False Alarm

It was the second time such was happening. The first time, I couldn't even understand what the problem could be, so I thought to check it later. Everything looked fine -- as though I had only imagined what I saw earlier -- until it happened again. It was a terrible time, but just one move I made led me to realise something.

Normally, you'd expect an appliance to at least work well for years before any kind of fault develops. It had only been six months since I installed my solar energy system, and then all of a sudden, the inverter wouldn't come on. Without the inverter, the battery was just as good as nothing because I wouldn't be able to use my appliances or at least charge my laptop. I felt frustrated.

I kept toggling the switch, only to have the inverter barely come on and then just flat out right away. If it had been any other day, I'd not have been angry about it, but we had barely had electricity in a long time, there was no petrol to use the generator, and I really needed to work. But since I hadn't experienced such an issue, I concluded that the inverter had gone bad. And so I forfeited the night.

Hours later, it hit me. "Wait a minute. I didn't even confirm the system wiring or anything at all before concluding." I realised I only allowed my frustration to cloud my thinking and didn't even try to find a solution.

When I looked at the battery and inverter, I found just the problem. Apparently, the inverter was just fine. The cable on the negative terminal was burnt. The cable had gotten so weak over time that it couldn't even carry current, and that's exactly why the inverter wouldn't come one. "Dammit!" All I had to do was replace it.

Here's what would have happened if I had outsourced the problem to someone else. They'd have charged me for my ignorance and not even been gentle about it. This type of situation is particularly what makes me at least try to find a solution myself, and that's even how I built the solar system myself in the first place. I may fail, but I would also learn something. Anyway, it was a false alarm... All systems are back online.