Just hoked my Apex300 to a transfer switch. Been switching the outputs off and on to make sure every thing is OK. 2 days after hook up my dinning room lights flashing off and on every 3 seconds. I dimmed the lights to lowest setting, now they flash every 6 seconds. This is a three way dimmer switch.
2. Have a hybrid water heater. My wife yells at me there is a funny noise coming from basement. I go down and it’s the water heater making a hammering noise every 3 seconds. Soon as I connect it back to grid it stops hammering. Almost seems like the compressor is kicking off and on.
HELP Thanks in advance
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I’m not an electrician of course, but first for the hot water heater, your Hz may be low? Trouble is too, without physically witnessing this “hammering” noise, it’s gonna be hard to diagnose. I have a 120V HPWH and when on the Apex it seems fine. It does however require that I have BOTH Apex’s “online” in Parallel on the Hub A1 box, I experimented one day to see if just one Apex would handle the surge and well, it didn’t! Now, as for the lights, when you say flashing, I’d need more exact detail as to what “flashing on and off” actually means…sorry but do you mean LITERALLY “off” as in “dark off”? Cause our lights in the den “flash” about very 3-5 seconds also, but they’re LED’s, and those things are sensitive to everything ha ha, and also on a dimmer switch which may or may not add to the situation. But they do not literally flash “off” as in putting us in the dark.
@pjcar55 , does your setup include the HubA1?
I noticed a concern with my system when connecting AP300 through the HubA1, the power frequency (Hz) would pulse / surge about every 3 seconds.
(see some more about that here - Frequency (Hz) surging via Hub A1)
@twrenn , this is very interesting - as you ARE using the HubA1. I’ve been trying to find anyone else with the same experience as me. Yours seems pretty similar. Are you able to observe the frequency (Hz) specifically with a tool like a multi-meter or Kill-a-Watt?
I’ve had my HubA1 replaced twice, and even now with the third one, the behavior remains. Customer service has been helpful to assist, but the latest response is that: “our engineering team has confirmed that frequency variations within ±0.3 Hz are considered normal and fall within the standard operating specifications.”
So I don’t love that, as I too notice lights flicker, and motors surge (fridge, microwave), only when using the HA1.
I do not have the hub A1. I think I have pinpointed my problem. I think I have a pinched wire inside my transfer switch. When I turn on a certain circuit this problem shows up. My lights don’t just flicker, they will go clear and back on in a blink of an eye and do this evert 3 seconds.
Got it, thanks. Good luck with resolving your problem!
I am not sure I’m doing this right.
Was running my apex on solar for a few days now, no electric hook-up… Was testing how much wattage my house was drawing with everything on that’s connected to transfer switch. It was like 3200 watts. Which ran my battery down so I plugged it in to charge up. My wife yells down at me and said lights in dinning room are flashing again. So I now no it has something to do with plugging it in to grid.
@pjcar55 can you say more about your setup?
- are you on North American system (120V/240V split phase?)
- how did you connect your Apex 300 to the transfer switch? (using one of the front outlets, the 14-50 or TT-30 outlets?)
- is your transfer switch wired for split phase? Are you actually using any 240VAC devices?
- is the Apex 300 set to 120V or 240V modes?
(if you are on a European / 230V system, most of these questions won’t apply to you)
What I found on my setup was that when running in 240VAC mode, the Apex 300 can only do a maximum of 16A on either L1 or L2. This meant that if I had two high draw appliances on at the same time (such as a blender and toaster oven both on L1) I would get brownouts, and I specifically noticed this because my LED chandelier on a dimmer switch would flicker.
Since I only have 120VAC devices on the transfer switch, my solution was to set the Apex 300 to 120V mode instead of 240V mode. In this mode you get the full 32A @ 120V, which solved my problem - I can run two high draw devices at once.
Of course the power is not infinite, if I turn on 3 high draw devices (toaster oven, blender, and tea kettle) the lights will flicker.
But 32A is better than 16A.
North America
14-50
yes and yes
240v
Yes it’s 16 amps but on each leg which adds to 32 amps. I only use 250v for my hybrid hot water heater. But I run it on hybrid only, so it draws 500 to 600 Watts.
Mines on a 3way with dimmer switch led bulbs on a chandelier.
If I shut all lines to grid but that one, it still flickers. And only happens when I plug into 120v grid.
I pulled over 3200 watts the other with everything turned to generator and nothing happened until I plugged into 120v plug. I still think it’s a ground wire and neutral wire issue. Both electrcale panels are bonded and this might be the problem. Tring to get an electrician to come look at it.
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