bluwater

If you are combining two wires a much cleaner method is to use a 2 wire ferrule like the one below. But it only recommended if both wires are the same size.


 

Hi,
I recently installed 12 Jinko panels of 320watt each along with Infini 3KW plus inverter.
I have two strings with 6 panels connected in series. And both strings are connected in parallel for a max VOC of 278V.
The short circuit current of each string is 9.05A Infini's MPPT charge controller is rated at 18amp. So if I were to combine two strings with a short circuit current of 9.05 each, the total current would go up to 18.1A. My question is.... Is it ok to combine two strings like this for a total current of 18.1A? From what I understand, current is pulled by the Inverter and it could never exceed 18amps since that is the max that the MPPT charge controller can draw.
But then when I look at the user manual there is an error code (11) for overcurrent on PV input. So that means it is possible for the MPPT to exceed 18amps which will throw the error code.
I would like to hear your thoughts on this.

For the past few days, I was only getting maximum 1500W from a 3800W PV installation. Previously I was getting up to 2900W max from the same array. Diagnosed the fault to these fuses. The fuse is rated at 20amp and maximum continuous current draw on the wire was only about 15amp. The fuse is still functional but the housing has melted probably due to poor internal connection. The two on the right have melted and fused together.
Bought these from Aliexpress. If you are looking to buy fuses, stay clear of these.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-Fuse-Holder-Protective-MC4-Connector-Protection-1000-VDC-Male-To-Fem-PV-Photovoltaic-Solar-Diode/32884207033.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dhTAMXi
 
 
 

Check out this video for Aerox 5.2KW test with non-inverter AC without any battery or grid connection.
 

2-years ago, I started the lengthy process of going completely OFF-GRID on my residential water supply at my home in StHelena Bay, on the West Coast of the Western Cape.
The property is situated +-150-200m from the beach. I was able to find water at approximately 8m. SALTWATER INTRUSION, gives me a salt content of around 1300ppm, which fluctuates slightly with tidal movement.
I'm running a normal 0,75kw well-point pump, supplying the raw water to my treatment equipment in the garage. The raw water is fed through pressure control and safety valves, through a 3-stage filterset, UV sterilizer into the Primary storage vessel. From TANK 1, it gravity feeds a high pressure pump, driving 2 REVERSE OSMOSIS filters. The permiate is collected in 2 more storage vessels, and the brine waste returned to borehole. A DAB EASIBOX supplies the pressure to the house.

I have no experience with generators and how to integrate them with solar. I think a good way to start is to begin with a layout diagram with all the wiring connections and get other member's opinion on it. That's the way I began.
Regarding running load off the batteries during the night. I would not recommend it. It might seem like the logical thing to do, but from a cost benefit analysis, you are better off using the grid, it's cheaper than batteries. So 1st priority is solar, 2nd is grid 3rd is battery and 4th is generator.
 

And then the fuse won't be lonely any more. Sorry if I was a bit too subtle with my wisecrack.

Today in Cape Town it started misty but cleared up nicely.
With @plonkster's help and after fixing a config problem on my inverter my "Grid-tie without feed-in" is working properly.  This is where I used a python program on a Raspberry Pi to convert the measurements from my Carlo Gavazzi ET112 meter so it looks like the Eastron SDM630 that the inverter modbus card expects.  
I'll share this code sometime since the idea could be used to feed the modbus card data from anywhere - like EmonCMS for example.
We had a high consumption day.  My batteries also started the day quite empty and were fully charged about 16h30.
Today the main consumers so far
Geyser: 7.5Kwh Pool filter pump: 4.7kWh Stove: 3.7kWh "Essentials" (computer stuff, tv, lights): 6.3kWh About 8Kwh of "other" (Tumble dryer, Washing machine and dishwasher were all run too but don't have separate CTs for those) As of now in total: 15.9kWh drawn from the grid, 14.5 from the panels.
You can see, we used everything the panels could do until 16:30:

Yellow line is the nett flow at the grid connection
Blue is what is coming out of (positive) or going into (negative) the batteries
Red is the grid interface on the inverter - positive if power is flowing into the inverter, negative if flowing out
Green is power taken from the PV panels
Purple is power on the ac out of the inverter - the "essentials".
The control of feed in worked well - 0.3kWh fed in in total.  Flows on grid connection to CoCT looks like this:

I guess I could offset the zero point a little to reduce the feed in.  But 0.3 kW in a day is an average of only 12.5w.  So since my meter doesn't trip off or anything I don't see its worth trying to change it.
I'm starting to understand better how this all goes down in practice.  Thank you SO much to everyone on Powerforum who has helped so much.
 

