Hoping someone can help or confirm the bad news / odd "feature"... I was hoping to be able to supply my local / house from excess solar only but when I remove the limit to load option and allow the inverter to feed my local grid / house it feeds off battery and not just excess solar.

My initial idea was to supplement Eskom when cooking or running A/C's on a sunny day and the batteries would remain charged for the evenings. I know I am limit the battery SOC on the timer but dont want to do this route as non-perfect days will suffer.

Any one got this right?

 

 

In system mode 2, untick “ solar export” , also your grid trickle feed should be set to 20 watts 

If i understand what you are asking, you can achieve something like this, with home assistant and node red. 

So an example of how im using it, i have an automation in node red for my geyser/non essential items, which ticks and unticks "limit to load" based on a schedule. So at night, the automation will tick "limit to load" and in the morning it will untick "limit to load" so as not to use my batteries during night hours for these loads..

8 hours ago, Jay-Dee said:

Hoping someone can help or confirm the bad news / odd "feature"... I was hoping to be able to supply my local / house from excess solar only but when I remove the limit to load option and allow the inverter to feed my local grid / house it feeds off battery and not just excess solar.

My initial idea was to supplement Eskom when cooking or running A/C's on a sunny day and the batteries would remain charged for the evenings. I know I am limit the battery SOC on the timer but dont want to do this route as non-perfect days will suffer.

Any one got this right?

 

 

You can limit the amount of battery usage, that's how I have done it at the system mode settings. you can set how much power can be used from the batteries at any given time. The system will then power all your essential loads 1st from solar, Excess solar then goes to the batteries at the charge rate you set, then after that any extra solar left/available will be pushed to your non-essentials side. You would have to adjust your timer time settings to get the required results at the times you need this to happen.

On 2022/08/13 at 7:16 AM, Tariq said:

In system mode 2, untick “ solar export” , also your grid trickle feed should be set to 20 watts 

Sadly the solar export tick vs untick does not solve the issue. I don't need the grid trickle as I have an old rotary meter and not a pre-paid that requires the trickle

On 2022/08/13 at 7:19 AM, Iiceman said:

If i understand what you are asking, you can achieve something like this, with home assistant and node red. 

So an example of how im using it, i have an automation in node red for my geyser/non essential items, which ticks and unticks "limit to load" based on a schedule. So at night, the automation will tick "limit to load" and in the morning it will untick "limit to load" so as not to use my batteries during night hours for these loads..

While HA would get around the requirement to manually tick / untick it does not solve the problem.  If you look at the first image, I am pulling 2.8kw on essential load and solar is covering most of it with the remainder coming from the batteries. I then turned the stove on during the day and this was being fed by the batteries.  This is not a normal scenario so HA scheduling would not help here... 

What I am trying to achieve is that in summer, I can run a large air conditioner excess solar. This unit is too large to have on the inverter via AUX / Smart load as then I would not be able to run very much else at the same time.


Thinking out aloud, the only way would be for HA to monitor solar generation vs battery usage vs feedback to the grid and tick and untick accordingly. I dont know if this would be possible?

16 hours ago, WannabeSolarSparky said:

You can limit the amount of battery usage, that's how I have done it at the system mode settings. you can set how much power can be used from the batteries at any given time. The system will then power all your essential loads 1st from solar, Excess solar then goes to the batteries at the charge rate you set, then after that any extra solar left/available will be pushed to your non-essentials side. You would have to adjust your timer time settings to get the required results at the times you need this to happen.

This option can potentially work. The only issue is that my geyser is part of my essential load and if there is momentary cloud cover during the day, I want it to be powered by battery and not grid.  Doing as suggested / limiting battery would mean that if there was a short fall in solar, the essential load would be powered by grid. In my setup, I think this would potentially happen more than I would gain for sending excess solar back and this is why I have been avoiding this option.

Jay Dee. Did you find a solution for your problem? I sit with the same sinareo. I dont want my " grid load"/ non esential load draining any power out my battery. I only want to use the excess PV power to assist the grid supply. Currently my non esential load uses battery power. 

4 hours ago, Niek die Griek said:

Jay Dee. Did you find a solution for your problem? I sit with the same sinareo. I dont want my " grid load"/ non esential load draining any power out my battery. I only want to use the excess PV power to assist the grid supply. Currently my non esential load uses battery power. 

Sadly not... If you do by some chance, please let me know

This seems to be a common "ask". That non-essentials should not be powered from batteries. But the inverter does not seem to differentiate between PV power and battery power when powering any of the loads.

Also looking for a solution if anyone has found one yet? 

