Catching inverter faults early: zero output under sunlight
Every hour without production is energy lost for good. A simple, explainable rule makes a stopped inverter visible within minutes.
When an inverter stops, every string connected to it stops producing too. If this is only noticed in the end-of-day total, the energy of the hours in between is lost.
The rule
The logic is simple: if there is sun but no production, something is wrong. m4chanical GES flags an interval as a critical inverter fault when an inverter's power drops below 0.5 kW while irradiance is above 200 W/m².
P_actual ≤ 0.5 kW ∧ G > 200 W/m² → CRITICALWhy the irradiance condition?
Near-zero output is normal at night, at dawn or in heavy overcast. Without the irradiance condition, false alarms would fire every evening. As false alarms pile up, teams stop trusting alerts, and real faults get missed.
From alarm to action
- Consecutive 15-minute fault intervals merge into a single event, so the team does not receive the same fault again and again.
- The event is listed with the inverter, start and end time, duration and estimated kWh loss.
- Critical events are sent via Telegram with sound; warnings arrive silently.
Note: the rule tells you production stopped, not why. A grid outage, a protection trip or a communication loss can leave a similar trace. The exact diagnosis is made on site.
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