kamos

Use Timer is enabled and I have the SOC set to 80% in that time slot. If you compare the screenshots above with the spikes, you can see that in the one the battery was busy charging, had to stop charging and start discharging, then only then did it kick it with the PV. In the other picture, the battery was idle. So I'm guessing it's because the battery was charging, that's why the inverter decided to get the power from the grid first, as maybe the battery was ready to deliver that kind of power?

Ok, thanks for that. So it's normal behaviour then.

So far my experience has been amazing and I'm super stoked. Before I bought the equipment, I did so much research and calculations on ROI, not once did I consider the quality of life improvement that solar brings. My area has had multiple outages since Friday, averaging 6-8 hours DAILY. You can't put a number on how good it feels to not have to worry about loadshedding, it's priceless and I have zero regrets. Quick question, my solar system was installed on 24 November and I've been running the system for 5 days. I've basically been running on PV and Battery, with very little to no import from Eskom. Here's an overview: I do have one question though. There are spikes in during the day where we do pull from the grid initially (even though the battery has 100% SOC), and they the PV / Battery will take over moments later. And then other times it solely relies on PV / Battery to deal with the load, See the examples below: Is this normal behaviour? Why isn't the inverter always pulling from Battery / PV first?

Hey Steve. Thanks for the showcase, definitely following this thread. I have the same battery, I would like to know why you chose these battery settings? Are these recommended by Felicity Solar?

So last night they completed the installation of my system, we did a few final configurations and the installer suggested that we run down the battery over night to see how it performs and how long I can go on battery with normal usage. So as soon as he left, I switched off the mains. These are the results: The battery made it through the night, with no issues. The PV kicked in shortly after sunrise, and started charging the battery. I'm so stoked with this system, it is performing way beyond my expectations! And as an added bonus, there was a 6 hour outage in my area today from 9am to 3pm, and I had power all the way through it, no issues, while my neighbours were complaining like crazy. It feels so good being almost independent from Eksom. It's cloudy in Joburg today, and my PV is handling the load just fine. I'm basically pulling nothing from the grid

So my understanding was wrong. Luke showed me that you can't set the timer SOC to a value lower than the low battery warning value. Mine is currently set to 30%. I guess that's some sort of safety feature. Btw, I turned the mains off at 5pm. Battery is performing well so far.

Thanks for this. I appreciate the feedback. It makes sense.

A separate question, I thought that the panels would generate maximum power based on weather conditions, i.e. if the power generated is 2kw, that the inverter would have that shown as the generation capacity available. But in reality, the PV functions more like an on-demand service, the inverter will request a certain amount of power draw, and the PV will provide only what has been requested up to what it's maximum generation ability is at that time. If the requested power is higher than what the PV can provide, the inverter will take the rest from the other power sources, grid / battery based on the system modes selected. Have a look at my current power flow: We've turned off the mains. I thought that the PV would provide it's maximum available generation capability, but it's only providing enough to cover the load. And limit-to-load is not ticked. When I switch on the kettle, the PV jumps to 2536W to cover the load, then goes back down once the kettle is done boiling. Why is this?

Thanks for the info. My understanding of the cutoff is that it will shutdown if it goes below that value. So setting it to 20% won't trigger the shutdown, as long as I have grid charge ticked, which I think I might do just in case. However, my installer says with my load it's unlikely that I will run the battery down to 20% at night, because my base load at night is very low (170W). The installer suggested that I shut the battery off tonight and see how it performs, he is quite confident that I won't need the grid and that my battery should easily last through the night. a. Yes, I haven't setup the timer yet, I'm waiting for the install to be completed today. My installer and I are still discussing options. b. Two reasons for this. Firstly, I was wrong when I said that there were only 3 panels outstanding, it turns out that only 7 panels on the west side had been enabled yesterday. The other 7 will be connected today on the east side. Also, those spikes are due to boiling the kettle and using the dishwasher / washing machines. No timers are enabled, so my understanding is that the inverter will take a little from the grid initially then the PV will come in with a little bit of a delay to cover the power required. The battery will be kept at 100% by default. I think once the timers are enabled, it should pull from the battery first and then come in with PV.

So I had the plant overview open all day and couldn't stop watching it It was a fairly busy day in the house, the helpers were all here doing their thing, dishwasher running, washing machine going, coffee being made in the mornings and afternoons, the TV's and sound systems going, and my gaming PC running all day. It was an overcast day in Joburg with spots of rain, and I was quite impressed with the PV, as it held up quite nicely throughout the day and was able to cope with most of the load. See below: I still have to install 3 east facing panels, so my generation capacity will increase in the mornings. Currently I'm just using the default system mode settings I know it might be hasty but I'm already looking into what the optimum configuration will be for my setup to use as little power from the grid as possible. From the diagram, it looks like I start generating a little bit at 6am and it starts to drop at 6pm. I have an east / west solar panel layout, so my peak generation is in the morning and the afternoon. With that said, these are my time of use settings I'm thinking of using (no grid charge selected): 1-6 : 20% 6-10 : 80% 10-14 : 40% 14-18 : 80% 18-20 : 60% 20-1 : 40% This way, I can discharge when it's night time and charge during the day, and then discharge a little in the middle of the day as well. I have a few questions: What are your thoughts on the above configuration? Am I being too hasty, should I wait a bit to see my usage patterns over a short period or should I do it by trial and error? During loadshedding and at night with no solar power, if the SOC drops to below the threshold configured in the Timer, what happens? I'm guessing it will just keep discharging the battery and then charge it back up to the configured SOC value for that timeslot when solar power is back. And if it does drop below the battery shutoff, the inverter will shutoff the AC output and restart the AC output when the battery reaches the restart threshold. My current battery settings are, 20% shutdown, 35% low batt, 50% restart. What are your thoughts on this? If there is excess PV, will the inverter keep charging the batteries above the SOC configured for that timer, e.g. if the SOC is set to 80%, could the battery be charged up to 100% or will the inverter only charge the battery to the SOC that's been configured and keep it there?

Ok, that makes sense. I thought that the inverter power usage was lower than 200W.

How do I check this?

It's 20w. But I've see my grid input be 0 at times. See below:

Quick update, the solar install is almost done. We hit a snag, where I couldn't install all the panels in the space I wanted, so we have to install on another roof. Luke will be coming back tomorrow to install the last few panels. The direction of my panels and location isn't ideal, but it's OK for now. I was planning on buying my panels in the future anyway. I have a question. Please have a look at the Power Flow diagram from Sunsynk connect: Why is the inverter still drawing 32W from the grid when there is sufficient power from the Solar to power the house and the inverter itself?

That's the way the installer did it. I kinda prefer it this way. Only issue I have is that it's not flat up against the wall. It's taking up a lot of space like this. We'll move it tomorrow. Are there any issues with leaving it on the pallet?