Help please with setup, I'm clueless!

Solar panels connected today:

Sunsynk 8kW, Panels 9kW, Batteries 2 x 5kW Sunsynk

Oven and geyser is on non-essential. My understanding was that surplus solar can be pushed to non-essential, but geyser and oven will never use battery.

1) Tonight about 7pm the geyser went on and used battery (I thought this wouldn't be possible). Batteries quickly depleted to 80% and then stopped discharging all together and moved to grid.

2) I looked at system setup and everything is set to 80% SOC. Not understanding as what is the point then of 10kW batteries, I would assume ability to discharge to say 20%?

PS at 5pm I tested the PV, manually switched on the geyser and the PV did feed the geyser. 

Some pics of setup on inverter and example of flow when I hit 80% SOC. 

After reading multiple threads here on the forum I understand the settings a bit better, but still mostly lost. Would appreciate some basic direction so I can fine tune from there. Appreciate any advice thanks!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depending on your chosen settings it's entirely possible to export solar and battery power to the non-essentials, and even to Eskom.

If you don't want the geyser to drain the battery, set the SOC to 100% whenever the geyser is scheduled to come on.

if you want to allow the battery to drain as deeply as 20% remaining SOC, set the SOC value to 20% during the time slot where you want to discharge it.

Hope this helps.

1 hour ago, SiriS said:

Oven and geyser is on non-essential. My understanding was that surplus solar can be pushed to non-essential, but geyser and oven will never use battery.

That understanding is incorrect.

For as long as the grid is present and your SOC is higher than in your setting, the Sunsynk will draw on whatever energy source it has available (PV and/or batteries).

When the SOC is at or below your setting, it will use grid to supply both essential and non-essential load. If you have PV available at that point, it will use whatever PV is available and supply the balance from grid.

When the grid is down, it will only supply your non-essentials (either from PV and/or batteries)

1 hour ago, SiriS said:

I looked at system setup and everything is set to 80% SOC. Not understanding as what is the point then of 10kW batteries, I would assume ability to discharge to say 20%?

Correct. You need to play around a bit and find the settings that best work for you. Here an example of mine:

At the moment I have 20h00-02h00 set to 45% because we are going to have loadshedding from 02h00-04h00 (usually set to 40%). The 02h00-10h20 is currently at 35% because we will have overcast weather tomorrow morning (usually 30%).

I typically do now draw my batteries below 30%.

47 minutes ago, GreenFields said:

If you don't want the geyser to drain the battery, set the SOC to 100% whenever the geyser is scheduled to come on.

I would rather make my geyser 'smart' (e.g. with Sonoff device) and put it on a timer to better control when it comes on. And then set it to only come on during times when I have sufficient PV available

 

Thank you for the comments, appreciate. Steep learning curve!

I definitely want to minimise Eskom usage, but also keep in mind having enough SOC to deal with loadshedding. That makes sense now and I will change SOC limits during the evening to 30-40%. Also untick Grid, as I want PV to charge the batteries. 

Just to confirm, is there no way to prevent battery going to geyser? The biggest issue is the 5-7am slot, cold geyser with 4kW element. Per above I can prevent the geyser from using battery by setting SOC to 100%, but that means I'll have to use grid for everything else too (essential)?

If I tick "limit to load" would that also disable the ability to send surplus solar to non-essential?

Thanks again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, wolfandy said:

I would rather make my geyser 'smart' (e.g. with Sonoff device) and put it on a timer to better control when it comes on. And then set it to only come on during times when I have sufficient PV available

 

Thanks I like that. Have Geyserwize installed, but prefer to manage of the Smart Life app. 

4 hours ago, SiriS said:

Just to confirm, is there no way to prevent battery going to geyser? The biggest issue is the 5-7am slot, cold geyser with 4kW element.

I think you can use Aux to supply power only when you battery is above a certain SOC. But am not sure if it will use grid or simply not provide power if below the SOC

4 hours ago, SiriS said:

Per above I can prevent the geyser from using battery by setting SOC to 100%, but that means I'll have to use grid for everything else too (essential)?

Correct

4 hours ago, SiriS said:

If I tick "limit to load" would that also disable the ability to send surplus solar to non-essential?

Am not 100% sure, but think so

Txs @wolfandy

This setup is consuming me 🙃

I've rethought the approach a bit

1) use some battery in the morning to heat geyser

2) use some spare PV to heat geyser during day

3) limit battery usage for geyser in late afternoon

Intention still to minimise Eskom usage, maximise battery usage and get PV to charge. Barring some exceptions (few cloudy days, 4h loadshedding etc) I think 30% SOC should cover me for 2h LS.

Does setup look ok? If I understand correctly, the grid will only charge the batteries from 5pm-8m if SOC below 95%. Rest of day batteries will only be charged by solar. 

Thank you

 

 

 

6 hours ago, SiriS said:

Just to confirm, is there no way to prevent battery going to geyser? The biggest issue is the 5-7am slot, cold geyser with 4kW element. Per above I can prevent the geyser from using battery by setting SOC to 100%, but that means I'll have to use grid for everything else too (essential)?

If I tick "limit to load" would that also disable the ability to send surplus solar to non-essential?

