November 10, 20223 yr 40 minutes ago, kamos said: What is the benefit or difference between parallel and series configurations? So your inverter will have specific MPPT voltages to operate at, you can usually add panels in series until you match the voltage needed by your system. Then, you would duplicate that number of series panels on a parallel branch. By adding a parallel branch you increase the amount of current your system receives. 42 minutes ago, kamos said: And what is overpanelling? There is an upper limit to the MPPT voltage, exceeding this will result in damage to the unit. There is also a limit to the amount of current the MPPT board can draw, once you hit that current limit, adding more panels becomes pointless because you aren't going to get any more out of the system.
November 10, 20223 yr Author 28 minutes ago, Psy said: So your inverter will have specific MPPT voltages to operate at, you can usually add panels in series until you match the voltage needed by your system. Then, you would duplicate that number of series panels on a parallel branch. By adding a parallel branch you increase the amount of current your system receives. There is an upper limit to the MPPT voltage, exceeding this will result in damage to the unit. There is also a limit to the amount of current the MPPT board can draw, once you hit that current limit, adding more panels becomes pointless because you aren't going to get any more out of the system. Thank you for the information.
November 11, 20223 yr 22 hours ago, kamos said: What is the benefit or difference between parallel and series configurations? And what is overpanelling? Panels in series raise the voltage of a string, panels in parralel raise the current of the string. You cannot go beyond the MPPT voltage but you can install more than the max current. Overpanelling happens when you install more current capacity than the rated max Amps op the MPPT Eg the 8KW MPPT takes 20A and you install panels 7S2P could produce max 22-24A in optimal conditions. The MPPT will clip beyond 20A and waste that energy Most of the time conditions will not be optimal so the overpaneled configuration will yield far below the clipping point but yield more power overall. I have 4S2P configuration (lots of trees and shade) with 22A output in ideal conditions and I very seldom see the current limited to 20A
November 19, 20223 yr Author I ordered the equipment on Wednesday, took delivery on Thursday. Friday the installer did the cabling. Today they finished the install of the battery and inverter. They will install the panels on Monday. Equipment: 8 kW Sunsynk inverter 12.5 kWh Felicity Solar Battery 14 x 660w Canadian Solar panels Great sales and support from JC Solar Panels. I went with their recommended installer, Luke from Lights-On Electrical. So far so good. Edited November 19, 20223 yr by kamos
November 19, 20223 yr 4 hours ago, kamos said: I ordered the equipment on Wednesday, took delivery on Thursday. Friday the installer did the cabling. Today they finished the install of the battery and inverter. They will install the panels on Monday. Equipment: 8 kW Sunsynk inverter 12.5 kWh Felicity Solar Battery 14 x 660w Canadian Solar panels Great sales and support from JC Solar Panels. I went with their recommended installer, Luke from Lights-On Electrical. So far so good. Could the installer get the BMS communication to work between the battery and the inverter, or has commissioning not happened yet?
November 19, 20223 yr Author 9 minutes ago, I84RiS said: Could the installer get the BMS communication to work between the battery and the inverter, or has commissioning not happened yet? Yes, my plant is up and running already. I've been through two LS' today. I'd post pictures here of the battery status, but I'm scared of exposing sensitive data. Edit: We'll do the final configuration of the Inverter once all panels are installed. Hoping to use as little grid power as possible, so I'm reading up on how others have configured their inverters, checking the recommended battery settings (I've already read the Sunsynk and Felicity solar user guides) and happy to hear about how people have configured their inverters to maximise battery life, while using as as little grid power as possible. Edited November 19, 20223 yr by kamos
November 19, 20223 yr 8 minutes ago, kamos said: Yes, my plant is up and running already. I've been through two LS' today. I'd post pictures here of the battery status, but I'm scared of exposing sensitive data. Edit: We'll do the final configuration of the Inverter once all panels are installed. Hoping to use as little grid power as possible, so I'm reading up on how others have configured their inverters, checking the recommended battery settings (I've already read the Sunsynk and Felicity solar user guides) and happy to hear about how people have configured their inverters to maximise battery life, while using as as little grid power as possible. My system will be 24 months old in 4 days time and I am still adjusting settings every so often. Everyone's goals are different, in my case I have set it up with the aim to use Eskom as little as possible. That means using every watt available from the 15.6kWh available battery bank and I often take them down to 5% SOC in winter when the weather is bad.
November 19, 20223 yr Author 3 minutes ago, I84RiS said: My system will be 24 months old in 4 days time and I am still adjusting settings every so often. Everyone's goals are different, in my case I have set it up with the aim to use Eskom as little as possible. That means using every watt available from the 15.6kWh available battery bank and I often take them down to 5% SOC in winter when the weather is bad. Thanks for that. Would you mind sending me your settings or linking to a thread where you posted them?
November 20, 20223 yr Battery settings are to use Pylontech 3.0 which is Lithium Setting number 12 on the Deye.
November 20, 20223 yr The Sunsynk has the exact same settings: Lithium & 12 selected will get the Felicity batteries talking to the SunDeye. Making use of Pylontech RS485 communication protocol. This means that it will also work for Voltronics/ Kodak machines that have the RS485 Pylontech embedded in it's firmware.
