KLEVA

If you just changed all the voltages then there may be a bit of time while everything settles that the Invertor thinks everything is haywire (the batteries weren't at the voltages that you set them to - yet). Give it a few hours. 58.something is good for Lead Acid (especially those that you can add electrolyte to), and Ok for Gel and others if it's only doing it sometime (not multiple times each day) - your settings seem to indicate that. Can change that lower if needed later - Sealed or Gel Electrolyte can't be replaced so need to be slightly careful here - but it depends on useage and many more factors that are difficult to determine with anecdotal info. But if you decide to stick with 56V to be safe, then do yourself a favour and at least 1/6Months kick it up to about 59V for a while to avoid sulpheration (applies even to Gel/VRLA - they need to boil a bit to get rid of sulphur buildup - but learn about batteries in the meantime so that you understand I am not trying to steer you wrong, I don't know everything). 1. Battery Equalisers - Trust me, no matter what batteries you have, from cheap to expensive - you have to have something that keeps your batteries balanced - This can be expensive as a Full BMS, A high end Victron Balancer or just a HA02 on each bank if they are loose like yours (get a price from @Chris Hobson otherwise you might wait weeks if importing) 2. With a single bank of batteries like yours, then you will hate the price of a Victron BMV702 (battery monitoring), since it is around the price of another battery... But mid-point monitoring (checking the voltages at the half-way point of your battery bank), and the much more accurate ACTUAL usage of your batteries (terms like SOC/%DoD, Time, etc) will make a lot more sense with accurate measurement. You can do some of the same with a less powerful Victron monitor (600/700), but monitoring the Midpoint is critical in identifying a battery failure (See my lessons learned Blog), and there is even a temperature option if you need later. 3. You have started almost exactly at my original specs, and if this is a backup unit then you should be fine. Don't be in a hurry to try save Municipal power yet, the Axpert is really a high power UPS system with advance features (your installer/supplier probably didn't sell it to you like that). A hint: Even with the low switch time of the Axpert, I had issues on a few pieces of computer equipment during switchover (Note: this also might have something to do with the Earth Break between Neutral and Earth - I never solved this myself), so put a basic UPS on your Critical items that can't take the switchover (you will know which ones they are when the 40ms isn't enough and your PC or DSTV resets - 40ms is my experience, even though it's supposed to be less, there is even a setting that says so). 4. Ask an electrician to check your grounding/earth both when the Axpert is running with Municipal Power and when it is operating (isolated) in UPS mode, sometimes they need to look at a second earth bonding to Neutral after your Axpert. So far I have never seen/experience/read any danger, but I have been lightly shocked/tingled by things that I though were earthed. In SA the Earth is almost always bonded to Neutral on the Municipal side, but the double pole switch in the Axpert means it can disconnect that bond. I resolved by adding a Earth to Neutral bond (wire) in the DB board, but highly suggest you get a decent Electrician to qualify this for you properly. 5. I know this is budget dependant - but even if you only draw 500W/hr a 200Ah bank of batteries is only going to be workable (without damaging them) for a few hours and not enough normally to last a night before the sun comes up again. If you need them to last longer (especially since the Axpert misuses the Voltage setting - oddly the Axpert works in your batteries favour in this regard normally), try get a second bank of batteries as your first priority when you decide to upgrade stuff (after doing the above stuff and bearing in mind that you will also need a balancer - Item 2 above - for those as well) Ok, after all the noise above, just enjoy your start into Solar - trust me it gets confusing, and you will occasionally think you might have wasted your time and money, but it is both fun and worth it in the end. And yes, you will find that there are a lot of things that you would have done different, but unless you start somewhere, you might not have started at all. Regards KLEVA

Thanks Cris, makes sense. I knew there was a specific warning about battery banks. Sorry about confusion.

Also, if you have the Actual manual for this invertor, check whether the batteries are supposed to be connected to each, or just one.

Since you have no Municipal Power, the AC stuff wont apply. For those batteries though you will need to set your Bulk Charging Voltage to about 58V for Lead Acid (bit low at 56.4). My preference is normally to have a max charge of 10A/200Ah48V bank (so max charge of 30A in your case) so as not to heat up/damage the batteries, but this is highly dependant on your needs.

@Atti2de - You are running a wine fridge and aircons off your batteries? 1. Wine Fridge! Seriously? 2.Aircons: Are you trying to purposely stress your batteries? I am hoping that the post was supposed to be humorous. Are you completely off-grid? If not, why are you stressing your Pylontechs with your Aircons, and so deeply discharged? I understand that they can last through such huge and multiple cycles, but at the price you paid there is no way you are going to recover your cost if you push them that hard?

Ok, understand - Just thought I was losing the plot. We were comparing the ReneSys/Similar (100W) to the existing Tenesol (200W), so missed the current clarification you made in your post.

Cool, will send you the info tomorrow - You will buy direct, I will just get the price and a supplier Id. Dependant on price I might buy the 100/30 to use on my Camper Van

@plonkster - I am old school, Voltage/Current/Power, so if I am wrong I am missing something - If you add the cells/panels in series (200 vs 100) won't you have a problem with the current maximum? Surely if you have a panel that can only handle 4A (rating of the 100W panels) of the 8A(rating of the 200W panels), then the entire array will be limited to that 4A if connected in series? Also, 30+30+30+30 Volts is 120V, over the spec of the 100/30?

