Mercadian

It is on the master inverter yes, settings have carried across to the other two inverters. I did speak to the installer and he got Deye to run through a firmware update process again. The master inverter now has the following versions: HMI Version: 0000-C36F MAIN Version: 0-6027-1724 Both Slaves have the following versions: HMI Version: 0000-C36F MAIN Version: 0-6027-1724 Looking at Solar Assistant now after the firmware update batteries are reporting as 99% and the solar is enough to run the house load. Grid power is between 76w and 120w which I would expect as the Grid Trickle Feed. So I am wondering if there was not an issue on the previous firmware on the master inverter. Will see what happens if the batteries report as 100%. CAN cable is plugged into the master inverter.

Which setting are you referring to? Sorry just wanting to confirm. The battery setting has Gen Charge, Gen signal, Gen force and Grid Charge ticked. Work Mode is set to Zero Export to Load and Energy Pattern is load first. Zero-Export Power is 100. Other settings are as per image. I’m pretty sure all the settings are correct and it might be a firmware bug, but maybe missing something. The installer is comming around to look tomorrow as well.

Good afternoon, All time slots are set at 20%, have just made sure that the days are all ticked as well and I have even tried to untick the grid charge setting. But same thing.

Good morning all, We have recently added in a third Deye 8KW inverter and an additional 16 solar panels. This bring our setup to a total of 3 x 8kw inverters (1 x 8KW with 46 Panels (18 x 450w JA panels, 12 x 565W JA Panels and 16 x 545W Canadian Panels) this configuration means our batteries are fully charged by about 12PM. The problem with this is that the inverter uses the eskom load to off set the solar deficit and not the batteries. However, this picture changes at about 6PM or so. The work mode settings look correct from what I can see.

Good evening all, I currently have 2 x Deye 8KW inverters in parallel and 10 x BSL Bull 5.2KW batteries, majority are 105AH and one is 120AH, we recently had the batteries moved to battery cabinets and I made up battery communication cables, however the inverter seems to be missing the capacity of two batteries, when using solar assistant I can see all 10 battery packs. So I am not sure if the communication cables are the cause or the problem, my question is can I swap communication cables one at a time with the batteries on or do I need to shutdown all the batteries before switching cables?

Sorry to jump in here, there seems to be a lot of debate on this topic, a few days ago we got a solar installer out to come and check the inverters are optimally configured and we have enough panels etc and the result was eye opening to say the least. Essentially the installer said he would not done a coc on our setup and listed the following issues: 1) No surge protection in DC DB Board 2) No surge protection in AC isolators (even though main db board has surge protection) 3) Each battery didn’t have a fuse 4) Cables wrong length 5) all cables running in a single trunking 6) Cables incorrectly sized 7) Breakers on AC side to big (63a and should be 40a) 8)Batteries are not going to a busbar Now, this was all cool. We then got another installer out who agreed with he first installer with the exception of point 3 - all batteries should have a separate fuse before going into the main fuse, this point he said is not necessary and just adds extra cost. However, speaking to another installer and going through the compliance group on Facebook it is stated that each battery needs its own fuse. Now according to what I have seen in the SANS 10142-1:2021 snippet that was sent states that the supply from each inverter, battery arrangement and PV Panel constitutes a supply, and therefore require arrangements similar to points of supply, which requires a disconnect switch. To comply with section 7.12.5. now does this mean that all batteries need a single disconnect or that each battery needs a disconnect? I am confused and need to understand if this is legal or just a guideline.

Thank you. Will check it out.

So, just an update we have obtained a 9KVA Kipor KDE12STA Diesel generator and had the electrician connect it to the gen port and it now charges the batteries when the grid is disconnected. However is it possible to get the generator to charge the batteries while the grid is connected? We are currently trying to source a auto start for the generator to start it if the solar stops producing and batteries are below 100%, this would also depend on the time of day, as an example between 5PM and 8PM gen can run to charge batteries, but after 8PM it must not do anything unless the battery gets to a critical level of 15% and there is no solar production Does anyone have any experience with auto starts on these generators? Is it possible to do a diy solution using a sonoff device maybe?

Fair enough

Will do. Just need to get logged in again. Seems I forgot my password and it’s giving me grief on the password reset. any reason for not using the Geyserwise Thermostat with the Tuya WiFi Controller? Or was the WiFi controller not available at the time?

That’s my thoughts. Run the coldest geyser earlier and the hottest later. That I think would also increase efficiency. Will look into this avenue. I’ve gone through your post on my broadband and it looks very comprehensive.

So the system is a few years old, but only recently put in solar assistant which in my mind does a much better job at monitoring that SOLARMAN does. I could go back more on SOLARMAN, but average is about right for a month, but again, it would depend on the month. I am still at a point where I’m trying to take a step back and saying before we do anything we actually need to see what happens when rooms are heated with inverter aircons or heaters etc. just trying to get as much information and as many options possible to make informed decisions. That and waiting for an installer my sister in laws knows to come check the configuration of the system and advise if anything on the inverters themselves can be optimised / tweaked to maximise performance.

Interesting with the smart controller, I have all out geysers with 2kw elements and using wifi smart controllers, I use sonoff light switches which yes I know also add to the load, but it’s negligible I think. Was wondering if I could use a sonoff thermostat relay to monitor water temps and only turn on the geyser when it drops below a certain point and shut off when it reaches a suitable temp. Depending how that’s configured it might be beneficial. Also the pool pump is on a smart timer, that runs between 11am and 1pm now in winter. Also about a 2kw load. by my recent calculations (and by that I mean very rough based on solar advice web site) we should be using a 15kw grid array, we currently have about 11. Essentially we can definitely not touch the grid during the day, just need to get out damn generator working to charge the batteries and then we should technically be able to not worry to much about the solar during the day either as the generator can fill in the difference. who knows we may even be able to then do charging during rainy and overcast days with little effort.