I have come across this work around if it's only for a geyser (won't work for stove/aircon): set a CBI Astute timer to switch geyser on at 05:00 to 06:00, TOU settings 05:00-06:00 have SOC 100%, this will then use grid for all loads which is OK since it's a quiet time. Then switch geyser on again at 12:00 to 15:00, if its cloudy can skip this timer. Then another TOU SOC 100% and geyser hour at around 19:00 or 20:00. Can even leave geyser on essential with this setup if your inverter kw allows, and not have to adjust for loadshedding.

Strangely, been speaking to a Sunsynk installer and he says non-essential loads don't consumer from battery. But I'll have to get clarity maybe that is when also PV does not feed non-essential. Or with some external switches/timers, I'm not sure. 

Feels like it should be a feature/setting on the inverter. 😞

2 hours ago, solazzz said:

This seems to be a common "ask". That non-essentials should not be powered from batteries. But the inverter does not seem to differentiate between PV power and battery power when powering any of the loads.

Also looking for a solution if anyone has found one yet? 

I have come across this work around if it's only for a geyser (won't work for stove/aircon): set a CBI Astute timer to switch geyser on at 05:00 to 06:00, TOU settings 05:00-06:00 have SOC 100%, this will then use grid for all loads which is OK since it's a quiet time. Then switch geyser on again at 12:00 to 15:00, if its cloudy can skip this timer. Then another TOU SOC 100% and geyser hour at around 19:00 or 20:00. Can even leave geyser on essential with this setup if your inverter kw allows, and not have to adjust for loadshedding.

Strangely, been speaking to a Sunsynk installer and he says non-essential loads don't consumer from battery. But I'll have to get clarity maybe that is when also PV does not feed non-essential. Or with some external switches/timers, I'm not sure. 

Feels like it should be a feature/setting on the inverter. 😞

The great feature of the Sunsynk is to be able to feed the non essential with PV. 

You have control be un ticking LOAD 1ST the battery would be used for non essential. 

Then you select if PV must be used to charge the battery 1st or if the PV must be diverted to power non essentials. 

Have a read through the numerous topics about the settings under the inverter section. We have some very experienced members and most of the time they know better than a lot of installers. 

Thanks, will definitely keep reading the threads. There are some conflicting comments so I might be misunderstanding here..

Are you saying that it is possible to have fixed settings that will only use PV for non-essentials and not battery for non-essentials?

And that is, prioritize battery over load? Which settings menu would this be in for the Sunsynk/Deye inverters? Any downsides to prioritizing battery over load?

 

Edit:

And does mean even in the evening it will not use batteries to run non-essentials?

Thanks

Edited June 11, 20233 yr by solazzz
Added question

7 hours ago, solazzz said:

Thanks, will definitely keep reading the threads. There are some conflicting comments so I might be misunderstanding here..

Are you saying that it is possible to have fixed settings that will only use PV for non-essentials and not battery for non-essentials?

And that is, prioritize battery over load? Which settings menu would this be in for the Sunsynk/Deye inverters? Any downsides to prioritizing battery over load?

 

Edit:

And does mean even in the evening it will not use batteries to run non-essentials?

Thanks

https://www.sunsynk.org/5kw-hybrid-inverter

Download the MANUAL and most questions will be answered. 

Battery first means use PV to 1st charge battery before using it for non essential. 

Yes you can prevent non essential to discharge the battery. 

Edited June 12, 20233 yr by Scorp007

2 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

https://www.sunsynk.org/5kw-hybrid-inverter

Download the MANUAL and most questions will be answered. 

Battery first means use PV to 1st charge battery before using it for non essential. 

Yes you can prevent non essential to discharge the battery. 

EDITING this as I completely mis-worded my reply originally and got myself confused... Please ignore this reply 🙄

The initial question was not about the battery powering the non-essential load but rather the battery feeding back to the local grid.  Has anyone found a way to stop this while still allowing batteries to power the essential load... i.e. I want to use my oven during the day via excess solar but on a cloudy day it must not be powered by batteries without having to change any settings each time

 

Edited June 12, 20233 yr by Jay-Dee

2 hours ago, Jay-Dee said:

The initial question was not about the battery powering the non-essential load but rather the battery feeding back to the local grid.  Has anyone found a way to stop this while still allowing batteries to power the essential load... i.e. I want to use my oven during the day via excess solar but on a cloudy day it must not be powered by batteries without having to change any settings each time

During summer, I use the battery at night to power the load (unfortunately, both essential and non-essential. The battery never feeds back to the grid. Now and again you may see single digit watts being fed back but that's due to changes in the load.

My settings are the same as you pic 2 in post 1.

Edited June 12, 20233 yr by ZaydS

27 minutes ago, ZaydS said:

During summer, I use the battery at night to power the load (unfortunately, both essential and non-essential. The battery never feeds back to the grid. Now and again you may see single digit watts being fed back but that's due to changes in the load.

