ProjectGKR

Changed both the Mppt's to boost at 14.6V (the AGM battery specifications indicate 14.6 - 14.8) and now the Morning Side Mppt seems to hold on longer before switching to Float, giving the Sun time to better shift over to the after noon side panels and giving the Afternoon Side time to still Boost with good input from the panels. Thanks again for everyone's input

Correct, but what happens is that the one goes into float and then then other one again works harder and boost for another hour, working to build up again. isn't this potentially resulting in 2 absobtion charges being applied in the same day? I noticed this as well, if one in float and other boost, a big load I indeed see the watt picking up.

Thanks for the feedback, will get into contact with the supplier.

@Boertjie. Where are you based as I see on another post that you are trying to update to 72.70 from 72.40?

I got hold of the cables that plugs into the serial port of the inverter (the RJ45 port). I still have a laptop with a serial port, which might make life easier as not all serial to usb converters play nice

Just an update. I installed the balancers on Friday morning. Orange LED on for all 3 balancers and Alarm state triggered as well on one of the balancers. Managed to borrow a Victron Smart Charger and charged all the batteries linked to the balancer that was in alarm state (as mention in the documentation as one of the steps to remedy alarm) overnight. Started system again Saterday morning but the Alarm state just moved to the next balancer. Decide to run the system as is an let it do a full cycle due to the fact that I started the system on Friday morning basically fully charged. This morning at 5:15Am it as still at 49.1V and when the cycel started I only managed to get one balancer to switch on it's Orange LED when it was already on 58V and the amps was at about 15/16 on the Mppt's. No alarm state which I recon is a good sign. Interesting is that that extra negative to negative connection between the 2 banks for each battery as part of the Balancer install also seems to greatly help to get a better balance between the banks. I just now need to find a sweet spot to get the 2 mppt's to switch to float a bit closet to each other as the West side Mppt went into float at about noon leaving the East to still try and boost. Currently both Mppt's are set to 14.5V, 1 hour scan interval & charge < 6amps, 90% charge limit. I also installed the BMV-700 Battery Monitor. Thanks again for everyone's input

The system is running on AGM 200ah, but might first need to get hold of another inverter before attempting it as it is an off grid system and eskom option

Hello My father in law Solar is using Axpert 5Kw inverter. Once in a while the PV side just stops charging. The supplier supplied me with new firmware. Looking a the file supplied, it looks like it is version 74.40 (Folder name in Zip file is AxpertMKS5K74.40P) Anyone know of any potential issues upgrading from 72.20 to 74.40? Thanks

Heavy load is usually between 13:00 - 16:00. Will make plan to change this. I am going to order a battery monitor this morning plus balancers. Will give feedback once I received and installed it. Basically from my understanding is that with a monitor I will get a better picture on what is happening at the charging side of my system as this looks to be incorrect. Thanks all for the feedback. Helps alot.

The battery cycle use range is 14.6 to 14.8v. Gives room to up the morning sun mppt side. (With a voltmeter I have found that the mppt shows 58v but at the battery bank it is 58.4V) Also is the battery balancer a good place to start with as well? Planning on ordering it first thing in the morning.

Mine is the following: https://www.sustainable.co.za/microcare-5kw-24-48v-bi-directional-pure-sine-wave-inverter-with-charger.html I work from home so basically if the sun shines I want to be able use solar as much as possible to reduce my carbon foorprint. Also loadshedding a big factor. What monitor would you suggest? The inverter also can go to 50v for back to ac. I will set to either 48v or 50v and start monitor with a volt meter until I get a monitor

Yes, 3 panels connected and then the 3 strings into a fused combiner box, and then down to the mppt Are all your panels facing the same direction or are they like my setup, 9x facing east and 9x facing west?

Thanks for all the feedback Will I be able to salvage the system by doing the following: 1. Buy another SonX SX12-200D [12V200AH/100HR] AGM battery to get my system to run 2x 48v Battery banks again (as I now currently only have 7 batteries left) 2. Install 3x Victron Battery Balancers 3. Set the Inverter (Microcare 48v 5kw) to: 3.1. Battery Run to = 48V 3.2. AC Run To = 54V 3.3. Charger Switched Off 4. Mppt (Microcare 60A) for East Facing Panels (9x Panels) 4.1. Float Voltage = 13.5V 4.2. Boost Voltage = 14.5V 4.3. Boost to Float Change Interval Scan = 2hours 4.4. Boost to Float If Charge < 6 amps 5. Mppt (Microcare 60A) for West Facing Panels (9x Panels) 5.1. Float Voltage = 13.5V 5.2. Boost Voltage = 14.5V 5.3. Boost to Float Change Interval Scan = 1hours 5.4. Boost to Float If Charge < 6 amps Battery info:Cycle Use: 14.6-14.8V Standby Use: 13.6-13.8V

