Solis S6 Pro Hybrid Inverter Review

[zsde]

2 minutes ago, cp69 said:

Is the Solis compatible with solar assistant? I don't see it on their list?

Contact them to ascertain when as their website states mid 2023

[cp69]

On 2023/07/27 at 12:16 PM, WannabeSolarSparky said:

On the 8K it's 50 amps pass through
on the 6K it's 40 amps

Is this 40 amps additional to the current provided from PV and battery or is 40 amps the maximum the unit can handle? Meaning Pv,battery and grid combined 40 amps?

[Charles - Solis]

22 hours ago, Greglsh said:

Would it be better to maybe connect to "non-essentials" that would get covered by grid? Only issue I see is if no Eskom power it would not make use of the micro-inverters. Was thinking of putting geysers and aircons on the "non-essentials" So if there is a lot of PV then heat the geysers and run the aircons.

Would this be a better option?

You can connect the grid-tied PV inverter to the Backup or Gen connection of the S6 Hybrid inverter so that the PV generation energy is always available, but you should not rely on the "maximum demand" ie. 6kW (hybrid) + 1kW(grid-tied) = 7kW max demand. This might not always be available.

[WannabeSolarSparky]

1 hour ago, cp69 said:

Is this 40 amps additional to the current provided from PV and battery or is 40 amps the maximum the unit can handle? Meaning Pv,battery and grid combined 40 amps?

That is the AC Amps on the AC side input/output

[johanpre]

I'm looking at replacing/upgrading my 3KW Growatt Off-Grid inverter with a hybrid to start "harvesting" more solar power and save on my Eskom bill. Was looking at Sunsynk or Deye, but the 6KW Solis is really intriguing, especially after the review, great work AlexTZA!

I'm currently using Solar Assistant on my Growatt and very keen to see the integration with Solis when they release a version later this year. Don't really care too much about not having a screen on the inverter and manage it via my phone.

Who is a good supplier of the SOlis S6 Pro inverters in Gauteng, preferably Johannesburg area?

[Scorp007]

3 hours ago, johanpre said:

I'm looking at replacing/upgrading my 3KW Growatt Off-Grid inverter with a hybrid to start "harvesting" more solar power and save on my Eskom bill. Was looking at Sunsynk or Deye, but the 6KW Solis is really intriguing, especially after the review, great work AlexTZA!

I'm currently using Solar Assistant on my Growatt and very keen to see the integration with Solis when they release a version later this year. Don't really care too much about not having a screen on the inverter and manage it via my phone.

Who is a good supplier of the SOlis S6 Pro inverters in Gauteng, preferably Johannesburg area?

Are you going to install yourself? 

[johanpre]

1 hour ago, Scorp007 said:

Are you going to install yourself? 

That's correct. All the electrical work for the current inverter is already done (for 40A), so it should be a straight forward swap.

[Scorp007]

16 minutes ago, johanpre said:

That's correct. All the electrical work for the current inverter is already done (for 40A), so it should be a straight forward swap.

How about you check out the forum store and confirm when the 1st units might be available. 

This inverter I think was mentioned it must be installed by a Installation Electrician with COC. 

Edited August 17, 2023 by Scorp007

[Steve87]

Must admit guys I can't wait to install one of these machines. I have had a recently very poor service episode with Sunsynk where I totally question their RMA process & maybe it's just the shortcomings of a very successful company that now start to feel absolutely not much for ppl that have taken them to where they are. 

But Sunsynk aside. This Solis looks extremely solid & I will definitely post my first install soon. My only let's call it constructive criticism if I may from an installers perspective is that there is not a pure 3 phase in one option yet. I hope that this can be developed because there is a large 3 phase market & some ppl don't want to scale with 3 machines in parallel unfortunately. 

Watching with intrigue...

[Powerforum Store]

On 2023/07/17 at 12:50 PM, AlexTZA said:

I recently decided to give the new Solis S6 inverter (S6-EH1P6K-L-PRO) a long test drive by replacing the 4-year-old Goodwe 5048ES at my home with the Solis. The purpose of this was to evaluate the performance of the inverter in a real-use environment over an extended period, and largely compare it to its closest Sunsynk equivalent, which is a favourite local hybrid option.

