Posted March 11, 20232 yr Hello everyone, As the section suggests I am new to this solar game. I have looked through the posts on the forum and I am not finding the question I have, but if it has already been answered my apologies. I am looking for some advice around the installation of a hybrid inverter and the split of the essential and non essential load. I am looking for an installation of a hybrid inverter that will supply PV and battery backup power to the bulk of my home and also supply PV power to my geyser and stove when there is generation capacity available. When there is no PV generation available, the installation must supply battery backup to the house and use the grid to power the geyser and stove, or have no supply if there is load shedding. I am intending to split the DB boards to divide out the essential and non-essential loads. Reading the information available online and general discussion with installers I have understood that this is possible by splitting the loads as essential and non-essential through the inverter as shown roughly in the diagram below. One of the installers however has said that there is only a single output from the inverter; that my understanding of the connection is not correct and that the inverter connections are as shown below. The inverter then uses battery power to supply both loads if the grid fails. My questions are: Which one of these configurations are correct? If the inverter does have two outputs as shown in the first diagram, is the non-essential load included in the capacity limit of the inverter. i.e. if it is a 5 kw inverter and the geyser element draws 4 kw, does that only leave 1 kw to supply the essential load when the geyser is heating up? If there is only one output as in the second diagram how is the split between the loads managed to use PV power when available and grid when there is no PV capacity for the non essential load so that the battery only supplies the essential load when there is no PV available? Is there a signal output from the inverter that can be used to drive an automatic change-over switch for the non-essential load between inverter supply and direct grid supply when there is no PV generation? The answers are possibly not quite as simple as I have described above, but I would be grateful to get some more information about the wiring options.
March 11, 20232 yr This can be achieved nicely with a sunsynk inverter or similar type hybrid inverter. The sunsynk has 2 outputs The 1st primary input (on the inverter) gets fed from your utility grid and also acts as an output back to your local grid (non-essentials) as well as to your utility grid if allowed. The second output is for your essential loads only. Maybe indicate the type of inverter you are referring to so that the forum people can give better answers Edited March 11, 20232 yr by WannabeSolarSparky
March 11, 20232 yr 52 minutes ago, Colind said: I am looking for some advice around the installation of a hybrid inverter and the split of the essential and non essential load. I am looking for an installation of a hybrid inverter that will supply PV and battery backup power to the bulk of my home and also supply PV power to my geyser and stove when there is generation capacity available. When there is no PV generation available, the installation must supply battery backup to the house and use the grid to power the geyser and stove, or have no supply if there is load shedding. I am intending to split the DB boards to divide out the essential and non-essential loads. For the type of functions you're describing, Sunsynk/Deye/Fusion/Magneto type inverter else the Luxpowertek LXP hybrid, or Goodwe ES hybrid. Ballpark price R25,000 and climbing for a 5kW inverter. Regarding the wiring, best to read the manual, but importantly, the non-essential loads don't run through the inverter, they are connected onto the grid feed. And the PV feed is a separate input than the grid feed. Hope this makes sense.
