Good day to all.
I have to say that I'm extremely disappointed with the suppliers of Growatt in south Africa, send them numerous mails no response, try to contact them by phone, no one answers it.

Send a mail to the OEM in china no response

Really no customer service whatsoever, consider this before you decide to go the Growatt route 

I have the following system installed.

• 2 X 5000 ES growatt inverters
• 12 X 400 W panels,
• 2 strings each 6 panels .
• 1 X 51.2 V 100 AH South African Lithium battery.

Whenever I tried to connect the BMS from the battery to the inverters, after a short while, it varies +_ 20 seconds it trips the 220 V ac circuit breaker feeding the inverters.

Is there anybody with Growatt inverters that could help me?

 

Perhaps @Bain Viljoen can advise. I believe he's the battery/BMS supplier (?)

 

2 hours ago, JoeyhZA said:

Perhaps @Bain Viljoen can advise. I believe he's the battery/BMS supplier (?)

 

Hi @JoeyhZA and @Antonio de Sa

Unfortunately I cannot help, I imported a few SACOLAR inverter (basically the growatt ES)
The aftersales service I received was atrocious to say the least, been begging them for months for inverter boards and eventually I had to pay for new inverter board even though they are warranty claims.

Even after I paid I had to keep begging them, telling them that my customers are pissed at me and inadvertently my service.
They just keep saying they don't have stock, basically it is more important to them to sell more units instead of aftersales support.
Eventually it just came to a point where I offered all the customers a refund if their inverters popped.

I would never in my life recommend a growatt/sacolar inverter to anyone ever again.

Unfortunately the fact that the AC breaker input trips is not a battery problem, HOWEVER, try turning the AC output breaker off. this is what happens with my system at home.
The growatts ignore the commands not to charge the batteries from AC, they start charging from AC at max power and power your house in bypass mode and the result is an overcurrent on the AC input breaker.

At my house the AC input breakers are always turned off, if my batteries get flat i switch over to Eskom manually and then the next day when the batteries have charged and I get home from work I flip back to the inverters.

Hope this resolves your issue.

If you have the bucks for it, get a LuxPower inverter/Same price range as the Growatt, recently tested one, man o man, what an improving of an inverter over Growatt.
I actually listens to you if you tell it it can only charge of AC at 1a for example, also has allot better monitoring and the settings of the inverter over the web are actually allot better.

With the newest firmware update of my battery you can get the AH of all batteries connected in parallel also displayed on the inverter.

@Antonio de Sa also to note that you have 2 inverters connected to 1 battery, Max power draw from the inverters is > 10kw and 1 battery cant handle that.
Another point to raise is that The inverters are "Dumb" The battery says it needs a certain charge current, the inverters each try to charge at that current effectively over currenting the battery.
Now according to your panel power available this is fine, but as soon as you try to charge of the AC and the growatt will as your 1 battery will most likely not last thought the evening.
My 2 inverters trip all breakers leading to them in a random order if it goes into bypass and also starts charging the batteries.
The 20 seconds that you mentioned supports this analogy as this is about the ramp up time of the AC charger.

10 hours ago, Bain Viljoen said:

@Antonio de Sa also to note that you have 2 inverters connected to 1 battery, Max power draw from the inverters is > 10kw and 1 battery cant handle that.
Another point to raise is that The inverters are "Dumb" The battery says it needs a certain charge current, the inverters each try to charge at that current effectively over currenting the battery.
Now according to your panel power available this is fine, but as soon as you try to charge of the AC and the growatt will as your 1 battery will most likely not last thought the evening.
My 2 inverters trip all breakers leading to them in a random order if it goes into bypass and also starts charging the batteries.
The 20 seconds that you mentioned supports this analogy as this is about the ramp up time of the AC charger.

Bain, Thanks for the feed back, at the moment I'm not using Mains to charge the batteries, I have setting 1 = SBU and setting 14 = OSO.

