Goodwe GW 5048D ES (serial starts with 3) continually rebooting

[AvSelm]

I have several solar panels attached to a Goodwe with 2x Pylontech 4.8kw batteries via an EZConverter.  When it works, it works, but the inverter is rebooting several times a day.    Goodwe support are not helping and I am at my wits end.

Has anyone had similar issues or may be able to assist me?   Example of a typical daily graphs below.

 

 

[AvSelm]

Just to add, when the SOC drops it looks like the inverter is pushing power back to the batteries (see below)

[Tinuva]

How do you know the inverter is rebooting?

Asking, because those graphs look like the inverter has connection issues to SEMS instead of rebooting.

 

Also those graphs look strange.

[Bobster.]

On 2022/05/02 at 8:27 PM, AvSelm said:

I have several solar panels attached to a Goodwe with 2x Pylontech 4.8kw batteries via an EZConverter.  When it works, it works, but the inverter is rebooting several times a day.    Goodwe support are not helping and I am at my wits end.

Has anyone had similar issues or may be able to assist me?   Example of a typical daily graphs below.

I have some questions about this, for my own curiosity: How are you running 2 * 4.8 kw pylontechs? My Goodwe only allows various combinations of 1000 and 2000 models.

As for your questions, have you confirmed that the system is actually rebooting? Normally you would see the green status LED blinking and you'd be able to hear some relays clicking. As @Tinuva says, it is also possible that the system is having wifi problems.

I often notice some exporting going on with my Goodwe, but not the KWs that your last screen shot shows. That's very odd. Usually once the battery is fully charged, the Goodwe will draw only the solar that it needs - unless you have exporting enabled in your setup. 

SEMS sometimes gets a bit behind the time (it is doing this to me today actually), so you see all the lines on the graph flat line, but they catch up a little later.

The traces you post look very odd. The first one shows SOC almost constantly 100% and load tracking PV. Odd. Are you sure everything is connected properly?

[Jaws]

On 2022/05/02 at 8:27 PM, AvSelm said:

Goodwe support are not helping and I am at my wits end.

 

 

Wow what a surprise - Goodwe support not helping.

Good luck with that.  They are utterly useless don't waste any more energy on them.  The guys are here are way more clued up than any person I have dealt with working for Goodwe. 

[Tinuva]

1 hour ago, Bobster said:

I have some questions about this, for my own curiosity: How are you running 2 * 4.8 kw pylontechs? My Goodwe only allows various combinations of 1000 and 2000 models.

I think the GoodWe EzConverter is helping with that situation in some way or another. Makes me think he has an older GoodWe which needs this to be able to work with Pylontech batteries.

[Bobster.]

22 hours ago, Tinuva said:

I think the GoodWe EzConverter is helping with that situation in some way or another. Makes me think he has an older GoodWe which needs this to be able to work with Pylontech batteries.

That occurred to me, but there's nothing like being sure. My ES, at its current firmware version, DOES support P'Techs, but not the 5k models. I would have to have a pile of 1K or 2K models.

[AvSelm]

On 2022/05/04 at 10:53 AM, Tinuva said:

How do you know the inverter is rebooting?

Asking, because those graphs look like the inverter has connection issues to SEMS instead of rebooting.

 

Also those graphs look strange.

Maybe the incorrect term....   but the inverter cuts power to the house and then clicks back in about 30 seconds later.

[AvSelm]

On 2022/05/04 at 11:43 AM, Bobster said:

I have some questions about this, for my own curiosity: How are you running 2 * 4.8 kw pylontechs? My Goodwe only allows various combinations of 1000 and 2000 models.

As for your questions, have you confirmed that the system is actually rebooting? Normally you would see the green status LED blinking and you'd be able to hear some relays clicking. As @Tinuva says, it is also possible that the system is having wifi problems.

I often notice some exporting going on with my Goodwe, but not the KWs that your last screen shot shows. That's very odd. Usually once the battery is fully charged, the Goodwe will draw only the solar that it needs - unless you have exporting enabled in your setup. 

SEMS sometimes gets a bit behind the time (it is doing this to me today actually), so you see all the lines on the graph flat line, but they catch up a little later.

