Bl4d3

24 minutes ago, Pumba said:

Suggest you get a professional to look at your setup, you appear to be walking down a dangerous pathway - putting fuses in an AC circuit??

Well it isn't necessarily dangerous considering that fuses were used for many years before breakers.
Additionally most electrical equipment has an AC fuse installed.

Another example is all plugs in the UK have to by regulation have a fuse in the plug itself.

AC fuses aren't anything new, it just isn't widely used here in South Africa which is why it seems quite odd.

The main pro of using a fuse is that they tend to blow at their rated amount where as a breaker tends to trip 3 - 4 times its rated capacity.
ElectroBOOM actually has a video that touches on this. He put 100A through a 30A breaker and it didn't pop the breaker.

He went further to contact the supplier of his breaker and reported that :
60A load - It takes 10 - 50 seconds to trip
90A load - It takes 4 - 15 seconds to trip

The main pro of using a breaker is that you can just reset it where as using a fuse, it would require you to replace the fuse.

On 2021/01/27 at 8:33 AM, Blowdart18 said:

One makes me think you might be the installer considering you have been on the forum for 3 years and this is your 3rd post. 

 

Coming out of the block you attack OP, calling him a "-- deleted by moderator---" and that he should let grown-ups sort it out. Clearly you might be the one going about doing stuff the wrong way to be honest, as this forum is used as a platform to help and educate people on these matters and put them in touch with people that can assist. 

 

Also your comment here: "-- deleted by moderator---" - Unfortunately if you want to run a business you should be able to take the punches, regardless if you on holiday or not, it is still your business and decency would dictate you respond to your clients and keep to your word of sticking to an appointment. 

 

What recourse do consumers have when business owners cannot be held accountable, if OPs house burnt down because the installer did not correctly install the equipment what would you say? Even after a year you can still be held accountable for an install if the incorrect equipment was installed.

 

Judging by your response, it would seem that was the response from the installer, sadly I did not see it before it was removed.

I would like to thank everyone for the advise provided.

As for the installer, I intentionally did not name or shame you, I intentionally left out your branding stickers that you stuck on the inverter and the DB board, I removed my 1 star review of your business when you begged me to, I am sorry that you do not see me as a grown up and that we did not have the opportunity to meet, I am actually an incredibly busy person as I handle the international distribution and support in all 49 countries that the company I work for is in. Perhaps you see it like this because I live with my parents, the reasons for this are :
1. I am mostly out of the country for 9 months a year on business trips.
2. My parents are elderly and when I am here, I help them and look after them.

If you would like to discuss this further, you have my cellphone number.

So just an update.

We had another company come out and correct the install.

All 3 strings are now wired into the DB board (6 wires total), each line is fused and then passed through an isolator. Surge protection was also added on both the solar side and inverter output side.

This fix up cost an additional R12000, the previous installed had the cheek to ask for his old equipment back since we are no longer using it

Hey all

So we overloaded our Axpert clone inverter one too many times and it kicked the bucket (currently in for repairs).
We purchased another one though and intend on running them parallel to increase our overhead.

Now what we would like to do is install some sort of overload protection on the inverter output.
The idea is to have something similar to a PV fuse as its fast blowing, this would basically limit the inverters output and should this be exceeded, the fuse would blow before the inverter overloads.

We have looked into the idea of using normal breakers but this wouldn't work as even a 20A breaker can surge up to 80A for 10 seconds before it trips.

What we do have is extra DC PV fuses and fuse holders, would this work for what we intend? DC fuses are preferable due to their nature of being fast blowing, creating a larger gap when they blow and ease of finding replacements.

On 2020/08/18 at 9:46 AM, francois said:

A colleague is using 2 of these batteries with 2 x Growatt inverters and as far as I know there is no comms between the battery and inverter.

He is using custom settings on the inverter for the batteries.

Unfortunately cannot comment on how good they are.

