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Soft Starter Issues

  • 30-09-2013 8:44pm
    #1
    mr_edge_to_you
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,189 ✭✭✭


    Hi,

    we're in our house 3 year which is heated with GSHP with UFH which so far we're very happy with.

    we had to replace the soft starter in April this year and had no issues until this evening. we noticed that the lights and appliances were dimming quite often (every 5/10 minutes). As a precaution I switched off the heatpump and noticed that the dimming stopped. I'm afraid that the soft starter is gone again.

    We were away at the weekend and it turns out that there was 2 very brief electricity interuptions on Friday. Could this be a factor?

    just had ESB networks out and they said everything was fine their end. We do have regular power cuts (duration 30 seconds). They said they will put a monitor on the house meter to double check everything.

    would anyone be able to shed any light on what might be causing problems for the soft start/heat pump.

    Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.


Comments

  • #2
    LooksLikeRain
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 56 ✭✭LooksLikeRain


    Hi,

    I am not familar with GSHP but I had similar issues with a solar thermal DHW system. Every time the power was cut the controller went back to factory default and was waiting for an input on the keypad before resuming operation.
    I installed a small UPS on the controller and have not had the problem since.
    We too are prone to short power cuts but the UPS covers these interruptions. It cost about € 150.

    Rainer


  • #3
    quentingargan
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1,627 ✭✭✭quentingargan


    I have been working with dataloggers for wind turbines that monitor grid voltage amongst other things. This has thrown up some very interesting results during power cuts. In once case during the run up to a power cut, on three phases, one phase went up to 290V while another fell to 160V. See attached graph. The 290V phase blew the daylights out of stuff, but a spell at 160V would have done more subtle damage to motorised devices.

    I have seen other similar voltage drops in advance of a grid failure, and generally the grid operator denies that anything of the sort happened. A UPS is a good workaround, but for a heat pump it would need to be a bit chunkier than what is normally used for a solar pump. I am also not sure if a UPS would try to start and stop given a 160V grid feed (or blow up given 290V)


  • #4
    al2009
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 177 ✭✭al2009


    Most soft starters i've seen have under/over voltage cutouts, might be worth getting the compressor checked as well as the soft starter.


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