Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

daughy

graememk wrote: »

Not to my knowledge, we didn't have to for our install in Sept.

Ever get your low voltage checked out?

I was unsure to email or call the esb about it as I was waiting for the letter. But now since its got the go ahead I'll give it a week or so and get on to them about it.
Went with flo gas as a new provider, received a big contract stating they have the right to install a meter if and when they choose.
Will a smart meter if installed stop moving if solar is being produced. I just have the old spinning meter

graememk

daughy wrote: »

I was unsure to email or call the esb about it as I was waiting for the letter. But now since its got the go ahead I'll give it a week or so and get on to them about it.
Went with flo gas as a new provider, received a big contract stating they have the right to install a meter if and when they choose.
Will a smart meter if installed stop moving if solar is being produced. I just have the old spinning meter

And you were worried about export?! doesn't your disc spin backwards when you export?

daughy

graememk wrote: »

And you were worried about export?! doesn't your disc spin backwards when you export?

Unfortunately not, only if the magnets are taken out.

They run against the backstop, unwind the spring and lose calibration. The digital ones stall the register.

MAULBROOK

daughy wrote: »

I was unsure to email or call the esb about it as I was waiting for the letter. But now since its got the go ahead I'll give it a week or so and get on to them about it.
Went with flo gas as a new provider, received a big contract stating they have the right to install a meter if and when they choose.
Will a smart meter if installed stop moving if solar is being produced. I just have the old spinning meter

If the meter is old enough it might spin backwards, mine did and managed to wind the meter backwards for a months worth of free power.
ESB installed a digital one, fxxk it.

If it goes backwards fob them of for as long as you can.

If it goes backwards make sure the numbers get lower. Mine read 10x reality, ....great craic that was telling them their meter was defecktive and I wasn't paying them.
Had to film it reading 10kWh per kWh

MAULBROOK

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

If it goes backwards make sure the numbers get lower. Mine read 10x reality, ....great craic that was telling them their meter was defecktive and I wasn't paying them.
Had to film it reading 10kWh per kWh

When the bloke form the ESB came out he noticed it going backwards, he looked confused till I told him to look at the roof.

He just laughed and said the party's:):) over.

You can make make the opening of the meter door trigger a dump load so that doesn't happen. Reed switch.

championc

@gomamochi1 did you sort out your issue ?

I somehow unfollowed this thread. To be clear, you CANNOT measure a DC Connected Battery / Hybrid inverter. So MyEnergi should simply have a single CT clamp on the AC cable from the Inverter to the board.

CT Clamps do NOT / should not read the DC going from the Inverter to the battery. If you have one there, you should remove it's configuration from your Eddi / Zappi and remove / move the clamp onto a Live AC Cable ONLY

championc

championc wrote: »

you CANNOT measure a DC on from your Eddi / Zappi and remove / move the clamp onto a Live AC Cable ONLY

Of course you can. TriMetric for one of hundreds of options.

championc

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

Of course you can. TriMetric for one of hundreds of options.

Let me rephrase it so - MyEnergi is not setup to read DC current via their CT Clamps, nor interpret any DC information.

gomamochi1

championc wrote: »

@gomamochi1 did you sort out your issue ?

I somehow unfollowed this thread. To be clear, you CANNOT measure a DC Connected Battery / Hybrid inverter. So MyEnergi should simply have a single CT clamp on the AC cable from the Inverter to the board.

CT Clamps do NOT / should not read the DC going from the Inverter to the battery. If you have one there, you should remove it's configuration from your Eddi / Zappi and remove / move the clamp onto a Live AC Cable ONLY

Yes aware of all the above. Foind the issue was the app had a timed charge on the Eddi at 9am and 3 pm. Thought I checked this before I started moving clamps etc though as per usual the simple answer is often the right one....dooh

daughy

gomamochi1 wrote: »

Yes aware of all the above. Foind the issue was the app had a timed charge on the Eddi at 9am and 3 pm. Thought I checked this before I started moving clamps etc though as per usual the simple answer is often the right one....dooh

Well at least you got it sorted, it's a good learning progress for anyone who has similar issues.
My electrician has come back to me wanting pictures of a dc shunt before he wires up the Eddie.
As far as I'm aware dc shunts are used to monitor battery soc?
Got a new hot water tank installed and everything, I just told him it's fine. I'll find someone else

championc

daughy wrote: »

Well at least you got it sorted, it's a good learning progress for anyone who has similar issues.
My electrician has come back to me wanting pictures of a dc shunt before he wires up the Eddie.
As far as I'm aware dc shunts are used to monitor battery soc?
Got a new hot water tank installed and everything, I just told him it's fine. I'll find someone else

I use a shunt to monitor power going to and from my batteries. It goes in the middle of the Negative wire.

The only clamp an Eddi needs is the one on the GRID. So the guy was clearly clueless, but worse, he's obviously overthought something.

daughy

championc wrote: »

I use a shunt to monitor power going to and from my batteries. It goes in the middle of the Negative wire.

The only clamp an Eddi needs is the one on the GRID. So the guy was clearly clueless, but worse, he's obviously overthought something.

