Hi Guys

 

Sorry in advance if this is the wrong section I'm posting this in. I just recently got my solar and inverter with the battery installed but it seems like the inverter and battery isn't communicating the way it should be. I would like to run off the battery when the sun goes down but I don't think the inverter can detect when the battery drops to a certain level for it to start charging it. Sorry I'm very new to this and I think the installers saw me coming and maybe did me in a bit. Any help will be appreciated. The battery type on the inverter is set to USE.

 

Regards

Jaco

Edited July 4, 20232 yr by Jakesvt02

USE is fine on the growatt - means it's running based on Voltage

The Important settings for your use is the Charger Source Priority,the To Grid Battery voltage,Back to battery voltage and the Charge currents

You might need to check your manual to find the Menu items regarding the following settings,below an excerpt of my settings for my specific setup (I use solar only to charge):

Charger source priority - Solar only

Back to battery voltage - 48.0 V

To grid battery voltage - 44.0 V

Shutdown battery voltage - 42.0 V

Battery float charge voltage - 53.8 V

Battery absorption charge voltage - 53.8 V

Max charge current - 100.0 A

Max grid charge current - 20.0 A

 

1 minute ago, PsyWulf said:

USE is fine on the growatt - means it's running based on Voltage

The Important settings for your use is the Charger Source Priority,the To Grid Battery voltage,Back to battery voltage and the Charge currents

You might need to check your manual to find the Menu items regarding the following settings,below an excerpt of my settings for my specific setup (I use solar only to charge):

Charger source priority - Solar only

Back to battery voltage - 48.0 V

To grid battery voltage - 44.0 V

Shutdown battery voltage - 42.0 V

Battery float charge voltage - 53.8 V

Battery absorption charge voltage - 53.8 V

Max charge current - 100.0 A

Max grid charge current - 20.0 A

 

Do you run on the battery at night? 

I do,but I have a device switching my inverter modes based on the battery charge levels hourly to reserve some margin for unexpected outages or loadshedding but still give maximum savings as well (Solarassistant on a Pi)

If your inverter runs on SBU (Solar Battery Utility) it should use battery till it reaches the To Grid voltage,at which point if your Charger source priority allows for utility charging it would charge at the grid charge rate till it reaches the Back to Battery voltage

1 hour ago, Jakesvt02 said:

Hi Guys

 

Sorry in advance if this is the wrong section I'm posting this in. I just recently got my solar and inverter with the battery installed but it seems like the inverter and battery isn't communicating the way it should be. I would like to run off the battery when the sun goes down but I don't think the inverter can detect when the battery drops to a certain level for it to start charging it. Sorry I'm very new to this and I think the installers saw me coming and maybe did me in a bit. Any help will be appreciated. The battery type on the inverter is set to USE.

 

Regards

Jaco

You can run it on USE or US2. What you must make sure is what does your battery specification says regarding Max voltage charge. max current charge and float voltage, the BMS will do the rest. Looking at the photo of the battery it looks like a Seplos BMS. 

10 minutes ago, Jakesvt02 said:

Do you run on the battery at night? 

Max current charge at 100 Amps is far to high in my opinion, better look at the battery manual and set it accordingly. 

5 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Max current charge at 100 Amps is far to high in my opinion, better look at the battery manual and set it accordingly. 

I charge mine as per OEM specification at 40 amps, takes about 3 hours to full charge. See dashboard.

9 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

Max current charge at 100 Amps is far to high in my opinion, better look at the battery manual and set it accordingly. 

I have 3x 1C's,100A is gentle😉

Just now, PsyWulf said:

I have 3x 1C's,100A is gentle😉

@PsyWulf Sure, but remember @Jakesvt02 there is only one battery in the photo that he posted, he could think that he can charge the battery at 100 Amps

10 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

@PsyWulf Sure, but remember @Jakesvt02 there is only one battery in the photo that he posted, he could think that he can charge the battery at 100 Amps

Well i'm also charging exclusively from Solar too,i'd hope he'd realize he needs to tweak his settings appropriately

At the moment I left all the settings according to what the installer set them. But they did set it as backup only so everything in the house was running off eskom and my panels were just charging my battery. So the only thing I changed was that it starts using my panels to supply my house, so the ac output source is pv and then utility. I only have 4 x 545watt panels at the moment. 

Can I maybe send the current settings just for you guys to check it out? I would like to run off the battery at night but I don't know what to change to do that.

Will the inverter know when to start charging the battery when it gets to low? 

30 minutes ago, Jakesvt02 said:

Will the inverter know when to start charging the battery when it gets to low? 

This would be affected by the To Grid voltage,and the Charger priority and charger current settings

1 hour ago, Jakesvt02 said:

Will the inverter know when to start charging the battery when it gets to low? 

Depending on your settings, if you are on USE setting on parameter 5, and OSO on parameter 14, while there is enough PV from your solar panels the inverter will keep the batteries at whatever voltage you have set on parameter 19. I would like to know what is the setting on parameter 1. 

The Ac Ouput Source is actually set to Pv&Uti Priority I don't know why it's showing as Bat Priority. 

Here is the battery manual

Edited July 4, 20232 yr by Jakesvt02

8 minutes ago, Jakesvt02 said:

Here is the battery manual

Your manual recommends max charging current 35 amps your settings says 60 Amps, but then again, I'm not sure with the number of panels you have you will reach such, but to be on the safe side set it as per recommended. 

21 minutes ago, Jakesvt02 said:

Here is the battery manual

What are the settings on the inverter ? 

6 minutes ago, Antonio de Sa said:

What are the settings on the inverter ? 

I only know how to get the settings from the datalogger not on the actual inverter. I'm a bit of a noob. Those screenshots I posted is from the wifi data logger plugged into my inverter.

6 minutes ago, Jakesvt02 said:

I only know how to get the settings from the datalogger not on the actual inverter. I'm a bit of a noob. Those screenshots I posted is from the wifi data logger plugged into my inverter.

Push the enter key on the inverter for about 3 seconds, (that is the one on the far-right side) you will see the number 1 on the bottom left side of the display flashing, that is parameter 1, then press the down key it will go to parameter 2 and so on, and so on. once you gone thru all the parameters push the key on the far right to go back to the standard display.