Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

silver_sky · 15-10-2022 2:32pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119747572#Comment_119747572

Nightly oscillations probably your fridge.

stevekn · 15-10-2022 3:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119748229#Comment_119748229

very regular though, frudge seems to be off for most of the night at this time of year. other culprits sky box, broadband hub and router? …

championc · 15-10-2022 5:36pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119747572#Comment_119747572

If you charge overnight you need to ensure that you do not discharge a single minute during the night rate period.

There's no point buying at cheap and using it straight away, as conversion losses are about 20%, so it basically costs you 20% extra.

You should set the charging schedule to cover the WHOLE night period, irrespective of how much you choose to charge up to.

Charging with nothing stops discharging

silver_sky · 16-10-2022 12:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119748361#Comment_119748361

skybox, hub etc would have a fairly straight usage pattern. What I'd suggest is to get a smart plug with energy monitoring and put it on the fridge. You'll see the individual usage then.

snor · 18-10-2022 11:38am

battery in my 5kW system doesn’t fully discharge - only drops to 19%. Is this high a depth of discharge limit normal ? Thanks..

ELM327 · 18-10-2022 12:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119759791#Comment_119759791

Yes that's the standard limit.

You can usually change this to 10% limit while still remaining in warranty.

THE ALM · 18-10-2022 1:55pm

Anybody looking a 136kW inverter....

SD_DRACULA · 20-10-2022 4:36pm

Question for anyone that oversized the panels on their Solis 6kw hybrid. I think I have seen people go up to 9kwp on them.

Wanted to know if you had any issues with that (in the good months), looking at possibly doing 4500w from 11 panels of 405w, not worried about voltage as that's around 400 ish so it should be ok no matter the weather but it does say to only go up to 4000w per string.

I have a string of 4000w x 12 panels, and one of 3000w of 9 panels currently and looking to swap out the 3000w string.

Jonathan · 21-10-2022 5:36pm

A bit of an unorthodox solution to my inverter data logging stick Wi-Fi signal issues.

My inverter is in the attic and I've two wireless APs, one downstairs, one upstairs. The signal quality was always poor (signal quality of approx 11-16%), but enough to get by, so it never really bothered me until this week.. when the logger was becoming disconnected from the network for up to a couple of hours at a time. I am attributing the poor signal to the 300mm rockwool in the attic, but not sure what made it become worse this week.

Given the already precarious nature of the Solarman logging sticks and the Modbus passthrough support, I didn't want to a chance with a ethernet logging stick, and it felt like a total waste to get a new wireless AP for a single device.

My solution was to disconnect the SMA antenna and replace with a 5 meter RG58 SMA cable and a high gain SMA antenna, and pop it down from the attic into the hot press. Signal quality now up at 80%. More importantly, no more drop outs in my HA metrics/automations. 🙂

SD_DRACULA · 21-10-2022 7:09pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119776157#Comment_119776157

This actually annoyed me a few times too, the problem is the aluminium foil on the back of the plasterboard in the ceiling/

My fix for 100% signal is to have this guy about 2 feet away from the stick (being powered by the AC backup on the inverter)

Never times out when sending modbus stuff over now.

cloughy · 24-10-2022 5:02pm

Hi all,

Have a question about 5kW Solis inverter, 4.6kW E/W split array, 5kW battery

At the moment I am generating .446w, consumption is 0.437w, battery is 47% charged, yet I am sending 2349w to the grid. Why would it not send to the battery rater than taking from battery and sending to the grid. It didn't last long at this level, but so far have

Yield 5kWh,

Battery charge3kWh, discharged 2kWh

Imported 4kWh

Exported 1kWh

Why would I have export when battery has not been filled through yield, so not sure if something with the default settings on the inverter, as max generated at any one time is circ 1.500kW so not over limit.

Thanks in advance, as learning as I go along.

yankinlk · 24-10-2022 5:14pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119787945#Comment_119787945

Check your time of use settings. Could you have set a discharge time? You don't want to set that at all... only maybe a charge time for night rate.

cloughy · 24-10-2022 5:36pm

I'll have a look at the settings, and I'm on a 24hr tariff so no point charging at night is there?

