Flickering lights when using Inverter on UPS mode

Pho3nix

Pho3nix

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Hi all,

Got the Deye 5KW inverter and it survived its first load-shedding like a champ.

As I’m getting ready to sleep and turn off the bedroom lights, I notice they are flickering every 5 seconds. Almost like a pulse of sorts. It only does this in 1 room and all the lights are on the 1 DB switch.

I turned off the lights at the DB and still the same behaviour.

I then bypassed the inverter and this stopped completely.

I’ve already popped the installer a message but a curious of anyone has some ideas?

Battery fully charged and just a few lights on in the house
 
I believe there was someone on here that had similar issues so hopefully they chime in. What voltage, frequency are you seeing and is it on load or non essential?
 
4afc1fec82a826e01508b7e8bacb5d2c.jpg


It’s on the load side.

Tried to switch back to the Inverter and earth keeps dropping :/

Turned everything off and on again.

Now everything is up and working BUT now it’s all the lights that are flicking in the house
 
There is a bit of a thing I see no one talk about and that is clean power vs dirty power. Now funny enough modified sine wave inverters are widely use because they are dirt cheap to make. Because the frequency isn't all that good it can cause stripes on your screen, strange humming on motors and flickering lights. Now one would think pure sine wave is better but no. Thing is they are still cheaply made and even a pure sinewave can cause lights to flicker, especially LED lights as they are more sensitive to it. So chances are you need to play around with the type of light bulb you have and that might get that solved but if the frequency is dirty it will not work. Now only few testers I know can do frequency check and they are expensive so if you have an electrician friend it might be worth just buying them a bottle of something nice to check it for you. 49.8Hz is acceptable actually but it should be 50Hz so it can be that your lights are just very sensitive.


AC voltage flickering on all-in-one HF inverters is usually caused by PV SCC and battery charging. If the internal high voltage DC supply varies too much during charging and PV sourcing, it can clip the sinewave voltage peaks on AC output. Since most LED lights are just simple rectifier-filter capacitor for AC to DC conversion, they are very sensitive to sinewave peak voltage of AC input.
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because Philips LEDs are designed so that variations in your driver current's output are minimized, they eliminate the factors that cause flicker. So, you won't see it, not even a hint.

That should solve your problem but give it a test first and make sure you get the one that works for you.
 
Last edited:
Pho3nix said:
4afc1fec82a826e01508b7e8bacb5d2c.jpg


It’s on the load side.

Tried to switch back to the Inverter and earth keeps dropping :/

Turned everything off and on again.

Now everything is up and working BUT now it’s all the lights that are flicking in the house
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Why is your external CT power a negative value? Are you feeding back into the grid?
 
Pho3nix said:
None are on a dimmer. All Led down lights
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It's probably just the powersupplies in these LEDs interacting with the high frequency switching noise from the inverter. The installer won't be able to do anything in that case, you would have to replace your downlights.
 
P924 said:
It's probably just the powersupplies in these LEDs interacting with the high frequency switching noise from the inverter. The installer won't be able to do anything in that case, you would have to replace your downlights.
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Getting the larney Phillips one's today and will see if it resolves the issue.
 
B-1 said:
Then it was probably installed wrong and you are going to have a few issues.
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Which way should it be pointing again? Towards the Inverter or pointing to the Main Line?

Assuming it put it this way as he know's the panel install is happening soon :/ Will ask him when he gets here.
 
Pho3nix said:
Which way should it be pointing again? Towards the Inverter or pointing to the Main Line?

Assuming it put it this way as he know's the panel install is happening soon :/ Will ask him when he gets here.
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OK if you don't have panels yet its not as big an issue. Arrow should face eskom side and it should be after the main switch.

Grid -> main switch -> CT sensor -> NE loads -> inverter -> essential loads
 
P924 said:
It's probably just the powersupplies in these LEDs interacting with the high frequency switching noise from the inverter. The installer won't be able to do anything in that case, you would have to replace your downlights.
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You were correct sir. Had installed some cheap Ellies ones and when I switched to Osram the flickering has gone away.

There were no Phillips but seems they are around the same price anyhow
 
If the earth leakage is tripping when switching between live grid and inverter, it might be worth checking that the live/neutrals are all connected correctly from the incoming feed through the inverter to the earth leakage. I had a reversed live-neutral on the incoming feed, but correct from the output feed and the earth leakage did not like it when the inverter switched over after power restoration and it sensed the swap over.
 
Earth neutral bond wasn’t done properly.

Get them to come out and fix it.
 
Pho3nix said:
Installer was on-site and tested it all. As mentioned it was an issue with the led’s themselves. Have had no issues since I changed all the lights
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If the power tripping when switching went away then all good.
 
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