I recently finally got my solar panels and have a few questions when it comes to zero export and feeding PV back into non-essentials.

 

From my understanding so far:

 

Zero Export Load  = Delivers PV to essentials and battery, doesn't export to grid or non-essentials

Zero Export to CT = Delivers PV to essentials, battery and non-essentials, doesn't export to grid.

 

What I have noted was that if Zero Export Load  is selected, my Deye inverter only displays under the house icon my essential load on the inverter. It ranges from 0.3kw to 0.5kw throughout the day. My PV also only shows a very small amount which is normally the same amount as my essential usage.

 

When I select Zero Export to CT, both my essential and non-essential loads are shown on the inverter (House icon). Because of this much higher usage, it actually shows that my PV is generating more power to feed the additional usage. 

 

Selecting Zero Export to CT does make me worried tough... as its showing both the essential and non-essential loads, when my geyser kicks in it goes easily to 4.5kw with the usage bars on the screen showing in red as my inverter is only 5kw.

However, is the House icon just showing your total energy usage as picked up by the CT coil or is the inverter actually pushing through that value? Meaning, if it goes to 6kw, would it trip and switch off?

 

In short, I'm trying to understand if I should be worried that my inverter is displaying 6kw under the house icon when my inverter is only 5kw when Zero Export to CT is selected.

This is one of the quirks of the Deye firmware, that it does not distinguish clearly between essential and non-essential house loads in its display, but I wouldn't worry much about it.

As long as the geyser is on the non-essential loads, it is essentially (bad choice of words) connected to the grid, and it cannot cause your inverter to trip.

It's only excessive loads on the essential side that can cause the inverter to trip, if you exceed the 35A passthrough current capacity when on grid, or the 5kW limit if the grid is down.

The inverter will always just be outputting and contributing solar and/or battery power up to the limit of its 5kW capacity, whether it goes to essential or non-essential.

All this is on the understanding that the CT coil is installed correctly.

 

Thank you for the explanation

I've just had the same Deye 5kw inverter installed and am confused as to whether mine is setup correctly. I understand the same as you do, if Zero Export to CT is enabled then it should feed excess PV power to the non-essential loads such as oven, geyser etc.

With my setup, only the essential load power draw is being detected on the inverter. If you look at the image below that is with the toaster (1kw) and a computer (0.3kw) on, all on the essential load circuit. So 1.3kw being used by the essential circuit, with all of it being supplied by the PV. When the toaster goes off, the load and PV supply drop to 0.3kw which is correct.

However, if I put on the oven or geyser or anything on the non-essential load, nothing changes on the screen. The PV output would stay on 0.3kw and the house icon essential load would also stay on 0.3kw. 

Am I correct in saying then that the excess PV is not being used to help power the non-essential load?

Something to add, I have a 3 phase DB and this is a single phase inverter and wired into one of the phases.

Is your CT coil installed, correctly?

2 minutes ago, abd7 said:

Is your CT coil installed, correctly?

It is installed. It has since been moved from the initial position. As to whether it's installed correctly or not I don't know. How would I be able to determine this?

Check if the CT shows on the grid info page like below 

3 hours ago, abd7 said:

Check if the CT shows on the grid info page like below 

Looks to be correct. 

I am going to assume that those appliances are maybe connected to another phase? 
 

Thats why its not showing since the CT coil is connected to another of your phases?

Edited March 27, 20231 yr by Dviance

Hi Everyone,

Quick question, if I enable “Zero Export to CT” and load shedding kicks in, will the inverter still power non-essential loads or will it only power essential loads during load shedding?

 

Regards.

Non essentials will not be powered during load shedding. The export of PV to non essentials will only be when grid is available. 

Is there a way to prevent battery discharge to non-essentials with "Zero export to CT" selected?

31 minutes ago, EducateMe said:

Is there a way to prevent battery discharge to non-essentials with "Zero export to CT" selected?

Not sure if this helps for your scenario, but if the time-of-day settings are all at 100% then no battery usage will take place while on-grid; it'll just export solar to non-essentials if you've set it to do so.

