Good Morning to the forum.
I have a challenge that has been haunting my days and my nights for a while now. Of course the good people at Ekurhuleni are shining in their lack of interest and skill in problem solving. Also to note I am not a qualified electrician; at best I am a talented amateur.
Problem Statement -
Nuisance Trip that cannot be identified.
My Setup -
220V Single Phase [Supposed to be 80A] Municipal feed; with 9 KW inverter, panes and 5KW battery pack
What has been done to now
Multiple Electricians have been onsite for this; have done insulation tests; have gone through everything at least three times.
Have split neutral rails
Have removed light circuits from earth leakage
Have replaced surge protectors on DB board
Have replaced wiring to geyser which was compromised
Have fixed one or two plug points which were identified in testing to be "not so good"
Have been told by the last electrician that he did the insulation test from the municipal side and there is no issue with that - although the readings he showed me was taken at two points after the mains [which was switched off] - so not sure what was actually tested, and to be blunt about it; I had to convince the gent that the zero export on my inverter actually does not mechanically clamp current but provides a measurement that allows the inverter's firmware to reduce output to that link to maintain a "negative pressure". I just got gatvol of having to argue with someone so absolutely convinced that I am wrong because I am not a qualified electrician that I left it at that.
Added another RCB to the circuit. 1 RCB for non-essential load e.g. geysers and 1 RCB for essential load [on the inverter return] for everything else.
None of the sub boards on the property has RCB's to interfere; they have rated 2 pole isolators only [30A/ 63A /40A etc tailored for wire gauge and load]
Have replaced the RCB feeding the geysers with a "Super De-sensitized" one.
Have replaced the RCB [which is the one now tripping occasionally - Read once or twice a day]
Ekurhuleni replaced the feeder cable from their "corner box" about 2 years ago but I don't believe that is one piece of cable, I am reasonably convinced it is cut and crimped at every driveway it crosses and I know it is joined to the old cabling going into my "outside wall box" because I have dug that up to verify
Confirmed that the at least 500mm the electrical cable is supposed to be submersed is in fact in places as shallow as 150 - 200 mm
Checked every screw join on every CB
Replaced any CB that was cheapies with CBI / Hager / Siemens [I have 4 Sub DB-S and 1 Main DB with a mix of DIN and Minirail breakers]
My neighbors reported "unspecified work done" by the municipality which included digging up a piece of road and their paving right where their feeder cable would be - after which my trips went from many to very few but still an issue
What has improved -
I have gone from multiple trips a day to maybe one or two and sometimes none
It no longer trips continuously in the rain
My thoughts -
I can show that the earth on the municipal "corner box" is burnt out - have pictures
A couple of years ago the municipality moved that collection point; which was outside my fence to the street corner; joining the 10 odd houses' cabling at that point in what looks like spaghetti. It is a mess and; it is barely below the surface.
I have had to wire my prepaid meter to use live and earth [outside of the earth leakage circuit] instead of live and neutral because otherwise I am unable to see what units I have left and am unable to load new units. I.e. Neutral is compromised. Of course that is not because of the municipality feed I am told, it MUST be something on my property. Yet; if I switch off everything in the house at the mains and connect the console unit to live.neutral pair at the wall box outside I still cannot communicate with the controller. Switch that to Live/Earth then I can
Also tripping issue was an issue before the inverter was installed
My Neighbors next door had a second phase added to their property for an industrial sewing machine they use. Read a lot about harmonics disturbing the waveform and creating nuisance trips [their cabling runs parallel to mine]; my ability to connect my prepaid meter unit stopped around the time that was added for them.
The municipality didn't dig up the ground and pull a new cable through for them; likely because I am supposed to be on 80A instead of 63A they jumper that to my link, and my neighbor didn't get a three phase meter added or for that matter an additional meter; meaning I am most likely paying for the electricity they are using on that phase
Also likely that that is one of the reasons why the chiefs at the municipality is completely ignoring my complaints about this because they know that there is a problem
My last electrician rather angrily highlighted to me that RCB's does not trip when the imbalance is on the feeder side; yet I have enough articles showing noise from an external source as root cause for nuisance trips. This seems to be a pattern repeating.
My inverter is reporting 6V floating voltage from the feeder side
I am at wits end to be frank however; to the point of all of this - - My ask please :
with all of the above noted - - the one thing I can still do is try to minimize the possibility that because of the bad earth on the municipal box; the fact that the bulk of the cabling makes a turn at my house first; the fact that I have about four earth spikes [Electric Fence; Solar Panels; Wall Box; +1 on opposite side of the property] it is possible that I am the earthing point now [path of least resistance].
What are the legalities of doing an earth/neutral bond at my wall box and ignoring everything else; will it have any negative impact if I did that. [not asking if it will solve my problems because it is clear that the majority opinion will be that it isn't municipal feed causing my issues despite every action on the source feed altering the behavior and pattern of the trips]; just will I create more issues if I do, do the neutral/earth bond at that point.
Thanking you all in advance
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