I went up to attic to look at inverter, and when I go into advanced settings it looking for a default password, I didn't get any training in the inverter so will have to look at web for some pointers.

Jonathan · 24-10-2022 5:38pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119788077#Comment_119788077

Password is 0010 (down down up down), enter.

bullit_dodger · 24-10-2022 5:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119787945#Comment_119787945

You mention.....

It didn't last long at this level,

It's worth remembering that batteries have a small "response time". It takes inverters 5-10 seconds of detected export before they can start to divert that excess energy into a battery. That is if it's going from zero export to say 2kw if the sun comes out from behind a cloud or something. The Givenergy one I have is not great in that respect. It's a good 15-20 seconds I've seen it before the excess is diverted into the battery. Once it's sending charge that way, then any increase/decrease is handled instantaneously, but the initial "turning on" (for lack of a better word) takes a 10-20 seconds.

cloughy · 24-10-2022 5:56pm

Thanks I saw that online, under what item and what should the settings be?

cloughy · 24-10-2022 5:57pm

20221024_174502.jpg

This is the current setting, not sure if it is somewhere in here,

con747 · 24-10-2022 6:19pm

These are my setting's if any use to you.

yankinlk · 24-10-2022 7:49pm

There is a long thread on settings with screenshots. Take a look here https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118015172/#Comment_118015172

septicsac · 25-10-2022 8:57pm

Changed broadband router today and now cannot connect to the Solis Inverter datalogger. At first the AP address was showing in my wireless options but now it is not even appearing?

Configuration failed on a number of times when trying to connect when the dataloggers AP address was visible and every time I tried to log into 10.10.100.254 the site/address failed to load?

Has anyone had any issues like this or solutions to same, I checked the dataloggers details in the offline version of the app and it has power on time as 0 minutes, does this mean it has come loose or failed or just that the device is offline?

Any help much appreciated.

Ps I have the datalogger version with no lights or buttons on outside. 6kw hybrid inverter

con747 · 25-10-2022 9:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793182#Comment_119793182

Not sure if any use but I thought I seen something somewhere with a similar issue and by renaming your router the same as the old one and using all the same info that was on the old router sorted it. I could be wrong thought.

MAULBROOK · 26-10-2022 6:55am

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119793182#Comment_119793182

Look it up on YouTube, I can't share the link

championc · 26-10-2022 11:59am

Change your SSID and WPA2 password to the old ones. Then the whole family can carry on seamlessly as though nothing has changed

septicsac · 26-10-2022 12:11pm

Broken wire inside datalogger, it got a bang last week when work being done.

graememk · 26-10-2022 12:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119794924#Comment_119794924

That would do it!

cobham · 26-10-2022 2:16pm

Despite some good sunny days, there is not a much left over going to hot water after battery fills. A month ago water so hot, we had to mix in cold. Now of course shorter days and cold water is much colder! Is it possible to switch so that Eddi is fed first? or should I put on timer to boost hotwater during the day when enough feed off roof. Until we get a night rate, the battery does not make much sense. For the moment we have old meter so clock goes back over the day. We have not got the app for Eddi installed yet, await return of installer to finish up couple of jobs.

waterwelly · 26-10-2022 2:43pm

Anybody know the situation with deciduous trees in winter. I've a couple of trees some distance away that the sun is recently dipping behind the tops of them.

It will only be the tips of the branches and with the leaves gone it should still be hitting all the panels partially?

MAULBROOK · 26-10-2022 8:18pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119795721#Comment_119795721

A few years ago I went full optimizers (20). During the summer not a issue but now they are coming into play. More so in the after noon, we have a very large Oak tree covering the west side.

randombar · 26-10-2022 8:21pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119797058#Comment_119797058

Any recommendations in relation to the optimisers? I’m guessing it’s a good option for around now all right

con747 · 26-10-2022 8:30pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119797070#Comment_119797070

Tigo optimisers are good but even installers are on a waiting list to get any make.

Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

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