Douw G. Gerber

Just reviving this again... My mate is still sitting with the two batteries 1 x 51.2v (16 cell) and 1 x 48v (15 cell) - what is also happening is that one of the batteries will first run flat and then the other one starts discharging...the reverse then happens during charging... So from what I can gather researching is that you can mix batteries of different Ah capacity as long as they are all the same nominal voltage. But from the repsonses above it seems it is a safe to confirm that mixing nominal voltages is a bad idea and should be avoided at all costs.

Flat roof - panels are nicely hidden.

Have been stocking up a little in terms of canned foods. Have an induction plate that runs on the inverter for cooking and boiling water. Heatpump for geyser. Runs on the inverter. Have a 60000L pool and the pump does run off my solar so that water can be used for emergencies I guess. I have a porta potty (I am a Camper) and necessary chemicals. 50L of filtered drinking water on standby Solar system and batteries will be able to run home 24 hours per day on sunny to partly cloudy days if I keep things like gaming pcs and Tvs off. Home idles at around 400w at night. Self defence is sorted. CCTV and permiter electric fence runs on inverter. Outside lights are all individually solar powered independent from inverter. I hope we never have to actually deal with something like this though. But I guess it's better to be prepared just in case.

Same here - my unit has been running for 4 years no problems. Run my timer from 5am-9am and 2pm-8pm.

Hi there Lorraine. My mate had a Mecer unit that also did this and was sorted by setting the battery to USR (setting 05) and setting the battery parameters manually - this was a Dyness battery. It's worth a try - can you perhaps share the exact model Hubble battery you have so we can give you the settings. Please confirm what your setting 05 is at the moment.

Can you perhaps conform what your setting is for max AC Charge? Can I suggest setting it to 30A and checking if that maybe solves your problem? Do you have comms between battery and inverter? BTW I have the Mecer version of this inverter. Dont play with the firmware. I bricked mine but fortunately mustek reloaded the firmware for me.

Furthermore what I could find out was that these batteries - Sungod - have their cell packs made up of 32700 cells. Not a simple cell removal I would think. He is going to request the installer either give him a 48v or 51.2v replacement unit to get them the same.

What is your battery setup?

This keeps my battery topped up between 19:30ish and 22:00ish before it starts discharging making sure I have enough juice lft for the 4am-8am sessions. My heatpump kicks in at 4am for the morning showers. My batteries have max 20% DOD.

Other forum members will also pitch in on this. 1. From what I have read you may have to connect a fully charged battery (another 48v) to the flat one in parralel so that the flat one starts drawing power from the charged one and this way the BMS may be able to wake up. 2. Can't see why not - just set the inverter voltage settings for bulk, float and disconnect correct for the particular battery. Will probably work better though with a GX device. Victron nerds can comment here.

Hi there all As mentioned in my other post re bad installers: My mate was supplied with 2 x batteries (same brand) but one is a 48v and the other a 51.2v unit. Issue is SOC calc with solar assistant emulated BMS is not working as it should and I am ssuming this could be due to different voltages of the batteries right? There is no info on th ebatteries in order to get BMS comms working and I think with them being different this would have not worked anyway. Would we be able to fix this problem with a Victron Smart Shunt perhaps (it can also connect to SA)? Ie get more accurate coulomb count? Also for the battery experts here - what is the best and worst that can happen with two different volatge batteries in parrallel? No point in forkng out for a Shunt if the batteries are going to be borked in a short space of time. Maybe just keep the 51.2v and try sell the 48v. Cheers Douw

Household application is typically LV.

Hi there Alison Without knowing more about your entire system, all I can think of is that your battery is connected to your inverter without a BMS connection between the battery and inverter and the inverter is configured for USER mode. Inverter will show inaccurate state of charge when configured like this if you have a Lithium battery. This is fine if the manual settings for you battery are setup correctly. I would suggest keep an eye on your battery LED's as an indicator of state of charge, not the inverter. Let us know what the battery LED's show when the above happens happens again.

1977 NYC Blackout

We were also supposed to be shed for 2 hours last night between 8pm-1opm - never happened...