True. Back to the drawing board for me. Finding another spark
I have a feeling he is referring to a resistor.
I contacted the esb dismorn about my low voltage so I'll await there reply. Could be 2 weeks the automated email said.
Gonna miss this weeks sun for the eddie.. Nooo

championc

daughy wrote: »

True. Back to the drawing board for me. Finding another spark
I have a feeling he is referring to a resistor.
I contacted the esb dismorn about my low voltage so I'll await there reply. Could be 2 weeks the automated email said.
Gonna miss this weeks sun for the eddie.. Nooo

Wire up the Eddi yourself. It simply fits Anywhere along the wire between the board and the immersion. MyEnergi stuff is clearly setup in instructions for self install.

daughy

championc wrote: »

Wire up the Eddi yourself. It simply fits Anywhere along the wire between the board and the immersion. MyEnergi stuff is clearly setup in instructions for self install.

I honestly would, no problem doing it. I don't have an immersion switch, just the negative, positive, and ground left in the box at the hot water tank. The cable ran back to the board and where left in a terminal block.
It has its own trip switch on the board but I'm unsure why it was left in a terminal block. The last electrician says I need an new RCD to replace the trip switch for the immersion as that's the new regs..
I could get an electrician to just wire up the new immersion switch to the element, and then rewire it to the Eddie and SONOFF Wi-Fi temp switch. Il see what this new spark says on Wednesday for the price of the install.

daughy

Just to clarify, there never was an immersion switch next to the tank. Just the cable left in a box.
Not sure why.

daughy

Has anyone with an Eddie tried to hook up a space heater on heater 2 of the Eddie?
After the hot water tank has topped up its temp I would like the Eddie to send power to a space heater I have.
The reason being, well to not send back to the grid, but I have an upstairs bathroom that is tiled and always chilly.. Would this be viable?

championc

championc wrote: »

Let me rephrase it so - MyEnergi is not setup to read DC current via their CT Clamps, nor interpret any DC information.

Nothing to stop you from putting one in, all you have to do is interupt the feeding negative cable and insert a shunt.


The battery meter is more important than the AC meter, the only reason I say this is because I generally only fit batteries where they have to work well instead of being a grid buffer that can afford to be less effective.
Cart and horse etc...
In most instances it won't make you happy. With a DC meter and an AC meter you'll see the inverter & charger losses.

DrPhilG

Is there anything in the works from myenergi to read the DC coupled battery? Even aside from a clamp, can't the 2 systems talk to each other? The Solis app can tell me the exact battery state and how much power is going in or out.

championc

DrPhilG wrote: »

Is there anything in the works from myenergi to read the DC coupled battery? Even aside from a clamp, can't the 2 systems talk to each other? The Solis app can tell me the exact battery state and how much power is going in or out.

They're more likely to support the AC Battery properly since it was rumoured at one point that they were going to introduce their own battery.

Your best bet is to restrict the charging rate, so that you get excess while still charging batteries. 50ah is about 2kw, so if you can set charging to 25ah, then anything over 1kw will head towards the house instead

Batteries are DC.
Chargers are coupled.
Third party meters are available for your applications.

daughy

DrPhilG wrote: »

Is there anything in the works from myenergi to read the DC coupled battery? Even aside from a clamp, can't the 2 systems talk to each other? The Solis app can tell me the exact battery state and how much power is going in or out.

Does the gen+battery config not work for dc coupled batteries in the Eddie?
Why is this feature added?

You cannot ac couple a battery it'll explode, it's a polarity sensitive device and AC is inverting polarity at 50hz. The battery is charging from an ac source and the manual authors are not well educated.

daughy

Sir Liamalot wrote: »

You cannot ac couple a battery it'll explode, it's a polarity sensitive device and AC is inverting polarity at 50hz. The battery is charging from an ac source and the manual authors are not well educated.

I'm not sure if your referring to my post Liam, I'm not suggesting send ac power into a dc battery.
The option for the ct clamp in the Eddie when connecting to your solar ac generation has the option of changing from generation only, to generation+battery monitoring.
I'm just confused as to what this feature actually does as it says when coupled with a dc battery?

I'm just wittering in general about the documentation and "authorities" we look to for guidance not knowing their arse from their elbow.
Given the amount of errors in that document I wouldn't advise following it. If you want to measure a battery the common practice is to use an SOC [state of charge] meter with a shunt.

As I've said earlier the Trimetric is good and has a wide input voltage range.

There's cheep and cheerful china-o-meters aren't bad too.

daughy

Always a pleasure to read your posts
It's true, dc shunts are useful.
I'll check YouTube for more info about this gen+battery config.
I am nearly sure I heard it was experimental and not ready as of yet.

championc

daughy wrote: »

Does the gen+battery config not work for dc coupled batteries in the Eddie?
Why is this feature added?

It seems it was some form of experimental unimplemented setting. It was asked and clarified previously on the MyEnergi forum.

But the main issue is that it is (from a MyEnergi products perspective) impossible to see as to what is happening INSIDE the Hybrid inverter. You best and only option is to restrict the charging of the batteries, to force excess

garo

daughy wrote: »

Does the gen+battery config not work for dc coupled batteries in the Eddie?
Why is this feature added?

Don't think that option does anything useful above the Generation Only option.