No mains electric

Folkranger

Folkranger

Joined
May 2, 2014
Posts
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Location
Washington
Funster No
31,281
MH
Hymer B 584DL
Exp
17 years + 35 tugging
Unplugged the van from the mains at home and drove 2 hours to site. Mains now not working. Tried someone else's lead and still nothing so its a fault in the van. The mains trip switches are on so nothing tripped. But no mains. We'll be alright for the weekend on 12v and gas but Dores anyone know of anything else to try?
 
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In my experience it’s odd for the main inlet of power to go anywhere else than the fuse board / consumer unit first. If it doesn’t then it’s not protecting the supply.
 
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Lenny HB said:
In your photo it looks like one of the cables to the consumer unit is unplugged.
Click to expand...

I agree, but only if the lights are on, on the victron easyplus. It has a switch on the front panel, assuming that hasn't accidently been turned off?

For others, the blue thing is an easyplus.

It's an inverter/charger. The ehu goes direct to it, and it has the input MCB protecting that. I.e. if something goes wrong internally it will trip the 16A. It also has a feed from the batteries.

On the output side of the inverter it has the rcd feeding those 4 other MCB's. One of which will be feeding the original van consumer unit.

It's quite a clever bit of kit that will act as an uninterruptible power supply, automatically switching to making 240V from the batteries if the mains fails.

Another function is that you can set a maximum current draw from EHU of, say, 6A but if you put the kettle on it will get the rest from the battery.

And it charges the batteries...

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Upvote 0
pappajohn said:
Well the inverter doesn't work.... There's no 230v from any source.
Click to expand...

All of the sockets in the van will be fed from the white CU. So if it is that cable that would fit.

The important thing is whether there are any lights on the easyplus.

Screenshot_20210925-144910_Samsung Internet.jpg
 
Upvote 0
Lenny HB said:
In your photo it looks like one of the cables to the consumer unit is unplugged.
Click to expand...
that cable is not connected at either end. I assume he's replaced the original with a heavier cable and just left the original lying there. The connected one is thicker.

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Upvote 0
St3v3 said:
I agree, but only if the lights are on, on the victron easyplus. It has a switch on the front panel, assuming that hasn't accidently been turned off?

For others, the blue thing is an easyplus.

It's an inverter/charger. The ehu goes direct to it, and it has the input MCB protecting that. I.e. if something goes wrong internally it will trip the 16A. It also has a feed from the batteries.

On the output side of the inverter it has the rcd feeding those 4 other MCB's. One of which will be feeding the original van consumer unit.

It's quite a clever bit of kit that will act as an uninterruptible power supply, automatically switching to making 240V from the batteries if the mains fails.

Another function is that you can set a maximum current draw from EHU of, say, 6A but if you put the kettle on it will get the rest from the battery.

And it charges the batteries...
Click to expand...
Yes it does all that but where it fails is "uninterrupted power supply"
 
Upvote 1
pappajohn said:
Well the inverter doesn't work.... There's no 230v from any source.
Click to expand...
Never tried the inverter. I assume it works though I'm not going to make a brew with it when I'm solely on battery for 4 days.
 
Upvote 0
St3v3 said:
It is also possible that has been disconnected to disable the onboard charger now the easyplus is fitted.

Folkranger , please check the lights and black rocker switch on the blue thing :)
Click to expand...
Easyplus is switched on but no lights on it.
 
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Folkranger said:
Easyplus is switched on but no lights on it.
Click to expand...

Do you have a remote control panel?

I know it sounds weird, but it needs to be set to inverter on for mains to pass through from ehu.

You need to measure voltage on the actual input really.
 
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Solution
For next time... 🙂

You need one of these - a non-contact AC voltage detector. Absolutely invaluable, I can detect AC on any cable in the van, with zero risk of injury, and it's trivial to find out where the AC stops and what's gone wrong.

I've also got one of these - £18, cheap Chinese plug-in socket tester which does seem to work. Not so useful, unless you do your own AC wiring (I do), but an easy way to test sockets (and wiring errors) without carrying around a meter and electrocuting yourself. It also does non-contact AC testing, like the Megger, but not as good, because it doesn't have a probe and you have to wave it around near the cable, and you can't distinguish between cables which are close to each other.

Also interested that there are two consumer units, but there's too many responses here to make any sense of that. If your Victron box actually is an inverter, the CU has to be on the output side, not the EHU side, because it also has to protect when the inverter is driven from the battery. I'm guessing that the last owner also put a CU on the input side, connected directly to the EHU, though I can't see the sense in that. The Victron will just have a relay that connects the AC in to the AC out. If it does battery charging as well, maybe the last owner thought the charger should be protected. I don't think that's necessary, but maybe an actual electrician here has an opinion.
 
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Upvote 0
St3v3 said:
Do you have a remote control panel?

I know it sounds weird, but it needs to be set to inverter on for mains to pass through from ehu.

You need to measure voltage on the actual input really.
Click to expand...
Yes. The remote's set to charger only. Only change to inverter when inverting as it uses a few Watts but it's not in the off position.

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Upvote 0
EML said:
For next time... 🙂

You need one of these - a non-contact AC voltage detector. Absolutely invaluable, I can detect AC on any cable in the van, with zero risk of injury, and it's trivial to find out where the AC stops and what's gone wrong.

I've also got one of these - £18, cheap Chinese plug-in socket tester which does seem to work. Not so useful, unless you do your own AC wiring (I do), but an easy way to test sockets (and wiring errors) without carrying around a meter and electrocuting yourself. It also does non-contact AC testing, like the Megger, but not as good, because it doesn't have a probe and you have to wave it around near the cable, and you can't distinguish between cables which are close to each other.

Also interested that there are two consumer units, but there's too many responses here to make any sense of that. If your Victron box actually is an inverter, the CU has to be on the output side, not the EHU side, because it also has to protect when the inverter is driven from the battery. I'm guessing that the last owner also put a CU on the input side, connected directly to the EHU, though I can't see the sense in that. The Victron will just have a relay that connects the AC in to the AC out. If it does battery charging as well, maybe the last owner thought the charger should be protected. I don't think that's necessary, but maybe an actual electrician here has an opinion.
Click to expand...
Ehu goes straight into victron and a cable from there to other C. U.
 
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Upvote 0
Are the leisure batteries charged? Is the fuse near the leisure batteries, on the wire going to the inverter/charger, OK?
 
Upvote 0
EML said:
For next time... 🙂

You need one of these - a non-contact AC voltage detector. Absolutely invaluable, I can detect AC on any cable in the van, with zero risk of injury, and it's trivial to find out where the AC stops and what's gone wrong.

I've also got one of these
Click to expand...
I either use a megger or just a terminal drive tester.

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Upvote 0
St3v3 Don't know if this means anything but when I throw this switch either on or off I get a momentary light-up of all three lights accompanied by a relay clicking as they go on. Then straight off again. And that's without the ehu plugged in.
20210925_183320.jpg
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Following trying the inverter, tried the mains hook up again and the mains has come on. I don't know whether the load of an electric kettle on the unit has kick started something, say like a stuck relay. Honestly don't know what I'm talking about here but glad to have full power again for the moment at least.
 
Upvote 0
It could be the battery is really low. Leave ehu on, and the easyplus on and see how it goes.
 
Upvote 0
Folkranger said:
Following trying the inverter, tried the mains hook up again and the mains has come on. I don't know whether the load of an electric kettle on the unit has kick started something, say like a stuck relay. Honestly don't know what I'm talking about here but glad to have full power again for the moment at least.
Click to expand...
Congratulations on your perseverance, how chuffed and relieved you must be.....

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