March 11, 20232 yr 12 hours ago, Colind said: Hello everyone, As the section suggests I am new to this solar game. I have looked through the posts on the forum and I am not finding the question I have, but if it has already been answered my apologies. I am looking for some advice around the installation of a hybrid inverter and the split of the essential and non essential load. I am looking for an installation of a hybrid inverter that will supply PV and battery backup power to the bulk of my home and also supply PV power to my geyser and stove when there is generation capacity available. When there is no PV generation available, the installation must supply battery backup to the house and use the grid to power the geyser and stove, or have no supply if there is load shedding. I am intending to split the DB boards to divide out the essential and non-essential loads. Reading the information available online and general discussion with installers I have understood that this is possible by splitting the loads as essential and non-essential through the inverter as shown roughly in the diagram below. One of the installers however has said that there is only a single output from the inverter; that my understanding of the connection is not correct and that the inverter connections are as shown below. The inverter then uses battery power to supply both loads if the grid fails. My questions are: Which one of these configurations are correct? If the inverter does have two outputs as shown in the first diagram, is the non-essential load included in the capacity limit of the inverter. i.e. if it is a 5 kw inverter and the geyser element draws 4 kw, does that only leave 1 kw to supply the essential load when the geyser is heating up? If there is only one output as in the second diagram how is the split between the loads managed to use PV power when available and grid when there is no PV capacity for the non essential load so that the battery only supplies the essential load when there is no PV available? Is there a signal output from the inverter that can be used to drive an automatic change-over switch for the non-essential load between inverter supply and direct grid supply when there is no PV generation? The answers are possibly not quite as simple as I have described above, but I would be grateful to get some more information about the wiring options. None of the above schemes. The correct one (in a simplified way) is this:
March 11, 20232 yr Difficult to understand for the newcomer to this world, but you always start somewhere. You must visualize the circulation of Alternating Current Energy as if it were Water. A hybrid inverter Imports Energy from the Grid (Grid Input) and Exports Energy to the Grid through the same connection point in the Inverter. Once the different configurations have been made according to the hybrid you buy, the excess PV that is not consumed (Essential Loads) can be used to charge the batteries, if there is even more surplus, the energy is directed backwards (from the same connection point). of the Inverter with the Grid (Grid Input), that energy will feed your Non-Essential Loads first and if you configure it and you still have Surplus, the rest will be Exported to the Grid.
March 11, 20232 yr I have a Sunsynk 8Kw. I did the installation myself and made some changes on my switchboard adding 2 change over switches. One on the essentials so that I can switch over from the PV/battery/inverter to the grid (if something went wrong on the solar side) And the second change over switch on the non-essentials (like the geyser, bore hole- and irrigation pumps and garage DB) This enables me to use my (non-essentials) geyser, pumps and electricity in the garage when the Grid is on load shedding. As @GreenFields is saying "the non-essential loads don't run through the inverter, they are connected onto the grid feed." This allowed me to do the installation as I did.. What is interesting of the Sunsynk (and I suppose of all newer generation inverters) is that they can be described as smart inverters. If there is enough PV the inverter supplies the non-essentials with power even thought they are not running through the inverter. If you send me an email I can send you the drawing of my wiring just to give you an idea. Which inverter are you using?
March 12, 20232 yr As an aside the Victron Energy Multiplus has non-essentials connected to the inverter and a relay switches out when grid fails.
March 13, 20232 yr Author Hi Everyone, Thank you for all the replies and the info this is making a lot more sense now. I am still deciding on which inverter, but will likely be Sunsynk or Deye. @Cassie your setup sounds pretty much like what I am looking to install, I will send you an email for your diagram and compare to what I want to put in. Again, thanks for your help! Colin
March 13, 20232 yr The use of diagrams makes it more complicated with the input and output for essential loads you can achieve what you want just allow the Inverter to export power it will feed the excess power to your geyser and stoves
May 24, 20231 yr On 2023/03/11 at 11:08 PM, Cassie said: I have a Sunsynk 8Kw. I did the installation myself and made some changes on my switchboard adding 2 change over switches. One on the essentials so that I can switch over from the PV/battery/inverter to the grid (if something went wrong on the solar side) And the second change over switch on the non-essentials (like the geyser, bore hole- and irrigation pumps and garage DB) This enables me to use my (non-essentials) geyser, pumps and electricity in the garage when the Grid is on load shedding. As @GreenFields is saying "the non-essential loads don't run through the inverter, they are connected onto the grid feed." This allowed me to do the installation as I did.. What is interesting of the Sunsynk (and I suppose of all newer generation inverters) is that they can be described as smart inverters. If there is enough PV the inverter supplies the non-essentials with power even thought they are not running through the inverter. If you send me an email I can send you the drawing of my wiring just to give you an idea. Which inverter are you using? Can i please get your email adress please
June 27, 20231 yr On 2023/03/11 at 11:08 PM, Cassie said: I have a Sunsynk 8Kw. I did the installation myself and made some changes on my switchboard adding 2 change over switches. One on the essentials so that I can switch over from the PV/battery/inverter to the grid (if something went wrong on the solar side) And the second change over switch on the non-essentials (like the geyser, bore hole- and irrigation pumps and garage DB) This enables me to use my (non-essentials) geyser, pumps and electricity in the garage when the Grid is on load shedding. As @GreenFields is saying "the non-essential loads don't run through the inverter, they are connected onto the grid feed." This allowed me to do the installation as I did.. What is interesting of the Sunsynk (and I suppose of all newer generation inverters) is that they can be described as smart inverters. If there is enough PV the inverter supplies the non-essentials with power even thought they are not running through the inverter. If you send me an email I can send you the drawing of my wiring just to give you an idea. Which inverter are you using? Hi Cassie, thank you for this info. This is exactly what I want to do, I have a 8kw sunsynk. Is it better to use to non essential output or to split before going into the inverter. Please do share you diagram with if. [email protected] Thank you again.