I can confirm that currently there is no way to communicate with these batteries. We've had 2 batteries for just over a year with no way to communicate with them.
Apparently they are developing a software for the raspberri pi to be able to communicate.

As I understand, no inverter can communicate with these batteries.

Inverters can however communicate with their new batteries which was released a month or 2 after we purchased these batteries. Incredibly frustrating to drop R50k+ on something that we cant use properly. 
After months of mailing with them it basically came down to we must wait for them to finish with the software (all most a year now) or we must just accept it how it is or we must sell the batteries and buy other batteries.
So yeah, kind of left high and dry on this.

8 hours ago, Vassen said:

Hi. 
 

How are the panels connected. 3s3p or?

the cable should have a mm rating on it, either 4 or 6 or if you really lucky 10. 
 

where / how are the strings combined as there’s just 1 set of cables in that dB.

I see you also don’t have a set of surge protectors for the panels. 
 

lastly, the isolator looks like a normal ac isolator. You need to use a dc isolator. 

Thanks for your response.
It looks like 3S3P, we peak at 2.8kw at +-120v. Each panel nominal voltage is 40v hence the assumption.

The strings are combined on the roof at the solar panels. We have a single positive and single negative which then comes down from the roof to the isolator switches.

Correct, there appears to be no surge protector, is this a requirement? The electrician was supposed to install it all to 'code'.

I've attached an image of the cable where info is written, I'm not too sure what the thickness is because at one point it marked "6.00" and another point "MM2", I can assure you that the cable is not 2mm, it does appear to be 6mm stranded, the cable is silver in colour and not copper, could this mean that the it is stranded aluminium cable?

Hi all

So we've had a solar system for just about a year now.

In December I noticed a burning smell in the garage where the solar system is (isolator switches, batteries, inverters and DB boxes).
As I was soldering that day, I assumed I accidently burnt something with the soldering iron and just left it.

Suddenly solar power was lost and I investigated further. 1 of the 30A fuses inline with the solar feed had blown. We replaced it thinking it was a manufacturing defect.
Shortly after that the smell became worse and I noticed what looking like melting on the 1 isolator switch. We shut down the system and pulled out the switch which was completely destroyed due to arcing.

We called and whatsapped the electrician who installed the system with no response on 22 December. Thinking he is on holiday we left it and decided to sort it out ourselves.
We bought exact replacements to what was installed, and replaced the destroyed isolator switches and fuses.

We then noticed the few next day of full sun that the cables are getting extremely hot, hot enough that the sheathing is able to slip on the copper cable. The electrician got back to us that he would come by as soon as he is back from holiday.

Jump forward to 19 January, the electrician has still not come through, we sent a follow up message. No response.

Yesterday (23 January) we noticed that the isolator switches are even hotter (rated to 63A at 240V AC), so hot that if you were to hold it for more than 3 seconds, it would most likely burn your skin considerably.

I ended up leaving the electrician a bad review on his google page, he then responded all most immediately in a belligerent manner. The gist of his response is that he is still on holiday, its not right that I left a 1 star review 1 year later, he never dealt with me but dealt with my father, that my review is spam and that he will come on Monday.

I of course took up the matter with him because he would not respond to my fathers calls or messages and considering that such heat could potentially cause a fire.

To me, something seems terribly underrated in the system and is unable to cope with the amperage. I cant find an amperage rating on the cable, only that its solar rated.

Our solar setup is as follows :
9 x Canadian Solar 360w panels
1 x Axpert Close 5kva / 4kw inverter
2 x 100AH LiFePO4 batteries

Hey all

So I've built a 3s13p 18650 battery packing using 39 x Panasonic NCR18650PF 2800mah batteries.
They are connected to a BMS.
Technically the pack should have 36AH of capacity

The intention is for it to run a router and tv at the S/O place.

I am currently testing the pack by running it through a few charge and discharge using a small Turnigy Accucell 6 charger.


