The Campfire Trail: July 24 - Resort Adventures

July 24, 2022

Day 216 of the Adventure

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost in the Woods (Colombia/Costa Rica blend)

The saga of our "Solar Plant Crash" from Thursday night continues. As does my learning curve. The reason for the shut-down of the inverter/charger was as expected. Depleted batteries. That wasn't necessarily the problem. though. The inverter is designed on purpose to shut down when the battery charge gets low. The problem was that it would not come back on once it appeared to have been charged back up by the solar panels the following day. That was a concern. I mean, the whole point of having alternative energy is when there is a power outage. Or worse-case scenario, when there is a grid shut-down. So, what happens when your back up system shuts down and won't restart? As Burt Gummer would say........ "Back-Up, Back-Up system!" Our back up to the inverter/charger and solar panels and batteries is a generator. Back up to that is an additional back-up generator. (Are we reaching the point of ridiculous redundancy yet???) Yes and no. I had two generators anyway from our resort days which were the 1st back up and the 2nd back up......... Where was I going with all this?

Oh, yes. After trying most of the trouble-shooting recommendations, I called the supplier. After complicated verbal exchange of battery connections, I think we discovered that there is possibly two cables that need connected differently. Not that they aren't doing their job. They possibly (and I really mean "possibly") may be causing un-even charging. Which, when they are full or nearly full from regular use is not really a serious problem. When depleted to the point of shut-down, could potentially cause a delay, either short or long, in the charging of one or the other battery banks. (More on that later)

I was also informed that the Inverter would not respond to a generator plug in since it was not turning on, either automatically or manually. After thinking about it overnight, I couldn't see how that was possible. How else would you ever get it on if it won't start on its own and won't start when turned on manually. Something about that didn't make sense. I decided to plug it in to a generator and SHAZAM! It started right up. The read-out from the solar panel charge controller said enough volts were present to do the job. However, once the Inverter came on, it said voltage was still low. Which may explain an issue with the two battery banks charging unevenly. Maybe! Regardless, it is running again and once the sun hits the panels, everything should all be back to normal.

Did I ever mention how I HATE learning curves??? Actually, I'm glad to be going through this one. I really do need to understand the operation of all of it if it's ever going to be a reliable main power source, or even a back-up power source.

Adventure Quote: Don't let the expectations and ideas of others limit who you are. If you let others tell you who you are, you are living their reality — not yours.

Click the following links to start your own adventure with us