October 12, 20223 yr Good morning, My 5kw Sunsynk inverter + 5kwh Sunsynk battery was installed yesterday as a power backup system for now (solar panels later). I only have the geyser and stove on non-essentials, the rest on essential. So on the display under "GRID" it only shows the power that goes to the inverter to charge battery and power the Essentials. Power to the geyser and stove, when I switch these on, is not picked up. So I cant see what my total power draw from grid is, and therefore power to non-essentials. I would have liked to see these to also monitor power use in the house. So my installer says that the CT coil is properly installed on the main incoming line from Eskom. According to him, because it is a Backup/UPS system only, they select "zero export", and "limit to load", and this is the reason I cant see the non-essential info, and that it will display correctly once the solar panels is installed. Is above correct, and is there a way to display the info I need? It seems to me the CT coil is not providing any benefit in this configuration. What will happen if I uncheck "limit to load", for example? Thanks.
October 12, 20223 yr Your installer is correct in his explanation as far as I am aware. It will not show the draw from the non essentials while limit to load is ticked. seeing as you are only running batteries (no PV), you need to keep limit to load ticked.
October 12, 20223 yr 8 hours ago, ZCS said: Your installer is correct in his explanation as far as I am aware. It will not show the draw from the non essentials while limit to load is ticked. seeing as you are only running batteries (no PV), you need to keep limit to load ticked. So does this imply after sunset with no PV all Sunsynk cannot display the use from the grid????
October 12, 20223 yr They can if limit to load is unticked. The risk with you unticking it is that your non essentials will deplete your battery if they are running during a time slot which uses battery power... im also quite a new user so maybe one of the more experienced forumites can provide further clarity or correct any inacurate information i may provide. My setup currently has my geyser on non essentials and i have limit to load unticked. During the day i heat the geyser using PV/battery/grid in that order depending on how much pv is available. The wattage used by the geyser shows up on my powerflow graphic. As far i a know, if limit to load is ticked then no power will be supplied to my non essentials and also their usage will not show through the inverter as they will be powered direct from grid.
October 12, 20223 yr Mine does show my NE loads, and have backup power setup no PV. Have 8kw sunsynk, but doubt that makes difference.
October 12, 20223 yr Just now, JPNiemand said: Mine does show my NE loads, and have backup power setup no PV. Have 8kw sunsynk, but doubt that makes difference. But is you limit to load ticked or unticked? I assume unticked?
October 12, 20223 yr @ZCSI am not sure @Leshendid setup mine. But mine does not drain from battery at all, and when there is loadshedding my stove and geyser is off.
October 12, 20223 yr 7 minutes ago, JPNiemand said: @ZCSI am not sure @Leshendid setup mine. But mine does not drain from battery at all, and when there is loadshedding my stove and geyser is off. If @Energy-Jason just gave us those greenrich batteries then we could avoid all this and just have everything on essentials but alas...🤷♂️😃
October 12, 20223 yr 1 minute ago, ZCS said: If @Energy-Jason just gave us those greenrich batteries then we could avoid all this and just have everything on essentials but alas...🤷♂️😃 @ZCSI could not agree more, now i have to have things separate because I was cheated 🤣
October 12, 20223 yr 1 minute ago, JPNiemand said: @ZCSI am not sure @Leshendid setup mine. But mine does not drain from battery at all, and when there is loadshedding my stove and geyser is off. I see lots of confusion from installers regarding this which is really quite basic. With a backup system without panels, limit to load doesn’t need to be ticked. With limit to load unticked, you will see all info on the inverter provided the CT is installed correctly, and yes the CT must be installed. Some people ignorantly assume that it doesn’t need to be installed but it does. The only difference with a backup system is that use timer must be unticked. In this way the battery will not supply power to non essentials. The benefit of limit to load with panels is that you limit the PV and battery power to only essentials and non essentials is supplied directly from the grid. In this way when say there isn’t enough PV for whatever reason, your battery won’t unnecessarily power the non essentials.