I also have an ITS 5kw heatpump - first thing I installed a few years back to become more energy efficient. Also have mine programmed to switch on at 5am-8:30am (4 adults who shower at different in the morning (3 ladies :-)), top up 12-1pm and 6-7pm (incase mamma wants to bath - happy wife happy life). No cold-water problems at all.

What battery do you have? You have to go set the battery capacity in the battery settings section in the settings tab.

Set your max charge current to 50A. Should be fine. This will allow batteries to charge up quickly from solar but limit eskom charging to 10A. I am assuming you have solar.

Yeah probably that one - the new one is the 10Kw. To make things worse...I suspect the panels are 150w - not the 450w that is on the sticker... At present sunny skies 9:55am, his batteries need charge - max being generated is 1020w with 8 panels...My system is already generating around 2Kw (I have 8x 455w JA's)

I have suggested that LOL

I hope this post will help someone in the future - it happened to a very good mate of mine but I am not going to name any names as I think what happened is par for the course with these fly by night installers... My mate repsonds to this advert - note the spelling - now if you are familiar with the industry it is obvious but averge Joe doesn't pick up on this: Not clear in the image - but a Growatt suddenly becomes a Growcall Then also the price - if it looks to good to be true it probably is... My mate requested an Axpert type inverter instead of the Growatt - so they replace it with a Kodak 8Kw. Day of install mid Feb: 1. I get a picture of the panels going on the SOUTH side of the roof - red alert! Plenty of space on the north side 2. During the install somehow switches are not doing what they are supposed to and eventually magic smoke comes out of the inverter Next week: 1. Installer arrives with a FiveStar 8kw unit - sorry to say...Red Alert 2! Obvisouly supplier of kodak told them to get knotted as they blew the inverter during install. 2. Things seem to be working slightly better except the switchover to from and back to Eskom isn't working as it should and the battery also seems wonky 3. Batteries are 2 x Sungod 48v units...Red Alert 3! Never heard of these and cannot find any info of substance on web around these. A user manual etc. Battery is taken away as a dead cell is suspected. Battery is returned a few days later. 4. Panels are obviously not delivering much power. 5. Solar Asssiatant doesn't work on the FiveStar - my mate says he wants another Kodak 4 Weeks later: 1. Installer comes with a new 10kw Kodak - ok thats an upgrade at least from the 8kw. 2. Installer cannot get the kodak to see the Eskom feed...Red Alert 4! At this point my mate listens to me and we get my installer onsite. The ESKOM feed from the DB to Inverter In - Earth is wired into Neutral and Live on Neutral and Neutral on Live - I sh1t you not... how this inverter is still opertional...A new date is scheduled to check all wiring and remount the panels on the north facing roof. Today: This is the pic of the panel labels: Notice the Chingling spellng next to Fivestar brand... also only rated for 450W (IF THAT IS EVEN TRUE) - the advert and quote stated 550w panels. Anyway...things are being sorted out as I write this and my mate is going to take things further woth the original installer. Beware of what is out there in the solar wild west.

Can you guys perhaps suggest a decent MPPT charge controller (30A) that wont break the bank? Would this one work as an example? https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/products/epever-xtra-solar-charge-controller-30a-mppt?variant=39474339676231&currency=ZAR&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjwr82iBhCuARIsAO0EAZzOASkGUQ4AZg7PnQ5JDdUrRj7RjK8ivrfZ3gRRFyCZ4eWpeVhlV4kaAimqEALw_wcB My household rarely goes over 50A at present - I assume the inverter will pull from wherever it can to deliver say 60A if required. What happens when you draw more than the 30A the unit above can deliver - will magic smoke come out or dies it just throttle back?

Unfortunately not but that is also an interesting tidbit to know 🙂

Hi all, If you have an existing all-in-one inverter where the existing panels connect to, can you add a second dedicated charge controller and panels connected directly to the battery bank via a DC busbar? In the event that the batteries are fully charged woul the inverter draw power from these additional panels during the day? What would the pro's and cons be of doing this?

Hope you came right...but generally when asking for assistantce quite a bit more info is required than you provided 🙂