These settings get ignored during power failures which will allow the battery to drain.

Edited August 2, 20231 yr by JayMardern

Thanks, yes I know about the time of day table, but I'm using that to manage load-shedding and essentials. I would still like essentials to use extra energy stored in the batteries. If I set all to 100%, there is not energy storage for evening use of essentials.

Hi, just a clip from the manual Zero export to CT:

  

2 hours ago, EducateMe said:

Thanks, yes I know about the time of day table, but I'm using that to manage load-shedding and essentials. I would still like essentials to use extra energy stored in the batteries. If I set all to 100%, there is not energy storage for evening use of essentials.

The 100% reflects the SOC at a specific time, thus 100% Batt capacity is available.

 

15 minutes ago, CobusK said:

Hi, just a clip from the manual Zero export to CT:

This is clear that non essentials will be fed but no export to grid. 

Then the next picture shows how to use battery only for essential. 

12 minutes ago, Scorp007 said:

This is clear that non essentials will be fed but no export to grid. 

Then the next picture shows how to use battery only for essential. 

Jip, that is why the installed position of the external CT is of such importance

Edited August 2, 20231 yr by CobusK

12 minutes ago, CobusK said:

Jip, that is why the installed position of the external CT is of such importance

It's amazing that there is still doubt about installing the CT or not. Just always install it and everything is ready for selling to grid or not as well as all the other functions. 

11 minutes ago, CobusK said:

Jip, that is why the installed position of the external CT is of such importance

On the incoming live from Eskom before any breakers Install CT with the arrow or label facing towards the breaker feeding the load.

On 2023/08/02 at 7:54 PM, CobusK said:

  

Hi guys! newbie in this forum so please be patient with me. Could anybody please explain for me the difference between on grid home load and local load. 

Regards

Obus

15 hours ago, obus said:

Hi guys! newbie in this forum so please be patient with me. Could anybody please explain for me the difference between on grid home load and local load. 

Regards

Obus

On grid home load is the non essential side without being backed up. The local load seems to be the essential battery backed up load. 

2 hours ago, Scorp007 said:

On grid home load is the non essential side without being backed up. The local load seems to be the essential battery backed up load. 

Ok thanks for your quick reply.  Could you please elaborate a little bit further on that "battery backed up load". My setup is as follows. 20Kw PV connected to two Deye 10Kw hybrid inverters in parallel with two Sunway wall mounted 10Kw batteries in parallel . Always connected to grid and no backup load connected using Zero export to load as system work mode. according to the latest manual (ver: 2.2, 2022-12-06) this mode provide power to both connected backup load and local load. Attached figure is a little bit different from that posted by @CobusK in a previous post. So in my case, as I don't have any backup load connected one can say that all my load is non essential local load with battery support/backup depending on what settings I have in my "Time of use" settings in System Work Mode.!!!!????

Don't be angry on my ignorance please I'm not an electrician I'm just from Sweden🫣

 

Edited August 10, 20231 yr by obus

2 hours ago, obus said:

Ok thanks for your quick reply.  Could you please elaborate a little bit further on that "battery backed up load". My setup is as follows. 20Kw PV connected to two Deye 10Kw hybrid inverters in parallel with two Sunway wall mounted 10Kw batteries in parallel . Always connected to grid and no backup load connected using Zero export to load as system work mode. according to the latest manual (ver: 2.2, 2022-12-06) this mode provide power to both connected backup load and local load. Attached figure is a little bit different from that posted by @CobusK in a previous post. So in my case, as I don't have any backup load connected one can say that all my load is non essential local load with battery support/backup depending on what settings I have in my "Time of use" settings in System Work Mode.!!!!????

Don't be angry on my ignorance please I'm not an electrician I'm just from Sweden🫣

 

No we are here to help. If you have it connected as stated with no loads connected to the backed up loads it would in effect mean when the grid is down you have no lights or anything that runs from the battery side. Is this how your system works? 

If the 2 cables from grid and from backed up battery is not fitted(3 crossed lines) then nothing gets power after sunset from your inverters. 

Edited August 10, 20231 yr by Scorp007