Not all goes well on the glamstead, sometimes I make mistakes…sometimes BIG mistakes. Last month was one of those BIG mistakes. I cured it last week.

Back in JanuaryI got a call from my wife. She pleasantly, and without panic, asked me why the power went out in the house.

Let me explain…I have what is called a very boring solar system. It powers the house nicely and provides us all the luxuries and stability of a relatively normal life…without a utility bill or dependence on a power company. And it is boring! Meaning…I really don’t have to pay attention to the operation of the system…it just does it thing day in and day out…no issues,, no problems. Nice. But that all changed that day…

Fortunately I was on my way home and was only about 10 mins or so away. I asked her is there was any wire burning smell in the house. No. Then I asked if she would check for smoke or fire in the utility room where the solar equipment is located. Fortunately, she knows my humor and checked. Nothing. I’m glad I didn’t tell her I wasn’t joking.

I got home, verified the power was completely out in the entire house and headed to the utility room. In there I found the inverters off, the batteries offline, the computer brain showing an “alarm”, the charge controllers off, the system shutdown, no AC power at all.

The Victron CCGX “brain” or “computer” that controls/coordinates the system had an alarm “LVD Error”. Yeah, that means the system shut down due to low voltage coming from the batteries. I checked the SOC (State of Charge) lights on the batteries and it was showing about 75% of full capacity. That is not a low voltage problem at all. It simply made no sense.

I tried to troubleshoot what the problem was…or rather what the “real” problem was. I just couldn’t figure it out at all. Remember, I built the system, programmed the inverters, programmed the CCGX, programmed the charge controllers, made all the settings myself…I know my system pretty well. But, I still couldn’t figure it out.

Back about 400 years ago while I was also a firefighter, during my days off, I programmed computers. Okay, it was back in the late 80’s till about 2001. One of the things we had to do regularly in the early days was troubleshoot computer hardware along with the software. Sometimes with the computers themselves the only thing we could do to get it back up and running was the “BRB”…Big Red Button. On the early desktop computers there was a big red lever on the side of the case…the on/off button. Turn the computer off, wait a minute, turn the computer back on…problem solved, issue fixed…back up and running. Almost always worked for hardware problems.

Yup, I decided to shut down the entire system and restart it. Fortunately for me I’ve done it countless times and was no big deal…just think it through step-by-step. About 5 minutes later the system was up and running just fine, power to the house…and me left confused at what might have happened. The only thing I could figure out was some kind of “hiccup” occurred between the master battery computer management system (BMS) and the CCGX (the solar system computer/controller). And the system shut itself down to protect itself. Obviously since it came right back up without an issue, it had to be some false alarm/issue.

But…it exposed a much larger problem!!!

What if I had been out of town, or a couple of hours away? What if my wife hadn’t been able to get a hold of me? What if…

Yeah, even if my wife had gotten me on the phone but a couple hours away…could I have talked her through a system shutdown and restart? Maybe…but it would have been ugly trying to get her through each step in correct order to shut it down…then trying to get her through each step in correct order to do a restart.

Then my mind drifted to a couple other issues…using the generator with the system…and what about when eventually/if we sell the place. Yup, my OCD kicked in.

I have a document for the solar system that describes each piece of equipment and why I use it. It has a complete wiring diagram for each part of the system as well. That document is for anyone who has to work on the system besides me…they will understand how it is wired and what each piece of equipment is for. It’s like a technical manual. But, I don’t have an actual “operations guide”. Yeah it was obvious, that had to change.

So, over the course of several days I wrote, then edited, then edited it some more until I had a pretty dang good step-by-step manual that described:

• How to completely shutdown the system,
• How to start-up the system from a complete shutdown status,
• How to hook-up the generator to by-pass the solar system,
• How to hook-up the generator to supply power to the solar system,
• How to remove the generator and remove it from the system, and shut down generator power.

Along the way I gave pretty good descriptions of solar system’s operations, including the “why” aspect. I used copious amounts of pictures with descriptions of lights, buttons, and levers. I had my wife look it over and she felt she could do any of the operations outlined in the manual…with just the manual.

Now, anyone…my wife, other technicians, a potential buyer, or a new owner can look at the operations guide and get a pretty good idea of how to run it. Also, combine that manual with the other “technical manual” I wrote, anyone could work on the system…or at least understand the how and why it was built, and how to operate it.

I sleep better at night now.

In case you want to see what the final product looks like I have attached it as a download. If you have a solar system, especially a DIY system, you might want to think about writing something to help others run your system safely.

So why was this “no manual” my biggest mistake so far? Simple, the safe operation, or any fixes, depended solely on me; avoiding a potential disaster for my wife if I wasn’t around to resolve the issue(s). Maybe preventing something worse.

You can download my Operations Guide (PDF file) by < clicking here > It might be helpful if you want to create one of your own.

I keep the guide book right smack dab in the middle of everything. Anyone can instantly know right where it is. Ah, no…there is no “red arrow” painted on the wall and equipment pointing to the manual.

The “tabs” are different manual parts; battery manual, inverter troubleshooting pages, &charge controller troubleshooting pages.

 2009 - 2026 Copyright © AHTrimble.com ~ All rights reserved
No reproduction or other use of this content
without expressed written permission from AHTrimble.com
No legal, economic, or financial advice is given, no expertise to be assumed.
I may receive compensation from advertised/mentioned products on this website.
See Content Use Policy for more information.