For the past few days, I was only getting maximum 1500W from a 3800W PV installation. Previously I was getting up to 2900W max from the same array. Diagnosed the fault to these fuses. The fuse is rated at 20amp and maximum continuous current draw on the wire was only about 15amp. The fuse is still functional but the housing has melted probably due to poor internal connection. The two on the right have melted and fused together.
Bought these from Aliexpress. If you are looking to buy fuses, stay clear of these.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1pc-Fuse-Holder-Protective-MC4-Connector-Protection-1000-VDC-Male-To-Fem-PV-Photovoltaic-Solar-Diode/32884207033.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.27424c4dhTAMXi
 
 
 

The Infini 3KW+ consumes about 80W from the grid, this is despite the fact that you have excess solar power available. It adds up to about 1KW during the daytime just for the inverter. So why does this happen and how can you reduce it?
The reason for this is that if you don't have net-metering and have disabled feed-in to the grid feature, Infini will always take some power from the grid to prevent accidental feed-in to the grid. You can try and reduce this self consumption by tweaking a setting in the solar power software.
Go to parameter settings. By default the "feeding grid power calibration" is set to 0W. At 0W the Infini 3KW+ will consume about 80W from grid. But you can also lower this setting up to a maximum of -300W. I have set it to -100W. You can experiment with different numbers until you hit a sweet spot. -100W works for me and my Infini's self consumption from grid has come down considerably. The objective is to choose a number that keeps grid consumption as close to zero as possible without sending any extra power back.
So what's the downside... Never do this if you have an energy meter that is sensitive to grid feedback, otherwise you might run into trouble with your utility company. Secondly, it is inevitable that you will be sending some power back to the grid. How much you send back depends on your setting. Since you won't have a bidirectional meter the power that goes back could also be added to your overall consumption, so do keep that in mind before setting it very high... like -200W or -300W.
 

The Infini 3KW+ consumes about 80W from the grid, this is despite the fact that you have excess solar power available. It adds up to about 1KW during the daytime just for the inverter. So why does this happen and how can you reduce it?
The reason for this is that if you don't have net-metering and have disabled feed-in to the grid feature, Infini will always take some power from the grid to prevent accidental feed-in to the grid. You can try and reduce this self consumption by tweaking a setting in the solar power software.
Go to parameter settings. By default the "feeding grid power calibration" is set to 0W. At 0W the Infini 3KW+ will consume about 80W from grid. But you can also lower this setting up to a maximum of -300W. I have set it to -100W. You can experiment with different numbers until you hit a sweet spot. -100W works for me and my Infini's self consumption from grid has come down considerably. The objective is to choose a number that keeps grid consumption as close to zero as possible without sending any extra power back.
So what's the downside... Never do this if you have an energy meter that is sensitive to grid feedback, otherwise you might run into trouble with your utility company. Secondly, it is inevitable that you will be sending some power back to the grid. How much you send back depends on your setting. Since you won't have a bidirectional meter the power that goes back could also be added to your overall consumption, so do keep that in mind before setting it very high... like -200W or -300W.
 