I put wifi smart timers in a few a years back, for tired of manually changing times on traditional timers when load shedding was so inconsistent, much better to be able to control it via the phone 😁 so right now we are getting about 80% charge on the batteries and that does take us until early morning. So we have reduced the number of units we use per day at least.

@Gandalf thanks. The current generator though is wired into grid not the gen port.

Hi, Thanks for the response. The thing is, this is a three house setup, not a single home, at any given point of time these are the minimum items running: 1 x upright fridge 1 x upright freezer 3 x chest freezers 1 x top fridge and bottom freezer 3 x double door fridge freezers 2 x desktop computers 1 x server running various things specially a firewall and media sharing platform 1 x 24 port network switch supplying poe power to 9 access points 1 x internet router I’m not to stressed about the 2kw average usage, I know it is above average and we are not even starting to use heaters and that yet. Which in my mind will change the picture as well. Not sure if this helps matters any 😁 So basically what I read then is that taking the geysers onto their own solar is then a viable option instead of maxing out panels and doing more batteries?

Hi, we are based in Krugersdorp. We have 24 panels facing West and 6 panels facing north. Originally we had the 18 450w panels installed west facing, and then decided to install the additional 12 panels to try and maximise the sun, 6 of these were installed North and 6 where installed west originally from the 18 original panels we where getting about 5kw, and now we have gone to +/- 11.. keep in mind this peak happens at about 12:35. Below is just solar draw from solar assistant: And the full picture showing Load, Grid and PV: Our average load requirement before battery and solar is 78kw. Which taking that into account as well I suspect the system is under specced on battery and solar. Especially since we are now trying to go off grid. But I don’t know enough at this point to fully ascertain that factually. So yeah, just trying to figure out the best way to approach this.

Good evening all, We currently have 2 x 8KW Deye inverters connected in paralell with 7 x BSL Bull batteries at 52.4v ranging from 100ah to 120ah a battery, total battery capacity has been configured at 700ah. solar panels are 18 x 450w panels and 12 x 565w JA panels, solar produces 11kw at its peak. Currently, we run 4 geysers at various times of the day starting at roughly 10 am and ending at around 4pm, the problem is that with the geysers running we pull about 7.7kw, this in turn has a knock on effect of not effectively charging the batteries all the way to 100% I am just looking for some input as to whether doing a Geyser Guru conversion on each geyser or purchasing an additional few panels to max out the solar capacity in the inverters. It is three houses running off the 2 x 8kw inverters and batteries so I am leaning more to actually increasing the panel counts, primarily because we are going to be putting in more batteries and I think we will need more panels anyway to charge the batteries. But then again, I do see the potential benefit on putting the geysers on their own solar. With that said, how effective is the Solar Guru conversion and is the controller smart? I like the smart home aspect and I like being able to monitor and control devices wherever I am. 😁 Im just worried that we go through the conversion process of the geysers and we still need additional panels to charge more batteries. 🤔

Sorry for the delay in responding. Been a little bit hectic. so some new developments, we have managed to get a Kipor kde12sta 9.5kw Diesel generator, still enough to power the house and run 4 geysers, but inverter still doesn’t seem to what to charge from grid port. Which is strange. we have also added in an additional 12 x 565w JA solar panels on our current 18 x 400w panels. An additional question based on this thread is now how may kw should I expect from the 565w panels? we have 30 panels in total and still have a shortfall of charging the batteries with have, I’m suspecting we are still about 10 solar panels short to charge the batteries and run the house loads of about 9kw that peaks during the day.

Low load itself could be interesting. Because it is tied into the db board and therefore grid port on the inverter it will try run the house, basically plugs about 7 fridges, tvs, desktop pc, network switch and I with POE devices. 😂. I am still going to check the frequency screw if I can find it, also trying to find a manual for the generator.

Hi @TaliaB, thank you. And I hear you, I’m just going on what was done regarding the wiring on the house years ago, before my time on the property. 😁 The dirty power is always a concern, even more so with the generator being how old it is. The AVR feature have come a long way, and yes sadly it is also a petrol generator. the idea is to move away from the generator and use the inverter. But there are times where it rains or threatens to rain and Eskom goes out for longer than the batteries hold for and we need to use the generator to get power. Which is works well, and at least hold until the batteries charge enough with solar.

Thanks all the for the input, I finally had an opportunity to test the generator today but alas, no luck. I did decrease the generator input to 2500w to start, flipped the change over switch to generator and inverter picked it up after a few minutes, tried to pull load and then disconnected again. generator input was increased and had it back to 6500w but to no avail. What I did notice though when looking at the power coming in from the grid the frequency jumped to 50 hz to 50.7 hz which is about the time the generator kicks out. so for now I’m writing off this idea and will use the generator just to run the house when we have issues and the inverter runs out of batteries. we are not off grid, so it doesn’t happen all to often.

Perfect will try it like that.

Hi guys, have not had a chance yet to test the charging. Just some additional info the Gen connect to Grid input is ticked. I also notice that the Geneator input was set to 7500W. If I look at the info plate in the generator it is a 7.5Kva but rather at 6KW. So im suspecting that could also be part of the problem. if I understand correctly the inverter will try pull the full 7500w from the generator which could cause weird things. If I change to 5000w would this be the max draw? Or would it pull more if needed?

Ours is a petrol and old. Change over switch is used and it can run the entire house. Was just hoping to get it to charge the batteries as well. But after trying some suggestions when I’m back next week it turns out it won’t work then it’s also cool. 😁. Thank you for the input. I have had a suspicion the generator would be to old / small.