About the CMS Inverter Range
CMS inverters were sold by a company called Carbon Management Solutions Pty Ltd who went into voluntary administration in 2013. The most popular CMS inverters were the CMS1500 and CMS2000 models, however a few larger systems including the CMS5000 and CMS10000 were also installed in Australia during the company’s active period.
CMS are unlikely to honour your warranty now they’ve gone into receivership. If you can reach your original installer, they may be able to assist in having your unit repaired. Generally speaking, this process involves:
- Having a licenced electrician disconnect your inverter.
- Returning the inverter (at your own expense) to a warehouse (which may be located interstate).
- Paying for the unit to be repaired. It’s difficult to determine how much this may cost as it depends on the extent of repairs required.
- Paying the freight charges to have the unit returned to your home.
- Having a licenced electrician reconnect the repaired inverter.
- When you consider all of these expenses, plus the cost of your solar ‘downtime’, it is only marginally less than the price of a brand new unit (which would come with a new 5-year warranty).
At Solargain, we pride ourselves on delivering exceptional service on all repairs, maintenance and monitoring services, regardless of where you originally purchased or who originally installed your inverter. So, even if you’re not one of our existing customers, we’re happy to take a look at your faulty CMS inverter.
The first step is contacting us and booking an inverter health check. In this visit we will:
- Check the entire system to identify exactly what is causing the fault.
- Attempt to repair the fault if possible(see our list of known faults below).
- Bring along a replacement inverter (just in case yours is beyond repair), to get you up and running that same day, saving you time and money.
If your system is working properly, the power light on your CMS inverter should be on and the fault light should be off. If the fault light is on, the screen will display a fault code, this helps identify whether your unit is going to be repairable or not. If the power light is on and the fault light is off, but you’re unsure whether or not the inverter is working, you should take the time to monitor the inverter’s yield (refer to page 21 of your user manual for the screen sequence).
- Using the function button, scroll to “Energy= {1234}kW”.
- Record this figure, and then record it again the next day, at the same time. The figure should be increasing as it shows your growing total solar energy yield in kwh. If it’s not there could be something wrong with your panels or the inverter. We would encourage you to contact us immediately to book a health check.
If the number is increasing but you are concerned that the figure is too low, then feel free to contact one of our offices and we can compare it to a system of a similar size in your state which we have previously set up on a data monitoring network.
A Solargain inverter health check will help identify the following types of faults and whether the inverter unit is repairable.
- Isolation faults occur when water gets into the wiring somewhere in the installation. If water isn’t found to be causing the issue, then the inverter will need replacing.
- Grid faults occur when the supply voltage to your inverter is outside the inverter’s preferred operating parameters. If the grid appears to be in fine condition, the inverter will need replacing.
- No utility faults occur when the solar supply main switch in the meter box has tripped off. If the problem persists while the isolators are turned on, then the inverter would need to be replaced.
- All other CMS inverter faults would result in a very high likelihood that your unit will need replacing.
For further information about the CMS range or to book your inverter health check, please contact our service department by calling us on 1300 73 93 55.
