Proff72

I used to have the same issue with my old Peroni pump that had a mechanical pressure sensor - pump will switch on randomly for a few seconds. Since installing a new pump with an electronic sensor the pump is not switching on except when I open a tap.

On my system I've noticed that on slightly cloudy days there is a lot more UV reaching my panels and they give far better performance than on sunny days with clear skies.

It really depens on which inverter you have. I have the Kodak Hybrid off grid 7.2kW and it cannot start without a battery. Friend of mine has an older Goodwe 6kW grid tied inverter and it can start without a battery.

I have a similar setup with the Kodak OG7.2. Two MPPT with 7x 545W panels for each MPPT. Just make sure you have four fuses and 2x 600V 30A DC circuit breakers installed between panels and inverter. Also remember your overload protection.

Municipal water pressure is higher than what the pressure pump produces. So municipal water flows through the bottom 1-way valve but is stopped by the top 1-way valve. This keeps the pressure pump off and forces the water to the consumption end. When the munipal water pressure drops enough the top 1-way valve opens and the pump switches on, sucking water from the tank. This water cannot flow through the bottom 1-way valve and is forced to the consumption end. When munipal water pressure is restored it flows again through the bottom 1-way valve and closes the top 1-way valve, switching the pump off.

Here is an easy design that switches automatically to tank water when there is no municipal water. I've been using it for almost 20 years. If you want to use tank water even when municipal water is available just close the valve at the bottom next to the 1-way valve.

Hi Seems the issue is with your inverter. My answer to both your questions would be to replace the inverter. I learned the hard (expensive) way the inverter is the one thing in any backup system you do not go cheap.

Hi Not sure what size panels you fitted but if they are around 550W you should get max 3.85kW. Getting 3.2kW this time of the year is fairly good. I also went for the larger wattage panels - they take up less roof space.

Holding in the button is necessary while the firmware is being loaded onto the BMS. As for the double flashing red LED you can reset it yourself next time: Pleass the Off button. The breaker will trip to halfway. Push it down all the way. Press

I had a similar issue. I have been totally off grid since April 2022. I have a Freedom won Home Lite 20/16, bought in April 2022. Kodak 7.2kW inverter. Between battery en inverter I have the Freedom won CAN bus to RS485 converter box (this is needed because my inverter only communicates on RS485 and batery only communicates on CAB bus protocol). System has been running like a charm for 14 months except on two occasions (and at the second occasion I found the issue!). Unfortunately almost all settings is handled between the inverter and BMS when setting the battery type to Lib on the invereter (as recommended by Freedom won). First off, see if you can get historical data from your inverter. Specifically look at battery voltage and load power for a few hours BEFORE the SoC dropped. Once the SoC starts dropping dramatically you should notice that the battery voltage was at, or below 48V - even if your load power was not high at that time. According to the Freedom won documentation this equates to about 90% depth of discharge (DoD) or 10% SoC (state of charge). Analysing historical data from my inverter showed that there was some heavy usage of around 2.3kW for a few minutes about an hour before the SoC suddenly dropped. I also noticed that the SoC (read battery performance) becomes very unstable once the voltage drops below 48V (my SoC dropped from 39% to 10% in seconds). I must also point out here that in both cases we had a few cloudy days so the battery voltage never reached 55.8V (as specified by Freedom won) even if the SoC reached well over 90%. The setting on the BMS (OrionBMS is used by Freedom won) called Minimum Pack Voltage is by default set to 46V. At 46V the breaker on the Freedom won will trip to protect the cells against low voltage. In both my issues when the inverter complained abouth low voltage the battery voltage was just above 46V. Freedom won does not know about this setting and I had to point it out to the technician when he logged in to the battery via my laptop. I asked him to first set the Minimum Pack Voltage to 48V and the inverter followed suit. Then I asked him to set it to 49V but the setting on the inverter stayed on 48V (this is probably due to another setting we overlooked or something hardwired in the CAN to RS485 box). So for now I am happy that this setting was changed to 48V which means the inverter will switch off way before the battery trips. Then when the suns comes out all appliances should start and the battery will charge. Then a few days later the Freedom won technician logged in again to update the battery firmware. First, ANY firmware upgrade causes the BMS to report a 50% SoC. From there it has to charge to 100% and 55.8V so it can calibrate (the technician also failed to tell me this piece of vital information and I went through a stressful night with the SoC showing way lower than the actual SoC). After the firmware update I immediately noticed that the BMS reported a far lower charge current than what the inverter reported. The SoC climbed extremely slow and charge only about 7% to 57% where it previously would have climbed much more in the same weather conditions (a bit overcast). At some point there was some thick clouds and even though the inverter was reporting the battery to be charging the BMS was showing a discharge. This whole story ended with them reverting back to the original firmware dated end of 2021 (at my request). The next day the SoC went from 65% to 100%, the BMS calibrated and eveything is back to normal. I decided not to let them touch the firmware again. Unfortunately I will now never know if the new firmware would have worked correctly had there been more sunshine. If anyone has a connection at Freedom won please share the above information with them as it is clear they are only using the default BMS settings.

Hi I have a heat collector box and circulation pump connected to my geyser (retrofit setup). Can anyone recommend a good controller for the 12V circulation pump? I know Geyserwise sells a differential temperature controller as part of a kit but I am really just looking for the circulation pump controller only and don't want to spend all that money for the whole Geyserwise kit.

I am now totally off grid since April 2022. Geyser was the first to be taken off grid - kept my electric geyser and added heat collector panel with circulation pump. Only in winter do I need to trun on my geyser and run it via the inverter. I would recommend you get an additional heat source for your geyser. I also have a 20kWh Freedom won battery but I only drain it to around 50%. They say if I use it like this most of the time it could last 16+ years. If you drain yours down to 35% every night they will still honour the 10 year warranty. I did notice one thing about the battery though: After a few cloudy day the BMS might report a decent charge, say 80% - 90% BUT the battery voltage is sometimes at about 52V (operating voltage for Freedom won batteries is about 51V - 53V). This voltage might look good until you switch on the microwave or kettle when there is no sun, like in the evening. Then the voltage very quickly will fall to 48V. This 48V is the absolute minimum for the Freedom won batteries and equates to about 90% DoD. Below 48V the battery performance becomes VERY unpredictable. On my Kodak (Axpert King) inverter I cannot set the minimum voltage for the inverter to switch off as this is handled between the BMS and inverter. However, I saw that the BMS setting for cut off voltage (called Minimum Pack Voltage on the Orion BMS) was set to 46V. Being off grid, once the battery reaches 46V, everything will switch off and my whole installation is basically dead in the water. So this 46V is a wrong setting and Freedom won did not even know about this. I logged a call and they managed to change the setting but could only up it to 48V - BMS won't pass a higher setting to the inverter than 48V, even if they set it to a higher value on the BMS. But 48V works for me because my inverter wil switch off before the battery circuit breaker trips.

Hi Jules Did you come right with connecting your PV panels to your geyser? Would love to chat to you a bit more. Feel free to drop me a mail: [email protected] I'll gladly discuss the solution I found during lockdown 2020. Cheap, DIY and very effective