I'm doing exactly as you, when I see that the battery goes to about 30% SOC that happens at +_ 6 o'clock in the evening I flip over to mains until the next morning.

During the day when the Sun is at it's peak at +_ 11 o'clock I switch on the geyser and the system can handle it, by about 2 o'clock in the afternoon the battery is fully charged. SOC of about 95%.

In the afternoon I have enough accumulated power in the battery to run the stove and do the cooking.  So far the max charging current that I've seen is about 50 Amps, I think the battery can handle that amount of current charge without causing any damage to it.

I'm going to try what you suggest, switch of the AC supply to the inverters and connect the BMS and monitor the results.

I will let you know my results soon.

Guys stay away from Growatt ( do it at your own risk ) no after sale service. No OEM technical support in the country. Just my humble opinion.

Hi @Antonio de Sa, Mine is also set to SBU and OSO, retarded inverters don't give a damn....
Also, 30a breakers is only 6.9kw of AC, so easy to overload with 2 inverters and a battery charging. 
If you have sufficient power you will be able to charge the battery to 100% (will only briefly stay there as a few mA will take it down to 99%)
Try using the coms cable, will give you a better experience and setting cutoffs with % is better than working of voltage.
Use Program 52 under lithium protocol.

24 minutes ago, Bain Viljoen said:

Hi @Antonio de Sa, Mine is also set to SBU and OSO, retarded inverters don't give a damn....
Also, 30a breakers is only 6.9kw of AC, so easy to overload with 2 inverters and a battery charging. 
If you have sufficient power you will be able to charge the battery to 100% (will only briefly stay there as a few mA will take it down to 99%)
Try using the coms cable, will give you a better experience and setting cutoffs with % is better than working of voltage.
Use Program 52 under lithium protocol.

Hi Bain, 

retarded inverters don't give a damn....LOL.

My AC breaker is  63 amp. so theoretically should be able to handle 10 KW.  I will connect the BMS using Can protocol 52 and see the results.

At present I have setting 2 at 20 Amps, don't want to overcurrent the battery, setting 5 US2, settings  19 and 20 at 55 V battery manual says 56.

I'm trying to save the battery ( most expensive item ) in my system.

However every day I see it goes up by two cycles the odd day by 3, this worries me as I believe I'm shortening the life span of the battery.

16 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Hi Bain, 

retarded inverters don't give a damn....LOL.

My AC breaker is  63 amp. so theoretically should be able to handle 10 KW.  I will connect the BMS using Can protocol 52 and see the results.

At present I have setting 2 at 20 Amps, don't want to overcurrent the battery, setting 5 US2, settings  19 and 20 at 55 V battery manual says 56.

I'm trying to save the battery ( most expensive item ) in my system.

However every day I see it goes up by two cycles the odd day by 3, this worries me as I believe I'm shortening the life span of the battery.

Don't worry about the cycles, as soon the battery hits 80% it counts a cycle, charge a little bit and drop again to 80%, another cycle.
That's why we don't base our warranty on cycles but years.

The cells rating is 7000 cycles full discharge and charge at 0.5c so don't stress to much, utilize the battery or else your not saving on your power bill.
Also another thing that will make the cycles stupid is working of voltage as it keep discharging that bit and charging a bit.

The 56v is a conservative value, only 3.5v per cell.

If you use 4kwh per day from the battery over the life of the battery you will be saving well over 100k on power if calculated at 3.5 bucks per Kwh and the battery won't even be at end of life.

So USE the battery and save on your bill, that's why you got the system in the first place I believe?

So set your bulk and float to 56 if not running with CAN coms 

My suggestion, do coms, set back to AC at 15%, low SOC cutoff to 5% and back to battery at 30%.

25 minutes ago, Bain Viljoen said:

Don't worry about the cycles, as soon the battery hits 80% it counts a cycle, charge a little bit and drop again to 80%, another cycle.
That's why we don't base our warranty on cycles but years.

