Hi everyone, I am looking for some advice. My setup consists of the following

5 kva Axpert Inverter with a 5 kva Revov Battery + 6 x350w Solar panels. All the settings are set to default but I am not sure if that is the best for what I want.

I want to be able to use my solar panel during a Sunny day and only only use battery to fill in the gaps. I am not sure if it is better to 90% deplete the battery before a swap over happens. When cloudy and there is not enough sun I would like it to run off Utility and not run off the battery. 

Then another question would be is it better to Run from utility or battery during cloudy days.

I apologise for the bad wording I am still new to solar and would like some expert advice

Kind regards

Collin

 

Edited September 1, 20223 yr by Collin

Do you have an idea what your loads are during the day?

Lowest cost will be if PV can cover your loads easily and still charge battery. Remember while loads are connected to the Axpert and it is switched on you use about 900Wh per 24hrs just to keep it running.

If running from PV mostly during the day the option to just use battery for brief periods is fine.

I used to have the axpert, 

my settings were as follows 

SBU ) to charge the batteries 

if loadshedding hit or cloudy then I would change this setting to UtIlity to charge 

I had an old laptop with chrome remote desktop connected to the inverter via rs485 cable and multisibcontrol.net so I could change settings instantly on the inverter from my phone. 
 

Then I would run the battery down to 48 v daily and wait for Solar to charge up again in the morning. Saved money like this 

Edited September 2, 20223 yr by BryanOC6

On 2022/09/01 at 9:00 AM, Collin said:

Hi everyone, I am looking for some advice. My setup consists of the following

5 kva Axpert Inverter with a 5 kva Revov Battery + 6 x350w Solar panels. All the settings are set to default but I am not sure if that is the best for what I want.

I want to be able to use my solar panel during a Sunny day and only only use battery to fill in the gaps. I am not sure if it is better to 90% deplete the battery before a swap over happens. When cloudy and there is not enough sun I would like it to run off Utility and not run off the battery. 

Then another question would be is it better to Run from utility or battery during cloudy days.

I apologise for the bad wording I am still new to solar and would like some expert advice

Kind regards

Collin

 

The best solution it to get something like Solar Assistant. This will allow you to control everything and monitor remotely and also make changes.

 

Edited September 2, 20223 yr by Jacques Ester

6 hours ago, Jacques Ester said:

The best solution it to get something like Solar Assistant. This will allow you to control everything and monitor remotely and do also make changes.

 

+1 - Runs my system perfectly - I have a very similar setup to yours and I have reduced consumption from 30Kwh/day to around 16Kwh/day.  All automated and easily changed when loadshedding is going to happen.

Use SBU as @BryanOC6suggests, that will mean your loads will be run from the panels first, then the battery and then from grid.

You can then use the 'back to grid' setting to control how much battery you want to use to save some for load shedding and 'back to battery' to decide how much you want to charge from grid.

When there is no sun and load shedding you will use the battery down to the 'cutoff' setting which can be 90% DOD.

On 2022/09/01 at 9:00 AM, Collin said:

I am not sure if it is better to 90% deplete the battery before a swap over happens.

Use 'back to grid' for this, don't take it down to 90% all the time of you might end up with nothing for load shedding.

On 2022/09/01 at 9:00 AM, Collin said:

When cloudy and there is not enough sun I would like it to run off Utility and not run off the battery. 

This can also be controlled with 'back to grid'.

On 2022/09/01 at 9:00 AM, Collin said:

Then another question would be is it better to Run from utility or battery during cloudy days.

This is up to you to decide if you want to save on electricity or have the battery last longer, but you have to always think of the sneaky load shedding that can pop it's head up any time, so it's better to keep some battery storage by switching 'back to grid' with enough to spare depending how much you need to get through a session of LS.

Good luck, it takes a little fiddling with settings to get the axpert running smoothly depending on your specific needs, but once set up correctly you should be able to forget about it.