November 20, 20223 yr The Sunsynk has the exact same settings: Lithium & 12 selected will get the Felicity batteries talking to the SunDeye. Making use of Pylontech RS485 communication protocol. This means that it will also work for Voltronics/ Kodak machines that have the RS485 Pylontech embedded in it's firmware. The document below was sent to me from the Felicity Support team. The English is not great but workable. The dip switches are also straight forward. Follow the diagram for the dip switching. However, to translate what they want, you must have the last Dip switch 5 set to ON on the last battery in the string. The last slave must get the Dip 5 set to on. The other Dips 1-4 are from slave addressing. Remember: Dip 5 must be the last Slave in the packs. For Deye communication(read me first).pdf
November 20, 20223 yr Author 2 hours ago, Steve87 said: The Sunsynk has the exact same settings: Lithium & 12 selected will get the Felicity batteries talking to the SunDeye. Making use of Pylontech RS485 communication protocol. This means that it will also work for Voltronics/ Kodak machines that have the RS485 Pylontech embedded in it's firmware. Yes. I checked my settings and it's the same on my Sunsynk.
November 20, 20223 yr Author 2 hours ago, Thunderdolt said: @kamos Any particular reason you left the battery on the pallet? That's the way the installer did it. I kinda prefer it this way. Only issue I have is that it's not flat up against the wall. It's taking up a lot of space like this. We'll move it tomorrow. Are there any issues with leaving it on the pallet?
November 20, 20223 yr 14 minutes ago, kamos said: That's the way the installer did it. I kinda prefer it this way. Only issue I have is that it's not flat up against the wall. It's taking up a lot of space like this. We'll move it tomorrow. Are there any issues with leaving it on the pallet? Are there any issues with leaving it on the pallet? Not that I'm aware of, I was just wondering if the installer didn't have long enough battery cable but more likely he didn't have the manpower to lift it off 🙂
November 20, 20223 yr 51 minutes ago, Thunderdolt said: I was just wondering if the installer didn't have long enough battery cable Lol, that would really be taking a "short cut" 🤣
November 22, 20223 yr Author Quick update, the solar install is almost done. We hit a snag, where I couldn't install all the panels in the space I wanted, so we have to install on another roof. Luke will be coming back tomorrow to install the last few panels. The direction of my panels and location isn't ideal, but it's OK for now. I was planning on buying my panels in the future anyway. I have a question. Please have a look at the Power Flow diagram from Sunsynk connect: Why is the inverter still drawing 32W from the grid when there is sufficient power from the Solar to power the house and the inverter itself?
November 22, 20223 yr 51 minutes ago, kamos said: Quick update, the solar install is almost done. We hit a snag, where I couldn't install all the panels in the space I wanted, so we have to install on another roof. Luke will be coming back tomorrow to install the last few panels. The direction of my panels and location isn't ideal, but it's OK for now. I was planning on buying my panels in the future anyway. I have a question. Please have a look at the Power Flow diagram from Sunsynk connect: Why is the inverter still drawing 32W from the grid when there is sufficient power from the Solar to power the house and the inverter itself? That's probably the grid trickle charge - what is the value set to on your inverter? Installers usually set it between 10 and 50W as anything less might trip some prepaid meters
November 22, 20223 yr Author 26 minutes ago, mzezman said: That's probably the grid trickle charge - what is the value set to on your inverter? Installers usually set it between 10 and 50W as anything less might trip some prepaid meters It's 20w. But I've see my grid input be 0 at times. See below: Edited November 22, 20223 yr by kamos
November 22, 20223 yr 1 hour ago, kamos said: Why is the inverter still drawing 32W from the grid when there is sufficient power from the Solar to power the house and the inverter itself? Any chance the CT coil is pointing in the wrong direction and the 32W is actually outgoing?
November 22, 20223 yr Author 9 minutes ago, p_i said: Any chance the CT coil is pointing in the wrong direction and the 32W is actually outgoing? How do I check this?
November 22, 20223 yr Just now, kamos said: How do I check this? There's an arrow on the CT coil. It should be pointing towards the inverter, ie. inbound from Eskom on the outside.
November 22, 20223 yr 29 minutes ago, kamos said: It's 20w. But I've see my grid input be 0 at times. See below: Based on this image compared the previous one, it might be self-consumption by the inverter, which is then roughly 231-239W based on the numbers shown (I don't know what the correct inverter self-consumption number is). Which means you didn't get enough power from PV and it supplemented that from the grid in the earlier image? 813+32-2-612=231W 871+0-2-630=239W
November 22, 20223 yr Author Ok, that makes sense. I thought that the inverter power usage was lower than 200W.
November 22, 20223 yr 27 minutes ago, kamos said: Ok, that makes sense. I thought that the inverter power usage was lower than 200W. According to this post, the inverter itself uses 50W, but there's further losses due to charging, etc. I can't seem the find the official value during quick googling. Maybe one of the forum experts will give us proper figures.
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