markus_m2

Hi Piper. Did you end up trying these clips? Any thoughts?

@Bobster. Hello, are those 524288 errors now really a thing of the past? They haven't crept up again? Reason I ask is that they've recently started with me, and it has nothing to do with the battery charge limit. Background: GW5048D-ES installed in 2020, overall I've been quite happy with the inverter running a single string of 10 panels - voltages would peak at around 460 no problems! Recent EV purchase has had me paying too much money over to Eskom :-/ Time to fill the 2nd MPPT input :-) Long story short, I needed to physically move the original array to make space for the addition, plus "downgrade" from 10 to 8 panels on that string due space and inverter specs considering new array. Mounted 4 original panels and ran out of time / daylight, so connected them up - ran as expected for two days. BUT, this was now on newly installed cable on MPPT2. 2 days later I added the other 4 original panels to that string. Connected them and the inverter relatively quickly started spitting out the 524288 error! Hmmm, could it be the different MPPT? Or earthing (suggested by Google), as I hadn't yet earthed the panels / rails. Moved back to MPPT1 and it was working fine! Another 2 days, finally time to connect the new string - yet again started with 4 panels, connected to MPPT2, and also earthed all panels and rails - however, the earthing is a bit of a temporary "twist the earth wires together against a plug earth" until I get time this weekend to properly connect all (no thunderstorms on the horizon). Relatively quickly spat out same 524288 - hmmm. MPPT2 or not earthed nicely? Tested array earth against main DB earth, gave a strange intermittent reading! Back to the temporary "twist the wires" earth connection, twisted more and the problem was solved - error disappeared and array earth gave proper reading against DB earth. That was yesterday- today the system ran beautifully, all as expected, until around 15h00 this afternoon ... grrrr, was planning to install final 4 panels to the 2nd string tomorrow, but have now put that off in case of need to troubleshoot (once those 4 panels are installed there's no space to access individual panel MC4s in case one of the panels is leaking excessively). Instead I just made the "twist the earth wires" more secure by screwing all together properly in a busbar I had lying around (until I have time to run them correctly to the DB - the plug earth does not suffice for permanent install!). So now the wait - will run system for a few days to confirm the error doesn't reoccur and then add the final 4 panels and run the earth correctly to the DB. I do think (hope) the problem was an intermittent earth and not an issue with my MPPT2! So, to recap: I highly doubt its got anything to do with the battery charge limit. These inverters should run higher Volts no problem! Someone mentioned 380V, thats way below the inverter limit and i personally have been running 460V without problems for 5 years. I suspect "inadequate" earthing of the panels to be the culprit in my case - @Bobster. & @paul99 , are you guys sure your panel earthing is good?

Thank you sir, all makes perfect sense...

Thanks @TaliaB , makes sense about not being allowed to connect prior to main DB. If I may hijack with a further question - you say the EV Charger protection (CB & earth leakage) must be installed in the main DB. My setup: Main DB has CB supplying my inverter in the garage. Can I not "tap off" of this circuit in the garage, install a sub DB there (Type B EL plus appropriate CB) to supply the EV charger? In other words: Main DB main CB supplies a "inverter plus EV Charger" CB. Sub DB input from above splits: one CB for inverter supply plus one CB and type B EL supplies EV charger. All appropriately labeled ... would this be compliant or do the EV protections have to be in the main DB?

LOL, so blimmin true!!! Unbelievable how much juice these things chow, has given me a whole new understanding of just how much energy a drop of petrol / diesel contains!

Unfortunately can't give advice on either ... I installed my wallbox without municipal permit - never even heard that this is required, surely that's just for a commercial install? From a safety perspective it should be fine to feed directly from municipal supply (after the municipal breaker and meter), but not sure what the by-laws say... following...

Have sent a private message...

Thanks, will check out specs, may come back to you ...

Model number please...

Yep, but the upside to the regenarative braking is that it recharges the HV battery by quite a substantial amount, all the while saving your brake pads ;-)

Just recently got myself a used BMW i3 .... LOVING IT!!!! Now going back down the rabbit hole of having to upgrade the PV System to account for the new consumption ... and that consumption is quite something!!! Since plugged in our household consumption has more than doubled! 🥴 Totally worth it though, looking forward to an upgraded system 😁 Anyways, not that I have much experience, the only thing that I checked out was the battery SOH - and in the case of the BM you can't actually check the SOH itself, but rather the "capacity" of the battery which is apparently not an accurate indicator of SOH, but does give a good idea of where the battery is at ... I turned down 2 i3's due to poor "capacity", both between 40 - 60,000km. Third one I checked had over a 100,000km, beyond my comfort zone and wouldn't have been on my radar to check out, but stumbled on it by chance - according to the "capacity" reading it was well over 90% "SOH", waaay better than the previous two that had done only half the km's, so I bit the bullet and am super chuffed so far (been two weeks)...have since run the battery down to 5% and the range driven indeed does correspond with the capacity reading, so all seems great! The capacity reading on the BM can be found through a "secret menu" - although the ease with which this menu was found through Google makes it "not so secret" 🤣

It was super frustrating when I had this issue, but now over a year later I haven't had a single issue since replacing all with a single length of STP cable! (Roughly 15m) Pretty sure that'll sort out your issue also.

Thanks, ended up having to get an expensive one from the suppliers...

Only way to see what the panels "could" produce is if they're actually producing it - either to charge batteries or if load is greater than PV production. If battery full and loaf 200w, system will only "pull" 200w from the panels. No way for you to know the actual available PV power without a load or battery charging (or export) actually using that power....

Absolutely agree! While many companies do use sly marketing, this is completely devious and dishonest...