The Infini 3KW+ consumes about 80W from the grid, this is despite the fact that you have excess solar power available. It adds up to about 1KW during the daytime just for the inverter. So why does this happen and how can you reduce it?
The reason for this is that if you don't have net-metering and have disabled feed-in to the grid feature, Infini will always take some power from the grid to prevent accidental feed-in to the grid. You can try and reduce this self consumption by tweaking a setting in the solar power software.
Go to parameter settings. By default the "feeding grid power calibration" is set to 0W. At 0W the Infini 3KW+ will consume about 80W from grid. But you can also lower this setting up to a maximum of -300W. I have set it to -100W. You can experiment with different numbers until you hit a sweet spot. -100W works for me and my Infini's self consumption from grid has come down considerably. The objective is to choose a number that keeps grid consumption as close to zero as possible without sending any extra power back.
So what's the downside... Never do this if you have an energy meter that is sensitive to grid feedback, otherwise you might run into trouble with your utility company. Secondly, it is inevitable that you will be sending some power back to the grid. How much you send back depends on your setting. Since you won't have a bidirectional meter the power that goes back could also be added to your overall consumption, so do keep that in mind before setting it very high... like -200W or -300W.
 

What language do you have experience with? :-)
Essentially you just have to get a modbus library (one that can do RTU, that is serial comms), and then use function 3 (read holding registers) or function 4 (read input registers), but so far most of these meters seems to respond identically to both kinds of calls. Then just use the right slave id (probably zero or one), register address (seems this meter starts at zero), and ask for any range of registers (this one seems to support up to 40). Then simply decode. Byte order appears to be little-endian (ie the small part of a 2-byte response is on the left).
If you have no programming experience, then it's probably best to start with the project you posted :-)

If you are combining two wires a much cleaner method is to use a 2 wire ferrule like the one below. But it only recommended if both wires are the same size.


 

If you are combining two wires a much cleaner method is to use a 2 wire ferrule like the one below. But it only recommended if both wires are the same size.


 

One of the best descriptions I have seen:

I was also facing a similar issue with my Infini 3KW+, so I ordered a din rail energy meter that can measure actual energy consumption from grid. This energy meter can measure volts, amps, watts, power factor and also kwh, so it should give a more accurate picture of the Infini's actual power consumption.
 

It's been a while since I got 4 balancers for the 48v battery bank. Ever since I got them I've been in troubleshooting mode and waiting for replacements after two balancers were not working properly.
First of all, the instructions regarding connecting these balancers are a bit confusing. Initially I was having problems with one balancer. The voltage of the battery connected to this balancer was much higher than the other three. I contacted the manufacturer and they suggested putting it on a different battery.
Then after a few passes of changing batteries and balancers around, another balancer also developed the same issue. Now the voltage on two batteries went south as you can see from the table below. After discussing the problem with the manufacturer, they decided to sent me two additional balancers to replace the bad ones.

When I received the new balancers, I re-connected everything and now every balancer is working properly and the voltage difference between the batteries is barely more than 0.01-0.02 volts.

Ideally, everything should be bonded together and there should only be only one path to ground. If you have two ground rods, you are essentially creating a path for current to flow from one ground rod, through your equipment to the other. This can be a problem in case of a lightning strike.
For a good understanding about grounding I would suggest that you watch this video by Mike Holt. He is an absolute legend when it comes you NEC codes and electrical theory.
 
 

Ideally, everything should be bonded together and there should only be only one path to ground. If you have two ground rods, you are essentially creating a path for current to flow from one ground rod, through your equipment to the other. This can be a problem in case of a lightning strike.
For a good understanding about grounding I would suggest that you watch this video by Mike Holt. He is an absolute legend when it comes you NEC codes and electrical theory.
 
 

The firmware for the inverter is 3.10.
 

I bought these battery balancers from Aliexpress. They cost about $19 each and you need one for each battery. The balancers can be linked together depending on the size of your battery bank. I am waiting for some battery cables to arrive and then I will connect the balancers and share some results. In the meantime, here are some pics and specs of the balancers.
 
 
 
 

The issue has been solved. It turned out to be a wiring problem with the load neutrals. Most of the load neutrals were connected to the main neutral bus bar instead of being connected directly to Infini output neutral. The issue was resolved when I moved all load neutrals from main neutral busbar and connected them to Infini output neutral in the distribution box.

I wanted to add last night that one has to remember that a fuse doesn't blow the moment you exceed the limit. It can survive at 110% for ten minutes usually. The MPPT itself will usually detect the overcurrent event within seconds though, so I have never even seen a controller blow a fuse. Of course I am speaking of a different brand here, but I would expect that any electronic engineer worth his salt (and who added an overcurrent event to the firmware!) would do the same thing.