Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

AndyBoBandy · 04-11-2021 2:57pm

I never contacted the installer yet, all seems to be sorted though.

The issue before yesterday was the battery only outputting at 8 amps, so when solar pv fell away, the battery would only discharge at 424 watts, so when the kettle went on or something, anything needed above 424 watts was taken from the grid.

I started messing around with it yesterday, and the battery ended up draining fully last night, but went at it again this morning and made some changes, and all appears to be ok now... battery is now set to discharge at 100amps, and when I boiled the kettle a few times earlier, the solar plus the battery were able to cover all of the load.

As regards the battery draining to 0%, I'm still not sure how that happened as it would never appear to be going lower than 20%, so perhaps it was something I altered yesterday, so hopefully thats also been rectified.

Cushtie · 04-11-2021 3:45pm

Hi all.

Currently building a new house. Not adding solar PV at this stage but is something might consider down the line.

I would be putting them on South facing section of roof ( small enough area here) and south facing section of Garage roof. So my question is what kind of future proofing ref wiring should I be doing now. I would like to have some idea before I talk to electrician.

Thanks.

bullit_dodger · 04-11-2021 3:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118118517#Comment_118118517

There's not much wiring to be fair, anything that you want can easily be done after. One thing that you should be aware of, is that while south facing generally gives the best production, east/West facing roofs generate 80-85% of the electricity of south. Indeed there are some benifits of east/west, for example you get production earlier in the morning and later on in the evening.

Only mentioning incase your thinking that south is the only thing which is viable.

MAULBROOK · 04-11-2021 4:26pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118118517#Comment_118118517

Nothing, just keep the roof clear.

grind gremlin · 04-11-2021 6:38pm

I had panels fitted recently. We have a hipped roof so we had 11 panels fitted across the west and south facing sections of the roof. Is it possible to also fit them on the east facing part of the roof or do they tend to only fit them on two sides? I would consider increasing the number we have as we are a house of early risers and it would be great to increase our supply earlier in the day.

AndyBoBandy · 04-11-2021 6:48pm

I had panels fitted on 3 aspects.

it meant 2 of the aspects had to be counted as a single PV string, and I needed optimisers on all the panels in this string (11 in total).

front (4 panels - SSW) and side (7 panels SSE) are string 1. Then at the rear (6 panels - ENE) are string 2

championc · 04-11-2021 9:33pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118119344#Comment_118119344

I assume that your panels currently connect into two separate connectors on your inverter ? As AndyBoBandy says, you cannot mix different orientations together, or the output of sunny ones will be killed once any panel on the string goes into the shade.

Rather than inverters, if you only had a few panels on a third orientation, you could have them connected totally separately to micro inverters

AndyBoBandy · 05-11-2021 9:23am

I’m still slightly concerned seeing the battery still draining (albeit slowly)…. Currently at 9%

yesterday it was fully outputting enough to cover house load, but once it got to 20% (about 10pm) it slowed to a trickle, and continued at that pace until now where it’s at 9%

so there must be a setting somewhere that’s still allowing it to completely drain, whereas I’d like it to stop draining at 10%.

championc · 05-11-2021 9:45am

Your best bet is to setup two schedules - one to charge for x hours and for the remainder of the night rate time, charge with 0w, which will be the way to stop discharging.

reklamos · 05-11-2021 10:38am

@AndyBoBandy This is strange, it should not drain it once it reaches 20% you may lose a percent but yours screenshot is showing that it is pulling 97W even though it is at 9%. I see you have backup supply enabled. If there is nothing connected to it then disable it. Raise your FOC from 10% to 15% and lets see if it makes any difference tomorrow.

AndyBoBandy · 05-11-2021 10:53am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118121821#Comment_118121821

In which setting would I raise the FOC? I've nothing plugged into it.

I'm also noticing this morning, like yesterday, it seems all the Solar is going straight into the battery before feeding the house demand (which is still pulling from the grid). yesterday this stopped when the battery hit around 20%. I assume there's a setting in the inverter that prioritises solar production to the battery to get it to 20%, before then feeding the house?

reklamos · 05-11-2021 11:40am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118121903#Comment_118121903

I think ti is pushing to the battery because it is set to overdischarge soc 20%.

To set FOC go to battery select, select pureDrive and then as you go, you will see below. Raise 10% to 15%

Make sure that storage mode is set to Self Use

to disable backup supply, set below as disabled int control parameters.

irishchris · 05-11-2021 11:42am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118121533#Comment_118121533

Is that 90w power drain not just power required to run the inverter as is Dc powered?

Bobeagleburger · 05-11-2021 1:08pm

My battery doesn't work lower than 20%. I was told to leave that setting.

AndyBoBandy · 05-11-2021 1:12pm

OK, I've raised the ForceCharge from 10% to 15% - What exactly is this going to do?