January 27Jan 27 On 2023/03/11 at 9:08 PM, Cassie said: I have a Sunsynk 8Kw. I did the installation myself and made some changes on my switchboard adding 2 change over switches. One on the essentials so that I can switch over from the PV/battery/inverter to the grid (if something went wrong on the solar side) And the second change over switch on the non-essentials (like the geyser, bore hole- and irrigation pumps and garage DB) This enables me to use my (non-essentials) geyser, pumps and electricity in the garage when the Grid is on load shedding. As @GreenFields is saying "the non-essential loads don't run through the inverter, they are connected onto the grid feed." This allowed me to do the installation as I did.. What is interesting of the Sunsynk (and I suppose of all newer generation inverters) is that they can be described as smart inverters. If there is enough PV the inverter supplies the non-essentials with power even thought they are not running through the inverter. If you send me an email I can send you the drawing of my wiring just to give you an idea. Which inverter are you using? I have a Solax X1-Hybrid-G4 7.5kw would like to do what you have done. Could you send me the drawing of your setup. Many Thsnks davbcharles
January 27Jan 27 1 hour ago, davbcharles said: I have a Solax X1-Hybrid-G4 7.5kw would like to do what you have done. Could you send me the drawing of your setup. Many Thsnks davbcharles [email protected]
January 27Jan 27 I'm not going to draw a diagram, because I am not an electrician or an engineer. But I can tell you that my inverter (Goodwe) will try to support all loads using a combination of PV and battery, drawing from grid as a last resort. Here's the data from this morning Green line is battery SOC. Yellow line is load. Orange line is grid. Blue line is PV. Purple line is the battery. So at 6 this morning the heat pump turned on. There was some PV, but not enough to do much useful, so the heatpump was really powered from the battery. You can see the purple line much before about 7:30 because it is following the yellow "demand" line. If I turn on the air fryer, say, after 6 this evening, the same thing will happen: The inverter will use battery, whilst there is enough. Same if I turn on the pool pump or the water heating. As long as there is grid, it will try and back up ALL loads. When the grid is down, it sends nothing to the non-essentials. There is a rule (configurable) that limits battery useage to 60% discharged (40% remaining) whilst there is grid. I would be surprised if any hybrid inverter on the market right now doesn't offer this way of working. It doesn't feed back into the grid though. There is a clamp on the line coming in from the utility. It will not feed anything on the other side of that clamp.
January 28Jan 28 My understanding is as follows If you have a grid-tied inverter you can manage the Essentials vs Non-Essentials with using the "extra" energy by means of feeding it back to "non-essentials" portion to be used by geyser , pool etc. If Eskom is down, this non-essentials is also down even if PV is available Or, you work with older type inverters (hybrid, but not grid-tie) with only 1x output , this skips all the complexities (and price) of grid-tie and still ensure that you can run geyser from PV / batteries. I've decided on this route - have 3x 5kw Inverters (2x in parallel) and barely use eskom. Switch to eskom if battery is less than x, then the full load is on eskom -cannot have split loads on these type of inverters. I use to have 2x circuits (essentials vs non-essentials), but moved back to one based on above.
January 28Jan 28 My picture as follows Blue = Load ; even the geyser heats up early morning when SOC > 44% Green = PV Purple = Battery , under the line discharge, above the line it charges Eskom = MIA.
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