Solar PV Hints, Tips & Troubleshooting

Measure roof

6 meters wide x 3.3 high

The jinko panel I currently have are 1.77m x 1.06 m

Probably fit 9 comfortably on one side..or at least 3 to start with as a diy.

What do you think 🤔

Getting a quote for 6 off

Ok cheers for the heads up :) will do

Good thinking swapping the strings. So IMO it rules out the inverter. So IMO it really has to be a faulty panel. Yes, the voltage is correct but one panel is 41v but zero Amps.

A bad connection would really disconnect the string fully

Depends ultimately on the number of panels. If it's a low number of panels, micro-inverters are a good solution. For example, a 4x panel micro-inverter ~€350 on Midsummer new (incl vat), you'll get them less even than that on ebay of course.

Once you go above 5-6 panels, then string inverters start to become more cost effective. One additional benefit of course is if you have shading on one/more of the panels, with Micro-inverters you don't need optimizers as you'll already have panel MPPT already. That's not to say that they are "better" only that there's a case to be made for them in low number of panels and/or shading. Depends on the circumstances......

sorry if i didnt explain well, when i swapped the cables from the strings, the same pv1 input on the inverter is still giving 0.6 A less, so the issue stayed on the same input from the inverter, it didnt follow the panels. and this morning i was getting 250V 0 A on both strings, i turned off the DC switch and the inverter powered off, that shouldnt happen, when i turned it on again the inverter booted and started producing. it is less than 1 month old so i am not too sure about it working well and i am looking for an exchange.

the panels are trina 415, but from what I can see it is the inverter

yes both positive and negative were moved together, otherwise the circuit would not be closed i guess. I am talking to provider, hopefully they get it changed soon, sofar is asking about the FW on the device. i will let you know what happens with i. Thanks for confirming it championc

Just to clarify a little on the above. I was giving the HM-1200 as an example of why Micro-inverters (can be) a good solution for small number of panels. Not specifically endorsing that specific make/model over all others.

While it's a little more expensive, I'd probably go for 2x (2 panel) "HM-800" over 1x (4 panel) "HM-1200". The reason being is that the "HM-1200" or the "HM-1500" has only 2xMPPT trackers on it for the 4 panels. So if you have shading or unusual aspects on your shed.... that could be an issue if you don't have single panel MPPT tracking. In my case I have 2 panels veritically mounted. One right next to a wall, so I needed the panels to each have their own MPPT.

2-in-1 | HM-600/700/800 - Hoymiles

With the "800" above, you could have 400 watt panels. Shop around. Midsummer are in Baldonnel if you can get there easy enough. Another company I used in the past is Micro inverter 800VA Hoymiles HM-800 (wattuneed.com) (got two inverters off them)

Enphase are also a good make/brand and have a read up on them, Youtube etc.

Got price per panel

REC 365W TWINPEAK ALL BLACK 165 EURO. They look a decent panel

No inverters in stock yet - not until q2 of this year..

Anyone able to provide some advise on Eddi issue. Doesn't seem to kick in and is allowing exports. Can get it to diver manually by going to settings and selecting set master. Any idea how to ensure the Eddi kicks in when harvi sees exports. Don't have a charger.

A Harvi, if used, MUST be linked to the Master device. Any hard wired CT's share their data throughout the system.

Well I'll be damned... Solis appear to have actually fixed the issue that I have had since install in June with that update. Basically the inverter kept bouncing between import and export constantly when demand was below about 300W. This resulted in me purchasing and then exporting again energy which the battery could very easily supply. They tried to hack at it by forcing the inverter to import 50W but that didn't do much except ensure I had at least a couple of kWh import from the grid each day.

Anyways, here's a snapshot from the myenergi app giving an idea on what it was looking like. This is yesterday. Green is "generation" which is the battery, red is import, and yellow export. As you can see, you wouldn't generally expect to be exporting all night but that's what it did.

Now here is a similar screenshot from tonight. There are a few tiny import peaks with corresponding exports which is where the inverter has a slight delay in reacting to loads. I'm OK with that, and it's a tiny amount.

With all this I'm very interested to see what my self use will be for March. It should be significantly improved as I'm not exporting all the time.

Something dramatic happened alright, but it was the voltage on my battery dropping out as the kettle went on. It plummeted to 10% SOC. Still waiting on the PureDrive update.

From what I can gather the Solis update happened around 7.45 or so.