Trust that someone perhaps has more insight.

My system in general works well. However the permanent Battery discharge by the Inverter just doesn't seem right.

The system has been in operation since beginning August 2021. I have since contacted both Growatt and Hubble about this issue and they either don't know or don't want to understand the issue. As soon as my battery is 100% fully charged, it immediately kicks into a discharge, which seems to be the power needed to run the Inverter. The discharge is a round 1% per hour. At 94% the Inverter algorithm then restarts the charge mode and it charges back to 100%. Now if there was no sun that would be normal but this is during the day even when there is excess solar energy. The Solar power powers my 230V requirement, yet the battery still discharges to power the Inverter (anywhere between 42 and 60W)
See attached pics.
 

All I wish to know if that is just the way that the Growatt has been designed to operate or whether that is an abnormal behaviour of my inverter.

Then there is the matter of the firmware. After my queries to Growatt they sent me 040.05 and 041.05 which I am running ever since. The noticeable change that occurred with this firmware is that the Program codes 12, 13 and 21  are now percentages and not voltages as they were before. There is a huge difference between the two of course.

Neither Growatt nor Hubble have amended their documentation to reflect this change. Hubble has the great Inverter guides and it states to use Protocol52 in Program code 36 which then presets the required values. On closer inspection you will see that Program 12, 13 and 21 are assumed to be Voltage settings which they are not anymore. Now with code 21 that becomes very apparent as your Inverter shuts down when your battery reaches 44% all of a sudden. So that I changed to 20% to prevent the unnecessary shut downs.  With 12 and 13 also being percentages now I am not quite sure what the voltage equivalents are for these percentages. They are 47V and 53V respectively, so what are the supposed percentages for these values. And in my case does it even matter as it is an off grid installation, i.e. there is no grid connection on my system.
Appreciate any thoughts or info on this. 

11 minutes ago, zsde said:

Trust that someone perhaps has more insight.

My system in general works well. However the permanent Battery discharge by the Inverter just doesn't seem right.

The system has been in operation since beginning August 2021. I have since contacted both Growatt and Hubble about this issue and they either don't know or don't want to understand the issue. As soon as my battery is 100% fully charged, it immediately kicks into a discharge, which seems to be the power needed to run the Inverter. The discharge is a round 1% per hour. At 94% the Inverter algorithm then restarts the charge mode and it charges back to 100%. Now if there was no sun that would be normal but this is during the day even when there is excess solar energy. The Solar power powers my 230V requirement, yet the battery still discharges to power the Inverter (anywhere between 42 and 60W)
See attached pics.
 

All I wish to know if that is just the way that the Growatt has been designed to operate or whether that is an abnormal behaviour of my inverter.

Then there is the matter of the firmware. After my queries to Growatt they sent me 040.05 and 041.05 which I am running ever since. The noticeable change that occurred with this firmware is that the Program codes 12, 13 and 21  are now percentages and not voltages as they were before. There is a huge difference between the two of course.

Neither Growatt nor Hubble have amended their documentation to reflect this change. Hubble has the great Inverter guides and it states to use Protocol52 in Program code 36 which then presets the required values. On closer inspection you will see that Program 12, 13 and 21 are assumed to be Voltage settings which they are not anymore. Now with code 21 that becomes very apparent as your Inverter shuts down when your battery reaches 44% all of a sudden. So that I changed to 20% to prevent the unnecessary shut downs.  With 12 and 13 also being percentages now I am not quite sure what the voltage equivalents are for these percentages. They are 47V and 53V respectively, so what are the supposed percentages for these values. And in my case does it even matter as it is an off grid installation, i.e. there is no grid connection on my system.
Appreciate any thoughts or info on this. 

The 60 W consumption that you see is the no load power consumption of the inverter, now what surprises me is that once battery reaches 100% SOC the inverters should go on to float mode.

I have a different battery so my readings are different. see dashboard of my system, floating the battery at the level set for my battery according with OEM manual

That is what I am trying to establish. And I have tried numerous times to get an answer from both OEMs.
My expectation is that the available solar energy should also power the Inverter once the 100% battery charge has been achieved. 
Yet this is not the case. It continues to use the battery to power the inverter until at 94% it then kicks into recharge mode.

