Troubleshoot a Power Factor issue on solar production channels

The Power Factor on each of the channels monitoring the solar production should always be close to 1 (0.90 in Queensland in most cases) when the solar system is producing.

If the Power Factor is not close to 1, it can mean one of several things: 

• The CT is not clamped properly
• The CT ratio does not correspond to the channel calibration
• The CT is clamped around the wrong phase
• The CT is faulty
• The Solar Analytics device is faulty 

In case of low Power Factor readings, please follow this protocol to troubleshoot the issue:

1. Make sure the CTs are clamped properly

Make sure that the metallic parts of the CT clamp are clean and closing properly around the cable.

DO NOT clamp the CT around multiple cables.

2. Make sure the ratio of the CTs correspond to the channel calibration

The CT ratio can be found on the side of the CT clamp. It shows 60A/80mA for 60A CTs, 120A/100mA for 120A CTs, 200A/100mA for 200A, 400A/100mA for 400A and 600A/100mA for 600A CTs.

Keep in mind that you cannot use Rogowski coils on devices that are not calibrated for such CTs. Similarly you cannot use regular CTs on devices calibrated for Rogowski coils

3. Make sure the CTs are clamped around the right phases (3 phase sites)

By default, channels 1 and 4 are on the first phase, channels 2 and 5 are on the second phase and channels 3 and 6 are on the third one.

Make sure the CT on blue phase is clamped on the blue phase of the inverter, and the CT on the white phase should be clamped on the white phase of the inverter. Similarly, the CT on the red phase should be clamped on the red phase of the inverter.

If the cables of the inverter output do not have colour references, try different configurations until you get a Power Factor of around 1 on all the channels monitoring the solar system.

4. The CT is faulty

If after steps 1, 2 and 3 the issue persists and one of the channels has a low power factor reading, try replacing the CT with another one. If after replacing the CT the power factor looks normal that means the CT was faulty, please contact our support team so we can send new CT's.

5. The device is faulty

If after replacing the CT you still see a low Power Factor on the same channel, the device itself is probably faulty, please contact our support team so we can send a replacement device.