So.... i bit the bullet and just accepted a quote to install a 5kw sunsynk, 5kwh greenrich battery and 12X400w jinko panels. My Budget didnt allow to go with much more and not expecting to be completely off grid. just hoping to cope with loadshedding and save a little bit of cash from the eskom thieves. install happening on 18 August so patiently waiting until then... what are the thoughts of anyone who has installed a similar sized system? i have learned so much already just by reading through this forum so thanks guys. i am sure ill be back with loads of questions for our resident pros once the system is up and running... 

Finally installed. 2 days running so far and its been great. just a question to any pros out there... is it correct for the battery to be discharging a very small draw even when grid is connected and time of use limit has been reached and battery should supply anything more? i assume this is the power being used by the actual inverter? if so, is it possible to change this so that eskom supplies that small power usually between 20w and 50w...

 

Another question. my geyser is connected to the non essential side (so ive been told) but still uses battery when it comes on during the day even when grid is available? havent had loadshedding yet so not sure if it will also draw power from the bat when grid is not available? is this correct or is my geyser not connected correctly to the non essential side?

16 minutes ago, ZCS said:

Another question. my geyser is connected to the non essential side (so ive been told) but still uses battery when it comes on during the day even when grid is available? havent had loadshedding yet so not sure if it will also draw power from the bat when grid is not available? is this correct or is my geyser not connected correctly to the non essential side?

This is usual. The non-essential circuits are disconnected when the grid goes down. Whilst there is grid the solar system (via PV or via battery) will service those loads. This is not a bad thing. If you have free solar power and can use that to service one of the biggest loads in your house (and thus one of the biggest contributors to your bill), then why not? 

There may be settings that you can manipulate to give you a situation more to your liking.

EG with my system, I can set a SOD (state of discharge, inverse of SOC) that my battery will not go below when there is grid. I have 10 kw/h of battery, and I have this setting set at 40%. If the grid is up and for whatever reason the battery reaches 40% SOD (IE 40% remaining), it will not discharge the battery past that point, and so I always have that 40% in reserve. With only 5kw/h of battery, and assuming the sunsynk has such a feature (I'd be surprised if it didn't), you'd want to set that parameter to reserve more battery (which may cause other issues, as really Lithium cells "like" to be discharged and then charged again).

I can also set mine so that the battery is used only when the grid goes down (but see my NB above).

You're in a learning phase now. You should be watching your system, or checking daily data, to figure out when your power is being used and what you can move into the daylight hours so that as much as possible is done by PV. With just 5kw/h of battery and nearly 5kw of PV panels, you should have some excess solar on a good day. You should be able to move some loads around by using timer switches. 

Also household discipline comes into play. EG don't run the dishwasher at night and flatten the battery, run it whilst the sun is up.

Hi There, another question from my side. is it necessary to have a grid trickle feed of 20w? i have a smart meter with one of those landis & Gyr key pads but i am not on pre paid. if i change this to 0watts will it cause any issues with the meter?

2 hours ago, ZCS said:

Hi There, another question from my side. is it necessary to have a grid trickle feed of 20w? i have a smart meter with one of those landis & Gyr key pads but i am not on pre paid. if i change this to 0watts will it cause any issues with the meter?

You can set it to 0w. It won’t affect your meter. 

1 hour ago, Leshen said:

You can set it to 0w. It won’t affect your meter. 

Thanks @Leshen

Another question for our resident pros... i do not have grid charge ticked on the work mode screen but for some reason it seems like my battery gets a shot from the grid up to the stated SOC for that time slot. is this normal? i noticed that on the battery settings screen, grid charge has been ticked, could this be the reason? should this be unticked? 

another question.. what is the BMS Err Stop tick box and protocol for? should this be enabled? 

 

Thanks in advance guys.

6 hours ago, ZCS said:

Another question for our resident pros... i do not have grid charge ticked on the work mode screen but for some reason it seems like my battery gets a shot from the grid up to the stated SOC for that time slot. is this normal? i noticed that on the battery settings screen, grid charge has been ticked, could this be the reason? should this be unticked? 

another question.. what is the BMS Err Stop tick box and protocol for? should this be enabled? 

 

Thanks in advance guys.

Send pics of your settings

16 hours ago, Leshen said:

Send pics of your settings

Not clear images, but it looks like you have grid charge ticked on the box next to the time slot , untick that box then you will charge from solar. 