Since the inverter is located in a noise-sensitive location, I opted for the largest fan-free version, which is the 6 kW model, and this sports a large passive-cooled heatsink on the back of the inverter, as per Sunsynk and Goodwe. The 8 kW model uses fans for forced-air cooling and until I’ve heard the noise profile of the fans, which can often be more miss than hit with inverters, the 6 kW version sounded like the best fit. I had initially planned on using a single 5kW Sunsynk and then possibly expanding to two in parallel over time but decided that given the apparent attractiveness of the offer, the Solis warranted some investigation.

Specification-wise, the Solis looks compelling, with a price tag of the 6 kW version essentially matching the ubiquitous and benchmark 5 kW Sunsynk, with both inverters being NRS certified for South Africa and offered with a 5 year warranty. It does have some notable features, besides the obvious power output advantage, that make it stand out though. It has wide voltage range MPPTs that startup and operate from 90V making an array starting with three panels possible. It’s upper MPPT (520V), maximum operating voltage (600V), and peak operating current (16A) are also higher than the Sunsynk. This all ends up with the total maximum PV input power on the Solis being 9.6 kW compared to the Sunsynk’s 7kw. Overall, this suited my existing solar array setup better, and ultimately makes the Solis notably more flexible on this front.

Connection-wise, the inverter feels rather like a Sunsynk as well. In addition to the Grid and Load ports, a Generator/Auxiliary port is also present, although it currently appears this port is only configurable for power input, not output as well as with the Sunsynk. There is an external CT clamp connection for the internal power meter, although the supplied CT cable length is a bit miserly at around 1m or so. The usual battery BMS, parallel and RS485 (MODBUS) ports are also present, as well as a generator start signal and grid-loss relay outputs. However, the inverter automatically bonds Neutral and Earth at the Load port on grid loss, possibly controlled by the Grid Standard setting selected, so an external contactor, if required for grid code conformance, would not be required for this inverter, as was the case with my previous Goodwe.

Installation was rather straight forward with no unwelcome surprises or irritations. The inverter hangs on and is secured to a simple separate wall mount bracket that is easy to install. I did note that the inverter heatsink and internal PE terminals are not electrically connected and must be bonded as specified in the user manual. Once all the connections were complete, the inverter’s relatively simple but elegant-looking display lights up, giving a basic battery SoC level-type indication, any alarm state, and the active state of the WiFi and/or Bluetooth interfaces. The inverter has a chunky WiFi dongle as well as a Bluetooth antenna that protrude from the bottom of the inverter, but that shouldn’t present a problem unless (incorrectly) installed in a space-constrained environment. So far so good.

Solis decided to forgo a display and buttons on the inverter itself and rather leverage long-range Bluetooth and WiFi for commissioning the inverter via the SolisCloud App. After downloading the App, and creating an account, connecting to the inverter was relatively straight forward and fuss-free. There are a significant number of configuration sections and options to potentially fiddle with, but thankfully Soils has created a quick start shortcut that takes you through the few steps of setting up the basics, such as the type of battery, to get everything running. My inverter is paired with Pylontech batteries and the BMS comms worked flawlessly out the box. I was impressed how quickly and easily I managed to get everything working. After some initial fiddling, I did realise I had installed the CT sensor the wrong way around (arrow towards the grid, as with Goodwe, but opposite of Sunsynk). However, there is a configuration setting in the inverter that allows the direction to be corrected in software, which I promptly enabled to avoid any more physical labour, but found the inverter was still doing unexpected things, like exporting battery power to the grid when I had told it not to export anything. In the end, I begrudgingly took out a screwdriver and opened the DB board again, corrected the CT direction and then everything worked as expected. So nice idea on the CT setting, but maybe it needs a bit more work in terms of all the effects on the inverter’s various modes of operation.

Which brings me directly to my first notable issue I have with this inverter. As per the Goodwe, it’s missing a Sunsynk-like time-of-day multi-minimum SoC setting operational mode. It has quite a few operational modes, but those that do, only allow the definition of charge and discharge times and power, just like the Goodwe. Maybe this makes sense when using Time of Use tariffs, but otherwise just seems unnecessarily befuddling and complex for the average person. You can however set one reserve SoC per mode, which will tell the inverter when to stop discharging the battery, but this is not as flexible and useful as the Sunsynk SoC timer where setting different SoC values depending on the time of day is possible.

Also, as seems standard in the inverter industry, there are a multitude of settings that have no reference in the manual, probably due to newer firmware releases since the manual was published, but descriptions for many settings are simply not defined anywhere – videos, the Solis website or otherwise. Making setting available without proper documentation for installers or end-users is just poor practice, but again, even Sunsynk is guilty of this habit.

