Renogy 2000w not working

[VanKitten]

I tried to start basic tests today on the electrical system.

Shore power connected...30amp

First test to the outlets.

I get 110 on the input side....
But, nothing coming out on the output side.

????    Why.

Looks just like this


The ground wire goes to the circuit break box, and ground from there goes to the common ground busbar.   Checked all of it

 

[tx2sturgis]

We need a bit more info...

Are any power indicator lights on?

Is that output side connected to the input side thru an inverter-charger or what?

 

[VanKitten]

No indicator lights.

It isn't just connected to the inverter/charger....It IS the inverter/charger...

That is the back end of the renogy inverter/charger. Picture taken right out of their install "guide".

 

[VanKitten]

Here is a pic of the whole thing from the other end

 

[Weight]

Are the wires according to color. Your diagram would be from left; Green, black, white. Then white, black, green. Does the inverter/charger have to be connected to the battery?

 

[VanKitten]

Yes.

 

[VanKitten]

Sequence of wires is correct as you listed them.

 

[VanKitten]

Perhaps the unit isn't grounded right?

There is three ground

The ground on the AC side. This is grounded from the shore outlet to the input side, then on output side to circuit box. In the box to the grounding busbar. From the circuit box grounding busbar to the common ground busbar for everything .... this of course goes to the shunt and then to battery negative return and also from shunt to chassis ground.

All that sound right?

On the DC side...the red power pole to the battery, the black to the common ground busbar.. (to shunt, and ground as listed already above).

So.. what about the "grounding terminal" on the far left bottom on the DC side? How is that used? What isn't already grounded from both sides? Could this be the problem? Somehow the ground from the circuit breaker on the AC side and the ground from the negative terminal on the DC is not enough?

 

[VanKitten]

Diagram of the DC side of the renogy

 

[Cammalu]

Why don't you just call Renogy - they will talk you through proper installation and stand behind their product.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[highdesertranger]

none of the AC grounds go to the battery shunt. AC ground and battery negative are two different things. the chassis ground the one on the lower left of the diagram goes straight to the vehicle chassis not through the shunt. only the DC Negatives go though the shunt. I assume you have checked the breakers? highdesertranger

 

[VanKitten]

When it is operating as an inverter it is drawing power from the battery...you say the ground from the circuit panel goes straight to chassis.

I seem to remember this conversation before. Isn't all power from the battery ground thru the shunt...that would have to include ground from the circuit panel

The shunt is the means that the battery monitor "knows" the power discharge of the battery.
If I do not ground thru the shunt...aren't I then bypassing the monitor and defeating the purpose?

The ground on the lower left on the inverter DC side goes to chassis? So..three groundings...on from the AC side and 2 from the DC side? What power flows thru that ground? Bypassing the shunt?

Maybe it would be simplier to just have a list.

Ground from the AC circuit breaker panel go straight to chassis?
Ground from DC panel goes to shunt
Ground from lower left side of DC panels goes straight to chassis?

That right?

Ive hunted everywhere for a wiring diagram that shows the renogy Even their guide does not discuss where to hook up each of the three separate grounds

 

[Weight]

AC; from pedestal/wall outlet, black is 'hot' to earth. white is 'neutral' to earth. green is earth known as ground. green is a safety and the 120 volts will work without but could kill you. If you plug your van into an outlet, your green should be connected to the chassis to protect you from "hot skin" on your van. You should also test the outlet is wired properly.
DC; The lug on the case is a safety connection to protect the inverter from internal shorts. It should eventually return to the battery negative. It should go through the shunt. All negative DC should go through the shunt.
As example on my system. The battery negative is on one side of the shunt, labeled battery. My negative buss bar connects to the other side of the shunt, labeled load. My chassis, inverter, refrigerator, solar, and charger all connect to the buss bar. Smaller loads negative connect to chassis, that connects to the buss bar. The "grounding" lugs on the chargers and inverter connect to the chassis, that connects to the buss bar, that connects to the shunt, that connects to the battery negative.
Back to AC from the inverter. The inverter has an internal green connected to the case. So the case returns to the chassis and then battery. The whole thing becomes one common ground and that is good.

 

[VanKitten]

The wiring for 120v was done by an electrician.