@zsde No, unfortunately the Growatt will take it's no load consumption from the battery. Also something I dislike but it's the reality. What is you setting 1 ? seen that you are not connected to the grid try setting it on SUB and check if it floats your battery while there is enough PV. thus keeping your battery at 100 SOC 

Been on SOL for a while. I'll try that gain but I think it was on SUB before and it behaved the same. But I'll give that another go.

 

Update: Makes no difference.

Edited January 14, 20223 yr by zsde

On 2022/01/14 at 3:11 PM, zsde said:

 

My system in general works well.

@zsde
As I am really struggling to get my setup (similar to yours but no solar panels) going, please share the Growatt settings you are using. Inverter firmware is as attached:

 

17 minutes ago, DeonBez said:

please share the Growatt settings

Same Firmware as mine
Remember that my system is off-grid, i.e. solar panels and battery only, zero grid connection to the Inverter.
Program codes:
1. SOL
2. 100A  (fixed and determined by the Li Protocol 52)
3. APL
4. dl5
5. Li (Protocol52)
6.ENA
7. ENA
8. 230V
8. 50
10. 4 (Irrelevant)
11. 20A (Irrelevant in off grid)
12. 50% (becomes percentage once Li protocol is used. Manual only shows Voltage ranges) (Irrelevant in off grid)
13. 95% (becomes percentage once Li protocol is used. Manual only shows Voltage ranges) (Irrelevant in off grid)
14. OSO
15. Off
16. On
17. Off
18. dl5
19. 53.6V (not user changeable once Li Protocol is used)
20. 53.6V (not user changeable once Li Protocol is used)
21. 10% (becomes percentage once Li protocol is used. Manual only shows Voltage ranges)

On 2022/10/16 at 12:01 PM, DeonBez said:

As I am really struggling to get my setup (similar to yours but no solar panels) going,

After back and forth with the Growatt supplier, the brand new inverter was returned for testing and found to be faulty.
It will be replaced, case closed 🤓
Thanks for all the inputs and suggestions.

2 minutes ago, DeonBez said:

After back and forth with the Growatt supplier,

Glad you will be sorted. Who was the supplier if I may ask?

1 hour ago, zsde said:

Glad you will be sorted. Who was the supplier if I may ask?

It was a local supplier in Strand (Western Cape). I don't know name of the original supplier it was bought from.

On 2022/10/16 at 12:25 PM, zsde said:

Same Firmware as mine
Remember that my system is off-grid, i.e. solar panels and battery only, zero grid connection to the Inverter.
Program codes:
1. SOL
2. 100A  (fixed and determined by the Li Protocol 52)
3. APL
4. dl5
5. Li (Protocol52)
6.ENA
7. ENA
8. 230V
8. 50
10. 4 (Irrelevant)
11. 20A (Irrelevant in off grid)
12. 50% (becomes percentage once Li protocol is used. Manual only shows Voltage ranges) (Irrelevant in off grid)
13. 95% (becomes percentage once Li protocol is used. Manual only shows Voltage ranges) (Irrelevant in off grid)
14. OSO
15. Off
16. On
17. Off
18. dl5
19. 53.6V (not user changeable once Li Protocol is used)
20. 53.6V (not user changeable once Li Protocol is used)
21. 10% (becomes percentage once Li protocol is used. Manual only shows Voltage ranges)

I battled like crazy to get inverter to communicate with the Hubble AM-2.

Solution was CAN cable RJ45 pin 2 and 6 change over.

Settings:

5. lit

36. L52

Thank you for you post.

@gperasmus could you assist in explaining:

1. The cable pin-out (both ends)

2. Which ports you used on the Growatt (BMS or RS485) and Hubble (CAN or RS485)

3. The settings (I see above you used 5. lit and 36. L52.

 

We're also struggling with the battery comms on a Growatt 5000ES and Hubble AM2. Thanks in advance!