Hi again everyone. We have a 10KW Ames Global LF Series inverter (made in the US) 110VAC/220VAC output capable which has surge capacity to 30KW and a rated output of 10KW continuous use, we are only running it at 40% or less capacity right now. It has been running about 2 months, now we have a problem that has been happening nightly for about a week. The voltage at the UTILITY INPUT terminals of the inverter are 212VAC, the inverter screen drops as low as 108VAC input by morning, last night the voltage at the terminals was 212VAC and 180VAC on the inverter screen, the utility won’t charge through the AC charger when the readings are below the 184 VAC utility input, all connections are tight. The low battery shut down the inverter last night at 47VDC at 10 PM, this morning at 6:55 AM when I checked it again the solar had charged the batteries back to 54.6 VDC and I now have the system back running completely on solar as of 7:10 AM, no problem, the batteries are back to 56VDC from the solar charge. We run three 48 volt 60 amp MPPT chargers for this unit. All battery banks test the same at 56 VDC. The input voltage from the utility still tests 212VAC at the terminals and the inverter screen now reads 155VAC The output voltage was 210 last night just before it shut down, this morning the output voltage is 219 and the utility input reading is back to 212VAC. I thought there may be excessive resistance in the input from the utility that my multimeter didn’t see, so I checked all the connections and the problem continues, all the wires are new and of the gauge + one size of what is required on the wire size charts. That didn’t help so I switched the utility feed to another drop that was powering another inverter that showed 212VAC on it’s screen, the problem continues. I was just hoping someone had run across something like this since this inverter powers my critical loads and Ames hasn’t been responding to service questions.
Thanks the dog
That’s disappointing that Ames isn’t responding to your questions. Very poor service. If you are measuring 212V at the terminals and the inverter is only registering 180V or lower then it sounds like an internal fault of some kind.
Hope you can find a solution
Hi, Yes that’s what I was thinking. I was hoping someone had run into something like that so I could try to find it myself. I’m thinking the main circuit board may be bad or have a loose connection, but troubleshooting that is a bit above my abilities without some guidance. I’m totally disappointed in this inverter, especially the service, or lack of it. I bought this so I could put all my critical loads on it, about 7kw, both 220VAC and 110VAC and tie it to both the grid and my backup generator so those loads have power all the time. It’s supposed to be able to handle a continuous load of 10kw, it barely handles 4kw, about the same as the cheep Chinese inverters available here that I could have bought for about $500.US, instead of the $3000.US for this junk.
Thanks the dog
Sir, this problem also came in our system, it was from Enertech company, it also had 220volt on the grid input terminal but there was rarely show on the screen, this problem is due to the problem in the calibration of the inverter,control in our inverter. The card had regulator resisters from which the value of both solar & grid could be calibrated. we fixed it so Please check it in your inverter
Thanks, I’ll check that. I finally got a response from the manufacturer, but they haven’t given any answer yet.
Hi Again Everyone! This problem went away by itself last year in July. The inverter started reading the correct voltage and it stopped shutting off and showing an overload fault. It was working perfect able to carry a 50% continuous load with short loads to 90%, no problem at all. Well, the problem came back again after the first typhoon of the season about Mid May. I have tried shutting off all the different circuits connected to it to see if there is a short or electrical leak somewhere due to the rain, but it doesn’t matter which is off, it still shuts down. It was showing an input utility voltage lower than it was and it would show an overload fault at 30% and shut off. We found an inverter repair company that seems to know what they are doing (the only one here in PH) and had it repaired, there were faulty chips and other electronic components and now it reads the voltage correct, but it still shows an overload fault and shuts off at 30%. Sometimes it will run up to 50% before shutting down, but very seldom. Any suggestions as to what would cause an overload shutdown at such a small amount of power usage? At 40% it is only running at about 30 amps AC and about 40 amps DC it has breakers built in of 80 amps AC and 120 amps DC. Ames is still useless, both me and the repair company has tried to get a straight answer from them, but as soon as we proved the problem, we never heard back from them. The money I’ve spent trying to fix it is starting to get close to the cost of a new inverter of the same type from China with a 10 year warranty instead of this junk with seemingly no warranty! Would one of the relays possibly cause a problem like this?? Thanks the dog.