Douw G. Gerber

Lithium batteries should not be equalised by the inverter - the BMS inside the battery will take care of this - disable inverter equalisation. Your battery seems to be rated at 1C - that means it should deliver +- 2.6kw constant output when required - you have a 3kw inverter - so if you are exceeding the battery output of 2.6kw it may throw an alarm. It should not do this if your load is less than that though... you will need to monitor things a little closer the next time your power goes out - or simulate an outage by tripping your mains and then see what is happening - your inverter should show you load values. Then also, I think (others can chip in here) you should set your CV to 28v and Float to 27,5v if it allows for such values, otherwise just make both 28v. Cheers

Maybe checkout the Efergy Energy Meter

Update: Changed the wiring as suggested - big storms etc last night and so far so good... Will let you guys know in a bout a week if all is good. Wired like this now: eskom >>> main breaker >>> inverter >>> earth leakage a >>> essential loads eskom >>> main breaker >>> earth leakage b>>> non essential loads Thanks for the input and assistance.

Thanks chaps I have my electrician coming this week to rewire it as suggested. @Clint - the main E/L is a Hager - installed around 2017 so should still be good.

Hi there Clint - can you maybe be a bit more specific here? Using the button on the EL to test does trip it. The nuisance tripping is back - only happens when it rains though. It is random though becuase it used to be only when there was heavy lightning - did the earthing of the panels and that seemed to have sorted it at the time because we had a couple of big storms with lots of rain and no trips. Today had a lite drizzle and it tripped again. This is the earth leakage conntected to grid before the inverter. Also to note - this only happens if my solar DB breaker is up - day or night - when it rains. It does not trip if the solar breaker is down. Thanks Douw

Why is it do you guys/ladies think that Level 4 LS is required after midnight on the current schedules and during the day only level 2? Surely there is more load during the day than between 12am-5am? I would have thought stage 4 from 4pm-12am, stage 2 12am-5am, stage 4 5am to 10am. Interested to better understand the thinking or workings behind this. The below graph from EskomsePush shows very low load at those times?

25 year lifespan - lifetime warranty 11000 cycles $20 000 for 12Kwh https://www.amptricity.com/preorder-residential

Can vouch for this piece of equipment - installed it many years ago and solved my nuisance tripping. My original EL may have been a knock-off CBI though which may have been faulty, but this sorted the issue out.

I use the following on my Dyness 5.1kw

Came across this in a Youtube video on a hotel in the US that is using 48v to power all lighting in the hotel. https://voltserver.com/

Sorry I dont have answers and I am not in a position of knowledge to debate with Jacques 🙂 - we ran an earth wire from the panel frames to a rod. The problem seems to have been solved.

https://www.solar-assistant.io

Feedback: Proper earthing of the solar panels seems to have resolved the issue. Had lightning the last few nights with no trips.

Read this post - I know for a fact my panel frames are not earthed - could this be the issue?

Hi all My system was installed in winter and has been running flawlessly until now. Since our first storms started two days ago in Gauteng - where I live especially heavy lightning and thunder - the main DB EL trips as soon as there is any thunder/lightning in the vicinity. I have isolated the issue to the solar as when I shutdown the solar breaker on the DC DB the system runs no problem through the storm. Any ideas what may be causing this? Could it be poor grounding of the solar panels? Cheers Douw

My Mecer Axpert MK IV blends AC, Solar and Battery perfectly.

I can highly recommend SolarAssistant to manage your system - it is Pi based but is the best overall. Don't waste your time with Watchpower. You can automate pretty much every aspect of the battery management to suit your needs. Question is whether you have internet access at these sites though...without that remote management is not an option. There is also a windows based inverter management software but I cannot remember the name now - it is better than Watchpower but nowhere near as user friendly as SolarAssistant. Point 3 - If your battery is connected via cable to the inverter BMS port - RS485/CAN - then you should have no issues with SOC monitoring, but you can also set up the inverter with option 5 USR and just program in the voltages manually. The display will not show correct SOC in this mode but you can set the shutoff voltages etc. Wrt the generator - some here have suggested setting the unit to Appliance instead of UPS mode as this will then let the inverter be more tolerant to the voltage fluctuation. How are you starting the gennie? Remote start? Or are you starting it manually when you are using the cabin? On point 1 - I think you will be fine with that east west orientation - series vs parallel - not a one is better than the other answer - it depends on your inverter and how many panels and what you are trying to achieve and possible future expansion. Your unit's specs form what I could quickly find: Maximum PV Array Power: 8000W (4000W x 2). MPP Range @ Operating Voltage: 90 ~ 450 VDC. Maximum PV Array Open Circuit Voltage: 500 VDC. Number of MPP Trackers: 2. Maximum Solar Charge Current: 120 A. Please post your specs from your owners manual so we can give you better answers as you state you have 10 x 535w panels - thats more than the inverter spec shows in my search.

Shocking to see these types of basic things being done wrong by installers...I am not an electrican but basic self-learning taught me that the install in the photos was incorrect...if this is a person's day job - make sure you are at least self-educating yourself... Glad to read that it seems like your system is performing better

Another option - which we use in our house - is to use a single plate induction top with a standalone kettle. Induction is pretty efficient and you can also set the power.