Eddi tripping the RCD

UnhappyCustomer

I finally got my solars installed a few days ago after months of agony, and now, when the sun is up there doing its job, the RCD tripped.

After some troubleshooting, the Eddi is the cause of it.

If I bypass the Eddi and leave the immersion on, it doesn't trip and it heats the water, but if I connect the Eddi and too much power comes in, the electricity goes off.

I reckon this is due to the immersion not being able to handle all that power at once. Did this happen to any of you? I contacted the Solar company and they said it is recurrent with some of their customers.

There must be a way of capping how much energy is the Eddi putting into the immersion. Did anybody achieve this?

micks_address

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058316687/eddi-tripping-the-rcd

you can lower the current the eddi is putting in but you shouldnt have to.. if you put the eddi on 'boost' does it trip the rcd? how old is your tank/immersion?

UnhappyCustomer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121192584#Comment_121192584

Tested it now. I turned it on now and boosted. Injecting 3.2 kW and it is not tripping... but it is taking it mainly from the grid cause it is not all that sunny now.

how old is your tank/immersion? - just God and the previous owner know... but even though I wouldn't say it is new, it works well without the Eddi

I'm a bit confused now then... could be too much temperature then? could be something in the Eddi installation?

EDIT: It tripped back again after around 35 mins and 2.1 kWh

micks_address

so it wouldnt ever trip if you left on the immersion for an hour non stop bypassing the eddi? how much solar are you producing?

graememk

If the immersion is tripping the RCD, the immersion is failing, although using the bypass is ok.. it could be a time/heat element to that problem.

Current is "taken" so you can't push too much power in, so the immersion will always draw it's 12ish amps but the eddi varies the voltage to change the power.

My first port of call is the actual immersion which in most houses has rarely been used until solar arrives

UnhappyCustomer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121193054#Comment_121193054

Immersion without Eddi doesn't trip no matter how long you leave it. how much solar am I producing when? At the moment of the RCD tripping? in general? the potential of the panels?

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121193082#Comment_121193082

If the immersion works well without the Eddi, I wouldn't blame the immersion. I thing the Eddi has to work for the immersion and no the other way around

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121193599#Comment_121193599

RCD tripping is earth leakage, somewhere. Electronics leak a bit to earth, Resistive elements can too [even more so when starting to go]

It possibly could be the RCD starting to fail too, and tripping too quickly, or too much on that RCD (as they get old they start to get a hair trigger)

Some earth leakage is normal, but as it starts to get closer and closer to 30ma it can trip the RCD. The extra leakage the eddi is adding is possibly pushing it over the edge.

By any chance do you have a clamp multimeter? As we have earth rods in ireland we cant just use the cpc in the meter box, as there will be some going to the earth rod. Yeah Its gonna take an electrician to fault find and pin down the issue... Possibly move the immersion to its own RCBO, or a new RCD..

There was a video from artisan, or efixx or something that they went round and monitored the earth leakage and systematically went around and figured out that it was the oven that pushed it over the 30ma for it to trip. Unfortunately I cant find it now.

UnhappyCustomer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121194035#Comment_121194035

The RCD is actually brand new so it shouldn't be the problem and it didn't fail until the Eddi was installed.

I don't have a clamp multimeter unfortunately but again to me, at the minute, it looks quite straightforward. Everything was working well. The Eddi gets installed and it starts to trip. Now, if there is much energy coming in from the Solar and going through the Eddi, it trips.

ockham's razor... must be the Eddi. My question now is... how exactly? and how to avoid it?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121194119#Comment_121194119

Eddi shouldnt trip the RCD in normal operations.

Does it trip it under boost? (Trying to make the fault repeatable)

Next step then is myenergi I'd say, faulty eddi, but might look for more investigation (especially on the immersion itself) to try and pin down where it's leaking to earth.

UnhappyCustomer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121194261#Comment_121194261

It does yeah when it reaches certain Kwh.

I found this https://youtu.be/tIxomiHLhI0 and I wonder if that is the solution

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121194295#Comment_121194295

thats the thermostat on the immersion. Nothing to do with the RCD. It's tripping the RCD in the consumer unit? and taking a few other circuits with it?

UnhappyCustomer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121194406#Comment_121194406

 It's tripping the RCD in the consumer unit? yes

and taking a few other circuits with it? No, the only thing that stops working are the plugs of the house

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121194574#Comment_121194574

Well the plugs are the other circuits.

I'd get onto myenergi or your installer for some more investigation. As you can replicate the problem on demand it makes things a bit easier to fault find.