Hello mates,

I have installed a growatt spf 5000 es with 4 x 240ah tubular flooded batteries and 4 x 540w panels.

I set up program 1 on "SUB" as I need to power my loads on solar energy with the support of grid AC.

My issue is mainly when solar energy is insufficient, batteries start providing energy instead of grid.

Grid remains providing a 0.4A current and does not support the load as it should since solar power is not efficient.

I set up program 14 on "SOL" to give priority to solar charging and if not sufficient grid AC supports which is also not happening.

The inverter keeps going in and out of charging mode.

My firmware version is 40 05 701.

Edited February 1, 20223 yr by Alex_kal

6 minutes ago, Alex_kal said:

Hello mates,

I am installed a growatt spf 5000 es with 4 x 240ah tubular flooded batteries and 4 x 540w panels.

I set up program 1 on "SUB" as I need to power my loads on solar energy with the support of grid AC.

My issue is mainly when solar energy is insufficient, batteries start providing energy instead of grid.

Grid remains providing a 0.4A current and does not support the load as it should since solar power is not efficient.

I set up program 14 on "SOL" to give priority to solar charging and if not sufficient grid AC supports which is also not happening.

The inverter keeps going in and out of charging mode.

My firmware version is 40 05 701.

Hi pictures of what you are seeing might help because as you already know in SUB battery should only be used if both solar and Utility are not available.

1 hour ago, Alex_kal said:

Hello mates,

I am installed a growatt spf 5000 es with 4 x 240ah tubular flooded batteries and 4 x 540w panels.

I set up program 1 on "SUB" as I need to power my loads on solar energy with the support of grid AC.

My issue is mainly when solar energy is insufficient, batteries start providing energy instead of grid.

Grid remains providing a 0.4A current and does not support the load as it should since solar power is not efficient.

I set up program 14 on "SOL" to give priority to solar charging and if not sufficient grid AC supports which is also not happening.

The inverter keeps going in and out of charging mode.

My firmware version is 40 05 701.

Setting 14, if you want solar to charge your battery as first priority and grid if not enough solar you must set it to CSO 

SUB should most definitely use solar first, if solar not enough to power the house load it will add whatever necessary from grid to make up the difference.

50 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Setting 14, if you want solar to charge your battery as first priority and grid if not enough solar you must set it to CSO 

SUB should most definitely use solar first, if solar not enough to power the house load it will add whatever necessary from grid to make up the difference.

yes i have set it to CSO exactly, but the issue is it goes to battery mode when solar energy is insufficient until it is dark enough that solar energy dissappears and grid AC kicks in. While grid AC is not supporting the load with solar energy during daylight, instead battery is supporting.

1 hour ago, Buyeye said:

Hi pictures of what you are seeing might help because as you already know in SUB battery should only be used if both solar and Utility are not available.

Here is an image, although it is getting dark now but this shows my point where battery is providing energy instead of charging. AC grid does not charge the battery until no solar energy is detected at all. and btw even if I put the charging on SOL+Utility the same happens, which is utility never charges the battery until Solar is completely off.

4 hours ago, Alex_kal said:

Here is an image, although it is getting dark now but this shows my point where battery is providing energy instead of charging. AC grid does not charge the battery until no solar energy is detected at all. and btw even if I put the charging on SOL+Utility the same happens, which is utility never charges the battery until Solar is completely off.

The sun has already set but the amperage screen gives the best idea of how the electricity is flowing. The voltage screen just says that things are working.

Try scrolling down to the amperage screen, it should look like this. Don't mind that my battery is already low I've been blasting the aircons it 35 celcius here.

The issue is the inverter is alternating from charging the batteries to drawing current from batteries for no reason.

Notice in my image the arrow from battery to inverter although I have utility and solar providing me with current.

This happens specially when solar energy is not enough to power the charging and the load, expecting utility to support but that does not happen. Instead inverter starts drawing current from batteries. I am having to turn off the dc breaker to disconnect the panels to force the utility to charge the batteries in the late afternoon since it takes long until solar energy to completely dissapear.

Note that even at night when there is no solar at all, it alternates from charging to drawing for no reason.

Edited February 2, 20223 yr by Alex_kal

Here is another image where utility is supporting the load together with solar but no charging is occuring for the batteries although program 14 is set to sol+utility.

23 minutes ago, Alex_kal said:

Here is another image where utility is supporting the load together with solar but no charging is occuring for the batteries although program 14 is set to sol+utility.

From what I see above you are pulling 31 % of the inverter capacity that is +_ 1,5 KVA that at 220 V =is about 7 Amps, your system is only generating 5,2 Amps thus will add some from the grid to compensate for what you need. Try reduce some of your house load and you will see that will start to charge the battery.

 

I agree that if I reduce the load it will charge the batteries, but shouldn't it charge sol+utility by drawing the needed current to charge the batteries from utility? 

1 minute ago, Alex_kal said:

I agree that if I reduce the load it will charge the batteries, but shouldn't it charge sol+utility by drawing the needed current to charge the batteries from utility? 

