Mains problem for off grid house

[wayki]

I've been on solar for years in an old small house, and wired up to some mains.

As it was turned on and all lights worked, and 1 socket went bang.

Another socket fried the router.

I turned it all off and unplugged everything.

Turned it on and saw each socket was ok - giving 240v.

Plugged in a lampshade to each socket and it worked.

Plugged ANYTHING else into each socket and nothing....nothing works or charges. But if i put the lampshade in it works.

Seems very illogical - please help.

 

[JohnD]

You say you are off grid.

How do you regulate the voltage of your circuits?

What is the frequency, and how smooth is it?

How many watts is your power source? What make and model?

Show us a photo of the back and front of the socket that "went bang". What was plugged into it?

p.s.
which country is it in?

 

[ericmark]

I remember the Lister auto start generators these were very basic and not suitable for a modern house, it needed some thing like a 60W bulb pure resistive to cause it to start. However since the 1970's when these were installed on the Falklands things have moved on. On the canal narrow boat they had a host of weird options often combining generator and inverter outputs, I will admit I was impressed when the volts on the battery dropped below a set point the generator auto started etc. There were so many variations it would be near impossible from your description to work out what you have.

Some of the small generators do not have an AVR, they have two loads where the voltage is correct, normally no load and 3/4 load. They have two field windings one in series this controls voltage at 3/4 load and one parallel this this controls no load voltage between those points the voltage varies from around 220 to 260 volt which was good enough for what they were designed for which was mainly flood lights.

Some inverters have what is called a simulated sine wave so you have three voltage levels zero, plus 260, minus 260, then back to zero, the average is 230 but not a sine wave, some equipment does not like this output.

There are also some very good small generators with inverters built in so the revs vary with load and it has quite a good sine wave output, so much depends on how your set up works one can't start to answer your question.

 

[Echo the husky]

Nothing wrong with a Lister Start-O-Matic, I know of 2 in regular service.