iBoost+ issues

[BMcN]

Looking for a little help with my iBoost.  I have had it in and running for a while in the background without paying my attention to it.  Now we are using some hot water I bought a iBoost buddy and have been paying attention.

 

I think my unit is faulty, most of the time it will show 'Water not heating' but the Buddy is showing us importing 2-3kw.  I checked the unit and the blue lighting bolt is flashing.  Checked voltage and it is putting 450v to immersion heater (between L and N,   230v between L and Earth),  until immersion thermostat cuts off.

 

Also, when it does say heating by solar, it seems to be on or off - it doesnt ramp up and down.  So when heating my solar it is always around 2.7kw.  Should this not be proportional to what is being exported?  ie if we are exporting 1kw then only 1kw should be sent to immersion?

 

Thanks.

[ProDave]

Firstly there is something wrong with your meter or the way you are using it, it most certainly will NOT put 450V into the immersion heater between L and N.

 

What it probably is doing is either phase angle firing our burst firing to regulate the power going into the heater,  That might be confusing your meter?

 

Who installed it?

 

Can you post some pictures of the units in particular the placement of the current clamp that measures import / export.

[BMcN]

1 hour ago, ProDave said:

Firstly there is something wrong with your meter or the way you are using it, it most certainly will NOT put 450V into the immersion heater between L and N.

 

What it probably is doing is either phase angle firing our burst firing to regulate the power going into the heater,  That might be confusing your meter?

 

Who installed it?

 

Can you post some pictures of the units in particular the placement of the current clamp that measures import / export.

I did. 

 

Meter is a cheap one, I can re try with a fluke later maybe.  

 

Tried the clamp on various positions.  Out of the meter I have two sets of tails, one to the garage where the solar is and one to the CU.  The clamp seems to be reading correctly, If I place the clamp on the main incoming  it will show say 2kw import, if I place it on the CU tail it will show 2.7kw import and if I place it on the garage tail it will show 6-800w export (for example). 

 

Regardless, why would it be heating the immersion at all while showing 'Water heater off'? 

[ProDave]

1 hour ago, BMcN said:

Out of the meter I have two sets of tails, one to the garage where the solar is and one to the CU.  The clamp seems to be reading correctly, If I place the clamp on the main incoming  it will show say 2kw import, if I place it on the CU tail it will show 2.7kw import and if I place it on the garage tail it will show 6-800w export (for example). 

There is your problem.

 

ONE set of tails goes to the garage, which is where the solar PV power is coming from.

 

The other set of tails goes to the house CU which is where most of the house loads are consuming power.

 

You need to find the single set of tails after the summation point.  It would be most unusual to actually have 2 sets of tails exiting the meter directly, so you probably have one set of tails out of the meter and then split with henley blocks or something similar.  THAT is where your current probe needs to fit.   Can you post a picture of that bit (not seen any pictures yet)

 

At the moment your iboost is either seeing the generated power OR the consumed power, depending where you have put the clamp, but it has not yes seen the summation of the two.

[BMcN]

No dave it is on the single tails between the meter and main incomer. 

 

See attached, red to to house CU and green to garage CU and solar inverter. 

 

What I was saying before is that I tried on the location in photo, the garage tail and the house tail.  The garage and house tails net is equal to the moan tail so I'm confident clamp is OK. 

[dpmiller]

tried reversing the clamp?

[BMcN]

Yeah. I am pretty sure the unit must be faulty.  Even if there was a problem with the clamp - it shouldn't be powering the immersion while saying water heating off.