Depends on your settings, but as I said you are not generating enough to power your house load thus will not charge the battery. once you have more solar that the house load the extra load will go to the battery. 

but what is the use of SOL+Utility to charge the batteries if the utility wont charge the battery in case solar is not enough to support the house?

1 hour ago, Alex_kal said:

but what is the use of SOL+Utility to charge the batteries if the utility wont charge the battery in case solar is not enough to support the house?

for that to happen you have to set parameter 14 to SNU and setting 1 to SUB 

this is the exact options I have set as seen in the image, but the issue is it is not charging unless either solar is very high or solar is completely off.

Edited February 3, 20223 yr by Alex_kal

It seems you just don't have enough panels.

Yes I am planning to add more panels, but what is the idea behind program 14 sol+utility if it wont charge the batteries from solar and utility at the same time?? 

12 hours ago, Alex_kal said:

Yes I am planning to add more panels, but what is the idea behind program 14 sol+utility if it wont charge the batteries from solar and utility at the same time?? 

How I understand it is that SUB prioritizes load so in this mode available solar will be used power the load with grid supplementing the shortfall.

 

What I do on cloudy days like this and loadshedding is happening, I use the shinephone app to switch to utility first to allow the inverter to charge the batteries from utility while leaving setting 14 on s n u.

SUB would charge the batteries is there was enough solar.

I think even the deye/sunsynk needs manual intervention because you have to choose to either prioritize load or battery charging.

Edited February 4, 20223 yr by Buyeye

I have an spf5000es and in my experience it does exactly the same thing, I am working with 2 X pylontech us3000c. I don't think the invertor has that true blending capability of being able to do what you want it to. It won't blend solar and utility to run your load, it will either use utility to run your load, or a combination of solar and battery. This means you are either stuck with reducing your load so that it does not pull from the battery or switching over to grid. The only thing you can do is set your back to ac setting higher so that if it pulls the battery too much you can run on grid and then it will use the solar to charge the battery. My setup is different, I have enough panels, what I do is set the invertor to use solar and battery and then specify utility to only charge the batteries at 1 to 4 am (off-peak) I am able to run of solar/battery for 18 hours a day expect at the moment with the rain. With the rain I need to manually drop the PV breaker so I have some battery for load shedding, or set my back to ac higher (if there is no grid power it will still use the battery past the b2ac setting)

I have the exactly the same issue.

setting 1 is set to SUB

Setting 14 is set to SNU

during the day when load is more than solar production, inverter compensates from battery instead of grid. This is not what it should do !!!

I have the same firmware version; I wonder if it can be solved through a FM update.

 

I am having the same exact problem and this is really annoying with Growatt.

setting 1 is set to SUB

Setting 14 is set to SNU

Did you manage to find a solution? 

 

The inverter wont charge batteries from grid when solar is not enough. 

I'm having the same issue too. My settings are SUB and SNU and during the day utility doesn't charge batteries no matter how much the solar is providing power. Utility only charges my batteries at night or if i power off my PVs. Any solution?

System Summary:

Growatt SPF 5000 ES inverter.
Hubble AM-2 battery.
No solar panels.
Using CAN comms between Growatt and battery.

I have a similar problem but a bit different.

Battery stays at around 49.1V and SOC on inverter shows 52%.

Inverter only charging at around 1.5A (set to charge at 30A from grid and combined solar and 60A.

Setting 1 UTL

Setting 14 CSO (tried SNU as well)

Did complete restart of inverter after disconnecting battery as well. No change.

Any insights would be appreciated?

Edited October 12, 20222 yr by DeonBez

22 minutes ago, DeonBez said:

Setting 1 UTL

Setting 14 CSO (tried SNA as well)

Setting 1 SUB
Setting 14 SNU  (My manual states SNU, I see you state SNA?)

Have you tried that?

On 2022/08/08 at 11:45 AM, Rami said:

I'm having the same issue too. My settings are SUB and SNU and during the day utility doesn't charge batteries no matter how much the solar is providing power. Utility only charges my batteries at night or if i power off my PVs. Any solution?

You have to use the shinephone app to change setting 1 to utility if you are trying to top up the battery before load shedding.

If you are in South Africa you shouldn't need to charge from the grid that much in October. 

1 hour ago, DeonBez said:

System Summary:

Growatt SPF 5000 ES inverter.
Hubble AM-2 battery.
No solar panels.
Using CAN comms between Growatt and battery.

I have a similar problem but a bit different.

Battery stays at around 49.1V and SOC on inverter shows 52%.

Inverter only charging at around 1.5A (set to charge at 30A from grid and combined solar and 60A.

Setting 1 UTL

Setting 14 CSO (tried SNA as well)

Did complete restart of inverter after disconnecting battery as well. No change.

Andisconnecting would be appreciated?

Hi I like the similar but different. 

It sounds a lot different, since you don't have panels you have a big UPS. Like all UPS it is only needed when grid is not available. Don't set any settings to use PV yet while you don't have any panels.

Since you have a big battery you might not be discharging it enough to reach back to utility setting. Check your back to battery and back to utility settings and adjust as needed.