Analytical

I am also noticing a run-away cycle count. 2-3 cycles per day. Would be great to know how these cycles are calculated.
Glad your hear your system seems healthier!

I noticed my cycle count is also doing 2 a day, I read somewhere on the forum that every manufacture calculates it differently. I speak under correction but with one of the support emails with Hubble they did mention that "Cycles are calculated when you drain your battery by 50% and charge it back up, this will be seen as a cycle." So I suppose two a day checks out then not super happy with it.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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 Elbow,
skilled - not at all.
Having a lots of fun - yes
My automation is Fibaro HC2 which is a home automation gateway. It's running a wireless communication (zwave) with switches, relays, dimmers, electricity meters, etc. The wireless part is really cool. You just drop a tiny module in a lightswitch wallbox and now you have a remotely controlled lights. And it even measures the acutal power and the total consumption over time. There's a lot of modules from various vendors which are compatible: Fibaro, Qubino, Aeotec, MCO, HeatIt...
Initially, I purchased this because I needed a central management of my electric floor heating and for irrigation too. Then, I gradually added tons of other modules, smartplugs and meters. When I built my solar, it was a logic step to include it too.
3 positive bullets on Fibaro:
wirelles very easy to work with smartphone APP working without any VPN, nor firewall opening, nor subscription service But there are some negatives too:
It's pricey. It's a home automation, but not a telemetry. It's not an industrial-grade product. For home automation it's okay, but I would definitely not use this for life-supporting systems, for example. There are nice charts in the GUI, but the depth of history is limited. Because of the last bullet, I'm storing some of values in the EmonCMS (a part of openenergy monitor that you already know).
I wanted my system to be simple and contain as few layers as possible. Therefore, I'm using the native zwave modules for everything where they are a good fit. For example, I have a plenty of 1-phase and 3-phase electricity meters in the house. All of them talking natively to Fibaro via zwave. Same with floor heating Thermostats. A simple addition was integration of Washing machine - once the laundry is done, it send's me a notification to my smartphone....so I can go and put another batch of dirty laundry in
Another example - just by using a simple smart plug, you can monitor daily consumption of your fridge:

The only thing where wireless protocol was not performing well was the solar integration. So after some failures, I went for industrial PLC which talks to Inverter via RS232 and to Fibaro via JSON over ethernet. I'm trying to stay away from Arduino, Raspberry etc. (There are 3 or 4 Arduinos that I use for some specific tasks, but I'm not planning to add more of them.)
Looking at the HomeAssistant, I would say that it's capabilites would be the more or less the same, but with a more freedom for customization. On the other hand, I can imagine that HomeAssistant is struggling a bit when you are trying to read values from electricity meters for example. I would bet that it needs modbus and some coding, or using the EmonPI and the current transformers. Am I right?
Here is a sample of the stuff that I use as the wireless endpoints:
Qubino, DIN rail 3-phase meter with LCD, 1-phase meter:

HeatIt, Floor heating thermostat:

Fibaro, Smart Plugs:

Fibaro, Tiny wirelles module for mounting into a wallbox, under existing switch:

Sensative, Wireless door/window sensor:

MCO, CO2 monitor:

 
If you have some specific questions, feel free to ask....
Regs,
Youda
 

When I started Cycling 3 years back I came across this Video. Yoour post above reminded me of 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.

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.

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.
 

They certainly are (I think you meant tolerant, but it is still true... and funny :-) ).

Hello Analytical,
 
I'm new to the Forum.  This is my first reply to anyone.  I, too, am fairly new, but I have gathered a lot of information on YouTube from many different people.  What I have found is interesting to say the least.  To answer whether your unit will handle beyond 3kw...well, that's not something I would try, however I did view a video on YouTube where a guy in Africa put 3 times the rated power of his inverter through it because he set it to Utility only.  That said, I'm not sure that's a good idea, but apparently it's been working for him.  If that's true then my test unit, a little 2400W hybrid inverter should be okay.
My unit, like yours, was probably made by MPP SOLAR.  And yes, there have been a lot of differing views on it.  Personally I think some guys are maxing the units beyond what they were made to do.  My test unit is exactly that, but I only test to the limits and not over.
 