In my setup, if I tick the "limit to load", then the non-essentials does not get pv power at all, which in my case is only the geyser.  So I charge the battery normally and on sunny days it is fully charged before 12h00 and the washing is mostly done.  I then untick the "limit to load" and then switch on the geyser to run on pv until hot.  Sometime I will top up again later in the afternoon, after 15h00 whilst there is still some sun left to run it.  In the cases where I have excess sun, but it is less than 4kW, I still do it as I will rather take 2kW from pv and only 2kW from Eskom than all 4kW from Eskom.

Getting the hang of it...slowly 😀

Quick question re battery management/health. 

Batteries set to be charged from solar, after load. In practice this morning the following would happen:

• Load 400W, Solar 900W, 500W charged to battery
• Then say load increased to 1500W, Solar 900W, 600W pulled from battery
• Then load reduced to 500W, Solar 900W, 400W charged to battery

In that time slot where PV/sun not producing decent power yet the battery alternates quite a few times between charging and discharging depending on load change. Assuming this is not great for the battery/cycles?

Is there any setting to stop solar feeding the battery for a given time period? I would like for the solar panels to producer sufficient power to manage normal load before starting to charge the batteries (i.e. that 7-9ish morning slot).

Thank you

 

 

 

 

 

 

7 hours ago, SiriS said:

Does setup look ok?

Looks like a good starting point. As mentioned, you need to play around a bit. See how you run with these settings - and then tweak when you see that something does not work the way you want it

7 hours ago, SiriS said:

If I understand correctly, the grid will only charge the batteries from 5pm-8m if SOC below 95%. Rest of day batteries will only be charged by solar. 

Correct

4 hours ago, SiriS said:

In that time slot where PV/sun not producing decent power yet the battery alternates quite a few times between charging and discharging depending on load change. Assuming this is not great for the battery/cycles?

To me this is normal and to my understanding the batteries are built for this. Especially happens on days when you have overcast weather this happens. Like my day today:

I am using Sonoffs on my major consumers (heat pump, 2nd geyser, pool pump) to manage by major consumers only to come on when usually I have sufficient PV. A normal day for me looks like this:

4 hours ago, SiriS said:

Is there any setting to stop solar feeding the battery for a given time period?

I do not believe this is possible only for a specific time. 'Prioritize load' is the relevant setting - but if I am not mistaken this can only be set globally

Would it not use eskom from 9am before there is enough PV and batteries are below 80%? Would it not be better to have a setting of 30% during daytime? (to rather use PV and not make use of eskom). That late afternoon slot to 95% I agree is a good one.

Edited March 10, 20233 yr by JacquesVDM

Batteries having mini cycles is perfectly fine and better than charging to 100% and discharging to 15% over and over. 

6 hours ago, SiriS said:

 

Is there any setting to stop solar feeding the battery for a given time period? I would like for the solar panels to producer sufficient power to manage normal load before starting to charge the batteries (i.e. that 7-9ish morning slot).

Thank you

Don't waste excess PV get it into the batteries if your load doesn't need it. Just keep priority load ticked

6 hours ago, SiriS said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

12 hours ago, JacquesVDM said:

Would it not use eskom from 9am before there is enough PV and batteries are below 80%? Would it not be better to have a setting of 30% during daytime? (to rather use PV and not make use of eskom). That late afternoon slot to 95% I agree is a good one.

 

Good point txs, I'm going to lower the 9am %.

 

 

Thanks for everyone's comments/advice really appreciated! 

Still playing around a bit and getting used to different scenarios. Had a good test run last night/this morning - on batteries since about 7pm and went down all the way to 41% this morning including the 6-7am 4kW geyser run, then solar started to kick in and charged to about 50% already (and overcast atm). I should be able to manage LS in that period as well, as long as I can manage the beasts (geysers/pool pump etc).

Thanks again 🙏😎👍

On 2023/03/10 at 6:47 AM, SiriS said:

Thank you for the comments, appreciate. Steep learning curve!

I definitely want to minimise Eskom usage, but also keep in mind having enough SOC to deal with loadshedding. That makes sense now and I will change SOC limits during the evening to 30-40%. Also untick Grid, as I want PV to charge the batteries. 

Just to confirm, is there no way to prevent battery going to geyser? The biggest issue is the 5-7am slot, cold geyser with 4kW element. Per above I can prevent the geyser from using battery by setting SOC to 100%, but that means I'll have to use grid for everything else too (essential)?

If I tick "limit to load" would that also disable the ability to send surplus solar to non-essential?

Thanks again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you untick grid then that means that you allow your batteries to be drained down to that soc.Irrespective if what soc% you put in the timer field box and with grid ticked the PV will charge batteries to 100% as long as you have enough excess pv

If you set SOC to 80% and the battery is at 80% when there is no solar (Ie nighttime) and load shedding kicks in, will the 80% power the load? If so, down to what SOC? Many thanks. 

Correct, if the grid goes down the settings in the ‘System Mode’ screen (including SOC) will get ignored and instead the inverter will allow the battery to discharge down to the SOC specified in the ‘Battery Setup’ screen’s Shutdown tab instead.

 

So you can choose to have one minimum SOC when there’s grid (in System Mode), and another minimum SOC when there’s no grid (in Battery Setup).

2 hours ago, Alasdair said:

If you set SOC to 80% and the battery is at 80% when there is no solar (Ie nighttime) and load shedding kicks in, will the 80% power the load? If so, down to what SOC? Many thanks. 

 

Edited January 28, 20242 yr by JayMardern