Hi Everyone

I have a sunsynk 8kw inverter installed with 16 x 300w panels. This is running with 16 x 200Ah gel batteries. The inverter was installed in December 2021to replace an old technology inverter. Batteries were replaced in July last year so I decided to stick with the gel batteries for now. Will replace it later on. 

The inverter is brilliant at efficiency, visibility and also very user-friendly.   

I have searched through the forum and wasn't able to find anything that answers my question so apologies if it has been answered. The concern I have is that it makes use of the battery power at night to supplement nonessential loads. I would like to save the power and the batteries. Items like the kettle and the microwave are on the nonessential loads. I would prefer to draw from Eskom on the large loads at night but still have the ability to supplement the loads during the day with the sun. Is this possible? 

I have some pics below of the settings. I have also limited my load as I don't want the heavy draw from the gel batteries. 

Please can I get some advice or maybe even confirmation that this is or isn't possible. 

Thanks

22 minutes ago, Vasann said:

Hi Everyone

I have a sunsynk 8kw inverter installed with 16 x 300w panels. This is running with 16 x 200Ah gel batteries. The inverter was installed in December 2021to replace an old technology inverter. Batteries were replaced in July last year so I decided to stick with the gel batteries for now. Will replace it later on. 

The inverter is brilliant at efficiency, visibility and also very user-friendly.   

I have searched through the forum and wasn't able to find anything that answers my question so apologies if it has been answered. The concern I have is that it makes use of the battery power at night to supplement nonessential loads. I would like to save the power and the batteries. Items like the kettle and the microwave are on the nonessential loads. I would prefer to draw from Eskom on the large loads at night but still have the ability to supplement the loads during the day with the sun. Is this possible? 

I have some pics below of the settings. I have also limited my load as I don't want the heavy draw from the gel batteries. 

Please can I get some advice or maybe even confirmation that this is or isn't possible. 

Thanks

Hi Vasann. 

At night, you can tick Limit to Load which will prevent both battery power and PV power supplying the non essential load. 

You will have to untick it though in the morning so the PV can supply the non essential load. 

 

41 minutes ago, Leshen said:

Hi Vasann. 

At night, you can tick Limit to Load which will prevent both battery power and PV power supplying the non essential load. 

You will have to untick it though in the morning so the PV can supply the non essential load. 

 

@Leshen, is there a way to request that sunsynk  add a schedule to this function, for future updates?

15 minutes ago, Iiceman said:

@Leshen, is there a way to request that sunsynk  add a schedule to this function, for future updates?

I did. Still waiting for a reply. There could also be a "Limit to load 2" which allows for PV to power the non essential and not battery power. 

 

8 minutes ago, Leshen said:

I did. Still waiting for a reply. There could also be a "Limit to load 2" which allows for PV to power the non essential and not battery power. 

 

thanks @Leshen, much appreciated...

I dont see the point in trying to limit your battery power to essential loads only as regardless of essential or non essential load you are still paying for the power being drawn from eskom. You should rather lower the max wattage that can be drawn from the batteries and/or the capacity that should be drawn from the batteries and it should not matter which load it supplies. In any case you should be keeping your gel batteries full at all times as they dont like being discharged and recharged continously.

4 hours ago, De0n19 said:

I dont see the point in trying to limit your battery power to essential loads only as regardless of essential or non essential load you are still paying for the power being drawn from eskom. You should rather lower the max wattage that can be drawn from the batteries and/or the capacity that should be drawn from the batteries and it should not matter which load it supplies. In any case you should be keeping your gel batteries full at all times as they dont like being discharged and recharged continously.

I don't want to waste battery on heating my power hungry geyser when there's loadshedding and I can't be sure when the power goes back on. 

21 minutes ago, swazz99jhb said:

I don't want to waste battery on heating my power hungry geyser when there's loadshedding and I can't be sure when the power goes back on. 

You cannot power non-essentials during load-shedding.

33 minutes ago, P1000 said:

You cannot power non-essentials during load-shedding.

Yes because my battery will already be drained cause I heated my geyser with it. 

29 minutes ago, swazz99jhb said:

Yes because my battery will already be drained cause I heated my geyser with it. 

No, that is not the main reason.

1 hour ago, P1000 said:

No, that is not the main reason.

Ja ja. I understand but my solution is not to get rid of Eskom or utilise the sun. Mine is so that I have Internet and lights when Eskom fails to deliver. Whether it be loadshedding or bad management. 

Probably wouldn't be so stingy if I had solar panels and an extra battery. 

Solar is on its way. 

If you don't have solar, then just keep "limit to load" ticked. No need to power geysers from battery if you are charging them from eskom anyway.

If you dont have any solar panels then you gain nothing by discharging your batteries. When you have panels then you should also only consider discharging your batteries from the early parts of the morning and if set correctly your batteries should get close to its cutoff point whilst feeding both essential and non essential loads just as the solar is able to start charging it. You should have the use timer unticked so that your batteries alway stay full and after a power outage they will immediately recharge so will always be ready for loadshedding.

Thanks guys, I was hoping for an easier way other than going to the inverter every night. I guess until the feature is released, I will have to operate it in this way

22 hours ago, Vasann said:

Thanks guys, I was hoping for an easier way other than going to the inverter every night. I guess until the feature is released, I will have to operate it in this way

Search the forum for monitoring. I use a PiZero to connect to my Sunsynk via a USB to serial converter and interacting with it via NodeRed using the ModBus protocol. 

Thanks, I will read up about it.