Peter_DM

I think @Nexuss may have hit the nail on the head here saying that different programs present the data differently Another switch I made recently was away from ICC and the various Inverter Apps to Home Assistant, so that may be a reason I didn't spot this phenomenon until now Thank you all for the info, I accept that this is normal behaviour for the Pylontechs It's really fantastic to have this level of knowledge & support available

Yup, I'll need at least 6 days of plenty sunshine to run this

I also hadn't thought of the pack balance, I'll disconnect and check the balance

Thanks for the info, but no, I haven't noticed it before. What I did not mention is that I recently (about 3-4 months ago) upgraded my Inverter from an Axpert 7.2kW to the Deye 8kW I certainly didn't notice it during the Axpert era, and also not in the first month or so of the Deye time

Thanks, I will try that (for safety's sake)

I'm experiencing an issue with my Pylontech batteries while charging As background, I have a Deye 8kW Inverter, 3 banks of solar panels (3kW each bank), and 6 Pylontech US3000 batteries. What I've noticed for the last month or more is that the SOC gets "stuck" at 88% (as reported to the Inverter - both through the app and on screen), and then jumps to 100% about 45 minutes later. Has anyone experienced this before, or got any suggestions please?

An update regarding this issue; in case anybody else has the same (or similar) problem. It turned out to be a stupid, simple mistake. On the Utility Input cable, the Live and Neutral were reversed at the other end of the cable. This also explains why the LED lights were glowing - the switch was disconnecting the Neutral instead of the Live connection. Thanks all for your input / advise.

I've since been reading up a lot more of the posts in the Inverter section, and I think I now understand the continuity issue, but the Voltage issue still has me baffled. I'm hoping for some ideas / comments before we re-connect the Inverter.

I don't think that's the case in my scenario. Currently I'm in bypass mode (inverter disconnected, running on Eishkom), and the LEDs are behaving quite normally

Yes we did. We disconnected all loads, and selectively disconnected inputs

I know a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, but this issue is seriously frying my brain. I have a 5kVA Axpert Inverter, with what I think is a fault. Although it was working, I noticed that some of my LED light strings were on, yet dimmed, despite the switch being off. Called my sparky, he came and started tracing the fault, and found that there was voltage (220V) between the Earth and Neutral connectors on the AC Output side. I sent the Inverter back to the Suppliers for repair, and they tell me there's nothing wrong with it - they can't find any faults. It has just arrived back, and before installing it, we were running some tests on it. Without any power sources connected, we ran a straight continuity test using a standard multimeter, and there is continuity between Earth and Neutral on the AC Output side. Surely this is not right?

I'm not sure why Chris posted his question here - I'm thinking he's suggesting that for me. To answer your question about my setup, I have 2 x Axpert 5KVA Inverters for the main house, each Inverter has 12 x Canadian Solar 255W panels (in 3 strings of 4). The battery bank for these Inverters is 32 x 105AHr Dixon Lead Acid Batteries (in 8 strings of 4). Then I have a separate 5KVA Axpert for my cottages, and that has 9 x newer Canadian Solar 335W panels (in 3 strings of 3). The battery bank for this Inverter is 3 x PylonTech US3000 Batteries. Each of the above has a Pi ICC monitor, and I've now ordered the Victron 702 for the house Inverters. I don't have any MPPT's, relying on the Axpert internal units.

The batteries that I'm talking about are just over 2 years old. I do have 3 x Pylontech US3000's (recent purchase) for my secondary inverter, I've split the property into main house / cottages. Any future batteries I buy would be LiIon (or better - been hearing whispers about super cap batteries lately); in the meantime I will try to look after these lead acid batteries as best I can, till I have to bury them 😉 Thanks all for the input / feedback / information

Thanks for the plain English answer - helps a lot; and yes, they are deep cycle batteries (Dixon).

Thanks for the input, but two questions: 1) Would the alarm on midpoint monitoring be of any use as it's only on a single string? 2) Why do you say that 8 strings are a bad idea? (I'm still learning, and need to understand)

I'm not in JHB, but I did spot this ad in January, and sent a friend to have a look at them - definitely sketchy - their warehouse address was a storage company. Our best guess was that these are the "fallen off the back of a truck" variety, probably from Cell Towers (I understand they were having a major theft problems late last year).

I do have one of those cheap Voltmeters on every single battery - already saved my bacon once. The Victron will be connected to my ICC Pi, so I don't really need Bluetooth connectivity - I'll have web browser access to it.

Hi All, I'm contemplating buying a Victron Battery Monitor, and need some advice: Where is the best place (ie best price) to buy? I see sustainable.co.za has them at R2,422.00 (the 700). I’d like to understand the 700 vs the 702 model. As I understand it, the 702 has an extra input that can be used for either a temperature probe, or mid-point monitoring. My question is whether it’s worth spending extra on the 702. Given that my batteries are in 8 strings of 4 batteries (48V), would the mid-point monitoring give any worthwhile information, as surely it would monitor the mid-point of only 1 string? Setup: 2 x Axpert 5kVA 32 x 100AHr Lead Acid Batteries

Thank you both for the replies. I guess I'm not going that route.

Recently, I upgraded my 32 x Lead Acid batteries for 3 x PylonTech 3.5 LiIon batteries, which was a straight replacement operation. I was going to sell the Lead Acid batteries for whatever I can get for them (less than 2 years old), but then the thought occurred to me: why not use them? I have 2 5kVA Axpert inverters, each with 12 x 270W solar panels, and my thinking is to put the new Pylon batteries feeding the one inverter, and the old Lead Acid batteries feeding the other inverter. The only problem I can see is that with the Axpert inverters, I can’t set the battery types / switching voltages individually; they copy across automatically; so I’d need to be careful with the settings. Anyone have some thoughts?

When I initially installed the air-con, I did ask the supplier about the possibility of using a dehumidifier rather than an air-con. Their answer was that given the size of the room (roughly 1m x 8m), it was pointless. Dunno how accurate their assessment was

So I'll be looking for a Nitrogen supplier? 😊

I would agree with that understanding, but if I look at a full year's worth of history, the dew point can go as low as 9.6. There do appear to be some bad readings in my data, but the dew point does dip well below ambient on many occasions. I'm not too keen on changing the air-con settings every few weeks or month.

Here's my temperature / dewpoint over the last 24 hours. One other thought I had was to program the air-con to power on in the morning and off in the late afternoon in order to reduce the load at night; but given some of these discussions, I'm changing my mind about that idea.

I do also have a weather station, and right now the temp is 23.5; dew point 19.6; to be taken with a pinch of salt though. This was measured at my inside monitoring point, not in the Server Room. I've never paid much attention to it, but I'll keep an eye on it n ow.