The traces you post look very odd. The first one shows SOC almost constantly 100% and load tracking PV. Odd. Are you sure everything is connected properly?

On your first question, on the Goodwe and pylontechs - have a look at this -> https://community.goodwe.com/Forum/details/2c9180827c0cfd8d017c13fd958e00cd

Exporting is enabled on my system and have had to pay a small fortune for a new meter from the City of Cape Town to get credits for this.

I'm not an electrician, but my my system did have to go through an auditing process and get a COC to get connected to the grid, so I certainly hope so.

[Tinuva]

10 hours ago, AvSelm said:

Maybe the incorrect term....   but the inverter cuts power to the house and then clicks back in about 30 seconds later.

Interesting.

When my goodwe reboot, the power to the house is not cut at all, unless there is no grid available.

With grid, when inverter reboot, grid is passed-through to the backup side.
Without grid...haven't tested but I suspect on reboot the backup side will lo0se power like you explain.

Something else must be going on at that time. I would say you need the diagnostic state logged. I know with me, home assistant does it. There is a thread here with a windows app that can maybe do it for you.

I know the pass-through happen, because I have automations in place, that if my inverter's working mode is changed, needs a reboot and I had to get the developer to properly implement it in the home-assistant integration. So my inverter gets rebooted when the work mode is changed and this happens often enough that I know exactly how a reboot affects the system.

What is the firmware version on your inverter?

[Pietpower]

.

[Bobster.]

1 hour ago, Tinuva said:

Interesting.

When my goodwe reboot, the power to the house is not cut at all, unless there is no grid available.

I've experienced what @AvSelm describes, but only occasionally, not as often as he does. I suspect, but have never checked, that it affects only the backed up circuits (which, in my case, is nearly everything in the house that we use on a regular basis). The backed up power (at least) goes down. The inverter almost immediately starts some kind of (re)initiation cycle and power does come back. I haven't timed this, but I would say it's less than 2 minutes. 

If I do a controlled restart via the PV Master app, the power always stays up.

My system has a three way switch in a DB local to the inverter. Up position feeds the backed up circuits from the inverter, down feeds them from grid (IE inverter is by-passed), and the middle position is no feed at all. So one remedy I have, if I'm feeling particularly impatient, is to put that switch in the down position. But I generally don't do this because
1) It means passing through that middle position later on when the inverter is working again - so all power goes down for a very short period of time, but enough to stop a WIFI router or a dishwasher
2) The system generally restores power fairly quickly.

One way that this can happen is if the backed up load gets too high. Basically if it if exceeds 20 amps for more than 10 seconds, or exceeds 30 amps momentarily. We used to have this happen when too many kitchen appliances were running at the same time.

Edited May 9, 2022 by Bobster
Spellling

[Bobster.]

1 minute ago, Bobster said:

One way that this can happen is if the backed up load gets too high. Basically if it if exceeds 20 amps for more than 10 seconds, or exceeds 30 amps momentarily. We used to have this happen when too many kitchen appliances were running at the same time.

It also seems to me that some error conditions on the BMS/Batteries can also bring the inverter down - at least if you don't have comms between BMS and inverter.

[Bobster.]

11 hours ago, AvSelm said:

On your first question, on the Goodwe and pylontechs - have a look at this -> https://community.goodwe.com/Forum/details/2c9180827c0cfd8d017c13fd958e00cd

Thanks for that.

The guy who is running manual settings won't get comms, because they are disabled in the "self define" mode that he is using.

[AvSelm]

@Tinuva,  even with the grid up, the inverter cuts power which is frustrating.    I am on software version 7, which is the latest for this inverter (it's the older 5048 version)

@Bobster, l have the same setup as you with a 3 way switch at the DB...  I now just leave it on Eskom to save the irritation of power going up and down 4 or 5 times a day.   Re the comms - via the EzConverter I get comms from the Battery BMS on both manual settings, as well as when I set it to Pylontech (and I set it to 2*US2000B as per the goodwe engineer on their forum).

