Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

championc

worlds goodest teecher wrote: »

I only bought this house last year, I didn't install the wills heater.

Spoke with the solar guy, a plumber and an electrician today. The solar guy said to install a single element immersion heater element. I need to prevent the kids from getting scalded. Plumber thinks it would help somewhat but will still be hot.

The Willis is connected directly to the iboost.

Much simpler to install an Anti-Scald valve. It allows you to set a predefined temperature and it mixes cold water in with the hot to ensure the hot water temperature is safe.

It could be put at the cylinder, since the cold supply is there and can easily be tapped off into this valve

slave1

Does the cylinder element not have a temp stat?

garo

slave1 wrote: »

Does the cylinder element not have a temp stat?

Exactly! Just turn down the thermostat.

worlds goodest teecher

slave1 wrote: »

Does the cylinder element not have a temp stat?

No, no thermostat. We haven't used the immersion since we moved in so only found out it doesn't have a thermostat when we heard the immersion bubbling.

garo

You can hear a bubbling sound even with the thermostat. I am still confused what your problem is. It would help if you gave us more detailed information.

worlds goodest teecher

garo wrote: »

You can hear a bubbling sound even with the thermostat. I am still confused what your problem is. It would help if you gave us more detailed information.

Bought house jan 2020, it was built in 1999. We renovated and moved in July 2020. Installed now grant oil boiler to use for dhw but did not remove immersion. The immersion already had the Willis.

Installed grid tied PV in jan this year. The hot water resulting from the diverter is scalding hot, we are showing no great decrease in units of electricity used considering we were using moderate amount of electricity since moving in. I wasn't tracking consumption every month but considering what we paid I expected some reduction.

The water is scalding hot and bubbling in tank. When I went to turn down the immersion thermostat I found there wasn't one.

The solar generation is for another day, I need to ensure the kids don't get scalded or that the immersion doesn't blow.

The Willis is the issue. I thought about having the Willis disconnected but the diverter is connected is connected directly to it.

The solar guys advice is to get the plumber to install a single element immersion heater element in the top of the domestic hot water cylinder..in the top bung and this could be connected to the iBoost.

The plumber said that cost around 150 but as an alternative, disconnect the Willis heater and put it on its own separate timer.
If possible turn down the temperature or fit stat with lower temperature so water not as hot.
If not possible to fit immersion. It only needs small bit of hot water for morning and evening, the way it is at the moment the diverter is putting the Willis heater on too much and it's burning electricity

spose

If you can here the tank boiling then the thermostat within the immersion is gone.

https://youtu.be/obWkCGFhuus

garo

Thanks now I understand. From what o understand the Willis doesn’t heat the tank but works in parallel? Is your setup similar to the diagram in this link?

https://www.elemex.ie/external-immersion-heater/

If so, I don’t think the Willis is meant to be used with an iBoost. Your installer should have told you that before fitting the iBoost. He is correct that you now need to fit a separate immersion. But really he should have told you that at the time of the install. I suggest you turn off the iBoost if possible as it will just blow the Willis or damage it. And that should also make your electricity bills smaller. In your setup with only a small amount of hot water needed every day I don’t think the iBoost pays for itself. Turn it off disconnect it and then flog it off on eBay. Or get a old fashioned immersion and connect the iBoost to it.

Do you have a monitoring app with your setup?

graememk

garo wrote: »

Thanks now I understand. From what o understand the Willis doesn’t heat the tank but works in parallel? Is your setup similar to the diagram in this link?

https://www.elemex.ie/external-immersion-heater/

If so, I don’t think the Willis is meant to be used with an iBoost. Your installer should have told you that before fitting the iBoost. He is correct that you now need to fit a separate immersion. But really he should have told you that at the time of the install. I suggest you turn off the iBoost if possible as it will just blow the Willis or damage it. And that should also make your electricity bills smaller. In your setup with only a small amount of hot water needed every day I don’t think the iBoost pays for itself. Turn it off disconnect it and then flog it off on eBay. Or get a old fashioned immersion and connect the iBoost to it.

