Analytical

Lithium battery option on Sunsynk 8kW.

Just to add a bit of my experience here. My batteries were losing capacity like crazy. I ended up at 174Ah for three batteries according to Solar Assistant. Hubble support asked me to send the batteries in so they can troubleshoot, but I was reluctant to take the system apart and be without my batteries so procrastinated for 3 months. I was convinced it was firmware, as the cell voltages were all very close and didn't indicate bad cells. Last week I saw Guthrum and werner.potgieter had success with with getting the firmware from Hubble, and they were kind enough to share with me. I have the RS232 cable as I run Solar Assistant and uploaded the firmware a week ago, and my capacity is now sitting at 315Ah (315 x 50 = 15.75kWh). Checking the logs and I can see that I get about 12.5kWh from my batteries each night at a DoD of 20%, so I am much happier with my setup now. My remaining issue now is that the batteries' cycle count is still increasing too quickly. About 2 per day, where I definitely do not charge and discharge that much. I hope the cycle count is not used for warranty purposes as the batteries are burning through the cycles.

Thanks, yes I have a cable to the batteries as well. It was useful as SA showed me that my battery capacity is below what it should be. It dropped to 248Ah now. I discussed with Hubble and will be sending the batteries to them to test.

Another thing to try is to switch off the main battery with the switch at the bottom and on again. Mine stopped at 95% this afternoon and once I power cycled the main battery it started charging again.

My previous Pylontech US3000 calculated a cycle as full discharge and back up to full again as one cycle. For example I set the minimum SOC at 25% which was not always reached each day, and after a year it showed just over 200 cycles. I recently had 3 Hubble AM-2's installed on 21 Dec 2021, and they are currently showing 57 cycles after 28 days and minimum SOC of 20%, which equates to two cycles a day, which doesn't make sense. I sent Hubble Support a mail and can advise later what they replied.

Hi @StickeyTape I see you use similar hardware to me as well as Solar Assistant. Can you please check what Solar Assistant shows as your battery capacity and cycles on the Hubbles? My capacity for 3 batteries shows as 261Ah and my cycles are also clocking up very fast. The one pasted below shows 57 cycles, but I've only had the batteries for 28 days and definitively don't cycle them twice a day. Thanks.

Hi. Just wanted to give some feedback from my side as I found this thread useful. My Pylontech to ICC cable made by Diversified Solutions stopped working properly a while ago. ICC could read the values for a while, but then I guess it would timeout and stop updating. I didnt want to spend hundreds of rands again for a new cable, especially if I wasnt sure if it was indeed the cable, so I delayed. Eventually last week I searched and found a Prolific chip USB to TTL adapter as mentioned here at DIYelectronics and bought it. R29.95 well spent! My cable is now working again, though I have to tidy up the soldering work as this adapter has pins already soldered in, and need to make it look neat. Thanks to all.

I'm also keen on getting the 8kW Sunsynk when I move into my new house.

Contact livecopper.co.za via email. They sourced all the Hager stuff I originally wanted from EM, and made it much easier, and also slightly cheaper. It took about a day or two longer for them to source the units first.

Hi Just to add, after reading most of the threads, here i decided to tie the output neutral and earth together after testing with a short wire, and all looks fine. My issue was that the earth leakage tripped whenever the grid was restored, and this fixed the nuisance tripping when grid restores. I've tested the earth leakages after the inverter (by pressing the test button) and they seem to work, so pretty happy with the result. My other thought was to use a contactor, but since the Infini 3KW does not have a relay for this, I couldnt think what contactor to use, as the inverter engages the grid only a few seconds after the grid comes on, so a contactor would disengage too quickly.

It is very impressive to see what you have achieved. I also have some fibaro switches in the house (10 light switches and three plugs), but running it on the Vera Plus controller. It is impressive to see what can be done with HC2, and the interface looks so good. Thanks for the posts and updates. It is very interesting to read and see the pictures as well. Thanks!

Hi Here is a previous response I provided on the load on my 3KW Infini: https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2858-reverse-power-flow-blocking-protection/?tab=comments#comment-44961 I currently have my whole house connected except for geyser. The largest load on it is the oven, which is 4 KW, which it can sustain whilst the oven heats up, which is around 15 min. The total loan regularly peaks at 5KW with the oven, with the highest recorded being 7KW for a short period of time. I dont think there is much of a benefit keeping this on the inverter, so will split it out with the geyser, but the live wire is too short at the moment to reach the top rail at the moment. Dishwasher, washing machine and aircon will remain on the inverter, but I will put these on a contactor as the load capability is much lower without the grid present (trips when the lawnmower tries to start when no grid present). I havent seen smoke yet, but have seen it trip with overload, so seems safe. The manual says to connect the AC Input to a 30A circuit breaker. I have a 32A one, both on in and out. @Mark I'm keen to hear about the frequency change being mentioned below please. Hope it helps.