Thus far, after about two weeks, the inverter has worked flawlessly, without issue. In my home, I typically run all essential and non-essential loads off the inverter, so this includes running a 3kW geyser, electric stove and two inverter-type air conditioners. Of course, not everything runs at the same time and some load management is still required, but the extra 1.5 kw headroom over the 4.6 kW Goodwe is certainly appreciated. I have also noticed the inverter seems to run noticeably cooler than a Sunsynk 5 kW, as well my previous Goodwe, with the heatsink only getting noticeably warm after running the geyser for its daily Geyserwise-controlled cycle. The inverter does appear to have an internal fan, like a Sunsynk but quieter, and I’ve only heard it turn on once when my CT-issues caused it to export 6 kW to the grid. Plotting the internal inverter temperature on the SolisCloud app shows the inverter internal temperature has not gone above 48 C yet, with the inverter being mounted in a ventilated cupboard.

Which is a good time for me to raise my second notable issue with the Solis S6. Say what you want, but there is something innately appealing about the simplicity of a touchscreen and buttons, where you can always go press a button, change a setting, and see (or not) the results immediately. The problem with the Solis is that without a physical interface, the user is highly reliant on their technical ability to use the App, the useability of the App itself, and reliability of the ability to connect to the inverter. This was the main problem with my previous Goodwe, where between the flaky WiFi interface and glitchy infrequently updated software, interacting with the inverter became a largely “touch-once, and forget” affair. Monitoring the inverter via the WiFi app mostly worked, but most irritatingly sometimes didn’t. And have mercy if you needed to change configuration modes or something similarly esoteric like that – often you simply weren’t sure if the change had been applied or if a good old inverter reboot was required first.

Unfortunately, while significantly better than the Goodwe software, the SolisCloud App currently has a lot of rough edges and issues. This is understandable to an extent with a relatively new Solis cloud platform and range of inverters but needs to be considered when comparing to a well-established and more mature platform offered by Sunsynk. However, some of the issues leaves one wondering what they are thinking exactly and how some of these issues are making their way into released software. For example, on the cloud platform the data displayed in the basic “real-time” power flow diagrams is incorrect - PV power values being shown at night for example. Also, the App and inverter supposedly have two methods of connecting to and configuring the inverter locally – via Bluetooth and WiFi. The Bluetooth method is the only method described in the manual and videos that I could find on the web. The WiFi method is there but doesn’t appear to work, throwing connection/password errors that don’t appear to make sense. And then a recent automatic App update seems to have bricked my ability to connect to the Inverter at all via Bluetooth – all I get is a blank screen and nothing happens whereas before it worked without issue. Restarting the inverter and phone hasn’t helped. So now, I have no way of configuring the inverter locally – which isn’t particularly confidence inspiring.

This brings me on the third and final issue with this inverter, which relates to remote configuration. If you are an installer, you can’t currently manage customer inverter settings remotely, which is a big downside when compared to the Sunsynk platform. As an end user, it is possible to manually request this remote management functionality. I have done so and am able to configure the inverter this way, at least until Solis can sort out the local configuration issues. It would be interesting to understand the reasoning why this functionality cannot be enabled by default or at least be controlled via a local setting for security reasons. The Solis web site does seem to allude to the fact that the remote management of inverters by installers may be possible at some point in the future. However, until that time arrives, if ever, it means my choice of supplying a customer a Sunsynk or a Solis will always favour the former as remote access is such a critical and time saving feature.

As this is a long-term test and evaluation of this inverter, I will continue to experiment and note changes/updates made to the inverter’s operation. There are certain aspects that I have not tested yet, such as the behaviour and power control in feed back to non-essential loads, which will develop over time.

So in summary, the Solis S6 inverter has serious potential to offer a competitive alternative to the current local favourite Sunsynk’s benchmark offering, but is hampered by firmware and software issues, all of which needs to be addressed promptly by Solis. As with any technical device these days, great hardware can be ruined or rendered forgotten by poor software.

Pros:

• 6 kW power for the same price as a 5 kW Sunsynk.
• More flexible PV capabilities compared to a Sunsynk.
• Runs relatively cool and is practically silent.

Cons:

• Inverter has no SoC-level timer operational mode.
• SolisCloud App needs work to make it reliable.
• Remote configuration for installers is missing.

 

*** Update - 21/07/2023 ***

I was contacted by the Solis' local technical support team to try sort out some of the issues I had encountered - thank you for the proactive support!

