March 16, 20233 yr Hi everyone. I am new to solar and finding new things every day. I have an off the grid system and we will be going away for around 5 weeks. My security lights are connected to the solar system and that will be the only thing that will be on during this time. Together, they use around 40w. I have a Fivestar 3kv inverter with 2 panels and 2x 120kv batteries. Can I just leave it running, or is there a setting where I can lower the charging rate so it trickle charge the batteries for that time? I can only find "solar charge current ratio" in the settings menu. Not sure if this is the correct one. Thanks.
March 16, 20233 yr Set the inverter priority to SUB. Solar first.................Utility second...........Battery third and you will be fine. It will just trickle during the day and keep your batteries topped up. At night the Utility will take over and also keep your batteries full Nothing to worry about. Edited March 16, 20233 yr by Operator
March 16, 20233 yr As you have enough battery power for LS events you can also set it as a UPS. It will charge when there is grid. If you have a setting to charge from solar and grid then charging will take place from solar during the day.
March 17, 20233 yr Author Thanks for the replies. This is an off grid system, so I assume the same applies?
March 17, 20233 yr 26 minutes ago, Freddievanleeuwen said: Thanks for the replies. This is an off grid system, so I assume the same applies? Your 2 panels no size is given so impossible to do any calculation of PV available for battery charging. Are the security lights on day/nite switches?
March 17, 20233 yr Author 2 hours ago, Scorp007 said: Your 2 panels no size is given so impossible to do any calculation of PV available for battery charging. Are the security lights on day/nite switches? 2 panels, 390w each and using 2 x 120ah gel batteries. No light switches, so lights will be permanently on.
March 17, 20233 yr Let me ask why are you trying to "trickle" your solar charge? To prevent your batteries sitting at 100%?
March 17, 20233 yr Author 20 minutes ago, PsyWulf said: Let me ask why are you trying to "trickle" your solar charge? To prevent your batteries sitting at 100%? Not sure what best practice is with regards to solar. I though it might be not as hard on the batteries.
March 17, 20233 yr 24 minutes ago, Freddievanleeuwen said: Not sure what best practice is with regards to solar. I though it might be not as hard on the batteries. So the figures look like this. Load per 24h is 960Wh Solar power full sun per day 2500Wh Useable power battery 1440Wh Should you get 4 consecutive days of solid rain with say only 10% PV production inverter might switch off. Very rare but no guarantee. Can even happen in April in Gauteng.
March 17, 20233 yr Author 1 hour ago, Scorp007 said: So the figures look like this. Load per 24h is 960Wh Solar power full sun per day 2500Wh Useable power battery 1440Wh Should you get 4 consecutive days of solid rain with say only 10% PV production inverter might switch off. Very rare but no guarantee. Can even happen in April in Gauteng. Thanks for the info. I guess I will just leave it as is.
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