For instance you mentioned more amps than watts...Though it is necessary to run higher amperage at times, I would try to avoid higher amperage.  I set my PV array with higher amps in mind, at first, to help charge the batteries faster.  I reconfigured it into serial to keep amperage down for two reasons, to keep the heat from the amps at lower temperatures and to keep from excess amperage when the "cloud effect" occurs.  Still, higher voltages can also incur problems in the system, but it's less likely to burn anything down due to heat.  Here is a video of two loads running.  I have a video with three, but it went into over voltage and switched to grid use once about 55 amps were reached.  
What I will say is MPP SOLAR (Axpert or Infini) should not be used beyond their specifications and one should really read the manual carefully.  There are some not so easy to understand points where maybe a translator (Chinese to English) did not work well.  A guy who's had experience for four years recently posted/asked how to set up [1] to either SOL, SBU or UTI.  Two guys on there thought SOL meant just using SOL was the most efficient way to run the machine.  I guess it depends on what efficiency means to each user, but if they mean the "least amount of utility used", that would mean to use SBU (Priority is Solar, then the Battery and finally Utility).  So yes, even older users can be fooled by the wording or translation.
Here is a video that goes through a little bit of the Menu setup adjusting the [1] and [16] selections.  I hope it helps you see some of what you'd expect from those units....though I think your Infini is a bit more advanced than this one.  
It may be a Hybrid, but I think that France's Imeon is a bit more robust...as they have a really top end warranty.  This is where MPP SOLAR and all it's clones have some "maturing" to do, but for the price...it's still hard to beat especially if you're just learning.  Much cheaper to blow one of these units up than an Imeon, an SMA, a Kaco, etc.  SolaX, Goodwe and Growatt are also Hybrid, but are Chinese.  That said these are top quality Chinese brands at higher prices.  What I am finding, though, is that MPP SOLAR is now also making units for Growatt, Giant and Voltronic.  All of them exactly like that of Axpert, Infini and others.  The regional certifications probably change a bit of their circuitry to pass in different countries, but the unit and its' operation are the same.
Your unit might have parallel capabilities.  This might solve issues of going over while still using a set amount of PV.  If you have three units, you can actually build a three phase system and just connect it to a junction box where you can separate them into three phase and single phase "areas".  Three Inverters in parallel with a 4000W PV array will still give you more, per day, than your 15kW a day use.  I believe the unit you're talking about has some grid tie capabilities.  Mine doesn't give back to the Utility company, but I can supplement my system with it.  But at 4000W worth of PV that gives you 4000x.8x5.5=17600W = 17.6kW a day.  (0.8 is average because there's inefficiency and 5.5 is an average total "perfect" sunlight ~ not knowing how much actual sun you have).  Anyway, I aimed slightly higher for your system though you only need 15kW a day.
I've written a lot too now.  I hope it helps and, at least, answered some questions.  In the end, I personally think the MPP SOLAR's and their clones are fine if you don't try to kill them.  If you want the best...then SMA...period, but once in a while they will also fail.  Still, there are two guys I know with SMA's and MPP SOLAR (Infini).  They love their MPP SOLAR and they know their SMA's will work.  I know Outback is coming out with their Hybrid and many others are following suit.  That says "something" about hybrid units that MPP SOLAR have made popular.  It's making a sweep of the market structure for sure.  I think they've solved a lot of issues through software.  My test unit is only three months old and before I started videos, I did a lot of tweaking.  The battery was the hardest part, but I later found out that people were draining my water tower so the battery kept coming on (at night) and drained the battery along with the water.  Hahahaha....that problem has been resolved.
 
Anyway good luck.  Hope it helped either way.
 
Peace..

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.

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.

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?

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.