Do you have a monitoring app with your setup?

A Willis works fine with an iboost. A neighbour has one on his system. The water is taken from the bottom of the tank, heated and put in the top (yes the diagram shown doesn't have it going directly into the cylinder but it still will. The header tank only creates pressure.

A Willis type immersion does get the top of the tank hot very fast, but it will also heat the hole tank.

That's why they usually seem a lot faster than traditional immersions

It's normal for a Willis to bubble a bit as it's only heating a small amount of water at a time.

Even running the Willis normally eg off a timer will generate really hot water. But only a little bit.

About the pay off with the iboost, it's in now, you might as well run with it and get the benefits of it.

garo

Thanks for explaining how the Willis works. If the Willis does not have a thermostat or if it makes the water too hot for kids, it is not going to work with the iBoost. Ideally a Willis should be used with a timer switch so you can control how hot the water gets and how much gets hot. You are right that now the iBoost is in you might as well use it. But I am still sceptical that the Willis+iBoost combo will do what OP needs.
Note that an immersion can also get the water pretty hot. Generally hotter than a gas/oil boiler because the heating element is closer to the outlet. Really OP needs to either spend the 150 to get an immersion element or get an anti-scald valve that will ensure the water is safe for kids.

championc

garo wrote: »

Really OP needs to either spend the 150 to get an immersion element or get an anti-scald valve that will ensure the water is safe for kids.

Or both ?

BopperSnr

Anyone able to tell me if my pylon 4.8kwh batteries are doing what they should. From my novice view it doesn’t look like the batteries discharge as they should. I’ve attached some pics on my setup. I have 18 panels in a 6kwh system using a solis inverter and all the myenergi products (hub, zappi, eddi, harvi). Very happy with the solar PV but not sure the battery is doing anything.

championc

100% agree - it doesn't look like it's charging (because it's full) but then your third image then appears to indicate that your house load was drawing from the solar PV and the grid

worlds goodest teecher

championc wrote: »

Or both ?

Plumber is going to fit the immersion thermostat, getting an iboost buddy to track where my energy is going and registered with electric Ireland for the smart meter

BopperSnr

championc wrote: »

100% agree - it doesn't look like it's charging (because it's full) but then your third image then appears to indicate that your house load was drawing from the solar PV and the grid

Yeah, the battery doesn’t go below 100% so it doesn’t look like it’s discharging but I don’t know how to fix it in the solis inverter. It seems to be set up so not sure what I’m missing.

championc

Is there a CT Clamp on the Grid Supply ? Is it working ?

BopperSnr

championc wrote: »

Is there a CT Clamp on the Grid Supply ? Is it working ?

Oh man, you may be pushing my knowledge. There is a CT clamp on the grid as I see the myenergi app doing the right things and showing the flows from the pv and the grid correctly. Just wondered is there a setting I need to check on the solis screen.

BopperSnr

BopperSnr wrote: »

Oh man, you may be pushing my knowledge. There is a CT clamp on the grid as I see the myenergi app doing the right things and showing the flows from the pv and the grid correctly. Just wondered is there a setting I need to check on the solis screen.

Pic as of now

garo

Check the operation "mode"/"priority" on your Solis settings. There are plenty of Solis owners here - I am not - and someone will be along to help. I vaguely recall stuff being hidden behind the three coloured dots.
Basically you can program your inverter to either keep the battery charged or send PC to house load first or to the grid. It seems yours is at the first setting but should be the second.

This may help: https://usservice.ginlong.com/support/solutions/articles/36000245194-12-of-20-self-consumption-without-backup-loads

BopperSnr

garo wrote: »

Check the operation "mode"/"priority" on your Solis settings. There are plenty of Solis owners here - I am not - and someone will be along to help. I vaguely recall stuff being hidden behind the three coloured dots.
Basically you can program your inverter to either keep the battery charged or send PC to house load first or to the grid. It seems yours is at the first setting but should be the second.

