Kid using excess power troubleshoot

[VT Vardo]

Hello, I have a kid with a WBJr that seems to be using more power than it should while resting.  When my 24 volt system is totally at rest, with the inverter completely shut off  and no loads or input, I am showing -1.8amps on the third status screen.  I notice that overnight I seem to lose charge faster than I would imagine possible. It is almost a constant 42Watt  drain on my small system!!! Does anyone have any advice to track down this problem?  I plan to try "Reset to Factory Defaults" first to see if that helps...
Thanks

[TomW]

if a non contact DC ammeter is available you could find where that draw is coming from. Somehow, I doubt The Kid is sucking that much idle current. If the WBJR is installed correctly, all the loads go through the shunt it is on and will show as current draw across the WBJR.

Also, much of the equipment today is not truly "off" when switched off. Many devices have standby or idle current draw. Several such devices could easily swallow a couple amps.

Just some thoughts and a couple ideas.

Tom

[Westbranch]

Agree Tom, my first thought was to disconnect the Inverter and observe if the load is still there. 

My other thought was,  that is why the E-panels have the CC connect before the main CB, then you have a shutoff for only the inverter,
rather than connecting after the CB where it can act as a  battery disconnect from the entire system...

both are nice to have setups. but the first lets the CC charge your batteries while servicing the inverter...

[VT Vardo]

Thanks Tom and Westbranch. I did try disconnecting the inverter, just to make sure, but the load was still there.  I even disconnected the solar array and lightning arrestor. Even after all this, and a "factory reset", I have had no luck.

Just to try everything I could, I also swapped over to just two of my batteries and tried the CC out as a 12 V system. (Just the controller of course!) I did this because one of my batteries was damaged during shipping and I wanted to rule that out. Still no change although I did note that the -amps were the same even though I was now on 12v. Hmmm, I thought that the load would have been more amps with a lower voltage. Totally stumped!
Matt

[Halfcrazy]

Well 1.8 amps at 12 volts is 22 watts so on a 24v battery its 44 watts and so on, This should make the KID smoking hot it it really is dissipating that 1.8 amps. I would get a second opinion using an amp probe. I suspect it could be an issue with the WBjr maybe? I guess what I am saying is we need to determine if the 1.8 amps is real and if so we need to get that kid repaired. Is it going to resting at night not staying in Bulk or Float?

[VT Vardo]

That makes sense about the voltage. I should have thought of that. I have had the same thought, about whether the load is real or not. I'm pretty sure the WBjr is wired correctly and has the correct shunt.

The kid is not physically hot at all.  It also goes to "resting" at night.

[Halfcrazy]

If it is not warm at all and is resting I suspect 1 of 3 things:

1- Shunt is out of calibration
2- There is really a load some where
3- WBjr is out of kilter

[VT Vardo]

Hi Folks,
I just wanted to report back and say that I have found the problem with my kid. (If only it were this easy with my real kids!) It turns out that the screws holding the Whiz Bang Jr. onto the shunt were a tiny bit too long and had bottomed out before the WB Jr. was actually tight.  This goes in the, "WB Jr is out of kilter", category.  I was pretty sure that the load shown was not correct since, over time, my batteries would stay the same or gain a bit of voltage, while the KID/WBJr kept showing lower and lower percent charge. I was able to take a series amp reading to verify that the only load was about 4Watts (not over 40!!!), which is what I would expect the charge controller to be normally using. Now after installing some shorter screws things are working fine.  Thanks for all your help and suggestions.