A remote firmware upgrade of the inverter was performed, and it was suggested I try uninstall/reinstall the SolisCloud app as well. The result is one of these actions solved the local Bluetooth connection issue, but I can't say which, so if anyone has the same issue, I would recommend try either clearing the app cache (in the App, go to Me->Settings->General->Clean Cache) or uninstall-reinstall the app first. For reference, you can contact the local support team at [email protected] to request a firmware update - you will need to send them the inverter S/N and data logger S/N.

Also, contrary to what is specified on the Solis website, local Solis support informed me it is possible to remotely configure inverters from a single "installer" type account that contains multiple customer inverters and we are in the process of activating it on the account and I will test drive the functionality once available. Again, please contact the local support team and they will assist in organising the functionality for those that require this.

Finally, the local support team did indicate they would put in a request for a SoC-schedule type operating mode, so I'm holding thumbs. For some users, they may be fine with one of the current operating modes with a single minimum SoC threshold, but a schedule would just be better and simpler for South African conditions.

*** Update 30/07/2023 ***

Solis enabled my installer remote control access and I can confirm I can now control my inverter through my installer account as well. Apparently remote access will soon be enabled by default for end users.

Travis, Product Manager from Solis, also confirmed the SoC schedule is in the queue to be implemented which is great news

After my recent firmware update, I see the inverter now also has options for using the Aux port as an output port, as per Sunsynk, but it seems the CT software reversal setting has disappeared, possibly related to operational issues as noted in the review.

Some bugs in the apps and Bluetooth interface have been addressed as well, and thankfully, the last password used to log in via Bluetooth is now automatically remembered. The local WiFi config mode still doesn't appear to work though.

 

Brilliant Unbiased Review 

Check out this thread it may interest you 

 

[Mattg]

On 2023/08/17 at 9:06 PM, Scorp007 said:

How about you check out the forum store and confirm when the 1st units might be available. 

This inverter I think was mentioned it must be installed by a Installation Electrician with COC. 

+1 on this.

Powerforum store is awesome, and proper advice available if needed.

Just got my Solis, panels and batteries from the guys. 

[Greglsh]

@AlexTZA

So it has almost been a month since your last update on the Solis S6. Do you have any other feedback please. I am sort of stuck between choosing the Solis S6 or the SunSynk inverter and really enjoyed your real life feedback.

Have you come across an more pro's and cons.

Thanks

Edited August 25, 2023 by Greglsh

[Greglsh]

Seen a few people on YouTube complaining about the Solis app and how they keep taking info away or moving it to strange places. Has anybody worked on the Solis app with the new S6 hybrid? Whats your opinion?

[Scorp007]

32 minutes ago, Greglsh said:

Seen a few people on YouTube complaining about the Solis app and how they keep taking info away or moving it to strange places. Has anybody worked on the Solis app with the new S6 hybrid? Whats your opinion?

Can anyone confirm that the new S6 would use the standard Solis cloud APP. Then I can give feedback on how I find it. I have posted some of my gripes in the product section. 

Edited August 25, 2023 by Scorp007

[cp69]

I just purchased my s6 6kw yesterday. Pretty excited I have to say 

Edited August 25, 2023 by cp69

[AlexTZA]

@Greglsh 

Apologies, I have been meaning to do some more specific testing and updates but have been rather busy of late so inverter experiments have had to take a back seat for a while.

Maybe it's a case of no news is good news? In terms of day to day operation, the inverter has been doing its thing without any commotion and that's great in my view. I log in to the app and check things every so often and so far there is nothing untoward or funny behaviour to report. I must say the extra 1.4kw power capacity over my old goodwe is much appreciated and makes life noticeably easier in some respects, especially as I run my house essentially off-grid. I haven't yet managed to draw enough power to trip the inverter, although that didn't happen very often with my Goodwe either as managing loads has become fairly automatic for me. I have been looking at possibly adding a second 6kw in parallel in the near future to test how well that aspect of these inverters works.

If I had to choose today between the 6kw Solis and the 5kw Sunsynk, I'd probably still go with the Solis largely because the basic, reliable operation of the inverters is comparable. Other factors may be what is more important/workable for you but the value of the Solis considering the extra 1kw on offer is a plus. I like the Sunsynk physical touchscreen, but the Solis app seems to be improving slowly and is reliable so as not to be annoying, so the user interface is largely a non-issue for me. I do wish Solis would sort out the local  WiFi connection ability though as Bluetooth has a decent but limited overall range compared to WiFi. Alternatively, if cost is the main consideration, the 5kw Solis would offer a nice saving, but if it were me I'd bite the bullet and pay the difference for the extra 1kw for a single inverter application. Both inverters appear to be great, fuss free options for the average household.

