andrevanschalkwyk

Here is the picture of the surge protectors

Hi @BritishracingGreen, thank you for your edvice. In the meantime I just found hopefully a last installaion fault. The batteries were connected wrong, instead of positive of the first batttery to Inverter and negative from the second to inverter, they were connected piggyback and then poitive and negative from battery 1 to inverter. I now fixed this and testing cherging 100% from grid for a few days, then I will let the system run normal to see if the fault rears its head again. What put me onto looking at the batteries was when I noticed that the system still showed 590W charge to the batteries while shoning the SOC as 100%. I believe the problem stems from the incorrect linking of the batteries, particularly since this problem did not show up until the last few months of last year. I would think that the inverter is "confused" (to put it in simple terms) from which source to provide power whilst the backup source is still charging at 100%. Battery 1 has probably been compromised over time and is now taking longer to fully charge and get to the state where the batteries are balanced. It will most likely take a few weeks to fully test to get a reuslt since we are having cloud cover for the whole of this week. The list of issues I had and found with the installation is an absolute disgrace to reputation of the installer who was supposedly an expert and highly recommended. I am not an electrician, but in the process I have learnt enough and have vowed that, if I have to move and have solar agiain, I will only have the panels installed by an outside party, but everything else I will do myself and then get someone to check and provide the COC.

After running through the wiring systematically again I found that the batteries were incorrected connected and that the 2 batteries were not equally charged. I fixed this today, both batteries then charged to 100% but later had the DC-INTF problem again. Switched to grid to allow the Inverter to reset (about 3 minutes), then back to solar with the fault appearing almost immediately; again switch to grid, allow to reset, swith to solar to see it would agin rear its, but after that no issues. I will have to monitor the sytem again for a few days isnce we should have sun for the next 4-5 days. If it happens again I have no idea what to look for. PS: I am considering giving a full report of all the faulty installation issues to the Municipality since I had the system approved upon the COC from the original installer but I doubt if this would achive anything. It has however cost a lot up to now to fix all the errors.

Good day, I connetced the earth of the panels to the earth spike, but now I will have see if the fault rears its head again. Will probably have to give it about 2 weeks, today and the rest of this week is cloudy and rain almost every day. I went through my data I recorded again and there appears to be some indication under which conditions the fault occurs. From what I observe it happens when the batteries are close to, or fully charged, and the PV generated is not sufficient to cover the power demand, and the inverter needs to distribute the power demand between PV and battery. It does not happen if the grid is off and I only run solar and batteries. I specifically checked this for 3 weeks switching the grid off in the morning and only back on again at sundown.The only thing then was that I did get AC Backup overload when too many appliances were running simultaneously. The geyser is also on my essentails, but fitted with a 2kW element.

I have done that and it makes no difference. The problem is that at times it took a few weeks until it surfaced again, and once the inverter resets, it seldom replicated the fault. At this moment it seems to have gone away again. I believe will follow TaliaB's advice to connect the panles' to the erath spike and then monitor what happens

Thank you talia B. The fault is completely random, no common factors. Last year I thought it was the Inverter and had it swopped out, so that's not the cause. I will let you know how it goes after the earth has been corrected.

Considering your response I believe we are on the right track as to the cause of the problem, i.e. that the panels are earthed to the main board/house earth and not an earth spike. The fault occurs randomly and not under any specific/identifiable conditions or time, for instance after correting an installation fault at times several weeks passed without any issues then flares up again. But let me go through the process that I followed to try and fix some of the installation errors leading up to where I am at now.. Most solar installations here are earthed to the home earth and not necessarily to a spike. However on advice from my neighbour I drove an earth spike and ran the wire through a window and changed the panels' earth to the spike to see if that solved the fault. This did not eliminate the problem and after some time it occurred again. Then I checked the earth neutral bridge box and found the wiring in the box was wrong. After consultation with Steve Fury I corrected the wiring nothing happened for some time, then the DC-INT fault popped up again, so I reverted the earth back to the house. Again nothing happened for a few weeks then the fault popped up again. Although the fault indicates that it should only be related to DC, I literally traced very wire between the Main DB, Change Over Switch and Earth Neutral and found incorrect routing which I then corrected 10 days ago, hoping that this could be the cause. However, in the last 4 days the fault occured 3 out those 4 days. Having now fixed, as far as I can assess, all the main errors, all that remains is the earth of the panels to be connected to the spike again (I just have to drill through a 430mm thick wall). I just need to find day without rain. Hopefully this will solve the issue and I will update on the forum Regarding your last questions, the battery casings and inverter are earthed and there is CAN comms between batteries and inverter