The cells rating is 7000 cycles full discharge and charge at 0.5c so don't stress to much, utilize the battery or else your not saving on your power bill.
Also another thing that will make the cycles stupid is working of voltage as it keep discharging that bit and charging a bit.

The 56v is a conservative value, only 3.5v per cell.

If you use 4kwh per day from the battery over the life of the battery you will be saving well over 100k on power if calculated at 3.5 bucks per Kwh and the battery won't even be at end of life.

So USE the battery and save on your bill, that's why you got the system in the first place I believe?

So set your bulk and float to 56 if not running with CAN coms 

My suggestion, do coms, set back to AC at 15%, low SOC cutoff to 5% and back to battery at 30%.

Hi Bain,

I have your battery and it's working well with my Sunsynk, i however "only" discharge it to 25% SOC. Is the above your general suggestion for the battery with coms?

34 minutes ago, Bain Viljoen said:

Don't worry about the cycles, as soon the battery hits 80% it counts a cycle, charge a little bit and drop again to 80%, another cycle.
That's why we don't base our warranty on cycles but years.

The cells rating is 7000 cycles full discharge and charge at 0.5c so don't stress to much, utilize the battery or else your not saving on your power bill.
Also another thing that will make the cycles stupid is working of voltage as it keep discharging that bit and charging a bit.

The 56v is a conservative value, only 3.5v per cell.

If you use 4kwh per day from the battery over the life of the battery you will be saving well over 100k on power if calculated at 3.5 bucks per Kwh and the battery won't even be at end of life.

So USE the battery and save on your bill, that's why you got the system in the first place I believe?

So set your bulk and float to 56 if not running with CAN coms 

My suggestion, do coms, set back to AC at 15%, low SOC cutoff to 5% and back to battery at 30%.

Bain Thanks for the info.

And very sorry to bother you again, I'm a layman what it comes to this sort of thing.

I'm going back to US2, as with BMS I just had a trip, maybe my settings were not correct and the fact that the main breaker supply to the inverters is off.

Man, now I'm stuck as the inverters only charge up to 65% SOC  and stopd charging.

Can you recommend what values should settings  for 12, 13 and 21 be set at for optimum performance.

 

14 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Bain Thanks for the info.

And very sorry to bother you again, I'm a layman what it comes to this sort of thing.

I'm going back to US2, as with BMS I just had a trip, maybe my settings were not correct and the fact that the main breaker supply to the inverters is off.

Man, now I'm stuck as the inverters only charge up to 65% SOC  and stopd charging.

Can you recommend what values should settings  for 12, 13 and 21 be set at for optimum performance.

 

So far I can say that I'm saving quite allot on my electricity bill, reduced my consumption on my pay meter from +_ 22 units per day to +_ 6 units, big save indeed.

AS you said the idea was in the first place to save on my electricity bill and to beat the EishKom load shedding when needed.

Once more thanks for the great advice.

29 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

So far I can say that I'm saving quite allot on my electricity bill, reduced my consumption on my pay meter from +_ 22 units per day to +_ 6 units, big save indeed.

AS you said the idea was in the first place to save on my electricity bill and to beat the EishKom load shedding when needed.

Once more thanks for the great advice.

Well, technically you're not really saving right now

You have to factor in the initial capital outlay.

I'm guessing, going off the system list on another post, you've spent between 70k-80k or thereabouts. 

Saving of 16 units per day @ conservatively R3 per unit, so roughly 50 bucks a day, would mean a few years before saving starts.  Beating loadshedding sure does and should factor in though.

 

 

Edited September 30, 20214 yr by JoeyhZA

19 hours ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Good day to all.
I have to say that I'm extremely disappointed with the suppliers of Growatt in south Africa, send them numerous mails no response, try to contact them by phone, no one answers it.

Send a mail to the OEM in china no response

Really no customer service whatsoever, consider this before you decide to go the Growatt route 

I have the following system installed.