This may help: https://usservice.ginlong.com/support/solutions/articles/36000245194-12-of-20-self-consumption-without-backup-loads

Great, I’ll take a look and revert back.

BopperSnr

BopperSnr wrote: »

Great, I’ll take a look and revert back.

I turned Time Charging/Off Grid Mode off. But still no battery discharge. Battery still 100% and house taking power from grid and pc.

SD_DRACULA

You need make sure the mode is set to Self Use in the battery menu in advanced settings (password is 0010) and that the correct battery is selected from the list.

Geeyfds53573

BopperSnr wrote: »

Oh man, you may be pushing my knowledge. There is a CT clamp on the grid as I see the myenergi app doing the right things and showing the flows from the pv and the grid correctly. Just wondered is there a setting I need to check on the solis screen.

Has it ever worked that you know of? There are discharge settings on the inverter probably it.

BopperSnr

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

You need make sure the mode is set to Self Use in the battery menu in advanced settings (password is 0010) and that the correct battery is selected from the list.

I just noticed I had the on/off the wrong way round. The button not highlighted means on/selected. If filled in blue, it means off/not selected. So I changed the ‘off grid’ mode to off properly and will see how that goes. Couldn’t find a ‘self use’ mode though. Will check the manual for that.

championc

BopperSnr wrote: »

I just noticed I had the on/off the wrong way round. The button not highlighted means on/selected. If filled in blue, it means off/not selected. So I changed the ‘off grid’ mode to off properly and will see how that goes. Couldn’t find a ‘self use’ mode though. Will check the manual for that.

If your use is higher than your generation at that moment, you should see an instantaneous result.

What happened to your installer, or was it a self install ?

I would have somewhat expected the inverter to be discharging the batteries by default, so can you do a return to default settings ?

SD_DRACULA

BopperSnr wrote: »

I just noticed I had the on/off the wrong way round. The button not highlighted means on/selected. If filled in blue, it means off/not selected. So I changed the ‘off grid’ mode to off properly and will see how that goes. Couldn’t find a ‘self use’ mode though. Will check the manual for that.

It might be called Auto Mode as per the manual https://static.solartricity.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Solis-Hybrid-Inverter-Manual.pdf and depending on your model

BopperSnr

championc wrote: »

If your use is higher than your generation at that moment, you should see an instantaneous result.

What happened to your installer, or was it a self install ?

I would have somewhat expected the inverter to be discharging the batteries by default, so can you do a return to default settings ?

Very sunny today and not much usage so still no battery discharge yet.
It was professionally installed but I haven’t rang them about this as I wanted to start learning anyway.
The return to default could be a good last resort idea. Cheers.

BopperSnr

SD_DRACULA wrote: »

It might be called Auto Mode as per the manual https://static.solartricity.ie/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Solis-Hybrid-Inverter-Manual.pdf and depending on your model

Thanks for the user guide. Very helpful. I see the auto mode is if the battery is not on the drop down list. Mine is though. It’s a pylontech one.

MAULBROOK

BopperSnr wrote: »

Very sunny today and not much usage so still no battery discharge yet.
It was professionally installed but I haven’t rang them about this as I wanted to start learning anyway.
The return to default could be a good last resort idea. Cheers.

Bopper you payed a lot of money for it, call the installer. He will probably talk you through it in moments. 99% of the time they are happy to talk it out and solve problems.

BopperSnr

MAULBROOK wrote: »

Bopper you payed a lot of money for it, call the installer. He will probably talk you through it in moments. 99% of the time they are happy to talk it out and solve problems.

Ok , I’m out of ideas. I’ll call them. Here’s a screen print of the battery usage since installed in early May this year. Not great.