2 hours ago, BryanOC6 said:

Not clear images, but it looks like you have grid charge ticked on the box next to the time slot , untick that box then you will charge from solar. 

grid charge is ticked under the battery setting screen and a value of 30 below that (not sure what this is for? what happens if i untick?). grid charge is not ticked for any of the time slots under the TOU work mode setting screen. i noticed it only charges a little bit from grid in the morning while my battery is floating at 10% (SOC selected on workmode 1 screen for the morning time slot). 

On 2022/08/31 at 8:31 AM, ZCS said:

battery settings screen, grid charge has been ticked, could this be the reason? should this be unticked? 

yes, untick this...

also not clear your zero export or should zero export and limit to load only be selected instead... (I have the sunken synk version, so labels are somewhat different)

 

3 hours ago, ZCS said:

battery setting screen and a value of 30 below that

as far as I can gather at 30% SOC it should start charging from grid, but that would then still depend on the work mode settings... those would determine up to which SOC it will charge at the relevant time slot. So, if the battery does not get down to 30% SOC, it would imply not to start charging from grid, but I could be misunderstanding the chinglish menus and labels....

1 hour ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

yes, untick this...

also not clear your zero export or should zero export and limit to load only be selected instead... (I have the sunken synk version, so labels are somewhat different)

 

i have zero export ticked. i dont limit to load as i have my geyser connected to non essential which i switch on via timer at midday to heat via pv.

1 hour ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

as far as I can gather at 30% SOC it should start charging from grid, but that would then still depend on the work mode settings... those would determine up to which SOC it will charge at the relevant time slot. So, if the battery does not get down to 30% SOC, it would imply not to start charging from grid, but I could be misunderstanding the chinglish menus and labels....

I'm hesitant to untick this setting under the battery settings without understanding what it is and how it works as it was set by the installer( I assume for a reason...). it only really charges from grid in the morning when my SOC is idling at 10% (runs down over night until 10% per TOU setting). My 8am TOU SOC is set at 15% and the grid then kicks in at 8am and raises the SOC from 10 to 15. 

3 minutes ago, ZCS said:

zero export ticked

ok, but to feed the non-essential side (I assume you have the CT installed in the DB) you need to tick "Zero export + limit to load only", I think... but I could be wrong...

4 minutes ago, ZCS said:

I'm hesitant to untick this setting

if you're happy to charge from grid, then leave this the way it is, I don't want to charge from grid, since I don't have a grid connection, except by way of an extension lead to the neighbour, I will manually change and charge from grid if it should become necessary (2 consecutive cloudy days without enough solar electrons generated), but this is rare and a manual change in settings is what I do here, then. Here, rarely the battery is below 20% by the time the sun comes up, its a 8k2Wh battery, though...

34 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

ok, but to feed the non-essential side (I assume you have the CT installed in the DB) you need to tick "Zero export + limit to load only", I think... but I could be wrong...

the way i undersood it was that limit to load would limit the power to the essentials only? maybe someone else could clarify? i have zero export only ticked and thought this just limits the feedback into the grid. 

Just now, ZCS said:

the way i undersood it was that limit to load would limit the power to the essentials only? maybe someone else could clarify? i have zero export only ticked and thought this just limits the feedback into the grid. 

maybe one of the many experts on here could help me understand what the grid charge and grid charge number is under battery settings...

2 minutes ago, ZCS said:

the way i undersood it was that limit to load would limit the power to the essentials only? maybe someone else could clarify? i have zero export only ticked and thought this just limits the feedback into the grid. 

Limit to load will limit PV and battery power to essentials only. 

2 minutes ago, ZCS said:

maybe one of the many experts on here could help me understand what the grid charge and grid charge number is under battery settings...

Can u send a pic of all the settings on the inverter. 

Just now, Leshen said:

Limit to load will limit PV and battery power to essentials only. 

thanks @Leshen. thats what i thought which means my settings from that perspective are correct. are you able to confirm the battery settings grid charge setting with corresponding value below it?

1 minute ago, Leshen said:

Can u send a pic of all the settings on the inverter. 

I did attach some screenshots (from the app) above for the battery setting screen and the system setting(work mode) screen. Not at home to take pics directly off the inverter screen. Hopefully you will be able to access the screenshots above on this thread. For your feedback as always.

This is the part i am unsure of....