I'm fairly sure that looping between breakers is not an allowed practice in modern code. They might have set it up that way to make a poor man's unpolarized breaker which means that the input circuitry is probably setup to short if the polarity is reversed (a very common user wiring mistake, believe it or not). They wanted that situation to trip the breaker without catching the breaker on fire. If the inverter has other features such as backfeeding or battery charging, they might need it for that too. Flattened ferrules are typically just a consequence of whatever terminal clamp (like in the breaker) that they were fed into. -Matt
Sometimes a dual breaker like this is looped to increase the voltage rating to double. This breaker is rated for 500V and that is what the charge controller is rated for so no reason the series connect the positive thru the breaker. This was discussed on the DIY Solar Forum. As for the flattened ferrule, the original ferrules in the failed charge controllers had deep ridges and reduced the contact area by 1/2. I think this might be a major contributor to the connectors failing.
Could be, it certainly has been a test of not only the equipment but my patience. The charge controller itself works fine, I've run over 15 Mwh thru these charge controllers. The failures were at the connectors and I have bypassed the connector and recommend anyone with this unit to also bypass the connector.
Excited to see how this fix holds up. It is definitely a lot better than it was originally!
I see you're in Iowa. I just moved from Iowa (35 years there). I'll spend the next half of my life in Missouri.
think i would fix what looks like cold/broken solder joints at those spade connector points. they will cause lots of issues.
My assumption is the actual solder joint is on the backside, the male spade goes thru the pcb.
I'm fairly sure that looping between breakers is not an allowed practice in modern code. They might have set it up that way to make a poor man's unpolarized breaker which means that the input circuitry is probably setup to short if the polarity is reversed (a very common user wiring mistake, believe it or not). They wanted that situation to trip the breaker without catching the breaker on fire.
If the inverter has other features such as backfeeding or battery charging, they might need it for that too.
Flattened ferrules are typically just a consequence of whatever terminal clamp (like in the breaker) that they were fed into.
-Matt
Sometimes a dual breaker like this is looped to increase the voltage rating to double. This breaker is rated for 500V and that is what the charge controller is rated for so no reason the series connect the positive thru the breaker. This was discussed on the DIY Solar Forum.
As for the flattened ferrule, the original ferrules in the failed charge controllers had deep ridges and reduced the contact area by 1/2. I think this might be a major contributor to the connectors failing.
Your mistake was purchasing a Chinese made EG4 charge controller.
Could be, it certainly has been a test of not only the equipment but my patience. The charge controller itself works fine, I've run over 15 Mwh thru these charge controllers. The failures were at the connectors and I have bypassed the connector and recommend anyone with this unit to also bypass the connector.