GMAC

How old are the batteries . Lead acid should not be discharged under 70% Gel batterys should not be discharged under 50% So if your low cut off volts were set to low it does not take much to destroy lead or gel batterys . Also if your float volts are to high the battery boil and also does not take long to destroy them . Ago is also part of the issue don't expect gels to last much long than 2 years With the right setting I had gels last still the 2 hours load shedding with 350w constant after 4 years . So the right setup is very important

Overcast weather and winter is the main reason why I never considered solar tube water warmers . So at the time I had an 3 kw in inverter and 1kw solar panels so powering the geyser from inverter was not an option . So I went for gas water warmer (geyser) as we only 2 in the house and we both shower . The cost on gas to cook and shower per month is R200 so not a train smash . I have upgraded over time so to get away from the cost of gas best is electric geyser power from inverter solar . So my plan is to go for 100l geyser install an 2 kw element . Install an smart timer so it can be programed and controlled from my Android any time any place . Install an change over witch so I have the option of powering from eskom but on rainy day the gas will be used to warm water . In the end there is 3 option available to warm water up but using eskom will be the last option .

Have separated the essentials neutral from from the nonessential in the db bourd

All solar panel suffer from the cloud edge effect . Solar panels perform best when cold but on our roofs they run at roof temp so never get close to there rated amps wats and volts . On a hot sunny clear day as an big cloud makes shadows for a few minutes the roof and panels cool and as the cloud moves the sun strikes the cool panels and so they generates more than they rated . So best is not to run strings close to controller volts and if your are to remove one panels .

I do have the Manuel but unfortunately I'm not home till next week Sunday but will try get someone to take pic of the Manuel for you

I have the luxpowertek app install on my Android and it's working great

I noticed today that a friend solar generated 2500w yesterday and today 2400w from 5 450w panels = 2250w just as the batteries were reaching full charge

1. Some inverter do consume more than othere from grid and being 8kw inverter it will consume more . 2. Seems like this inverter suffers from the float bug but with out see you full setup hard to say . 3. Hard to say what's going on there but some inverter in grid mode do consume battery power some consume up to 7% battery overnight when charging only from solar. 4 if you have setting set to sub most expert inverter do still consume from the grid even if solar is enough set your setting to sbu or sol then it will only consume from solar and battery for as long as there sun.

In the new update they must have changed how the inverter works .but agree 15% used is a lot through the night . First image is luxpower . Second image is deye And lost is growatt and as you can see growatt has the highest consumption with about 6% battery used at night lithium is an Hubble am-2 5.5kw

I see a lot of this inverters that can mix solar grid and battery (sub) do at times trickle at night around 20w from the battery . It's normal . A friend growatt can at times consume from his 5kw Hubble around 8% over the night when not charging from the grid

I would use li mode if it's available as it will not charge the battery all the time and so is more lithium friendly . I would then set bulk to 27.6v

28.4 and you can ones a month bulk charge to 29v . 27.2 to 27.4 float 23v to 24 cut of Are are safe volts that should not damage the cels and volts that I have been using for over an year . My esener always settles at night around 26.6v as I only charge from solar . On my older inverter there were volts difference between inverter and lithium more like 1 volts when it was under high load . But with the new inverter its closer .

Limpopo does not have the weather issues that the cape has but we still opted for gas water heater (geyser) in place of solar geysers The plan now is to install an 100l electric geyser with on 2kw element controlled by an smart timer as gas is getting exspensive so on good days we can heat water from the inverter and on bad days use gas only. Being only 2 in the house 1 fridge and no air cons my 5.5 kw inverter and 5 kw lithium with 2.6kw solar is enough to for us to go of grid if weather is not to bad .

Yes you can especially if you have them facing as in your pic and connected in parallel as only one panel will get the direct sun at a time . I'm testing 3 340w panels now connected in parallel all facing in one direction to see how that inverter performs with 40v setup . Been cloudy and rainy the last 2 days hopefully tomorrow will be a better day for solar

There was an similar post a few month ago worth looking it up . I personally don't have an issue when power is down for a few days to throwing an extension over the wall just for my neighbor to keep his fridges cold through the day saving him hundred or thousand in lost meat . I remember someone in an the similar post mentioning you not allowed to connect your houses power to neighbors house . So permanent sharing could be an issue

As far as I understand capes regulations if the inverter is not connected directly to the db bourd then it regarded as just an house appliance what they don't realize is then more and more people will start to uses the plug of death in SA to get around regulations and load shedding .

This mess was not created by SA citizens but we are punished and bashed at when we try find our own solutions to the problems and the harder we try make our lives more comfortable at our cost even when we pay for a service we not getting constantly the more these politicians bash back at us and make it harder for us to live comfortably and safer 15 years ago generators was still an option to the problem but with today fuel price gens are now to expensive to run That said we can't argue the fact that charging our batteries after load shedding puts more strain on the grid this the reason i setup my system to only charge from solar .

🙈 these setting are safe setting that will give most amount of cycles and years . You could try dropping 29) to 46v And increase 27) to 55.2 v The question then is what's your load and does the inverter float the batterys all day or shut down when it reaches float volts . I hope the batteries are not damaged to to over charging or under discharging .

I have seen this before were the battery communicates to the inverter that the battery is 100% but battery volts indicate more like 50% and so the battery bms cut the battery when the volts reach the flat point The only way we fix this is to charge battery using volts to calibrate the batterys bms , this fixed the issue at the time but with time the bms went out of calibration again and had to charge the battery up to true 100% using volts .

I have just that inverter installed in my in-laws house and I have 4 330w panels connected 2 series 2 parrel so 2 strings so input into the inverter is around 80v and around 14amps . This inverter is rated 1000w mppt controller but have never seen it give more than 500w from the controller . So then an external mppt controller will be best but they costly so save yourself the trouble and get an 3kw inverter that has an 4000w high volts controller this giving your self lots of room to upgrade with time

Lead acid 2 years if you lucky . You can try these setting 05) battery type: use 26)bulk charge 58v 27)float charge 54.8v 29) low cut of volts 48v Max charge amps 25amps Hope I have the right Manuel . Anyone please correct some of the volts if you think my volts setting is not right as we trying to help . If your inverter still only last to 8-9 pm then you must consider new batteries but lithium not lead or gel Or You must consider reducing the load at night as I don't recall you say what your load is in the evenings On my 5.5 kw inverter and only 5.25kw lithium . With one fridge running and PC ,tv and light our load is around 450w till 10pm when we go to bed and my battery last the night till the solars start generating power.

Please take pic of the inverter so we can see what mecer is installed

Sounds like in repairs they have defaulted all setting so best is post the float , bulk and low cut of volts . Also what battery type has been set in. Gel and lead acid need to soak for hours on float charge to fully charge. It does not mean it's on bulk or float volts that the battery is fully charged . Some inverter depending on what battery type is set in will stop charging the moment it reaches float charge leaving the battery at say around 60% this percentage will also depends on charging amps as to high charge amps will force the volts to bulk volts to quick but leave the battery at a low charge level so also charging with low amps is better for gel and lead battery .

Can you shear your float , bulk and low cut of volts . Good quality gel batteries will last you if you lucky about 4 years as my gel batteries did , now I'm on lithium. .

Any having problems with the shine phone app for growatt . Can't at time enter the plant and every time you do and want to go check the plant you have to enter password incredibly frustrating . If you can inter the plant after entering password every time then you often get time out error when you want to refresh the page . I have uninstalled the app and installed again with same results . This seemed to have started after the last update . Is there an more reliable app for growatt inverters