Ok so you are using the user settings.

Then it will stay the same.

The inverter has 2 jobs, one is to carry the load and the other is to charge the batteries. The Solar PV can be setup via priority settings to do one as first priority and the other as secondary. You will either supply loads as first then charge with the remainder of the PV. 

Alternatively you can carry the loads with the Grid and use the PV to charge. And it will charge accordingly to what is setup as 50A. You say that you rarely get more than 2200w but if you imagine that your batteries are fully charged and the load does not exceed the 2200W then that is all that the PV will do. 

@Jacques Esteris spot on, your King supports PYL protocol so Comms direct integration is possible and is first prize. The settings you have will work but it's a non efficient way to make things happen. 

I hope you solve this puzzle in the end. But consider this for a second. You could place 20kw of panels on your roof and if your battery is fully charged and your load is 100W the panels will only supply 100W. The sum is the loads + battery charging as setup on the menu charge options. You currently have 50A. So thats 2500W. But I guess you may already know all of this...I just hope you get some closure soon. 

All the best...

On 2022/01/18 at 8:01 PM, Calvin said:

In my case it was related to heat.  The SCC has a control loop that derates its output when the SCC temperature gets to 87C.  Now that sounds a lot, but when you have high inverter output AND high PV that is quite easily reached.

I think that this is the most likely cause, and the reason for the occasional spikes in PV power: the SCC cools down a bit due to clouds or whatever, outputs a bit more, heats up, and soon throttles itself back to reduce the temperature.

@Twakdaddy, does ICC show inverter temperatures? The maximum of the 4 temperature sensors is easy to display, so I'd expect so. If your problem is the same as Calvin's, then the highest temperature will be the SCC temperature, so you have a direct measurement. Those inverters are working hard, and they probably don't get as much cooling as they need in your situation. Especially with the fans blowing the wrong way.

Hi Guys,

 

Good day gents, sorry for the late response.  I have been testing and monitoring and have found the following.

1) The inverter room is cool and well ventilated.  I have put extraction ducting at exhaust of inverters. The ICC software indicates a temp of around 30 deg C.
2) Battery charge current is set to 50A per inverter so for the 3 its 150A total.
3) The total system load during testing was around 11KW.
4) Panels are clean, cloudless sky and wiring is sound 6mm through out strings.
5) PV Constant per inverter is around 2.2 to 2.4KW.  This occasionally spikes to 3.7kw for 5 seconds then settles back to 2kw?
6) 2 x arrays are rated at 3,78KW and the third is rated at 4,15KW.
7) Despite this all 3 inverters give the same output  as in point 5 within 10% of each other?

I have mailed ICC to hear if there might be a setting in the software that might be throttling the PV?

 

12 hours ago, Twakdaddy said:

This occasionally spikes to 3.7kw for 5 seconds then settles back to 2kw?

Does this correlate with the passing of clouds? Or perhaps reduction or spiking of loads?

Hi,

No this is in clear skies constant load

 

On 2022/03/31 at 11:55 PM, Twakdaddy said:

The ICC software indicates a temp of around 30 deg C.

That's a really low temperature, considering your loads. You do seem to have good cooling, but to keep the heatsinks at 30°C would be heroic.

Do the fans make much noise when the load is around 75% and the solar is charging at 2.4 kW, as in your earlier photos?

I'm wondering if one of the inverters has a faulty temperature sensor, and it's actually getting too hot, and the SCC is derating itself due to high temperatures. This could happen if the SCC somehow doesn't report the correct temperature to the DSP. It seems unlikely, but I can't see anything else unusual.

Yes, the fans sound like a 747 taking off when under load at 2.4kw.  ICC shows inverter temp of around 30 - 35 deg C, not sure where this temp comes from though?  i will follow up with ICC.  Is there some way I can manually check the inverter temps?

 

5 hours ago, Twakdaddy said:

ICC shows inverter temp of around 30 - 35 deg C, not sure where this temp comes from though?

It will be the maximum of four readings: from the Solar Charge Controller heatsink, an NTC near the main transformer, and sensors on the two large heatsinks (MOSFET and DC-DC / DC-AC converters).

Thx for the feedback. So there is no where to access these readings through the on-board display?

 

 

Edited April 7, 20224 yr by Twakdaddy

4 hours ago, Twakdaddy said:

So there is no where to access these readings through the on-board display?

With unpatched firmware, no. Even though they have "°C" on some of the displays. Even with fully patched firmware, you only get the one temperature measurement (the max of the 4 readings).

If you want the 4 individual readings, you'll need monitoring software, or send a command and read the response to the Q1 command (most models).

Hi all

 

Have a axpert king 5kva with 9 panels will I be able to add 3 more?

On 2022/08/11 at 10:21 PM, Ruan jansen said:

Hi all

 

Have a axpert king 5kva with 9 panels will I be able to add 3 more?

You will have to give more info on your current setup. 

What size panels are they, string config, current max production etc.

On 2022/08/11 at 10:21 PM, Ruan jansen said:

Hi all

 

Have a axpert king 5kva with 9 panels will I be able to add 3 more?

