drakeSW

hi, I had an Imeon 3.6 with about 19 kWh's of batteries installed about 3 years ago. The Imeon charges the batteries and also serves as a battery monitor. This is physically impossible as I have been told before, because you cannot monitor the charge while charging / discharging on the same device. I was ok with this, as I used very little of my batteries (about 3-4 kWh). Now I want to up my usage to about 10kWh which would require real monitoring. Question: Has anyone done this on an Imeon before? And is there somebody that can install it for me in Somerset West? My installer has since gone out of business :(. Thanks, DrakeSw

hi, If you are not sorted already, you can contact www.green4earth.co.za, they are based in Somerset West. They installed my Imeon 3.6, and I can remember Aldre having similar issues due to voltage irregularity. The Imeon's software is horrible, but mine is working well for some time now.

hi superdiy, You are absolutely correct. I my case though, I am happy with the setup. As I understand it, it will rather stop earlier to discharge (while there is actually more battery left). I am ok with that. As for charging, the Imeon is not pushing in a lot as the voltage goes up, so should not damage the battery. All in all I am happy to continue without having the perfect setup. Also, the voltage metered was quite accurate after the final setup. Thanks again for all the advice.

Just a follow-up if somebody has the same issues later on: The special software we needed was just a key generator that needs to be applied by pressing <control> and right clicking on a certain part of the GUI. It gives you access to the settings in the picture attached. The first mistake we made was adjusting the metered voltage (which was off from the actual voltage on the battery by about 2V) while there was some solar trickling in late in the afternoon. This didn't help much. Later we applied the breakers so that there was no incoming current or outgoing current from the inverter, and adjusted again. This had the desired effect. My installer has good knowledge of my specific batteries and showed me a chart that translate voltage to charge level. The Imeon was way off again with the charge level. Luckily you can configure your DOD on voltage as well, which was by now a lot more accurate. The end result is, that the system now works beautifully and I don't need a separate charge controller / battery monitor. The trick is to totally ignore the charge level percentage indicator and to interpret the voltage yourself, based on your battery setup.

hi Guys, Thanks for all the replies. I spoke to my installer again, after your replies and he is in the process of getting the software. I think I may have been his first Imeon installation. I am already out of pocket a lot, so would hate to have to spend on another battery monitor . I'll see if it is necessary to do it after the inverter is configured correctly. Otherwise I'm quite happy with the unit. Just wish I had more access to the configurable features. Wrong configuration may probably damage the inverter, and that is probably why they don't share the information so freely. I have noticed though, that the configuration happens over normal SMTP on port 161 . I found the post about voltage drop : http://powerforum.co.za/topic/200-hydrometer-battery-status/page-3.

hi, I recently bought an Imeon 3.6, connected to 250x12 solar panels. I also have 8 x 200 Ah batteries (Vision 6FM200LP-X 12V 200Ah(10hr), lead-lead dioxide / fibre glass). I've read on the forums that the Inverter can only charge at a certain rate (20A / 1.2kw?) but it does not explain my problem. I have even started a day with 99% charge, so it had the whole sunny day to charge. When charging my batteries, it will go to 99% and then to 100% a whole while later, stating 54 V At any battery usage, the battery percentage will mediately drop to about 70%. This means that I cannot set my DOD to 30%, otherwise I cannot use the batteries at night at all. I would rather not cycle my batteries between 50-70%, according to the specs, this will reduce the battery lifetime significantly. Any advice please? My installer does not seem to have experience with this model. Regards, Pieter