I have a random DC interference fault occurring in my solar installation and none of the "professional" installers here in the Gansbaai area seem to be knowledgeable or have had any experience with a DC_INTF fault (Hopefully I am wrong): (I will not consult the original installer, he made a total mess, even installed the inverter to wrong height with the installation guide in his hand) I have been eliminating faults one after the other by myself for the past two and a half years with only the DC-INTF remaining) My system is as follows: Solis S5 6Kw inverter, 2x Hubble 5.12Kwh batteries, 17x 535W panels in 2 strings (8+7). There is a neutral bridge box installed. Refer to the attached photographs and the Solis fault sheet. I have gone through absolutely every possible scenario on the fault sheet but the DC-INTF fault still occurs. My neighbour is a "normal" installer using a certified electrician to check his installations and provide his COC's. He is not an expert, but helped me eliminate all the other faults bar DC-INTF. I separated the DC cables from the AC cables so that they run in its own trays, we loosened all the panels and checked every single connection, we made sure every cable connection is screwed tight. I have read up everything I could find on faults in solar installations, but to no avail. The most frustrating is that the fault occurs randomly, and I am not able to pinpoint any common factors, having recorded each instance for few months still did not help. Now when it happens, I just switch the change-over switch to grid for some time and back to solar, but it does not solve the issue. I hope there is someone out there that could point me in the right direction. DB Boards_2.pdf DC-IINTF Fault check.pdf Inverter and batteries.pdf DB Boards_1.pdf

I have 2 Hubble AM-2 batteries on the above Solis Inverter which is single phase hybrid Inverter. Whenever ESKOM power comes on after loadshedding when the batteries are fully charged, the Inverter trips/switches off and resets after about 5-10 minutes. The fault registering on the Inverter show OV-Vbatt-H fault. The nature of the fault reads " Battery overvoltage hardware fault and the action for the fault reads " 1. Check the circuit whether the battery circuit jumps. 2. Restart inverter Powerforumstore, whom I bought the equipment from, has been unable to help and as an end user I cannot speak to either Hubble or Segen directly. The Hubble batteries have to set under the User Define option on the Solis since it does not appear on their compatible battery list. The worst is that Segen states that any incompatible battery will invalidate the warranty. I have asked several other parties, but no solution yet. My question is how do I check if the battery circuit jumps, considering that this problem 0ccurs only when ESKOM switches on after loadshedding and when the batteries are fully charged. Is there any out there that could possible shed some light how to solve this issue

Bought my full system from Powerforumstore last year: Solis 6Kw inverter 2x Hubble 5.5KWh batteries 17x535W JA Solar panels plus all accessories and fixing Was very happy with service and technical advice

Good day @isetech, I am no expert and my system is not up yet, but there are many very knowledgeable members on the forum and you should read as many of the different subjects as possible and you will find quite a bit of information to help. However since I did the homework before making my selection I suggest you follow these steps: 1. It is important to understand that improving your setup by just changing the inverter, which already costs you a bit, or adding panels or batteries is not the right way to go about it. Whatever you change or add you must consider the system as a whole in terms of what you want to achieve, and within your budget. Most important do you want to be off-grid, fully or with grid support for charging the batteries on cloudy days. 2. What is your average daily/monthly usage both mid winter and mid summer, if you are on prepaid power this is easy to record. 3. Record also your day versus night usage, and it better if you can coordinate what time the sun catches the panels until it loses sunlight. 4. What do you want to run at night, you should do all the heavy load usage in daytime, if possible. 5. What geyser do you have. 6. What are the specs of the equipment you now. 7. Once you have this together put all it out on the forum and speak to Steve at the Powerform Store. I am sure Steve can be of great assistance, both supplying compnents at good prices and recommending a relaible installer.

