GustavoMalaga

Good looking setup! Just one question, you are showing HS in the display meaning the inverter is set up as the master to work in parallel but you seem to only have one inverter connected now? Are you planning on expanding soon?

On page 24 of the manual, under operating Mode description: 3rd Fault mode: Utility can power the loads when the unit starts up without battery. (Only available in the 4K/5K model with single operation). I tried it one day and it bypasses so I have been using it since then, otherwise the house would not have AC while equalizing.

Thank you for the reply Coulomb! Yes, very much along those lines is one of the latest treads in the Spanish forum, translated as: Equalizing with the 48V Inverter, Using only 23 2V cells. So the idea is basically, you built the system from start with 23 2V cells, and the brings all the values about 2.5V down. You may set all parameters within the acceptable parameters: - Absortion: 23 * 2.44V = 56.1V - Float: 23 * 2.32 = 53.4V - Equalization: 23 * 2.55 = 58.5V And the inverter will start up as the cold start voltage is 46V. What I do in my case, I use a little midnight solar KID for equalization charges. Since the 48V inverter can work in bypass mode without batteries connected, I shut down the DC side of the inverter and apply the equalization at 64V once a month.

Hi Mark, Great question! As most of us here in Spain have been using this inverter with tubular flooded lead acid that need a 64V equalization charge and a daily absorption charge of at least 60V. But according to Coulomb above: BTA2 commands must not be over 60.0 V, so I do not have high hopes, but at least 60V is 1.6V over 58.4V that we are limited to now. Gustavo

I searched for your brand of batteries and on this case the default values work well, I mentioned that because most of the time the default values are too low for the batteries to fully charge.

Hi gertc, I have pretty much the same settings as you, and on summer time I never used grid power. Judging by the size of your system, maybe you are using too much power early in the day? You could lower setting 12 and 13, I would start by lowering setting 13 to 51V to see how long you stay in grid in case the batteries lost too much power due to a high load demand. Also please revise setting 26 and 27, it looks like you have AGM batteries? I would change setting 5 to user and look in your batteries documents what are the correct absorb and float voltages, because it seems to me that you not charging the batteries to 100%. How long have you been running jdp software? If more then a week you can start seeing your usage pattern and make changes to other settings... Also the BMV will help you see how well the batteries are being charged/discharged.

Dear leaves, It is one of my unfinished projects but what I have done so far is to built 1.2m x 2.4m woden boxes, just the size of a whole sheet of plywood and run a flexible aluminium tubing (150mm if memory serve me right) and closing it all up with glass or other tranparent material. I have built two such boxes so far. Now the finishing part, I have to find a fan to push air from the room air to this solar box, and out on the other side comes hot air... hopefully the fan can be solar powered directly so when the sun is out it is working autonomously. Something along this lines(is where I got the idea from): https://sites.google.com/site/glenssolarheater/ or http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/DownSpout/DownSpout.htm And I think you should review all this great website called Built it solar (I considered it the bible of solar DIY), starting from here: http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/SpaceHeating/Space_Heating.htm Warm regards from Sunny southern Spain! Gustavo

Hi Thys, I have program 12 set to 46V as jdp indicates, that is what I find a safe SOC for the batteries, we all know that voltages do no indicate SOC but at least it is a rough indicator more or less like an analog fuel gage on old cars. I have Program 13 set to 56V, I feel that if this voltage is any lower the batteries have not charged enough since going back to the grid. And in case it went back to the grid because there was a very high demand and the voltages sagged under 46V, if the sun comes back and the battery are in a high state of charge (ie. over 90% in my case) they will shoot up from 46V to 56V in about 15 minutes. If the value is any lower it can get into a catch 22 of going into battery mode and then going into grid mode. I have program 29 set to 42V, there is a catch to this setting, if you set it any higher it will cut back to grid when the grid is available at this voltage + 4V, I have not found this in any of the manuals but I read in other forums that this is the case. Also when I started playing with the system I set this much higher ie. 44V and the system would go back to the grid at 48V (way to high SOC in my opinion). So in case the grid is not available, it would discharge the batteries to a lower SOC than 50%. Just to add to the software or no software controversy, I have been using Mpp patrol for the last 3 months in a earlly 2000s laptop running windows XP and it has never crashed, since we are in the winter here my panels do not make enough energy to spend the whole night in battery mode so I set the timer there to go back to the grid at 12:30am and then back to batteries at 8:30am. I am working on installing the second inverter and 3kw of panels soon, but for now everything is just sitting in the garage. That is why I have not installed jdp software yet, I want my system to be complete before I can use it and fully enjoy its awsomenes!!! Lastly, using those values above I have never seen the system going to the grid in normal sunny days, so they are there just a a back up for cloudy days. Also I would not be afraid to use this values as the Trojan 105RE can be discharge to much lower values without any worrying. I have a pretty similar bank but with tubular plates know as PsZ200. Regards, Gustavo

We have been adapting but it is not easy! I have had a timer thrown at me because the water was not hot for her morning shower! My whole ordeal with solar started after I received a quote of some company installing a 400L thermal hot water system, the quote was

I am pushing that ratio to the opposite side now, I will have 30kwh production potential and only 10kwh of storage... As I said before I can use up all the power during the day, from water heater (gaysers you call them?), pool pump, and cooking. The whole house is electric, no gas/propane or wood... Time will tell, but even on the worst cloudy day I will have a potential of making over 10kwh from 6kwp of panels. In a future, I could have to buy another 260ah at 48V, but I think I would still invest that money(

I see what your system is now, and how it works. So yes you are correct, for your system it is not worth discharging the batteries overnight because it would take too long to charge them next day. I am trying to do something very similar, I work from home and we try to spend all solar energy as is is produced and when there is no sun I go in a low consumption mode in order to conserve battery but still have enough juice left to last the whole night.

I also think this may work, but you are still not going to know for sure that the batteries are at 100% charged because the inverter does not do a full charge and you still need an external charge to equalize the bank every month or so. I would suggest getting a second charge controller and using this controller at a higher voltage to finish the charging the batteries, in my opinion a midnight solar should work, but any charge controller that has an equalize setting should work. Before doing that, I would set the float voltage to 58.2V and see if the battery still takes over much more than 20A when it is on float. If it does still takes much more than 20A it means it is not fully charged.

Hi Selim, I have traction batteries, (tubular plate) and yes they do need higher absorb voltage to work properly just like the fork lift batteries. I have an Axpert 4048 (PIP MS4048) and I have the same issue, so I have a second charge controller (midnight KID) to equalize the pack once a week at 63.2V(the advice from the battery supplier was to charge to 61V daily, but sincse the max is 58.4, he advices that I charge to the maximum and then once a week charge up to 64V) . When I do that I have to take the inverter off-line (I do it manually, turn all breakers off and then only turn on AC line input and inverter and the the AC output brakers ). You should never feed the inverter more than 60V(it will go offline by itself at around 59.8V to 60.4V), I have heard the components are not made to survive much more than 64V, so they will blow. I am sorry I don't have better news but that is how this great piece of machinery works... you will need an external controller. I highly recommend a Midnight KID or one of the Classics with the WhizBang Jr. so you know your exact state of charge and can charge the batteries fully. Regards from Spain