• 2 X 5000 ES growatt inverters
• 12 X 400 W panels,
• 2 strings each 6 panels .
• 1 X 51.2 V 100 AH South African Lithium battery.

Whenever I tried to connect the BMS from the battery to the inverters, after a short while, it varies +_ 20 seconds it trips the 220 V ac circuit breaker feeding the inverters.

Is there anybody with Growatt inverters that could help me?

 

Hi, try sending your query to Amos, he is very helpful and have always assisted me when I had issues with my Growatt inverters. But from your explanation of the problem, the issue seems to be your BMS and not the inverters, I might be wrong but it really sounds like a bms issue.  [email protected]

1 hour ago, phidz said:

Hi Bain,

I have your battery and it's working well with my Sunsynk, i however "only" discharge it to 25% SOC. Is the above your general suggestion for the battery with coms?

This is perfect if you want to leave some reserve for incase there is load shedding.
Otherwise take it down to 10% or even 5%, hell go down to 0 if you want hahaha, not advised though as you want to avoid a disconnect between the battery and inverter.

 

9 minutes ago, JoeyhZA said:

Well, technically you're not really saving right now

You have to factor in the initial capital outlay.

I'm guessing, going off the system list on another post, you've spent between 70k-80k or thereabouts. 

Saving of 16 units per day @ conservatively R3 per unit, so roughly 50 bucks a day, would mean a few years before saving starts.  Beating loadshedding sure does and should factor in though.

 

 

Joeyh

I see it differently, first I've increased the value of my property

Then consider the following

Let's say initial cost 85 K in the bank at present interest rate very low but I'm working  at 5 % would give one a return of R4,250.00 per year = R 354.00 per mount.
As you say I'm presently saving 50 bucks a day X 30 days = R 1500, about 5 times the amount I would get in interest from the bank.

1 hour ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Bain Thanks for the info.

And very sorry to bother you again, I'm a layman what it comes to this sort of thing.

I'm going back to US2, as with BMS I just had a trip, maybe my settings were not correct and the fact that the main breaker supply to the inverters is off.

Man, now I'm stuck as the inverters only charge up to 65% SOC  and stopd charging.

Can you recommend what values should settings  for 12, 13 and 21 be set at for optimum performance.

 

I cant remember what those setting are lol, assuming it is bulk and float and low voltage cutoff.
Bulk + float to 56.4 as I have seen the inverters stop Charing before the battery is satisfied and reads a full charge.
 

I'm assuming the BMS cuts the Charge off as there is to much power as both inverters are trying to charge full power.

7 minutes ago, hoohloc said:

Hi, try sending your query to Amos, he is very helpful and have always assisted me when I had issues with my Growatt inverters. But from your explanation of the problem, the issue seems to be your BMS and not the inverters, I might be wrong but it really sounds like a bms issue.  [email protected]

Maybe I am not educated enough with the inverters, how is a BMS disconnect tripping the AC input breaker?

1 minute ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Joeyh

I see it differently, first I've increased the value of my property

Then consider the following

Let's say initial cost 85 K in the bank at present interest rate very low but I'm working  at 5 % would give one a return of R4,250.00 per year = R 354.00 per mount.
As you say I'm presently saving 50 bucks a day X 30 days = R 1500, about 5 times the amount I would get in interest from the bank.

Well put. I honestly didn't see it from that angle

 

3 minutes ago, Bain Viljoen said:

I cant remember what those setting are lol, assuming it is bulk and float and low voltage cutoff.
Bulk + float to 56.4 as I have seen the inverters stop Charing before the battery is satisfied and reads a full charge.
 

I'm assuming the BMS cuts the Charge off as there is to much power as both inverters are trying to charge full power.

O and set low voltage cutoff to 46v.
Back to AC voltage to 48v maybe.
48v is 3v per cell, almost completely drained.

13 minutes ago, Bain Viljoen said:

Maybe I am not educated enough with the inverters, how is a BMS disconnect tripping the AC input breaker?

