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| inverter system |
Inverters are so expensive to set up these days owing to the rising cost of production and market forces, making it even more painstaking for the end consumer to afford in the long run. We all know that everything regardless of its value has its good and bad seasons and of course, solar and inverters are no exceptions to this rule making our favorite power tools a little more of the seasonal type.
Unarguable the best time to enjoy a solar and inverter system is the dry or sunny season when there's ample sunlight that keeps our solar panels flaming at the top with much of the energy being converted to electricity down below that for me is a wonderful time of the year to own a solar system. As a solartrician with a well-rounded experience, the rainy season is one difficult time to navigate especially for systems that were not properly designed and installed from scratch, from poorly earthed systems to little or no installation of protective devices the end user is always at the mercy of mother nature.
In this article, we will take a sneak pip at a few steps that you should take as protective measures to keep your prized assets from being ripped apart by lightning and the like during the rainy season.
Let's read through!
Step One: Install Protective Devices
As crucial as it is installing protective devices for your solar and inverter system is a smart choice but nonetheless it might not guarantee all the needed safety, during the rain without adhering to other standard safety steps still puts the whole system at risk. Setting up all the breakers both AC and DC, fitting the surge protectors and all seem very adequate but then you must do the needful when it matters most.
Step Two: Disconnect Your Inverter From Mains During Heavy Downpour
Step two is quite essential for those who have installed their solar and inverter system without properly earthing the various components or perhaps whose buildings are not properly earthed its best you disconnect your inverter from the mains during heavy rain and thunderstorms, this would ensure that your inverter is not exposed to the lightning that might pose a great danger to it at that time.
Step Three: Disconnect The Load
Disconnecting the load from your inverter will not only ensure its safety but also all other sensitive devices powered by it this measure will help prevent more damage to other key items, so do well to disconnect the load from your inverter when there is heavy rain and lighting, it would save you a great deal.
Step Four: Turn Off Your Inverter
This for me is the icing on the cake, turning off your inverter completely helps you prevent impending damage from lightning and thunderstrikes shutting down the system while the rains are still heavy is a great idea to preserve its functionality and prevent you from spending unnecessarily on costly repairs during the aftermath.
Step Five: Disconnect From Pv If There is a Solar array
Step is so crucial as our Solar panels can easily pick high voltages from the lighting on the rooftom from where they can easily send to the batteries through the charge controllers, even if there is an installed protective DC breaker as a matter of importance make sure to manually turn the DC breaker thereby disengaging your solar panel array from your inverter system, from my research as a solatrician this alone accounts for 60 percent of lightning damage to inverters and should be taken seriously. Installing a very good quality and efficient DC breaker is one sure way of mitigating this effect without having to do it manually, so therefore dear installer, and end-user please this is a must.