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Infinisolar V 5kW Parallel Installation


Sidewinder

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Hi Inifini fans,

As I could not find a similar thread about this subject, and not wanting to hijack @DeepBass9 's one, I thought to start my own.

Firstly some history:

I went off grid on 16th Dec 2016 with a 5 kVA Axpert with 3600W of PV and 8 x Trojan 105-RE's. Added the usual goodies that most have, nl. ICC on Pi3, BMV-702 and HA-02, as insurance.

The system worked well enough, but the constant shutdown's due to over utilising appliances, e.g. kettle & microwave together with geyser was getting beyond me.

As short term I "downgraded" the geyser from 3 kW to 2kW, and this helped somewhat, but seeing that I already had an additional geyser in the roof that needed to be connected into the warm water system, I knew HKGK....

So when I started looking at expanding the system, I decided that I would need to acquire a hybrid type inverter, and I wanted to re-use what I have, e.g. ICC.

So I pulled the trigger and 7 months later replaced the Axpert with a InfiniSolar V 5 kW.  I installed it adjacent to the Axpert, with the idea that if the Infini gives me any permanent headaches, I can switch back to the Axpert in less than a minute. The long term goal was to be able to install a second Infini in it's place, for a parallel setup.

So after the Infini was installed, and with lots of help from Manie, got the ICC data sorted out to report what it is supposed to. Some values were missing from the dual MPPT's, mainly due to misalignment of the "string" of characters that the ICC was reading. Sorted out chop-chop.

I liked: Seamless switching between Eskom, Solar and Batteries, just like a hybrid is supposed to. Also the extra 1kW and no more beeps. Pushing short 7 kW loads no problem

I don't like: Lost the ability to manually or automatically control between Solar/Battery and Grid. Can't pull 7 kW for long periods, with a planned load of >5kW, a upgrade needed to be part of the plan. Also the 3kW PV limitation was regularly breached, so much so that it seemed to me that the inverter was "chopping" my PV production off @ +-6200W, from a possible 7200W.

So the new 2nd Inverter arrived a couple of weeks ago.

Fortunately,  I noticed beforehand that the original V did not come with the parallel board. Weird enough, the Axpert came with it, so it was duly transplanted. 

The lowest cost parallel card I could find, and available over the counter was @ Communica, as long as you remember your passcode!! 

Ripped out the Axpert and proceeded with Infini fitment.

The mounting holes don't match, so new one's had to be drilled. The cabling layout on the left for in- and output power is the same, and the PV cables have to be doubled up. It was quite a job splitting my 2 strings into 4 strings. Space is a bit tight.

The biggest issue is with the Battery cables, as the connection point on the Infini is away from the wall, meaning you need slightly (+-10cm) longer cables. I had enough slack on the black cable, due to the fact that the - terminal on the battery is closer to the wall. (They both need to be the same length - read that on this forum:)) So will need to install longer cable when tidying up next.

Next switched on the inverter, and checked that all three software versions are the same as 1st inverter. As I has bought mine just over 6 month's apart, I has no issues there.

Next made space for the two sets of parallel cables to fit the inverters, as all my cables feeding the inverters are hidden in trunking. What a mission to get the holes enlarged, specially with trunking already in place.

Last step was to inform family on impending switch off for 30 min to activate the inverters in parallel mode...well, you may as well budget 1h30 for this step.

I was unsuccessful in finding a parallel manual specifically for the infini V series, so followed the normal Axpert one, as they are birds of a feather.

Firstly, configure the new inverter with the same settings for battery values etc, as the original one. You will notice that setting 28 does not give you the option to go to PAR from SIG, yet the manual tell you to change this. You need to switch the inverter to standby with the on/off switch on the bottom right of the inverter, and then the option becomes available.

Switch off the both inverters - by disconnecting the battery- and then on again, as well as the rhs switch. The one will boot as with MS (master) on the display (middle top centre), and the other SL (slave). Note, allocation of MS and SL is random.

So next, one needs to provide Grid power simultaneously.  As I has installed a Isolator to each inverter on the input, as well as the outputs, I had to flick both at the same time. After a few seconds, both the inverters shut themselves down. Redo the procedure....same result. 

After many minutes of head scratching etc..I discovered that both inverters had gone back to SIG mode again, so applied the change again, and second time they started without any errors present. Then flicked both the output Isolators and parallel system installation was complete.

So all that is outstanding is tidying up the cables and putting the trunking covers back.