My settings are the same as you pic 2 in post 1.

Sorry, I got myself confused in my previous reply (non-essential vs aux load confusion)...   The battery does not feed back to the grid on mine either. I am trying to prevent it from powering my non-essential load (feeding back to my local house). This is my issue as I have a vast amount of excess PV during the day in summer that I want to be able to use to supplement my non-essential items but on a bad day, night or winter... I don't want these items to be supplemented / powered by the battery. 

It would seem, you have the same issue as me and others.. As was previously mentioned, it does not seem like this is a solvable problem

Edited June 12, 20233 yr by Jay-Dee

3 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

https://www.sunsynk.org/5kw-hybrid-inverter

Download the MANUAL and most questions will be answered. 

Battery first means use PV to 1st charge battery before using it for non essential. 

Yes you can prevent non essential to discharge the battery. 

How do you prevent non essentials from discharging the battery?   This happens no matter if Load or Battery first are selected on mine.

If this does work on yours, please can you confirm the firmware version... Perhaps I need to upgrade.. I have avoided as mine works perfectly and has not had any issues but if I am missing this feature, I will definitely upgrade

Sorry for asking the question before checking the manual online... Currently it is downloading blank pages and my printed copy is 2 or 3 year old, so I am sure it has been updated since.

I am struggling to understand the question, but combined with the time of use and the 3 "limit to" options you should be able to achieve what you are asking. The link above switches the "export to" just before night and after sunrise so that the battery is not discharged by non-essential loads. during the day is allows the solar excess to power non-essential loads.

If you do not want essential loads to discharge the battery, then set a minimum SOC on the time of use menu for the current time where you are using battery. 

Edited June 12, 20233 yr by iiznh

5 minutes ago, Jay-Dee said:

Sorry, I got myself confused in my previous reply (non-essential vs aux load confusion)...   The battery does not feed back to the local grid on mine either. I am trying to prevent it from powering my non-essential load (feeding back to my local house). This is my issue as I have a vast amount of excess PV during the day in summer that I want to be able to use to supplement my non-essential items but on a bad day, night or winter... I don't want these items to be supplemented / powered by the battery. 

It would seem, you have the same issue as me and others.. As was previously mentioned, it does not seem like this is a solvable problem

Yep, same.

9 minutes ago, iiznh said:

I am struggling to understand the question, but combined with the time of use and the 3 "limit to" options you should be able to achieve what you are asking. The link above switches the "export to" just before night and after sunrise so that the battery is not discharged by non-essential loads

This would solve the problem if the problem was schedulable.    The problem as per the initial postings, is I have a large AirConditioner (and oven) that can not be connected to essential or aux ports... During summer, I have excess PV that I would like to use to supplement or power the A/C entirely... If I untick limit to load only, it achieves this on a good day but if there is cloud cover / insufficient PV generation it uses the batteries to supply the difference. The net result is that the A/C or the likes will drain the batteries causing unnecessary wear and also leaving them depleted in the evening.

While yes, using the schedule and limiting the battery SOC is a work around, it then creates an inefficient scenario on the essential side.   I do understand that the rands and cents are the same as you are still using the same amount of power but it is not how I want it to work...

The problem comes in with load shedding changes at short notice...     I know my batteries can power my essential load without an issue from sunset to sunrise... So no matter what stage of load shedding we have, I am covered. During the day my PV generation is sufficient to cover my essential load and charge the batteries fully in good weather.  The issues comes in to play on a bad day... If there is not enough PV, the batteries would be depleted by powering the non-essential items before sunset and this would be an issue if load shedding was higher than expected and I did not adjust the SOC values on the schedule accordingly. Not withstanding that I really don't want to constantly have to update the settings.

Hope this makes a little more sense

3 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

https://www.sunsynk.org/5kw-hybrid-inverter

Download the MANUAL and most questions will be answered. 

Battery first means use PV to 1st charge battery before using it for non essential. 

Yes you can prevent non essential to discharge the battery. 

Seems from the other replies that this can only be done through automation tools and not natively on the inverter.

If you are able to do this with manually changing settings each day, please share the settings.

 

29 minutes ago, Jay-Dee said:

This would solve the problem if the problem was schedulable.

It sounds to me that you want to automate things, but you do not want to use home assistant.

These options are scheduled via home assistant without issues. You can also connect the aircon via a smart switch that can also be switched on/off from home assistant.

Use the solcast integration to estimate the amount of power available and if it is below a certain amount then simply do not run the "nice to have" loads like the aircon. 

