Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

Jonathan · 25-10-2021 1:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118069920#Comment_118069920

Can you elaborate on this Phil? Via a firmware update or on the new 6th gen inverters?

MAULBROOK · 25-10-2021 1:13pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070439#Comment_118070439

That didn't take long for that penny to drop. I can guarantee by this time next year you will be wanting to quadruple the battery power.

Yes the output will increase if you add more. All depends what battery type you have.

You could end up with the DIY route of be a lazy feck like me and go plug a play.

bullit_dodger · 25-10-2021 1:38pm

Leaving aside the discussion of economic feasibility of a battery and payback years, I reckon most homes needs at least a 5KwH battery. That would power a 400watt base load for 12 hrs. If you have the consumption though, go large. (but only if you have the consumption otherwise your wasting money buying something you don't need)

Yeah, 2nd battery would enable you to discharge 2x the current setup, so potentially in around 6Kw.

bullit_dodger · 25-10-2021 1:42pm

Have a think about it though - tomorrow and weds your going to struggle to fill that current battery. Don' know where you are, but Dublin not looking great.

MAULBROOK · 25-10-2021 2:20pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070579#Comment_118070579

Charge it up on night rate and have it ready for the next day. Simples

AndyBoBandy · 25-10-2021 2:37pm

My battery is a PureDrive 5kWh.

im not at home since Saturday, so the heating isn’t even on!! And the Eddi has already heated the tank!!! Now I’m exporting to the grid, which is something I said I’d never let happen!!!!

I should have left the car plugged in!!!

DrPhilG · 25-10-2021 2:51pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070337#Comment_118070337

I remember someone doing the calculations here before and I was OK to bring one string up to 15 panels, they're 310w JA Solar panels. I'll have to dig up the spec.

graememk · 25-10-2021 3:27pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070831#Comment_118070831

Ah the spec has everything,

So as the panels get colder, the voltage goes up. as the max voltage on all the solis inverters are the same, you can put as many panels on a 5 kw inverter as you can on a 6kw one,

Jonathan · 25-10-2021 4:01pm

Got my battery installed today. Another toy to play with. 😎

SD_DRACULA · 25-10-2021 4:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070794#Comment_118070794

No you won't be able to discharge any faster with a second battery, you're already doing it at the max 100a/5kwh that the inverter can handle, you'll just have twice the capacity.

Wouldn't bother with the battery until next year when the sun is back up, you won't fill 10kwh except the odd day here and there.

Bobeagleburger · 25-10-2021 4:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118071128#Comment_118071128

Charge on night rate?

bullit_dodger · 25-10-2021 5:23pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118070727#Comment_118070727

Hmmm, on the surface a good strategy, but not quiet as "simple" as you would think.

The question I was attempting to answer was more around getting a bigger battery. You have to be able to use those units. If you can use the bigger capacity, super - crack on! But if you can't, then you would have spent money on battery capacity which you don't need. Average Irish household uses ~4,000 units per annum. Naturally it's more in the winter than summer, but lets assume a flat usage all year round. So dividing by 365 you get approx 11 units/day. Part of those 11 units would be consumed as night rate anyway, so it's becomes a question of how much of those 11 units which are left that you can benefit from storage at night rate that you are missing with a 5Kwh battery.

I've a few mining rigs going, so I can hit 20 units/day. Bigger battery makes sense (for me) - but others....you'd have to do the math. Not that I'm discouraging you away from one, just don't want to see you waste your money.

MAULBROOK · 25-10-2021 6:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118071362#Comment_118071362

All I can say is, by doing this last year it resulted in the lowest bill i have ever had in winter. €114 for a winter bill is a winner for me.

slave1 · 25-10-2021 8:48pm

With varying rates and also varying rates on usage, the use of bills is not the most accurate way for calculations.

Look at self consumption only, along with factoring in day/night rate utilisation.

yankinlk · 25-10-2021 9:50pm

I need to use it for a while longer to see for myself. Still waiting on day night meter install, so battery starts day empty and never gets to 100% in October sun. But if I could fill it at night and also have 2 batteries I can see the double output making sense.

I have 5kw Dyness ATM. Is it literally plug and play to add another ? Is it a daisy chain setup? Or would I need installer help.

MAULBROOK · 25-10-2021 10:29pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072384#Comment_118072384

A little bit of online education and you should be good to go. PLEASE NOTE, BE AWARE OF ALL SAFTEY REQUIREMENTS.

MAULBROOK · 25-10-2021 10:32pm

Screenshot_20211025-222954_Solis Home.jpg

TBF today was a good day. Currently charging for 2 hours a night but that will change as chings change.

