Hi everyone. I recently got an EB240 and am getting the E013 error (inverter overload) when only running my refrigerator. It’s happened 3 times after running for about 2 hours. I got a second unit (since I thought the first was defective), but the same thing is happening.
The unit will support a small load consistently (70W, a fan), and I did test the inverter limit with a hair dryer. The load went over 1,000 W before shutting off and showing the E013 code.
The refrigerator has an FLA of 7.2A at 115V, so the max power it should ever draw is about 828A.
I’ve been tracking my refrigerator’s energy usage for about 36 hours now. It draws less than 5W for 10-15 minutes, then jumps to around 110W for 10-30 minutes, then repeats the cycle. One of the peak cycles got up to 450W for about 8 minutes, but that’s the highest the load has been. Would that kind of load confuse the inverter or the protective devices?
No, but it sure sounds like your refrigerator has a short duration spike during start up at times which is causing the overload. This is not uncommon on items that have motors starting up. (Frig / AC units / pumps etc. Even though your fridge states 7.2 max amps it is likely to exceed that substantially for a fraction of a second which is causing the overload and not a problem with the EB240 as you have seen yourself by changing the unit out.
Thanks, but I have a hard time believing that with the rated load of the fridge and the readings from the energy monitor (which goes down to the second) that the fridge is having a high enough spike to trip the battery. Wouldn’t that have to be more than around 1,200W for a load only cycles long (less than a second)? The last time the unit tripped the monitor was showing less than 5W load! And when I turn the unit AC power back on the load spikes to about 400W momentarily then goes back down to around 100W. If the fridge had a spike that tripped the unit, wouldn’t that load just show up again on the re-start?
Is there any way to get historical data from the battery? That would help me confirm the actual energy draw at the time of tripping.
The issue with most power monitors is that they don’t have the precision needed to catch high power spikes. For example, I have a kill-a-watt meter, but it is not capable of showing surge spikes from a motor starting. There are likely devices that can, but it would have to be able to “remember” those current spikes since they can be much less than a second in duration. Most just show the average current within the display update time (ie: every second). The EB240 can only handle 1200 watts or less with any surge, but it is quite possible for a fridge to spike higher than that to start the compressor motor (from Amazon: “AC Load: Continuous 1000W(1000W-1200w@2mins, above 1200W,turn off)”).
Thanks. I’ve reached out to Whirlpool to try to get more information on the actual power requirements for my fridge. Hopefully that will help me understand what’s going on.
No, the EB240 won’t store data. Ideally you would want to measure the inrush amps of the refer with a clamp meter that can store the peak reading, something like this which I’ve used before: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08LJKZHNS/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o05_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1. There are less expensive clamp or plug in watt meters that can store max/min amps/watts but I don’t know if they will give a true inrush reading.
Your fridge start up electrical consumption is spiking for a fraction of a second higher than the inverter capacity of the Bluetti you have. Hnymann explained it well above and I know that you have a hard time believing that, but it is true none the less.
Well shoot, guess I have to get a unit with a bigger inverter. I’m looking at the AC200 series, the 200P and the 200MAX. Can someone help me understand how these units are “expandable”?
Agree with previous posts and need to know actual surge power drawn.
Eric102 pointed me toward a great device that will remember your surge wattage. His post on this meter, some discussion below regarding how well it worked for me and my refrigerator: