Hi All,

A friend of mine had his solar installation completed this week (after waiting since last November - from an installer that provided the Inverter and panels - but never completed the battery delivery and installation wiring, etc - very long story 😀)  it was finally connected and wired up by a second installer with batteries this week - who mainly did the config on the inverter, battery install and wiring to the board.

His installation is the following :- 

• Deya 16KV Inverter
• 3 x Volta Stage 3 batteries
• 24 x Canadian Solar 545w panels.

The initial installer (Who did the panel installation) divided the panels into 3 (as the inverter supports 3 x PV inputs) - 

However there seems to be an interesting issue where the panels are not collectively producing more than 3kw at peak sunlight? (So often falls back to grid or batteries (setting dependent) to meet the demand)

There is input from PV1, PV2 and PV3 - and all roughly synced with each other - from what I can tell each of the PV inputs seem to be connected in series.

I've checked the System Work Mode settings (Current setting :  Zero Export to CT)

We jacked the load up to 10kw - and the solar would only supply a max of 2.7kw - 3kw - and the rest came from the Grid.

Any advice on what the potential issue could be?

Thanks!

Edited May 14, 20233 yr by Cyclone_ZAR

In what directions are the panels facing and at what angle ?What are the PV string voltages ? Try pasting a graph of the string voltages . Sounds like potential wiring issues.

10 minutes ago, Nexuss said:

In what directions are the panels facing and at what angle ?What are the PV string voltages ? Try pasting a graph of the string voltages . Sounds like potential wiring issues.

May be the settings sheets as well as there is a problem when in peak sun the PV could reach an easy 9kW at peak production in full sun and one only gets 3kW.

19 minutes ago, Nexuss said:

In what directions are the panels facing and at what angle ?What are the PV string voltages ? Try pasting a graph of the string voltages . Sounds like potential wiring issues.

Due to the design of his house - the biggest roof surface area faces south (21 Panels) - 3 remaining panels face north.  (Not ideal, I know - and looking at moving some around to average out exposure)
Pitch is +- 30 degrees 

I'm getting him sorted to be able to record the trends possibly with Solarman or Solar Assistant) - but for now just manually take pics of the PV info.

The PV string voltages I witnessed at that time were at approx. 370v for each of the PV's.

I know even from my own installation - placement is massively important ... but I mean 24 panels in peak sunlight and only 3kw - something just does not add up?  

Edited May 14, 20233 yr by Cyclone_ZAR

Ouch!!! During winter time those panels at 30 degrees south are not going to produce a lot of power. The 5 facing south in series with 3 to the north will also throttle quite a bit. 

This is an example where a low voltage MPPT for the 3 facing north might have been a better call. 

What do you guys think? 

I can't think of any real way to fix this except to just start over, build a ground structure and point the panels in the right direction, North. Maybe something like a carport?

1 hour ago, Cyclone_ZAR said:

• Deya 16KV Inverter
• 3 x Volta Stage 3 batteries
• 24 x Canadian Solar 545w panels.

Painfull, expensive lesson to learn!