On rainy days I switch the "priory charge" option on so that all solar goes to my battery and my house runs from the grid. You can also set the SOC on the time of use menu to 100% ensuring that only once the battery is full the solar will be used for powering loads. I also do not schedule my heatpump on rainy days and only heat it just before we need the hot water. On days with solar excess my heatpump switches on the dump some of the energy as hot water. Loadshedding changes at short notice... well there are integrations using the sepush.co.za so even that can be automated in home assistant and you can automatically adjust settings 

 

You cannot expect Sunsynk to cater to your specific automation needs, everyone is different. They have however given you the ability to change settings via home assistant, and this is a lot better than most inverters on the market.

No not the app nor the cloud can schedule changes on your inverter and I think your are unrealistic to expect sunsynk to schedule your inverter settings around your lifestyle.

Edited June 12, 20233 yr by iiznh

2 hours ago, iiznh said:

It sounds to me that you want to automate things, but you do not want to use home assistant.

These options are scheduled via home assistant without issues. You can also connect the aircon via a smart switch that can also be switched on/off from home assistant.

Use the solcast integration to estimate the amount of power available and if it is below a certain amount then simply do not run the "nice to have" loads like the aircon. 

On rainy days I switch the "priory charge" option on so that all solar goes to my battery and my house runs from the grid. You can also set the SOC on the time of use menu to 100% ensuring that only once the battery is full the solar will be used for powering loads. I also do not schedule my heatpump on rainy days and only heat it just before we need the hot water. On days with solar excess my heatpump switches on the dump some of the energy as hot water. Loadshedding changes at short notice... well there are integrations using the sepush.co.za so even that can be automated in home assistant and you can automatically adjust settings 

 

You cannot expect Sunsynk to cater to your specific automation needs, everyone is different. They have however given you the ability to change settings via home assistant, and this is a lot better than most inverters on the market.

No not the app nor the cloud can schedule changes on your inverter and I think your are unrealistic to expect sunsynk to schedule your inverter settings around your lifestyle.

I do agree with your input. Even without integration it is so easy to use a remote timer like the Sonoff to switch the aircon. 

Also look at El Tempo forecast to give an indication of PV per hour. 

3 hours ago, iiznh said:

It sounds to me that you want to automate things, but you do not want to use home assistant.

These options are scheduled via home assistant without issues. You can also connect the aircon via a smart switch that can also be switched on/off from home assistant.

Use the solcast integration to estimate the amount of power available and if it is below a certain amount then simply do not run the "nice to have" loads like the aircon. 

On rainy days I switch the "priory charge" option on so that all solar goes to my battery and my house runs from the grid. You can also set the SOC on the time of use menu to 100% ensuring that only once the battery is full the solar will be used for powering loads. I also do not schedule my heatpump on rainy days and only heat it just before we need the hot water. On days with solar excess my heatpump switches on the dump some of the energy as hot water. Loadshedding changes at short notice... well there are integrations using the sepush.co.za so even that can be automated in home assistant and you can automatically adjust settings 

 

You cannot expect Sunsynk to cater to your specific automation needs, everyone is different. They have however given you the ability to change settings via home assistant, and this is a lot better than most inverters on the market.

No not the app nor the cloud can schedule changes on your inverter and I think your are unrealistic to expect sunsynk to schedule your inverter settings around your lifestyle.

I'm going to respectfully disagree here, and fall more in the camp that wants even more configurability from my Deye inverter natively, on-board, without having to become a tinkerer or a software expert, or registering as an installer. I'm not talking about home automation for individual connected IOT devices. I want a firmware with which I can manage the work mode according to time of day, modify the time of use according to the day of the week, and to control the power distribution such that I can export surplus PV to the grid port (and especially to the Eskom grid), but NOT use my battery, for which the priority and economics are totally different.

Perhaps it sounds like I'm asking a lot, but can someone explain to me why for example the 3-phase Deye can activate TOU according to the day of the week, but the 1-phase Deye cannot.

Edited June 12, 20233 yr by GreenFields

12 minutes ago, GreenFields said:

I'm going to respectfully disagree here, and fall more in the camp that wants even more configurability from my Deye inverter natively, on-board, without having to become a tinkerer or a software expert, or registering as an installer. I'm not talking about home automation for individual connected IOT devices. I want a firmware with which I can manage the work mode according to time of day, modify the time of use according to the day of the week, and to control the power distribution such that I can export surplus PV to the grid port (and especially to the Eskom grid), but NOT use my battery, for which the priority and economics are totally different.

Perhaps it sounds like I'm asking a lot, but can someone explain to me why for example the 3-phase Deye can activate TOU according to the day of the week, but the 1-phase Deye cannot.

I could not have said it better, I was about to start replying when yours came through... I am not interested in 3rd parties controlling my system and me having to rely on them working. In a house with kids and staff, things happen and things go offline... I want the functionality to be part of the inverter and chatting to a number of suppliers and installers, all agree that there is no good reason to for powering the non essentials by battery