I am just trying to understand why there are 3 different grounds?

One off the circuit breaker box....this is 120v...so that goes straight to chassis? (This is a green cable)
Two from the DC side.... one is negative ...so that goes to shunt
The other....the connection on the lower right in the picture.....

It also goes straight to chassis?

I now have two opinions.... highdesert says..take it to the chassis...you say..take it to the shunt....
This statement confuses me completely...

"Smaller loads negative connect to chassis, that connects to the buss bar. The "grounding" lugs on the chargers and inverter connect to the chassis, that connects to the buss bar"
HUH? Everything goes TO the busbar, then the shunt, then ground to chassis. Chassis does not connect to buss bar...it connects to the shunt after the monitor.

the battery side of the shunt is ground to chassis, and a second cable to battery negative (this all happens after the shunt..so battery monitor does not get involved with this from there)

So... if I am going to chassis...I will connect to the same cable going to chassis from shunt.
If I am going to negative battery..I will connect to the other side of the shunt (before battery monitor.. so monitor sees all of this activity)

 

[VanKitten]

A picture of the wiring diagram would really help my understanding.

 

[VanKitten]

Ok...here I see a picture...

The green (negative) from the circuit breaker box goes to the bottom side of shunt..join to the cable to chassis?

The negative From lower right side of inverter goes where?   Ground buss bar or chassis.

I assume I can just solder to the cable going to chassis from the bottom of shunt...no issue with doing that?   I hate to drill more holes thru the floor...and I have a solid welded join of that cable to frame of vehicle.

 

[Weight]

I cant do pictures. battery negative to shunt-bat, shunt-load to negative buss-bar to inverter negative. Lug on inverter case to chassis. chassis to negative buss-bar.

 

[Weight]

As far as the inverter thingy not working. I would replace the fuses in the inverter thingy. Those can be bad and not even look like it. Do you have a combination test meter? I can send you one from harbor freight.

 

[VanKitten]

Here is the update and "resulotion" of a sort.

The issue is that the Renogy uses The DC side of the box for the power to run itself.
So..even when it is drawing power 120 from shore...it still will only operate with 12v DC
So, it runs as an inverter...drawing power for the outlets and itself from the same source.

BUT... in my system, charging this is an issue.

I have 400 ah lithium lifepo4.   I could not find a BMS that would be both big enough and have a real company in the USA providing warranty.   Lots of hobbyists.   Lots of Asian companies.    

So...as I have written about before...I am using two relays to provide one of the functions... low battery and high battery.    But, to do this..I need to separate those two functions.  Charging and Discharging.       

Now, what do I do with a device that pullsa 12v current even when it is Charging only?

The picture below demonstrates how I separated those functions to have the relays shut things down if battery are fully charged...or. Battery is discharged to the bottom limit.



The renogy is connected via the switch on the lower left corner.   EIther, charge or load.  Not both.   

I thought about having a separate line from the battery to just power the renogy...but how can I be sure it will not try to pull power to run outlets thru that smaller line?  How could I be sure it doesn't try to charge the batteries then that small line?  Either would result in fire.

I cannot circumvent the charge and load relays without losing that protection.

It looks to me like I can never run this thing as a charger.   I cannot figure out a way to get around this.

PS.. I have called renogy tech support twice.   The guy doesn't know squat.   Each question..he would put me on hold ..go away for 10 minutes....come back with an answer I knew was wrong.   For instance...he told me I should not ground any part of my system to the chassis....  not safe.     They do not seem to know anything about the internal working of their own device.    They just read the trouble shooting guide straight out of the users guide....which I can and did read for myself.

Anyway..this is the update.

 

[John61CT]

My impression is that Renogy is a good source for panels only. Maybe they just relabel gear, not actually a mfg? Or they don't have English-speakers with any tech knowledge, this side of the co. is sales only.

Is the charger section of that combi unit even voltage adjustable? If not, what is the output V?

I would go with a separate charger, and one that you can rely on to control its own charging algorithm within the specs you know are good for the bank. Your BMS OVD set higher, only ever used if a charge source fails to control its V.

And similarly, an inverter with its own LVD set far higher than the last-resort failsafe setting of your BMS LVD.

That way you can maintain your separation between charge and load busses, which is a good design.