Now, I would like to build a system so that it functions similar to a UPS, just with a lithium ion battery pack. I've seen a few videos of this being done but there are a few problems with just a direct swap.
A UPS is not designed to charge lithium ion cells and the transformers aren't made to run for extended periods of time.

Can anyone point me in right direction on how to go about this? It would be ideal to have it in a single unit where it is plugged into mains, will maintain charge and power an output at 220v AC but will maintain the output even when the mains are unplugged (pretty much like a UPS).

Thanks

Hi all

I have a clone Axpert 4KW, purchased from TheSunPays along with 2 of their 48v 100ah LiFePO4 batteries.

For obvious reasons I would like to have the BMS communicating with the inverter. According to TheSunPays, the inverter runs the voltronic protocol.
Now, the battery has a 6pin RS232 Coms connector and the inverter an 8pin RS232 Coms connector.

Would it be possible to have these communicate with the inverter?

TheSunPays hasn't been of much help, first we are told we need to buy a Pylontech cable from Centurion Solar, then we need a different inverter, then the different inverter cant communicate with our batteries so we would need different batteries.
Out thinking was that because both batteries and inverter are being sold as kits from TheSunPays, we were under the impression that its compatible, however they have now told me that they never advertised it as 100% compatible. We really dont know what else to do and we have invested over R100k in the system with solar panels.
Any suggestions would be awesome.

20 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

Heh. That's Voltronic Power's firmware, as patched by Weber and myself. That's a bit rich.

It's good firmware for lead acid batteries, though. Perhaps consider a battery swap with someone who has lead acid now, and would not mind an update to lithium.

Well we intentionally bought LiFePO4 batteries for the long lifespan, we'd hate to move to lead acid.

Just got off the phone with TheSunPays.
They've confirmed that their inverter is a clone and not original.

They've also confirmed that the new firmware will not work on the inverters, only their manufacturers firmware will work.

I guess I'm proper shit outa luck now

After reading through that post, I can confirm that this inverter is a clone.
Guess im shit outa luck then

LC1 72.70C is my firmware version

Perhaps I am wrong

The firmware appears to be U2 04.12

I reckon its because companies are flogging the market with cheaper clones and loadshedding

I had to add it because I saw everyone is just asking Axpert questions, granted most of them are repetitive and have been answered countless times.
I've honestly been reading through the forum silently for over a month and couldnt find an answer for my question, which is why I asked today.

rastert111 basically answered it and has pointed me in the right direction, now to see if mine is a clone of a clone of a clone, if it is then im shit outa luck

12 - 48v
13 - 50v
29 - 46v

Will post 26 and 27 when I get home.

The batteries are only hooked to each other using an ethernet cable. According to TheSunPays, we dont need to hook the batteries to the inverter.

This is the battery used
https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/collections/solar-batteries/products/the-sun-pays-4-8-kwh-lithium-ion-battery-pack

This is the inverter :
https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/collections/axpert-inverters/products/4kw-5kva-80a-axpert-pure-sine-wave-inverter-parallel

Hi all

I require some advice, I've searched this forum and the web and cant seem to find an answer.

Setup :
1 x 5kva 5kw Axpert Inverter (TheSunPays)
2 x 4.8kwh LiFePo4 48v Batteries (TheSunPays)
9 x Canadian Solar 360w panels

We have a few issues.

1. We have the battery cut off set to 46v as per TheSunPays, we get a low voltage alarm even when at 49v and we cant stop this alarm without resetting the unit.
Is there a way to change the parameters surrounding the alarm so that the alarm activates at 47v without changing the cut off from 46v?

We've had the inverter change back to grid even when at 49.3v, leaving an all most full battery. The low voltage alarm was triggered but voltage never reached 48v.

We would not like to drop the cut off from 46v as should there be loadshedding in the middle of the night, it might cause the batteries to drain and shut off completely.