I don't think that this is about being educated or not, the OP says the inverters trip the AC breaker when he connects bms. Automatically one would isolate the issue to bms, as the breakers only trip when connecting that. It might be bms issue, might be settings, hence the best way is to get support from Amos to ensure that there is nothing wrong with his inverters. If there is a problem with the inverter, he will send inverter board if the inverters are under warranty. It took a month to get my new inverter board from him

10 minutes ago, hoohloc said:

I don't think that this is about being educated or not, the OP says the inverters trip the AC breaker when he connects bms. Automatically one would isolate the issue to bms, as the breakers only trip when connecting that. It might be bms issue, might be settings, hence the best way is to get support from Amos to ensure that there is nothing wrong with his inverters. If there is a problem with the inverter, he will send inverter board if the inverters are under warranty. It took a month to get my new inverter board from him

The BMS can only control power in and out of it the cells, would be impossible for it to trip the input breaker of the inverter, Batteries give power, if the inverter is not handling that power correctly then its the inverters that is the problem.

18 minutes ago, Bain Viljoen said:

The BMS can only control power in and out of it the cells, would be impossible for it to trip the input breaker of the inverter, Batteries give power, if the inverter is not handling that power correctly then its the inverters that is the problem.

Sorry Bain,

I did not explain the sequence of events properly.

When I tried the BMS system, the AC supply to the inverter were switch off.

I think my setting were not correct and the BMS saw low voltage on the battery and tried to connect to mains, thus disconnected from the battery.

As recommended I sent a mail to Amos to help me with the settings, I reversed back to run the system on US2 however, I'm 100% sure my parameter settings in this mode are wrong as the inverters only charge the battery to 65% SOC.

@Antonio de Sa while waiting for response from Amos, you can also contact @Buyeye, he has the same Growatts as yours . he might also be able to help with the settings, so that you can rule that out. I'm using the Growatt SPF5000TL models and not sure if the settings are the same as the ES models. Don't lose hope on Growatt yet, those are decent inverters and works well

1 hour ago, hoohloc said:

@Antonio de Sa while waiting for response from Amos, you can also contact @Buyeye, he has the same Growatts as yours . he might also be able to help with the settings, so that you can rule that out. I'm using the Growatt SPF5000TL models and not sure if the settings are the same as the ES models. Don't lose hope on Growatt yet, those are decent inverters and works well

For my use case  the inverters are perfect very robust for the price. I have tripped my 40 amp breaker that feeds the inverter when the geyser was on and the bms decided battery needed charging. 40 amp at 220 volts is 8800 watts by the way.

The inverter happily supplied about 7000 watts to the load and battery only the breaker in the DB tripped. It does not like high amps from the battery or overloading on the load side but you can see those specs on the sticker on the side.         As you can see on the screenshot the load is about 3000 watts but the inverter is pulling over 7000 watts from the grid.

Edited September 30, 20214 yr by Buyeye

In my case the trip happens when BMS is connected to the battery, I have two 5000 KW inverters ES Hight voltage = 10 Kw.

I see you use grid power to supplement your load, I don't want to do that, I set parameter 14 at OSO ( only solar charges my battery ) 

I strongly think that the BMS tries to add power from the grid to the PV power to charge the battery. and that I definitely do not want.

They can easily handle my 3 KW geyser, mind you I only switch the geyser on at about 11 o'clock, by then PV is at maximum and battery almost fully charged.

Within 1 and half hour the geyser is hot and thermostat switches the geyser off

Also it can handle the stove late in the afternoon for cooking.

After about 7 pm my house consumption is very low, drops to about 700 wats. 

When I see that the battery SOC is at about 35%, I flip the inverter over to Eskom power other wise it completely discharges the battery overnight as the inverters no load consumption is quite high = 1.8 amps.

I switch back to solar early in the morning at +_ 7:00 AM.

I presume in winter will be a different case, I will cross that bridge when we get there.

What software do you use on your mobile ? I'm afraid to connect to Growatt server.