I would guess it is the second life batteries discussed in multiple threads. Here is one: https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2568-byd-10kwh-lithium-48v-quote/ They dont mention a brand in their their ad which would be consistent with the second life batteries I think, as the original manufacturer doesn't support this.

Hi @PlanB Here is a thread I started when I installed my Infinisolar which highlights some of the questions I had when starting off with it and some answers. Infinisolar install Here is also a thread where I provided some feedback later. Comment I'm very happy with the Infini considering how much it cost, and with ICC running on Pi it give me most functions of much more expensive inverters. I now also have it running with a Pylontech battery and very happy, using for backup and cycling it in the early hours of the morning. When I bought my inverter I bought two as my neighbour was also interested, but then changed his mind, so I kept the second one as backup "in case", but it has run very well for the past 15 months with absolutely no issues, so will probably look to sell the second unopened one. There is a lot of valuable information on the forum and most of what I learned came from here. If there are specific Infini questions about running it in Off-grid mode I'll try to answer. Good luck!

Hi I have the same inverter, and also running it in off-grid plus backup. I have recently connected the AC out of the inverter into my main DB and it is working very well. As long as there is grid power the inverter can sustain much higher loads than 3KW for short periods of time. I removed the geyser from the inverter circuits, but the oven is still on the inverter since the wire in the DB is too short to reach the top rail next to the geyser circuit breaker. When the oven is on the inverter supplies between 4 and 5KW, and continues to do so until the oven reaches temperature. The screen shows overload but the alarm does not sound yet, as it takes the oven about 10-15 minutes to reach temp. The intention is to remove the oven soon, as there is no benefit keeping it on the inverter. i think/know that the gardener also plugs the lawnmower into the inverter supplied sockets, and the inverter can supply the high initial load, but only when grid is available. I will also put the Aircon, washing machine and dishwasher on a contractor soon so that these are disconnected in case of power failure and running on batteries. I had the same questions as you and eventually figured it out by trial, and must say I am very impressed with this inverter considering the price paid, especially with the added functionality of ICC. Also to note, I’m on prepaid and can’t risk feeding back into the grid, but using it in off grid mode is working really well. Hope this helps a bit.

Thanks for sharing your story. Good to hear of your success.

I also had an issue with corruption of the SD card in the beginning when power went out unexpectedly, but I changed the SD card and all was fine thereafter. If you havent tried another SD card yet, do that first. Beyond that I have no other recommendation. I do love having ICC with my Infinisolar and really happy with my setup due to it.About to add a Pylontech to it as well with the special ICC cable.

Now that is exciting! I've watched youtube videos on this topic, but seems way too much effort for someone that know too little about it, and no source to buy from.

Thanks for the replies. I had different thoughts: Green Eskom (everything going well) and blue Solar (I like blue, and it looks like UPS might be blue?) Green for Eskom, and amber for solar (because the sun is yellow). Red for Eskom, and green for solar (because it is environmentally friendly). Unfortunately I can't get hold of a blue one. I noted this in another thread I found after posting this, which makes sense after you become aware of it. I like the idea of lights on either side of the change-over, so makes it easier. Thanks. I'm buying from livecopper.co.za. Even though they don't list the units on their website, they were able to give competitive quotes on the Hager items I wanted (I like having the same brand in the DB, CBI for main house DB, and Hager for the solar sub-DB). Even fuse holders and fuses for the PV cables coming in.

Hi all I would like to add indicator lights (Hager Red Light) to my sub-DB, on either side of a changeover switch, so that I can easily see whether grid and inverter power is present. Essentially a quick power status indicator before using the changeover switch, and also see if the grid might be off and I am running on batteries (haven't bought these yet, but planning on getting a Pylontech soon for backup purposes). I see there are red, amber, green, and possibly blue coloured ones. Is there an industry standard on what colour to use, or can I go with whatever makes me smile? Thanks.