The Overdischarge is set at 20% - What does this mean? Its going to try and discharge the battery to -20%? I have left it as is.

Self Use was and still is set to 'On'

I've disabled the BackUp Supply - when I did this I heard a click inside the inverter (like a solenoid opening/closing) - Would this have been the reason it was draining below 20% - thinking I need the additional supply due to a power cut or something?

SD_DRACULA · 05-11-2021 1:21pm

The way I understand it is Overdischarge value is the % the battery will drain to under normal circumstances and Force charge % is the % that if it drops below that, it will charge the battery from where ever it can.

Does it work like that? Looks like not.

My battery overdischarge is set to 12%, force charge 10%.

Today it just decided to start charging the battery from the grid, up to 22%, then let the house it, then got to 12% again and charged to 22% from grid again and so on. It never got to 10% so makes no sense for force charge to kick in.

Solis support are useless in the matter.

AndyBoBandy · 05-11-2021 1:46pm

I think I get it now.. So despite my Overdischarge being set at 20%, having the 'BackUp Supply' enabled might have overruled the over discharge setting of 20% as by enabling the backup supply, it's telling the system I need everything I can get.... (Like in Captain Philips: "Remove the limiters, we need everything we can get").

I should see anyway later on this evening, as now that the battery is allowed to discharge at more that 8 amps (424 watts), It's running down faster than it previously was. I think it was about 10pm last night it hit the 20% mark, whereas before (when limited to 8 amps), it was lasting until 2-3am when the dishwasher would have run...

reklamos · 05-11-2021 2:06pm

as @SD_DRACULA said the overdischarge is the bottom line that inverter would use the battery for house needs. Force discharge(FOC) is to protect the battery from dropping below DOD level. Even when the battery is not used it still slowly losing charge and this is what FOC is for. Your FOC was set to 10% and it should have not dropped below it but as we found yesterday with discharge limit, for some reason settings did not set properly. So hopefully this will make some changes.

For backup supply there is a separate circuit that allows inverter to work as UPS but even when there is nothing connected, it needs to power the circuit and is using power see below. If you do not have anything connected then there is no reason to have it enabled. The click you heard is the circuit being disabled. Once disabled you should no longer see the light bulb.

SD_DRACULA · 05-11-2021 2:35pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118122757#Comment_118122757

Not really, I have stuff connected to the backup supply and it never went down to 0 so something did not get applied correctly. It should just pull from grid as needed if it reaches the overdischarge %.

championc · 05-11-2021 2:41pm

Is there an option to reset everything to factory defaults and setup again ?

I can't imagine that there are that many parameters to be set.

AndyBoBandy · 05-11-2021 2:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118123061#Comment_118123061

I did see in the Solis manual that when you select what battery you have, it loads all the default settings associated with that battery type.

When I was messing around, I selected PureDrive (though it was already selected, I simply 're-selected' it, so maybe that could have adjusted settings back to default?

SD_DRACULA · 05-11-2021 4:59pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118123148#Comment_118123148

I think this is how I fixed my max discharge 50A instead of 100A which I had a few months back, so maybe 😃

MAULBROOK · 05-11-2021 6:54pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118123148#Comment_118123148

Have you called the installer yet.

AndyBoBandy · 05-11-2021 7:11pm

No!!

I think things are looking good though…

battery was discharging at a good rate when the oven was turned on,

And then once the battery hit 20%, the load transferred to the grid;

since the install, the battery would always show a trickle out, but always stayed on 20%, so I’ll keep an eye on it over the evening and into tomorrow.

MAULBROOK · 05-11-2021 9:31pm

I really don't understand why people who spend thousands of their hard earned euro try and fix an installation fault. It makes no sense. Floundering around on boards of FB is not the answer.

DrPhilG · 05-11-2021 9:58pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118124971#Comment_118124971

I gotta agree. I'm all for understanding the inverter and system etc, but with a brand new system and an installer who I know from experience is very responsive on phone and text etc, I sure as hell wouldn't be going buck wild in the menus rather than just calling the pro.

But if all is well now, grand job.

MAULBROOK · 05-11-2021 10:26pm

FFS IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM WITH A NEW INSTALATION, CONTACT THE FXXKING INSTALLERS.

NOT BOARDS.IE OR FACEBOOK.

If it was a new car what the f would you Do?

Rant over. I'm out.

championc · 06-11-2021 5:42pm

How to make north facing panels on a shed roof into south facing panels :)

slave1 · 06-11-2021 6:03pm

Nice one, I'm going to be building a galvanised steel mounting system that I'm putting on top of my E facing shed in the back garden, can't wait for the neighbours to give out, I'm allowed up to 4m so I'll be sticking under that

SD_DRACULA · 06-11-2021 7:56pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118128359#Comment_118128359

So you're telling me I can add another 8 panels to the N side of my house? 😁

Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

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