Besides, When have you known anything SA made to perform at spec

Ouch! No stress though. Typical Blue Victron style - They take a lot of beating, just at a financial cost - You will be good with Option 1 using 100W panels - Voltage at 90V is below it's spec, and the 8A is well below it's spec. If you go with 3x350, then bear in mind that 1050W is "out of spec" but as per previous discussions on this forum, it will never try use more than 880W (the spec) because the MPPT will do it's job. The voltage will remain inline, but the current could go above - remember this is all based on absolute maximums. 10% over spec (as per the manual) is 968W - So you may, while all the 350W panels are performing 100% on a brilliant sunny day, just get over that by about 80W, I think you will be safe and good if you have a DC current breaker (Voltage will never go over, it will be a current overrun if any - due to the MPPT). Due to PV degradation over time, after a year you probably can NEVER go over.

Found the Manual - 3 x 350W should be within spec of the 100/30, so you shouldn't need a new controller. Firstly, didn't realise that it is a 24V Controller (sorry, my assumption is always 12/48V), You can series or parallel the strings easily since the Max Voltage is 100V from PV. My suggestion is to series to keep the Voltage high for the MPPT (same as what you where doing with the 200W panels)

PS: AHA - you have 1 smoked 200W that you originally looking to replace?

Will do, will find out tomorrow. But, that does not discount the option 1 above - Cell Count wont matter if you do a small Parallel string inline with your series string, since it will only be the voltages and current that come into play.

That's a decent price, sure someone could use - Shipping would be too expensive to make them worthwhile for me. Lesson learned, Calciums are not brilliant for long-term solar... Check in with @Mike if you are needing affordable replacements. RB200's are also not the perfect alternative for full Solar use, but if you are using these as a UPS type backup on an Axpert, then these are 10x better - and will give you double the backup time for almost the same cost you originally paid. I have used my old Calciums in my Camper for holidays, on my Gate for a monster offline time, in my Merc when the battery failed (why buy new?), and as a monster UPS backup on my basic 1kVA that runs my office... They work fine for that.

@plonkster - I think from the spec of the Tenesol originally they were 60cells (the voltages seem to indicate that too).

If interested in the ArtSolar panels (they are now 350W not 320W as on their website) and you cannot get directly from them for that price, let me know - I am close and am a registered dealer for them (only cause I wanted lower prices on my own panels - he he), so can get lower pricing. They are 72 cell so might be larger than your existing 60 cell, so might have to check how you can mount. Website: https://artsolar.net/pv-modules/

Then Option 2 is out, go for Option 1. The MPPT will sort it out

Costwise though, it might be worthwhile looking at 2 x new 350W panels from ArtSolar in Pinetown (Around R1800 each) and keeping the 200W panels for something else later?

I have hit the same issue a few times. 100W is about the biggest I can use with the small cheap 12V PWM controllers, they then jump so drastically in Voltage that a 280+ comes across as the only next jump. Cannot find a 150W or 200W where the Voltage is low enough for the small controllers < 19V, hence 3 seperate panels on my Camper with NO space for more.

@The Terrible Triplett - Hi TTT, I edited my comment to show the 2 panels you asked for not the 4.

Based on your signature stating that you running 400W to your Victron100/30, I am assuming it is to increase that to 800W 600W To keep an exact balance, I would put 1 x 200W & 2 x 100W on one string (ie: 2 x 100W in Series to replace 1 x 200W), and duplicate that in the second string. If you don't want to rewire then you can connect all 4 100W in series (giving 400W) and connect this as a second string, but think the first option is better as the MPPT won't have to fight. As long as the 2 parallel strings are similar/close you will get almost 800W from the 2 strings together. Option 1: Add the 2 x 100W connected in Parallel to your existing series string... 1 x 200 + 1 x 200 + 2 x 100 = 600W at about 90V and about 8A. Option 2: Split into 2 parallel strings with each string having 1x200 + 1x100, multiplied by 2 strings this will give you 600W at about 45V and about 16A I think the 45V option might be too low for your Victron to perform properly though, I need to find and read the specs.

You surely would have seen smoke from the Axpert or the batteries after 6 months or more of a 105V feed to each of the 48V banks.

1. From what I remember: In a parallel setup the Battery Bank is supposed to be ONLY connected to 1 of the Axperts. (Its highlighted in the manual) 2. 105V / 2 = 52.5 V (roughly close to the normal float voltage for those batteries) so maybe your battery testing is across incorrect points? 3. Test across the +ve and -ve across each battery bank (each 4) where the GREEN wires are connected (one with Red tape and one with black tape) - I am sure you will see 52-54V 4. Where do those smaller (possibly 6mm) black wires go from the Positive on one Invertor and the Negative on the other?

Whoops - Stop the bus! The Rhomberg units all seem to be limited to 5A forward current, this could be an issue when connected inline to an Invertor that can do 3-6kW (unless a shunt is used)... So will wait for Chris's idea.

@Chris HobsonSorry to hear mate. Had a look at this, and this seems to be almost exactly what I need although would like a bit more flexibility with the options (current, seconds, etc) and is available from AC/DC for around R550 (although there are none in stock at the moment) - https://www.acdc.co.za/collections/rhomberg-electronic-timers-relays-panel-instruments/acd300?page=89. If I live with those values and limitations would this do the job if I place it on the Invertor AC input side and put the Load before this? eg: AC Input -> Excluded Loads -> SP510 -> Invertor -> Included Loads SP510 relay would turn on a load on the Excluded Loads side, so from what I can ascertain the SP510 will still see a reverse load?