Hi @skillie, I have just gone for the Solis 6KW Hybrid inverter for my specific purpose, but this inverter cannot be used in parallel. Read through various discussions on the forum, you should really consider the Sunsynk hybrid inverters, they can be used in parallel if you want to expand later. It is very evident that Sunsynk probably has the best support of any make/brand and there are tons of information by some very experienced users on this forum. You should also look up a thread started by by @strepies which is quite informative on staging your installation. You can also speak to Steve at the Powerforum Store, he is very helpful. I bought all my components from them, Solis 6Kw hybrid inverter, 2x Hubble 5.5kWh batteries, 15x 535W JA Solar panels, But I will not be expanding further, this setup will fulfil all our needs.

Hi Tariq, Just for info I am changing my setup and getting 4 more 535W panels placing 8 on the North face on MPPT 1 and 6 on the West on MPPT 2. Assimilating all the info on the forum I believe this configuration will serve me best, particularly since we quite often have mist in the morning that only burns off by midday. Regards, André

Hi, it is the Solis Energy Storage 6kW Hybrid 5G Inverter with DC switch, bought from Powerforum Store at R20,638.20, I also bought the wifi stick. Please note that this inverter cannot be used in parallel, but I specifically chose this model for the following features; max PV input 8kw, 2xMPPTs 2 strings each, max voltage input 600V, and it is fanless. The inverter will be in a small room under the staircase next to a bedroom, therefore we want it be quiet. If you want to one use a second inverter or more and it is placed in location where fan noise does not matter, I would highly recommend the Synsynk, it appears to have excellent support. I have 2x Hubble 5.5kWh batteries for backup and though the night. Our daily usage is 12-15kWh max., in winter, but that is for 2 people. When we have visitors in summer it rises to 17-21 max. The most important is to decide do you want to achieve with you system, I do recommend that you speak to Steve at the Powerforum Store, he is extremely helpful.

Thanks Tariq will follow your advice

I am currently waiting for the balance of my components to arrive, Solis 6kw hybrid inverter coupled with 10x 535w JA Solar panels: The solis key specs are as follows: Max PV input 8000W, 2 MPPT with 2 strings each, max input voltage 600V. I can only place 10 panels on the north facing roof area (17 degrees NE) therefore the choice of 10 panels x 535W to get max. I have 2 questions, 1 pertaining to my imminent installation and second possible future increase in panels. 1) I can link the panels all in series, or from what I understand it would be better to link in 2 strings split beween both the MPPTs, as the MPPT would operate more efficiently? Is this assumption correct. 2) For future, if needed, I may consider installing 4 panels on the west roof facade to catch the afternoon sun as I would still get a good 4-6 hours of sun on this facade. In this case I would direct the north facing panels through 1 MPPT and the other 4 panels through the 2nd MPPT. The voltages would be not be equal on the 2 MPPTs though, would this be a problem or must the voltages be equal. 2) A third possibility would be to install 5 panels on the north and 5 on the west now, and later increase to north and west. Could someone shed a technical opinion which is my best option for now, particularly since the 4 additional panels may never happen. Thank you i advance

Thank you for the info

I am new to this subject, but what does SOC and SOH stand for?

I just made the final decision to go with the Solis 6kw inverter with 10x535W panels and 2xhubble 5.5kw batteries. Will update on performance once installed

I am particularly after it being fanless since the inverter will be inside, but are there any users out there that have had any major issues with the Solis.

Has anybody had any experience with this inverter, it reviews quite excellent reviews overseas

Is there any feedback on this inverter, eg. performance versus the Sunsynk 5KW inverter. What is support like and what are the quirks