on the dimmer. but it is quite strange to say the least.
 
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neonbkw

Member
Location
central PA
Hello there. I've been reading and learning here for a while now, but this is my first post.

Anyway, I have also had a similar experience. The setup consisted of a few Lutron Ariadni dimmers and a Pentek constant pressure submersible pump controller (basically a VFD). Every time a water tap was opened causing the pump to run, all the dimmers in the house went nuts. I suspected the controller was responsible for some nasty line harmonics, and called Lutron to get their opinion. They agreed with my theory saying the behavior of the dimmers is exactly as they would expect in a poor power quality situation. To make a long story short, the Pentek controller was replaced with a Franklin after talking with another area contractor who experienced a few nightmares with Pentek as well. Its been a year now with no further problems.

Perhaps the inverter in your setup is responsible for casuing similar harmonics or other sort of power quality issues that the dimmers don't like. I just wish my company would invest in some more "high tech" monitoring equipment, but its just not justified out here in podunk. We have a hard enough time convincing customers they need to replace severely overloaded and failing fuse boxes, FPE panels, and K&T wiring.
 
T

tedge

Senior Member
Location
Camden, ME
I had to go out to the site last week, and of course it was raining and nasty. As I expected, no flickering lights. However, I did get the inverter model #'s. There are two Sunpower SPR-6000M inverters, each with their own 40A back fed breaker in the panel. I don't know if this helps without the definitive test of turning them off to see if it stops the problem.

neonbkw- How did you narrow it down to the pump controller? Trial and error?
 
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