Solar for Beginners [ask your questions here]

idc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696932#Comment_119696932

I'm not even talking about power leaking out to the grid this is more an issue from the point of view of an actual fire! My understanding was in a fire the firemen will pull the power at ESB connection means no chance of fire fighter being electrocuted while putting out a fire? (maybe I'm wrong?)

Hence also the reason for solar panels to be isolated as that reduces another point of power but what then for fire fighter who walks into random room stabs his axe in wall for whatever reason and hits a live wire thats being powered by battery/inverter EPS and gets electrocuted? With EPS powering random circuits they have no idea where there are live or non live circuits in the house. Equally the case of a single random extension lead!

@AckwelFoley I have backup with my solar setup and have no problem running TV / lights and oven at the same time. (but yes i do selectively disable and reneable other circuits to help limit how much we're using during backup operation) but its definitely possible to power more than just lights/some sockets assuming you have the right setup

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119696932#Comment_119696932

Fireman switch kills the Solar pV DC power going to the inverter.

But to clear things up,

You can have a changeover switch/eps socket/ whatever but the fireman switch is to stay off when in eps mode.

Can run on batteries only. That's the seai's interpretation of things. Their grant their rules.

After the grant is passed.. well do what you want.

That was only recently come in in July/Aug time I'm not sure.

The inverters themselves will happily run in off grid mode.

cobham

So I should not ask for a socket to be fed off the battery in case of power cut. If there is a power cut, will the panels still feed the battery and eddi? I have memories still of 1970's outages... and how my mother struggled to get a dinner cooked on Christmas day when the power seemed to fade. What does EPS stand for? electric powered socket?

graememk

Socket from inverter is fine.

If there is a power cut, the panels will be turned off, inverter will be battery powered only

Eps : emergency power supply

AckwelFoley

Blackout panels won't generate, but the battery will supply power though a backup port on the inverter. I don't expect your solar supplier may wire it, it may be something you need to get done yourself. Not a big task.

EPS stands for Emergency power supply

Manion

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119693670#Comment_119693670

Can k ask, what would be the typical rating of the circuit. A poster earlier spoke about a 16amp connection. My inverter is to be 6KwH rated, so I assume it would need to be a 32 amp connection?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119697435#Comment_119697435

6kw is 25 amps.

Our one is on a 4mm2 cable.

ELM327

Simple question. I have a 1000w 30-50v inverter. Why did connecting 2 100w 12v panels in series not work at all due to low voltage but 4 in series blew the inverter?

unkel

What kinda inverter is that? You can't just pick up a random €50 battery inverter off AliExpress and hook up some PV panels to it and expect it to produce workable AC 😂

Deagol

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119698840#Comment_119698840

In all seriousness - if you don't know what you did wrong then please stop doing it... you're likely to electrocute yourself or burn your house down if you can't figure out simple electronic's principles. You can't just randomly plug solar panels into an inverter of some sort and hope for the best.

ELM327

Understood all the above, thanks. I do know generally what I'm doing, hence knowing the amperage, voltage & wattage input and the AC output should match specifications. It is a grid tie inverter from ali express that's also sold on Amazon. It was recommended by a couple of youtubers. Mars Rock is the brand.

Next step is to take the inverter apart and see what shorted, but I just thought I'd ask. i wasnt expecting such a non helpful response.

It's not some random panels and some random inverter. It's panels I procured to meet the exact specification of the inverter I bought - and I bought the inverter from prior reccomendations.

Dozz

Looking for a bit of help here. Have a Solis 6kw inverter and a 5kw puredrive battery.

Since the battery has been installed I can't work out what the hell is going on. I thought the system was set for self use i.e. solar goes to the house first then the battery before export however I see that today it has started to use the grid to charge the battery (see attached photo). V frustrating. I have set it for self use according to the manual. And also as per this video https://youtu.be/CHrrOVllpSM

Any help appreciated

bullit_dodger

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703188#Comment_119703188

When you say you plugged the 2x panels in and had under voltage, what was the status of the panels. i.e. were they in the sunshine, or sitting on the kitchen table? That matters of course as depending on how much light was falling on the panels, the voltage and the current will change to depending on the light.

Same question for when you added the 4x panels. It could be simply that you have a dodgy (faulty) box. It happens.

Ps:- At the risk of speaking for Deagol I think the sentiment was more in keeping you safe - although I agree the wording might have been better.

Dozz

Apologies.

I cannot attach the screen shot for some reason

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703251#Comment_119703251

I have a solis 6kW inverter too. In order to operate in "normal" mode all other modes must be switched to off. (eg turn off Self Use, Feed in priority etc in the advanced menu).