Thanks to all who have responded so far. I've been running the system for the last few days, but I havent decided how I would like to implement it permanently into the DB. Some feedback on what I have learnt so far. I've never realised how many clouds are in the sky during the day until I started watching my PV output. Today was the best so far and I have generated around 23KWh. There is a bit of a difference between what PVoutput logs and what Emoncms logs, but I assume that to be due to the more frequent logging on Emoncms. I keep on comparing my output to @pilotfish as I think he is quite close to me, just to make sure he is also suffering from clouds and it isnt my setup acting up I've joined the SA team on PVoutput as well. Self consumption is good so far and I am able to use all PV power being generated. You can see the reduction in electricity usage in the middle of the day. The high consumer in the morning was the geyser, due to a cloudy and cold day yesterday (and kids bathing the previous night), and oven in the evening. I've got a trial of ICC running, which I find very useful, as I like seeing data being logged and being able to check up on my house remotely. I'm currently running it on a HP N40L microserver, but it seems to be getting overloaded with all the things I'm running on it, so considering getting a Lenovo Tiny PC to run these types of services on, and also my CCTV, or start trying to figure out the Pi version of ICC. The inverter can indeed run on loads above 3KW. I've also tested it whilst running from PV in day time, and it is combining PV and Grid. The overload indicator lights up, but no alarm sounds. This makes me think I can connect more circuits to it once I let it feed into the DB, as it seems to handle load above 3KW at least for a few minutes, so I dont have to be too worried about the microwave or kettle. There has been no issues with the prepaid meter yet. I assume it is because I dont have it in grid tie mode and not trying to push back into the grid, so that works really well at the moment. I currently have the load side of the inverter going to a plug point, which I run my mining rigs off. I need to consider getting my inverter setup more permanently. I'm looking at changeover switches and surge protection devices. If only one place could sell them all! I'm trying to keep my sub-DB circuit breakers and changeover the same brand (Hager), and possibly looking at their SPDs and PV fuse holder as well. Livecopper seems to be able sell most of these to me, but I havent confirmed all parts yet. Once I've done that I'll also start thinking about the batteries. I'm trying to keep it cheap (backup power only, no real requirement for frequent cycling), but when you work it out the price difference between the cheaper option and the better quality isnt that big. Come on lithium, drop those prices, so I can rather spend my money only once. I guess that is all for now. Thanks for reading.

I was able to install the 12 panels onto the roof over weekend and am now looking at how to connect the inverter. As I currently dont have batteries I'm trying to figure out whether there are specified settings / profile I should use? Grid Tie seems an obvious choice, but that would mean feeding into the grid (I think). I've temporarily connected it to the DB board but the WR warning keeps on showing on the screen. The good news is that I figured out that it can indeed handle more than 3KW load. I've pushed it up to 4.8KW for 2 minutes, but that was at night with only grid power, so I think it is in a bypass mode. Below a picture of my handywork.

I know there is a saying that says you have two ears and one mouth, so you should listen twice as much as you talk, but I'm not sure the saying also holds for two hands and one head?

Thanks @plonkster, though I must admit that I probably did not understand all of the above that you were hoping to convey to me. Hopefully as I learn more it will make more sense to me.

Thanks @plonkster. I appreciate the feedback I've got one of those efergy wall plug watt meters and it indicates that the power factor is between 94 - 97% on the mining rigs. Not sure how accurate the Efergy is though, but overall encouraging. This is where my uncertainty lies. I've seen the Imeon 3.6 specify that it can go up to 6KW for short periods, and the Ingeteam Sun Storage can supplement with grid to way above its 3KW rated capacity, so it is pretty much install and forget, and no need to split circuits. (Ingeteam ISS 3TL 1 Play 3TL Spec Sheet) My brother in-law has the Ingeteam, but outside my budget for now. I cant imagine the Infinisolar having better features than the Imeon. I defiintely dont want to blow it in the first week Thanks, I was looking for some real world examples. I'll be putting my array on my corrugated roof, which seems to have a pitch of 17 degrees. Far from ideal for winter time, but I was also thinking that I'll just max the size of the array that I can fit on the roof and inverter instead of trying mounting structures or multiple strings (not that I have a choice with the infini). I also read his post and I am / was very worried. After rereading it again last night, I noticed that he said in his first post that the system had been working fine for close to 2 years. It was only after a few re-reads that I realised he added a "modbus comms card" after which his problems started, so if I understand it correctly, he wanted to feed some power back to the grid side of the inverter so he could use more of his generated electricity, with the Modbus sensor then measuring the current and telling the Infini when to pull back. That is the most sense I could make of it, so I am hopeful that his issues arose after the modbus comms card. @Wetkit, I would appreciate if you could confirm whether this is the case, it would make me feel a lot better. On the topic, I understand that these types of setups require a safety feature to prevent backfeed into the grid when the grid is out (anti-islanding). Is a separate device required for this? Would something as simple as this Hager do (ESC263)? Thanks.