Jonathan · 25-10-2021 10:45pm

@MAULBROOK Any reason you haven't moved to the Solis Cloud app? I found the old app very clunky.

bullit_dodger · 25-10-2021 10:50pm

I think your bills are a good start. Sure you can't get a totally accurate picture without something like an OWL meter, but at least your doing some math rather than reading tea leaves :-)

If you do a thought experiment, there's "some number" where anymore than that capacity is a waste. What that number is..... is down to the individual. If you take (say) 30Kwhr, most people couldn't cycle that everyday, meaning that you've spent money purchasing capacity that you don't need. What that "sweet spot" is will vary from household to household.

jkforde · 26-10-2021 11:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072628#Comment_118072628

I've just migrated to the new fangled SolisCloud platform but my daily and historical data is wrong or missing, data is fine on the old app.. so will stick with old app until issues with new yoke get ironed out. I find it sadly amusing that that you can't enter a zero value for €\kWh... 😂😂😂😂

MAULBROOK · 27-10-2021 5:43am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118072628#Comment_118072628

I'm just a stubborn git, I don't know fear of change.

SD_DRACULA · 27-10-2021 10:42am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118077884#Comment_118077884

Pretty sure it takes time for them to migrate the data over, the more data you have the longer.

I did it as soon as I switched on my inverter so it was pretty much instant.

SouthWesterly · 28-10-2021 1:28pm

Has anyone here used micro inverters.

I see solartricity have tsun ones.

I assume the deal is they can be put outside under the panels and linked together with up to 2 panels per micro inverter

. The single AC cable then runs to the fuse board and a monitoring unit links from the fuse board to the Internet router.

jkforde · 28-10-2021 1:31pm

staying on Solis matters, anyone else noticing drops in the monitoring \ logging today? everything seems to be running fine when I check on the inverter, maybe their monitoring platforms are under some rolling maintenance

SD_DRACULA · 28-10-2021 2:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118084997#Comment_118084997

This happens annoyingly often actually, more so with the old platform.

yankinlk · 28-10-2021 4:29pm

Just got my Day/Night meter installed - the lad was quick as a flash. He powered down the house and brought it all back within 15 minutes. But as he went to leave i notcied the Solis was taking from the grid only - and the panels were feedning the battery only.

There was an alarm on the Solis - but after about 10 minutes it must have righted itself - all good again. OV-G-F01 was the error in case anyone is searching in the future. DOnt panic!

47akak · 28-10-2021 8:15pm

For DIY installations with separate AC coupled battery, what BMS+charger+inverter is everyone using for their LiFePo4 battery setup? Equipment is easy to figure out with the battery management side, it's not quite clear to me if you separate battery from solar what the go to equipment is other than BMS.

And does anyone use it with a timer to take advantage of night rates when solar production is low? Thanks.

championc · 28-10-2021 9:36pm

The inverter, be it a standalone storage one or a hybrid, look after the charging. You can simply set the schedules on the devices to maybe stop discharging during the night time night period of a day/night meter setup.

But a lot depends on the size of your battery bank.

I don't know about Hybrids, bit the Sofar ME3000 Standalone Battery Inverter will allow for the inverter charging and discharging to be controlled by a Raspberry Pi or Arduino, which could allow you to vary the amount you charge overnight to take account of the forecast for the following day

graememk · 28-10-2021 10:02pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118087164#Comment_118087164

AC coupled battery here.

Sofar ME3000sp, Grid tied, It has 2 ct's one for grid and one for solar. It has numerous different settings, Auto and time of use are the main ones though.

Auto.. is Auto, charges when there is excess solar, discharges when there isn't. Tries to keep import/export at 0.

Time of use, You can set Charge times, rate and to what %.. eg overnight on night rate. To prevent discharge you set the charge rate to 0 and for the set time etc.

Passive mode (advanced) : Hands over control to an external device, pi, node red, whatever you want to communicate with it over RS485. (I'm running this mode. ) I have a UI built in NodeRed that i can set the overnight charge, and what to discharge to overnight (during the summer when I'm generating 50kwh!, Since Sept I'm not letting it discharge at night at all). Basic commands are Auto, Charge, Discharge, and Standby. Discharge isnt really used as it force discharges no matter what.

I also pull in a forecast from Forcast.solar, Its ok, but more of a good day/bad day sort of thing.

Inverter communicates with the bms (ZEVA BMS, Not available anymore. Seplos Seems to be the replacement). BMS does the balancing and also tells the inverter to stop if a cell gets too high or too low

47akak · 29-10-2021 5:55am

Thanks for the info.

Right now I'm looking at a 8-10kW solar array with 24kWh+ of batteries, and maybe adding more capacity as time goes on. I'm not sure if a 3kW charger will adequately meet my needs with my extremely high usage, like anyone else as much as possible I want to avoid exporting to the grid while producing during peak hours and avoid importing from the grid while discharging. And making use of my overnight rate charging batteries during winter and discharging during the day. The 3kW issue is not an issue for the winter period will work perfectly for that size battery I think, and may work fine for the solar too, but in the evening 5kW output might mean not importing anything using all battery and then as a UPS/backup it's probably less than ideal.

I have a fair idea about the general issues and what I need but the devil is in the detail and it would be worth paying someone to answer some of my many questions before I go ahead and purchase gear, I'll be getting an electrician to connect it all safely but I'll be buying the gear myself. If any experts are reading this and are interested in a nixer helping me nail down equipment and setup please DM me. Nothing too involved, I have a list of requirements, probably 20 yes/no questions and then I want to nail down specs and an equipment list, which I have a fair idea of already.

Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

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