I have currently enabled time of use and self use, but that's to charge up the batteries on night rate for 2 hours.

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703301#Comment_119703301

Thanks. I first tested them in my office just to make sure the inverter switched on and so on. I was getting a no input error there , but assumed it was because it was indoor and not in sunlight. However that didnt change outside either in direct sun.

I think - until I take apart the inverter to confirm or deny - that there was a faulty inverter. Everything was wired correctly and perfectly within spec. I was only beginning to self doubt because it was my first DIY effort and of course we can all make n00b errors. But I checked, double and triple checked for that/

DC999

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703350#Comment_119703350

Hey, would be great to hear what you find. Many of us will likely be doing some DIY and would use the same approach you did (some research, buy the recommended kit, test inside, then move outside). And if it was something you did in error, maybe others can learn from that. Or maybe it was faulty kit.. Anyways, it would help me (at least) to find out more when you know more yourself. Every day is a school day in solar land 😊

ELM327

Oh absolutely every day is a school day for sure. If I did do something wrong then I'd at least understand why it didnt work!

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119703188#Comment_119703188

In fairness your question was not a simple question. And without us knowing exactly what inverter you were talking about, there was no way our answers could have been more helpful. But I apologise anyway if my reply upset you.

Let us know exactly what model inverter it is, exactly what panels you connected to it and what else you connected, did you connect it to the grid? And what happened. And we'll try and help. We shall all not forget it wasn't that long ago that we were experimenting for the first time and we blew stuff up ourselves 😁

Reminds me of the time I nearly fried a BMS as I had the balance wires connected incorrectly and I had made a mistake in checking them (connected from the wrong side of the battery - classic beginner's mistake). Started smoking and smelling of fire and I quickly unplugged the balance connector. The BMS had survived 😁

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119704989#Comment_119704989

So this is the exact inverter. 1000w 1300w 1400w On Grid Tie Inverter Mppt Solar Inverter Pure Sine Wave Converter 110 220v Ac For 36 60 72 Cells Pv Panel - Solar Inverters - AliExpress

And these are the exact panels

SolarScout 100watt Solar Panel

Like I say, I bought the inverter based on reccomendations and then bought panels from a local supply company that matched the requirements of the inverter. (I did check the polarity on the DC side several times but I had it wired correctly in series)

AckwelFoley

The panels are 12 v the inverter says 18v 24v and 36v panels?

ELM327

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119705288#Comment_119705288

Yes but they are wired in series. 4*12v is 48v. And it says 30-50v on the inverter. You can select different options when ordering.

Am I missing something obvious perhaps?

unkel

So what did you plug into the AC side of the inverter? And what are you hoping to do with your setup?

The one that you picked is the 36V version from your link? That's supposed to work with standard size PV panels which are "36V". The panels that you have are "12V" (but go up to 22V open circuit). By connecting 4 of these in series, you went up to 88V, which is way over the max of the inverter. With a bit of luck, a fuse popped and the inverter isn't toast. You should have put the panels in series and parallel (2S2P), but it would have been much better and cheaper and easier to setup if you had just bought 1 full size panel instead. Ask here first next time before you buy!

ELM327

Ok. So when I say I may have missed something stupid or n00b etc, I think youve explained it very well.

12v vs 22v is a big difference, as you say it takes 48v all the way to 88v. The inverter is labelled as 30-50v DC input. 48v is below that, but 88v is well above. I have ordered some parallel connectors to do that series/paralel connection that you mention. In the interim I will take the inverter apart and see what's up. Might fget to it this evening actually.

This is all a learning experience for me. I'll be happy if I can learn what went wrong and fix it going forward for future DIY.

unkel

Aye. All fun & games! What are you planning to use the setup for? And what did you plug in to the AC side?

cobham

I spoke with the electrician. He thought a bad idea to have dedicated socked off the inverter... ok for low voltage but even a kettle could be trouble.

Gerry

just curious, why would they go into short circuit without the panel having a fault or being short circuited..

cobham

Oh and we had a power cut in the area this morning! about an hour hopefully nothing to do with our system that went live yesterday!

(What happened to the edit option we used to have here?)

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119706590#Comment_119706590

Either you didn't really understand what he was telling you, or he has no idea of what the EPS circuit is. Or a bit of both. Most hybrid or battery inverters output at least 65A (from the battery), which is well over 3kW once it is at AC. So if that inverter has an EPS and you wire a socket to it and plug a kettle in, it will power that kettle all day long (as long as you have juice in the battery). The highest power kettle you can buy is about 3kW.

cobham

We are up and running here but not fully registered with things. We are trying to register/get Eddi app. It is looking for the Hub information....which is that? Chaps supposed to come back and talk us thru details but covid!!