October 13, 20223 yr Author 18 hours ago, Leshen said: I see lots of confusion from installers regarding this which is really quite basic. With a backup system without panels, limit to load doesn’t need to be ticked. With limit to load unticked, you will see all info on the inverter provided the CT is installed correctly, and yes the CT must be installed. Some people ignorantly assume that it doesn’t need to be installed but it does. The only difference with a backup system is that use timer must be unticked. In this way the battery will not supply power to non essentials. The benefit of limit to load with panels is that you limit the PV and battery power to only essentials and non essentials is supplied directly from the grid. In this way when say there isn’t enough PV for whatever reason, your battery won’t unnecessarily power the non essentials. Thank you for the explanation and directions. I will give it a try.
October 27, 20223 yr On 2022/10/12 at 8:18 PM, Leshen said: I see lots of confusion from installers regarding this which is really quite basic. With a backup system without panels, limit to load doesn’t need to be ticked. With limit to load unticked, you will see all info on the inverter provided the CT is installed correctly, and yes the CT must be installed. Some people ignorantly assume that it doesn’t need to be installed but it does. The only difference with a backup system is that use timer must be unticked. In this way the battery will not supply power to non essentials. The benefit of limit to load with panels is that you limit the PV and battery power to only essentials and non essentials is supplied directly from the grid. In this way when say there isn’t enough PV for whatever reason, your battery won’t unnecessarily power the non essentials. If understand correctly, the non-essentials cannot be powered by inverter when power down. What will happen if zero export to CT is tick, non essential load is powered by inverter and the battery drops to minimum defined value specified in "time of use"? Will it reduce export to non-essential and eventually take in power from inverter? My installer incorrectly (I believe) installed the CT inside the inverter on the grid input. There leads is about 15cm so I cannot even move it out to the DB next to the inverter where the grid is now incomming.
October 27, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, JacquesStrydom said: If understand correctly, the non-essentials cannot be powered by inverter when power down. What will happen if zero export to CT is tick, non essential load is powered by inverter and the battery drops to minimum defined value specified in "time of use"? Will it reduce export to non-essential and eventually take in power from inverter? My installer incorrectly (I believe) installed the CT inside the inverter on the grid input. There leads is about 15cm so I cannot even move it out to the DB next to the inverter where the grid is now incomming. In that scenario it will pull from the grid. If there is no grid then there are no non-essentials present to the inverter For you to get the most from the system in a split Essential and Non Essential setup that CT needs to be moved to the DB on the incoming Eskom line pointing towards the house load. Anything between CT and the inverter will then be Non-Essential and everything after inverter will be Essential Edited October 27, 20223 yr by mzezman
November 1, 20223 yr Hi all. This is an interesting chat, and it relates to a question I'm trying to understand... My setup (newly installed) is Sunsynk 5KW, Dyness 4.8 KWh, 6x545w Panels. My battery charged up nicely this morning, full before 9am. since then I have excess production, which should be able to feed into the non-essential load. Maybe it is, but the graphs on the monitoring are showing it as export to grid. The load has not exceeded 1kw all day, which leads me to believe that the non-essential load is not being shown as load, but is being shown in the export to grid. This seems wrong somehow. So, I guess my question is: How should the non-essential load and the feed to that show up on the inverter's graphs? The way I'm seeing it now is not intuitive to me. I'll try to include a snapshot of my graph with this post to clarify what I'm seeing (Go easy on me - I'm a very green newbie! ☺️ )
November 1, 20223 yr 2 minutes ago, Patrick OReilly said: Hi all. This is an interesting chat, and it relates to a question I'm trying to understand... My setup (newly installed) is Sunsynk 5KW, Dyness 4.8 KWh, 6x545w Panels. My battery charged up nicely this morning, full before 9am. since then I have excess production, which should be able to feed into the non-essential load. Maybe it is, but the graphs on the monitoring are showing it as export to grid. The load has not exceeded 1kw all day, which leads me to believe that the non-essential load is not being shown as load, but is being shown in the export to grid. This seems wrong somehow. So, I guess my question is: How should the non-essential load and the feed to that show up on the inverter's graphs? The way I'm seeing it now is not intuitive to me. I'll try to include a snapshot of my graph with this post to clarify what I'm seeing (Go easy on me - I'm a very green newbie! ☺️ ) Technically it IS exporting to the 'grid', beyond the inverter could be seen as grid - even though its actually non-essentials. On Solar Assistant its shown as load
November 1, 20223 yr 10 minutes ago, mzezman said: Technically it IS exporting to the 'grid', beyond the inverter could be seen as grid - even though its actually non-essentials. On Solar Assistant its shown as load Thanks for responding so quickly @mzezman. OK, so that graphs looks ok to you? I'm not actually exporting? I'm not sure what you mean by "Solar Assistant" - is that a different monitoring app? or a specific view in the sunsynk views?
