How to fix inverter tripping

Inverter circuit breakers help protect and guard against damage to the inverter and reduce the risk of fire
in the event of an electric fault.

These circuit breakers provide overload and short-circuit protection. Sometimes though, these circuit breakers can trip repeatedly and fixing them can be both time-consuming and frustrating.

In this post, I will highlight the common causes of tripping and how to fix them.

Common causes of inverter circuit breaker tripping

# 1. Inverter overload

Causes of inverter output circuit breaker trip

Both inverter input and output circuit breakers protect the inverter, its wiring from damage as a result of current overload or faulty wiring.

Should a connected appliance’s power consumption exceed the inverter’s capacity then the inverter output circuit breaker will trip.

Faulty wiring connected to the inverter’s output will also trip the output circuit breaker.

Causes of inverter input circuit breaker trip

On the other hand, the input circuit breaker protects the charger circuity and bypass relay against damage resulting from overload and short-circuit faults.

Before resetting the inverter input or output circuit breaker,

  • Check the wiring of the connected appliance
  • The connected appliance for faults

Once, all the checks pass, then you can reset the circuit breaker.

# 2. Faulty inverter

A fault in the inverter itself usually causes the inverter to trip. If after confirming that

  • there are no faults in the appliances connected to the inverter
  • there is no faulty wiring

Then it is quite likely that the fault is in the inverter itself. At this point, it is best to follow the inverter manufacturer’s trouble-shooting guide.

If stuck, contact your manufacturer’s technical support or authorized service personnel for your inverter model.

In addition to the tripping from the inverter and branch level circuit breakers, you can have GFCI outlets tripping too. GFCI breakers can sometimes trip repeatedly, also known as nuisance tripping.

# 3. Oversensitive GFCI sockets or appliances causing EMF interference

Nuisance tripping

Faulty wiring such as extension cables causing small currents to leak to ground, oversensitive GFCI sockets or appliances such as live monitors can cause repeated tripping of the inverter, usually referred to as nuisance tripping.

To successfully fix nuisance tripping,  you need to identify, fix or replace the faulty equipment. Start by checking for faulty wiring (loose connections), disconnecting suspect equipment and observe if the problem clears.

Is none of the above steps work, do not hesitate to contact your inverter manufacturer’s technical support or a certified electrician.

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