Recently somebody bought a Kodak which was to be similar to the King. It has a 145V MPPT but does blend which was essential.  As Cyber Joe indicated that information is essential.

Hi Guys,

 

I think I may have find the issue.  I have had another close look at all this and have seen something strange?

 

This is the cluster info from my 3 x 5kw Axpert King inverters running single phase in parallel. The PV Voltages of the 3 arrays are 83.6Vdc, 83,6Vdc and 67Vdc and the current 42, 43 and 47 amps per array.  If you work out the power P=V*I for each you get 3,511kW, 3,594kW and   3,149kW.  The total being 10,254kW.  This is inline with what I expect from my arrays as they are around 4,2kW each.  Now if you look at the PV wattage on the inverter it gives me 2,167kW, 2,176kW and 2,378kW which is quite a bit less than my calculations?  Not sure if I'm missing something here but seems as if the inverter is not calculating the wattage correctly?  Any bright guys out there that can enlighten me?

2 hours ago, Twakdaddy said:

The PV Voltages of the 3 arrays are 83.6Vdc, 83,6Vdc and 67Vdc and the current 42, 43 and 47 amps per array. 

I think you'll find that the currents are on the battery side. If you divide the reported PV power by the reported PV current, you get about 51.6 or 50.6 V, which sounds suspiciously like your battery voltage.

2 hours ago, Twakdaddy said:

seems as if the inverter is not calculating the wattage correctly?

Usually these inverters are pretty good at reporting PV power, though it's possible that they get them wrong.

Do you have a clamp meter to verify the string currents? And a multimeter to verify the string voltages?

Does your inverter seem very hot to the touch after about half an hour of operation?

@Coulomb

The calcs do support the readings quite well wrt battery current. Unless one knows how many panels are in parallel to give the 42-47 amps it's not easy to judge if all is well.

Something I find strange and that is that the current seen on the display LHS is seen as PV current and not battery current. My clone clearly displays the current as the battery current and never PV current. I can agree in my case measuring with a clamp meter gives readings about the same as the inverter for PV Watts.

@Coulomb, I'll see about borrowing a current tester and see what it says.  Either way you look at it, if you look at the MPPT current and MPPT Voltage as measured by the inverter, these values do not equate to what the inverter is saying the MPPT wattage is.  Here is a clearer picture, always about 35%-40% less. My solar arrays are as follows:

@Scorp007

12 x 315W Jinko Cheetah panels 3S4P on 2 of the inverters (total 3.780KW each)
10 x 415W Canadians 2S5P on the other one. (total 4.150KW)

 

On 2022/09/16 at 12:12 AM, Twakdaddy said:

Either way you look at it, if you look at the MPPT current and MPPT Voltage as measured by the inverter, these values do not equate to what the inverter is saying the MPPT wattage is.  Here is a clearer picture, always about 35%-40% less.

What I'm trying to say is that the reported "MPPT current" isn't panel current, it's MPPT output (battery-side) current. The reason for the 35-40% discrepancy is that your panel voltage is 35-40% higher than your battery voltage.

Example from the first column/inverter above: reports 6 A, might be 6.2A in reality (reports to lowest whole amp). 327 W / 6.2 A = 52.7 V at the battery. So 72.8 V / 52.7 = 1.38x more panel voltage than battery voltage. So your panels are delivering about 6.2 / 1.38 = 4.5 A @ 73V = 329W, and that's delivering about 6.2 A @ 52.7 V = 327 W into the battery and/or load. Some models report the 4.5 (panel current) and the 6.2 (battery-side current), your monitoring software apparently only reports the battery-side current.

Edited August 21, 20232 yr by Coulomb
battery current → MPPT output (battery-side) current

On 2022/01/18 at 12:01 PM, Calvin said:

I have 3 Kings in parallel and have similar issues in the past.

In my case it was related to heat.  The SCC has a control loop that derates its output when the SCC temperature gets to 87C.  Now that sounds a lot, but when you have high inverter output AND high PV that is quite easily reached.

You can read the relevant SCC temperature by using the Q1 command.  The SCC temperature is in ASCII in bytes 22-24 of the reply.

I resolved the problem by:

a. reversing the fans in the inverter.  The default setup blows the hot air out the bottom, from where it rises and gets sucked in at the inlets again.  Not Voltronics's finest engineering....

b. improving ventilation in my inverter room to reduce ambient temperature.

One disclaimer: this was all on earlier versions (71.8x) of main firmware.  Things may have changed with later firmware, although this code may live in the SCC which has not been updated.

Hi Calvin (and all other on this thread)

I am in Pretoria and have two Axpert (Mecer branded) MKS II inverters in parallel and also noticed a similar "under" performance. Initially (December 2019) I had two strings of 7 x 325W panels and the yield seemed to be close to 100%. I upgraded to three strings of 6 (with 1 string having mixed panels) during October 2020 and the efficiency was around 91%. I recently (23 July 2023) upgraded to 7 panels per string. For a week or so during July 2022 I got the upgraded watts, but now the strings are down to about 80% efficiency, which seems to be "industry standard" as a result of losses due to angles, heat and wires. My specs and setup are as follows:

Inverters MPPT: PV Array max power - 4500W, Min PV voltage - 120VDC, PV VOC - 450VDC, Max input current - 18A and I have seen somewhere in the manual that the Max operating voltage is 430VDC.

