Buyeye

Yes it's called top balancing, I had a powerbox with 4 x 2,4kwh batteries when the solar irradiation is poor(in winter) it would trigger a charge from the grid at inopportune times so I learned to charge to 100% from the grid atleast once a week in winter. I guess you could use the lower tariffs in the night to do that in your perpetual winter.

https://www.victronenergy.com/live/ccgx:ccgx_sma It says you need a gx.

@AttieW1Hi and welcome. You have a very nice system that sounds big enough for a commercial site. 24kw pv panels produces on average 120kwh per day but you only have 33kwh of battery storage. I'm guessing your system produces 33kwh by 9h30 which then begs the question what do you do with the +-90kwh that you could potentially produce?

Enjoy your new system, I had the same inverter previously and it works with no fuss when the bms connection works. SUB mode comes in handy in bad weather, I used to let the battery get low and use the grid to charge it which was quite a hassle if you forgot what time is loadshedding. Now I just set the battery depth of discharge to one that I think I can get through loadshedding with until the forecast says it will be sunny.

You could just turn off the buzzer. I remember I used to use mine as a wake up alarm because the inverter was inside. Until I turned it off.

We usually just follow manufacturer specified voltages if bms cable connection fails.

warning code 04 with that symbol next to it means everything is working as it should and battery has reached where you set it to warn that the battery is low. If it goes away when the sun comes up and the battery starts charging then there is nothing to do. BTW lithium does not float it simply stops charging.

The panels sound like they are connected correctly. Do you think you will be able to charge 40kwh of batteries with the current panels? And are you using 20kwh overnight? Are you trying to have enough batteries for a few days which in that case you would not need to charge them to full every day but you do have to charge them to full atleat once a week for top balancing.

Hi Nick since it's an axpert type inverter, the batteries will be in parralel adding up the amps to 300amph instead of series adding up the voltage. Starting from program 14, pyl is usually what most people use. Maybe your brand of batteries doesn't like pyl setting. It sounds like your inverter is a newer model with the round screen. The rest of the battery setting wouldn't matter if pyl is selected. I'm asking if you tried to connect the bms? With a communication cable between the batteries and inverter.

Restart is a setting. Restart on overload, restart on overtemp. Check what your loads were when it restarted.

The only other brand that offers 30kwh that meets your requirements is freedomwon.

Sorry I just reread your post and saw no batteries. I initially assumed you would get cheaper lead acid batteries and set them to 50%. With loadshedding it almost make no sense to spend money on solar and have no electricity during loadshedding. The inverter would still work without batteries. We will need people who have one to confirm that you just tick no battery.

Yes that is how hybrid inverters work. Deye 5kw or 8kw is a great choice. You would have to set the voltage corresponding to 50% depth of discharge for lead acid and the inverter will handle the rest. No loadshedding sounds nice. Solar is still a great journey enjoy.

You need to know the specifications for your mppt or solar charge controller which is built in to your inverter. You know that you need to produce atleast 5kwh to charge the battery. Then you need a good estimate of daytime usage which is usually very low unless you intentionally move heavy loads to daytime. Heavy loads like a geyser, washing machine and pool pump. Let's add 5 kwh for the geyser and another 5kwh for the pool pump. You are now at 15kwh. Do you plan to add another battery in the future? That adds another 5kwh which gets you to 20kwh. So far it's easy 20kwh divided by 5 hours which is the average sun hours here. This gives you 4kw divided wattage of the panels let's say 450watts gives you 9 panels. Now you have to know whether you have a high voltage mppt or a low ⚡️ one. With a high voltage one you just connect all 9 panels in series. With a low voltage one you will need to parallel some strings. Some inverters can do 3 strings of 3 panels which would work out fine for nine. All of this is guess work since we don't know how much amperage your mppt can handle.

Hi maybe we could hear more about the livoltek story in another thread. I have personally owned a growatt spf5000es which was great with no loads before the inverter and a geyser heat pump. It's basically an offgrid inverter with SUB mode for cloudy days. Currently I have 2 luxpowertec sna5000 inverters. I have no complaints 2 spf5000es would have done the same thing but I wanted to try a different model. If grid feed-in was available where i live I would have probably gone with a deye/sunsynk the first time. Solis's new 6kw and 8kw inverters are also worth mentioning after deye/sunsynk their strategy seems is to offer 6kw for the same price as deye 5kw. Which would appeal to some people. Victron is always worth mentioning if you have the budget.

I was including everything washing machine, dryer with the geyser in the 15kwh(all daytime usage). I was actually worried it might be low for a 200l geyser. How did the rains affect your production in December?

15kwh of batteries is above average, you need enough panels to charge batteries and run daytime loads. If those daytime loads include a geyser we are looking at another 15kwh. So your panels need to produce around 30kwh per day. That brings us to your stove if it's electric and on non essentials that will mean most of your municipal usage will be from the stove. You can reduce it by buying a slow cooker and airfryer. Which you can run in the day on PV. If you already have a Gas stove and a solar geyser then this system will get you to over 90% self sufficient barring bad weather. Having said that panels still produce through the clouds. The average for my system since instalation is 650kwh per month but this December it produced just over 570kwh it just felt worse because more people were at home and we did buy more from the municipality but the numbers don't lie. Going solar you do have to know what is using electricity and how much it's using.

Most people when they say they don't have money they mean they don't have the cash. I will echo @GreenFields that it's worth using credit to include pv panels with the installation.

Try asking [email protected] to finish the parallel settings so you can use the luxpower app for monitoring.

@Willem Van Niekerk hi the pictures answered my question of installing the units inside or in the roof. You install ducting to get the air in and out. The pictures look great. What does the service look like once a year? How much?

The start up pv voltage is a low 120 vdc, at 16h46 the panels should have still been producing a voltage. Let's check how many panels and if they are connected in series? Then check fuses.

Hi do you have a battery connected?

Hi and welcome, you will need an installer account to link it to your new profile. If you can't get hold of the installer. You can email technical support of most major brands, growatt, luxpowertec and sunsynk on their technical support emails.

[Quote=] What is Battery Sulfation? Sulfation, a build-up of lead sulfate crystals, is the number one cause of early failures of lead-acid, sealed AGM or flooded (wet cell-filler caps) batteries. A sulfated battery can lead to: loss of cranking power longer charging times excessive heat build-up leading to "boil out" shorter running times between charges dramatically shorter battery life Other causes of battery failure include: vibration, contamination, damaged charging plates (due to overheating) and under or over charging. [/quote] https://www.batteryminders.com/avoid-battery-sulfation/#:~:text=Sulfation%2C a build-up of,longer charging times

@MonaLisa hi the good news is that you got just under 2000 cycles from your lead acid batteries. The bad news is they are rated for 500 cycles. Lithium batteries have become much more affordable than 5 years ago and most are rated for 6000 cycles. Now that you brought it up I'm wondering if anyone has had their Lithium batteries for ten years and how they are performing.