Hi All

 I have this inverter coupled to 2 Freedom Won e towers and a single string of 5 x 545 CJ panels.

My batteries "talk" to the inverter via the supplied Voltronic Axpert inverter RS485 cable,  I think.

Works very well in SBU mode and most of my house is hooked up.  Geyser , oven, a " Welding" plug point in the garage and an "Iron"plug in the laundry still on Eskom.

I am now at the point where I want to get the best out of the system and do some fine tuning.  I have the Watch Power app installed but find it  very basic unless I am missing something.

Questions: 

The Watch Power  " Back to grid "settings  are in volts even though I have programmed Lithium into the App and the inverter. Would % not be so much better with a lithium battery?? Can this be changed.  I used Lib on the App, what is Lic for??

My "back to grid" is at 48Volts and "back to discharge" is at 54Volts!! Is this OK

I did go back to grid once , after some paving contractors used an angle grinder for the whole morning. Under these conditions, the Utility ( Eskom AC) only supplied a few amps which took care of the house needs and charged at about 6 amps. I would prefer the good old 30 amps charging which I got before the PV went in when I still used the system as a UPS. Can I change this?? 

Can the relay on the inverter be programmed to operate the geyser (Non essential loads) when battery is full and housed demand is low. If so, how?

Are there any other Apps or Programs which offer better parameter programming and more importantly data displayed than the Watch Power.

Thanking you.

G

 

 

 

 

 

Hi George.

Maybe have a look at Solar Assistant.

It has great features and remote monitoring and changing of settings.

 

2 hours ago, George Christian said:

Hi All

 I have this inverter coupled to 2 Freedom Won e towers and a single string of 5 x 545 CJ panels.

My batteries "talk" to the inverter via the supplied Voltronic Axpert inverter RS485 cable,  I think.

Works very well in SBU mode and most of my house is hooked up.  Geyser , oven, a " Welding" plug point in the garage and an "Iron"plug in the laundry still on Eskom.

I am now at the point where I want to get the best out of the system and do some fine tuning.  I have the Watch Power app installed but find it  very basic unless I am missing something.

Questions: 

The Watch Power  " Back to grid "settings  are in volts even though I have programmed Lithium into the App and the inverter. Would % not be so much better with a lithium battery?? Can this be changed.  I used Lib on the App, what is Lic for??

My "back to grid" is at 48Volts and "back to discharge" is at 54Volts!! Is this OK

I did go back to grid once , after some paving contractors used an angle grinder for the whole morning. Under these conditions, the Utility ( Eskom AC) only supplied a few amps which took care of the house needs and charged at about 6 amps. I would prefer the good old 30 amps charging which I got before the PV went in when I still used the system as a UPS. Can I change this?? 

Can the relay on the inverter be programmed to operate the geyser (Non essential loads) when battery is full and housed demand is low. If so, how?

Are there any other Apps or Programs which offer better parameter programming and more importantly data displayed than the Watch Power.

Thanking you.

G

 

 

 

 

 

Hi @George Christian there are very  good commercially available monitoring systems available, amongst other, SolarAssistant as @Jacques Ester has pointed out.

It does appear, however, that you require a number of adhoc functionalities, which, in my view, is best served with HomeAssistant along with a suitable Voltronics inverter driver.  This is all open source and typically runs on pi 3b and upwards. You must be willing though to learn the basics of HA, but the end results are very rewarding. In addition, there are a number of members on this very forum that are gurus in this regard, and will be more than willing to answer some questions you might have in this regard. 

HA is not trivial, and so it should be because it very powerfull. But it is future proof, and a good investment in my opinion.  Its not an out-of-the-box rollout though. 

EDIT : just search 'home assistant' on this forum, and you will see the activity and resource sharing. 

 

Edited March 28, 20231 yr by BritishRacingGreen

2 hours ago, George Christian said:

The Watch Power  " Back to grid "settings  are in volts even though I have programmed Lithium into the App and the inverter. Would % not be so much better with a lithium battery?? Can this be changed.  I used Lib on the App, what is Lic for??

Sadly no, only voltages can be specified. 

Hi George,

Unfortunately using voltage is not ideal but at this point the Axpert does not have a State of Charge (SoC) percentage parameter for this function, so we need to use voltage. To revert to using grid to reserve the battery SoC to around 30%, set this value to 51V. To revert to grid only at around 20% set this value to 50.5V. Higher and lower settings are acceptable, but Freedom Won recommends not setting higher than 51.5V or lower than 50V.

Please note - LIC is A lithium-ion capacitor (LIC) with a higher power density and a longer cycle life than that of a lithium-ion battery (LIB).

I would consider looking at the Rasberry Pi to use as a better parameter programming