Post Implementation Comments:

Later that day, I had a chance to look at ICC before the sun goes down completely. I changed the inverter type from Infini V Single to Parallel and increase the inverter count to 2.  All the basics looked OK, but many values were 0, yet PV1 & PV2 on both were reporting values on the Inverters themselves. The Inverter temp. was also missing. Even though the Cluster Info screen showed data from both inverters, the Thread info page only shows one data stream. Only the next day was I able to look at the data more carefully.

I have noticed the following:

The PV Watts reported (I assume summed by ICC of the 4 x MPPT's) does vary tremendously. Previous graphs of PV production where reasonably smooth, whereas the new installation is very ragged. See below.

Light Brown = 6 weeks ago, Light blue = today. And today was sunny in the morning, with passing clouds in the afternoon.

5a83366de6f2d_SinglevsParallelPVproduction(2018-02-13).thumb.PNG.9abc4af15789519449b71630fe45ee1f.PNG

So for now, it looks like I've gone a step backwards, and I almost want to think that is seems the two are fighting each other!! Any comments/suggestions are most welcome. The system seems to work out to about 4000W, with a spike to 5900W for a very brief period of time.

I've not had the chance to load more than 6 kW today. Will do that this weekend.

Another difference I've noticed tonight that the PV voltages differ completely now that from previous. See below a snapshot of 3 days ago (SIG) and the last 2 days on PAR. Green = SIG, Brown = yesterday, Blue = Today

5a833c33de55e_PVVoltageGraphs(2018-02-13).PNG.051b147bb315172a5f6efe309780a4e4.PNG

Now it mostly runs @ below 60V, which is below the Inifini's startup voltage of 60V, whereas previously it was running at just below 100V.  I see that even after dark, ICC is reporting PV volts of 53V. Yet PV is being generated, as per 1st graph. Gentlemen....(and ladies)...start your answers.

Mine is that when ICC chops up the inverter string, it is out by a few digits/symbols, thus reading and reporting the wrong values. Hopefully, this is something that Manie can fix. How he got so far without ever laying his hand on a V series is amazing. Manuals etc can give you only so much data, but the proof is in testing ICC with the real deal.

I see on PVO quite a few parallel installations, not sure if they are active here, but I would like to hear comments/suggestions etc from other parallel Infinisolar V users.

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  • 1 month later...

Over Easter weekend, I proceeded to re-do the wiring back to what I had on a single V. This was due to the fact that for some reason, even with 2 string of  3 x 300W panels, it would not generate more that 1000W (per string) @ midday with 57.7V on the array. Now we all know the Infini V, just like the Axpert, likes about 65V to "wake up" in the morning.

So I went from 4 x 1800W string on 4 x MPPT controllers to 2 x 3600W strings on 2 x MPPT controllers. My second V is still in play, but with no PV, thus it is only giving me the ability to push a continuous 10kW. Immediately, the voltages went up to around 90-100V and my PV production is back to 6200W, with peaks of 7000W. 

So from my point of view, it seems the Infini V does like to run near the PV limits, as spreading the load of 2 MPPt's over 4 of them will not yield better results!

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  • 4 months later...
On 2018/04/09 at 12:54 AM, Sidewinder said:

Over Easter weekend, I proceeded to re-do the wiring back to what I had on a single V. This was due to the fact that for some reason, even with 2 string of  3 x 300W panels, it would not generate more that 1000W (per string) @ midday with 57.7V on the array. Now we all know the Infini V, just like the Axpert, likes about 65V to "wake up" in the morning.

So I went from 4 x 1800W string on 4 x MPPT controllers to 2 x 3600W strings on 2 x MPPT controllers. My second V is still in play, but with no PV, thus it is only giving me the ability to push a continuous 10kW. Immediately, the voltages went up to around 90-100V and my PV production is back to 6200W, with peaks of 7000W. 

So from my point of view, it seems the Infini V does like to run near the PV limits, as spreading the load of 2 MPPt's over 4 of them will not yield better results!

I have just started using Infini V 5kw.  But I just have one based on my power needs.  No experience with parallel runs though.  But the information you have shared is a great deal.  I have a question for you though.  I have 9 x 325W panels connected in 3 strings on PV1 input of my inverter.  Nothing connected on PV2 input but still I can see some volts on PV2 input (40-70v varies with time).  I am using SolarPower v1.14sp2 software.  Can you help me identify what could be the cause?

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Hi @Nadeem Ahmed,

In 2 years of using Axpert/InfiniSolar, I have not used Solarpower app.

I use the ICC app, and even though it is logged somewhere, the PV parameters from the non PV connected Infini is not graphable, but from the Infini Cluster Info page, I've been monitoring. The sun has set, so inv1 is still showing some Volts, and Inv2 0 on both mppt's.

ICC Infini V Cluster (2018-08-15).PNG

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