Inverter 1 PV String 1: 7 x 325W, Vmp - 38.33V, VOC - 45.80V, ISC - 9.03A, Imp - 8.48A, Total = 2275W, Voc total - 320.6V, Vmp total - 268.31V,

Inverter 1 PV String 1: 7 x 325W, Vmp - 38.33V, VOC - 45.80V, ISC - 9.03A, Imp - 8.48A, Total = 2275W, Voc total - 320.6V, Vmp total - 268.31V,

These two strings have a total power of 4550W and a total Imp of 16.96A. I know the power is slight above the inverter specs, but with losses it should be fine.

Inverter 2 PV String 1: 7 x 330W, Vmp - 37.5V, VOC - 46.80V, ISC - 8.80A, Imp - 9.16A, Total = 2310W, Voc total - 327.6V, Vmp total - 262.5V,

I currently have 4 x Narada 100AH or 4.8kW batteries in parallel. The batteries are specked to charge at 0.2C or then 20A. So the total charging current I require is 4 x 20A = 80A. I set inverter 1 to charge at 50A and inverter 2 to 30A.

I am using ICM (similar to ICC and written by the same people) with a Raspberry pi 3. I changed from ICC to ICM as ICM supports the Narada BMS. In addition, ICM requires a cable to each inverter from the pi, thereby reading the value directly from both inverters. I understand that ICC reads values only from the inverter where the cable is connected tot he pi and estimates/calculates the 2nd, 3rd ... inverter values.

I bought a clip on meter to be able to measure both AC and DC current. I can say that by measuring the volts and amps of my strings, I confirmed that the values reported by ICM are correct. I can see that inverter one sometimes gets close to 80 degrees Celcius and inverter two is 10 to 15 degrees lower.

I am 98% disconnected from the grid as 98% of our electricity requirements are produced by these two inverters according to ICM. I disconnect the grid with a 60A trip switch. This is my normal state. I can connect the grid remotely using Sonoff and a contactor or by using the trip switch when I am at home. I am going to automate this in the near future. .

I have three options namely:

1. Reverse the fans. Calvin did you physically just turn them around or is there somewhere on this forum instructions how to do this to allow the inverters to run slightly colder?

2. I can run a test by disconnecting or bypassing one panel in Inverter2 PV string to make it 6 panels to see whether the efficiency improves. If it does, then I can do the same with the two strings of inverter 1. Then I will consider to make a 2 mixed strings for inverter 2 having 1 x 325W and 5 x 330W panels each. I just do not have time right now to experiment as I have a few other tasks on my hands.

3. The 3rd option is to wait until middle December 2022. I helped someone to build a "UPS" consisting of the same inverter and battery than my setup. I intentionally bought the same equipment, in case I had to take it back. This became a reality as the person will be moving to Cape Town. So I will upgrade my current setup to 3 inverters and 5 batteries in parallel after 15 December 2022. I can then connect 1 string of 7 panels per inverter to balance them all. I will then set all inverters to charge the batteries at 30A or a total of 90A, which is 0.18C. Maybe I will get a slightly longer life from the batteries. This sounds very good as it will reduce the workload of inverter 1. However, I am still concerned that it might not necessarily increase the yield. I say this as inverter 2 currently does not get close to the PV power. It might if I reverse the fans.

I will appreciate opinions.

Thanks

20 hours ago, Giel said:

is there somewhere on this forum instructions how to do this to allow the inverters to run slightly colder?

On another forum, this now very dated post: https://forums.aeva.asn.au/viewtopic.php?p=60086&sid=f4ef6aab6789364dd4e6fda49c57a6f5#p60086

Take note of the comment about taking out the communications board.

I note that some of the apparent improvement in cooling isn't real; it's because the sensor for the transformer is in the cool air stream after fan direction correction. But I still believe that it's well worth doing. Otherwise, with low fan speeds, it's just enough air flow in the wrong direction to counter the natural convection effect.

It really does seem if the King has issues with PV not providing full of the Array.  On this forum many members complaining but don't find a single one that has at least 80% usable of the array.

 

from my 4050w of arrays I have never gone above 2305w EVER even with load exceeding 4000W.

 

I wonder if this will ever be resolved. 

What config are you running on the King.

2 Series or 3 Series?

I want to test changing to 2 Series but it is quite a job changing 12 panels wiring.

14 minutes ago, Jacques Ester said:

What config are you running on the King.

2 Series or 3 Series?

I want to test changing to 2 Series but it is quite a job changing 12 panels wiring.

Hi Jacques, for me Its 2 series. 

Edited October 6, 20223 yr by Etiennet

I also have 12 x 335W panels connected.

Getting between 2300w and 2500w. 2 days ago I got 3kw for about 2 hours🤔

Running 3S4P

Drives me crazy🥴