I was initially told that the 2 Microcare mppt's will automatically master slave (no link between mppt's). But as you said is that both helps to get to the boost voltage and then when the one goes to float, the other still boosts, meaning that the so called master slave is not true and they working independant. Does the Victron MPPT's have an option to sync? The current interval is set to 1 hour, must I set the mppt that gets the morning sun first to be 2 hrs (setting options are 30min, 1hour,2hours)? If I change the one mppt to maybe boost to only 13.7v (54.8V), will this be even worse causing the on mppt to work harder? I on average use 15-18kw units a day. I have set the Inverter to switch back to 48V instead of the default 46V to reduce the amount of discharge of the bank. I also have the bigger loads later in the day to give the bank time to get charged. I have noticed that on sunny days, the even a load of 50%, the 2 mppt's are still able to keep the voltage at 58V

The MPPT's do reach a voltage of 58V for Boost and I do get that at least one of the 2 mppt's go into float (54.4V) (Summer days both reach float easily) @Jaco de Jongh & @plonkster Would I be able to run 8x 200ah batteries on this setup atleast ?

Hello So I am just trying to make sure I understand how to install th Victron balancers. I had a look at the pdf doc from Victron, but firstly I am not sure what size cable I must use with the balancers. Also not sure if I must add fuses in between. Can I also go ahead and connect it directly to the battery terminal or must I break the link cable between the batteries. Thanks

I have no batery monitor. I know from the last couple of days I use around 4-5 kw units during the night, with my daily average about 17 kw units When the installer designed the system, they never mentioned the use of balancers, even when I had to replace the Trojans, no mention was made about it, I am only now learning about it (and I am paying very expense school fees currently with lessons learned) It all seems like the fact that I have no Battery Balancers is the cause that I am losing batteries

Hello Thanks for the Feedback. Jaco de Jongh The System is still connected to Eskom. I am using a 5kw 48V Microcare inverter. The inverter is set to switch to Eskom at 48V and then Go back to Battery on 54V. Also the Charger is turned off on the Inverter. With the Trojans I did set it to auto equalize and also once a month after doing maintenance on the Trojans (water top up) I did force the mppt's to equalize. With the AGM batteries I was instructed to not equalize them. I am not sure where to check the charing current on the Mppt's.

Hello Hoping someone can help me troubleshoot or guide me in a direction on why I am losing batteries on my system. My current batteries are not even 2 years old and I have already lost 5 out of 12 baterries, so I am now down from 3 banks to 1. Some details are as follow: -Battery: Sonx 12v 200Ah AGM -Mppt: 2x 60A Microcare (9 panels each) -SolarPanels 18x 300W 24V panels (9 facing east and 9 facing west) The Mppt's settings are as follow: 1. Boost Voltage = 14.5V 2. Float Voltage = 13.6V 3. Equalize = Manual 4. Boost to Float Change interval Scan 1hour 5. Boost to Float Change If charge < 6 amps Yesterday I did notice that during Boost on the single remaining battery bank (no Load), with Mppt showing 58V and amps around 10A that 1 battery was charing at 15.6V, 2 of them at 14.5V/14.3V and the last at 13.8V. After swapping some of the batteries around I only manage to get the voltages to be 15, 14.5,14.3 & 14.9 during boost. I am thinking of just getting 1 new battery just to get back onto 2 banks atleast. The previous set of battries also only lasted 2 years, The previous set was Torjan 6v battries and lost al 16 of them Thanks

I have 2 sites where I am using SonX SX12-200D [12V200AH/100HR] AGM batteries And was hoping to get some recommendations on what settings to use. Site1: (Still has Munisipality power backup) Microcare 48V 5kw Inverter 2x Microcare 60A Mppt (9 Panels on each mppt) with Equalize disabled 9x Solar panels facing east and 9x facing west 8x AGM batteries (was 12 but after 1 and half years 3 failed) Site 2: (Off Grid) Axpert 5kw Inverter + Mppt 9x Solar panels facing North 8x AGM batteries Battery info: Cycle Use: 14.6-14.8V Standby Use: 13.6-13.8V On Site 2 I am not sure what the settings is to start the inverter if it switched off during the night due to reaching the shutdown voltage. It has to be started by switching the inverter off and on again. Thanks