[Mad Mike]

Avselm,

it may be worth a shot to reduce the circuits on the backup side of the inverter and slowly (over a hours) add them back. had a similiar issue and found that having all the lights  was fine but when I added "essential" plug circuits in, the loads here and there quickly added up tripping the inverter. Goes without saying I had to redefine essential.... 

Long story short the 5kw inverter has only 25A limit on the backup (older inverter) and this ceiling is not that high when wanting to power everything because you have enough storage! SO I have two Goodwe inverters now to share the backup load.....

[Tinuva]

On 2022/05/02 at 8:27 PM, AvSelm said:

I have several solar panels attached to a Goodwe with 2x Pylontech 4.8kw batteries via an EZConverter.  When it works, it works, but the inverter is rebooting several times a day.    Goodwe support are not helping and I am at my wits end.

Has anyone had similar issues or may be able to assist me?   Example of a typical daily graphs below.

 

 

I am looking at this again.

Is your meter broken? It reads 0kW the whole time. So now what happen is, instead of the inverter showing you are exporting, its reading the export as part of the house load. 

So what happen is, when your PV generate more than 4.6kW AC the inverter can do, it trips. It looks like a reboot, but you actually tripping it.

You need to fix that meter that sits in front the the non-essentials on the grid into your house.

As a temporary work-around, try to disable the grid export function.

Edited May 9, 2022 by Tinuva

[Tinuva]

Funny story, but something funny happened with my inverter too today. Only difference is, I don't produce as much PV as you, so I doubt mine will restart.

Here is the graph. You can look around today between 1 and 2pm.

Look how the PV dropped, the load somehow spiked (except it didnt because no one was turning anything on/off).

But look at the diagnostic code in the moment (in home assistant):

Inverter sommer went off-grid mode for no reason but my non-essentials didnt go off. That error (meter connection reversed) is worrying and I wonder if it is an early sign that mine is going to fail soon. Usually when grid go off such as loadshedding, the V and F drops to 0. So it was able to read those meaning grid was there. Meter error is the only clue it seems.

 

 

[BGb]

You can also install CEV's monitoring utility for the Goodwe, (see downloads) the software tracks many variables which may assist you in finding the problem.

[Tinuva]

Pretty sure he needs to get his meter tested. Looks like it failed and that is the cause of his issues.

[AvSelm]

1 hour ago, Tinuva said:

Pretty sure he needs to get his meter tested. Looks like it failed and that is the cause of his issues.

@Tinuva I went back to the logs from 2015 when it was installed and have never had a meter reading..... don't think I have a meter installed to be honest 

[Bobster.]

49 minutes ago, AvSelm said:

@Tinuva I went back to the logs from 2015 when it was installed and have never had a meter reading..... don't think I have a meter installed to be honest 

I think we need to clarify which meter we are talking about. There is a meter which your electricity provider gives you to track your property's consumption from the grid. And there is a what Goodwe call an "EZ Meter" which monitors the grid and provides some other inputs to the system. If the latter is improperly installed or something plugged into the CAN connector is interfering with it, your system will misbehave.

[Tinuva]

2 hours ago, AvSelm said:

@Tinuva I went back to the logs from 2015 when it was installed and have never had a meter reading..... don't think I have a meter installed to be honest 

Uh what? If you don't have it, then there is a huge problem with your install. It comes for free with the inverter.

I would blame your installer for doing it wrong. Not goodwe's fault. Go check, your issue is when you generate more than 4.6kW from PV.

Correctly installed that will not happen.

This is what mine looks like on the newer version of the inverter:

Edited May 10, 2022 by Tinuva

[P1000]

You can run the inverter without the smart meter - it will only limit your load to the essential or export everything. (ie you cannot power non-essentials from battery or limit the solar and include non-essentials.)

But the graphs look very strange, because the load follows the available solar exactly, so either there is a hardware fault, or an installation fault.

[Tinuva]

5 minutes ago, P1000 said:

You can run the inverter without the smart meter - it will only limit your load to the essential or export everything. (ie you cannot power non-essentials from battery or limit the solar and include non-essentials.)

But the graphs look very strange, because the load follows the available solar exactly, so either there is a hardware fault, or an installation fault.

How is the inverter suppose to know what the difference between load and export is without the meter?