November 1, 20223 yr 44 minutes ago, Patrick OReilly said: Hi all. This is an interesting chat, and it relates to a question I'm trying to understand... My setup (newly installed) is Sunsynk 5KW, Dyness 4.8 KWh, 6x545w Panels. My battery charged up nicely this morning, full before 9am. since then I have excess production, which should be able to feed into the non-essential load. Maybe it is, but the graphs on the monitoring are showing it as export to grid. The load has not exceeded 1kw all day, which leads me to believe that the non-essential load is not being shown as load, but is being shown in the export to grid. This seems wrong somehow. So, I guess my question is: How should the non-essential load and the feed to that show up on the inverter's graphs? The way I'm seeing it now is not intuitive to me. I'll try to include a snapshot of my graph with this post to clarify what I'm seeing (Go easy on me - I'm a very green newbie! ☺️ ) This graph shows that it is exporting through the CT to the grid. Send pics of all your settings
November 1, 20223 yr 27 minutes ago, Leshen said: This graph shows that it is exporting through the CT to the grid. Send pics of all your settings @Leshen - that was my concern... Thanks for responding. I'm not at the property - I'm going to grab some data from the web portal and post here soon.
November 1, 20223 yr 28 minutes ago, Leshen said: This graph shows that it is exporting through the CT to the grid. Send pics of all your settings I have to agree with the export to grid. Power to non essential is connected to the grid side but the inverter won't report it as export. Only power past the CT to the grid is export to grid. The only time you can get the non essential seen as export to grid is if the CT is at the wrong place.
November 1, 20223 yr 28 minutes ago, Patrick OReilly said: @Leshen - that was my concern... Thanks for responding. I'm not at the property - I'm going to grab some data from the web portal and post here soon. Possibly CT installed incorrectly or settings are incorrect
November 1, 20223 yr Thanks for all the replies, folks! I'm pretty sure the installer has the CT in the right place - on the main live feed from the grid, as it enters the non-essential DB. I'm not sure about whether it is the "right way"? I have seen some debates about whether the CT should be on pins3&4 or 5&6. In my case it is on 3,4. I've grabbed all the settings from "Battery", "System Mode" and "Grid" tabs - I hope that is what is needed. See the PDF attached. I've highlighted a couple of settings that look suspicious to me... 🙂 Settings.pdf
November 1, 20223 yr 16 minutes ago, Patrick OReilly said: Thanks for all the replies, folks! I'm pretty sure the installer has the CT in the right place - on the main live feed from the grid, as it enters the non-essential DB. I'm not sure about whether it is the "right way"? I have seen some debates about whether the CT should be on pins3&4 or 5&6. In my case it is on 3,4. I've grabbed all the settings from "Battery", "System Mode" and "Grid" tabs - I hope that is what is needed. See the PDF attached. I've highlighted a couple of settings that look suspicious to me... 🙂 Settings.pdf 106.43 kB · 1 download Untick solar export. Also untick limit to load if u want PV and battery to supply non essential load Edited November 1, 20223 yr by Leshen .
November 1, 20223 yr 14 minutes ago, Leshen said: Untick solar export I will do. Might be too late to see the effect today - I'll provide feedback tomorrow. A Question in the meantime - if it was exporting, am I correct to assume the amount truly exported would be only what is left over after first supplying non-essential load? since it must feed through that route, and load would use power, and only the net excess would really go to the grid...? Edited November 1, 20223 yr by Patrick OReilly
November 2, 20223 yr 12 hours ago, Patrick OReilly said: I will do. Might be too late to see the effect today - I'll provide feedback tomorrow. A Question in the meantime - if it was exporting, am I correct to assume the amount truly exported would be only what is left over after first supplying non-essential load? since it must feed through that route, and load would use power, and only the net excess would really go to the grid...? After first supplying non essential and essential and after the battery is full.
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.