In terms of the Solis app, it admittedly feels a bit less intuitive than the Sunsynk app which feels a bit more straight forward to navigate, but it's not a major difference and maybe that's a familiarity thing on my part. I have found all the equivalent info I can find in the Sunsynk app if you want to drill down into the details. They have been reorganising the location of some functions of late but that's not necessarily a bad thing - I think the app is generally improving which is a good sign. Compared to the Goodwe mess, I can't really complain.

As far as I'm aware there is only one Solis Cloud app available with an orange Sun and gear type logo. My version on Android is 4.0.4 which apparently is the latest.

Edited August 25, 2023 by AlexTZA

[cp69]

On 2023/08/25 at 8:33 PM, AlexTZA said:

@Greglsh 

Apologies, I have been meaning to do some more specific testing and updates but have been rather busy of late so inverter experiments have had to take a back seat for a while.

Maybe it's a case of no news is good news? In terms of day to day operation, the inverter has been doing its thing without any commotion and that's great in my view. I log in to the app and check things every so often and so far there is nothing untoward or funny behaviour to report. I must say the extra 1.4kw power capacity over my old goodwe is much appreciated and makes life noticeably easier in some respects, especially as I run my house essentially off-grid. I haven't yet managed to draw enough power to trip the inverter, although that didn't happen very often with my Goodwe either as managing loads has become fairly automatic for me. I have been looking at possibly adding a second 6kw in parallel in the near future to test how well that aspect of these inverters works.

If I had to choose today between the 6kw Solis and the 5kw Sunsynk, I'd probably still go with the Solis largely because the basic, reliable operation of the inverters is comparable. Other factors may be what is more important/workable for you but the value of the Solis considering the extra 1kw on offer is a plus. I like the Sunsynk physical touchscreen, but the Solis app seems to be improving slowly and is reliable so as not to be annoying, so the user interface is largely a non-issue for me. I do wish Solis would sort out the local  WiFi connection ability though as Bluetooth has a decent but limited overall range compared to WiFi. Alternatively, if cost is the main consideration, the 5kw Solis would offer a nice saving, but if it were me I'd bite the bullet and pay the difference for the extra 1kw for a single inverter application. Both inverters appear to be great, fuss free options for the average household.

In terms of the Solis app, it admittedly feels a bit less intuitive than the Sunsynk app which feels a bit more straight forward to navigate, but it's not a major difference and maybe that's a familiarity thing on my part. I have found all the equivalent info I can find in the Sunsynk app if you want to drill down into the details. They have been reorganising the location of some functions of late but that's not necessarily a bad thing - I think the app is generally improving which is a good sign. Compared to the Goodwe mess, I can't really complain.

As far as I'm aware there is only one Solis Cloud app available with an orange Sun and gear type logo. My version on Android is 4.0.4 which apparently is the latest.

Thanks for the update. I have purchased my s6 pro 6kw from powerforum. 

Question I have and it is a noob question I know! The 6kw has a max pv of 9600w. What is the max per mppt? I'm thinking of going with 10 x Jinko 550w panels and then another 10 later on, hopefully in December. My understanding is this will mean an 11kw PV array - to much for the inverter. I could go with the 10 panels now and an additional 7 panels later on. This will mean a total of 9.3kw. Am I right in this thinking or is there a wattage limit per mppt? The spec sheet only shows a VOC and current limit per mppt. The 10 panel string will come in below the VOC limit 

[AlexTZA]

2 hours ago, cp69 said:

Thanks for the update. I have purchased my s6 pro 6kw from powerforum. 

Question I have and it is a noob question I know! The 6kw has a max pv of 9600w. What is the max per mppt? I'm thinking of going with 10 x Jinko 550w panels and then another 10 later on, hopefully in December. My understanding is this will mean an 11kw PV array - to much for the inverter. I could go with the 10 panels now and an additional 7 panels later on. This will mean a total of 9.3kw. Am I right in this thinking or is there a wattage limit per mppt? The spec sheet only shows a VOC and current limit per mppt. The 10 panel string will come in below the VOC limit 

Although I haven't tested it with the Solis, the PV power maximum is typically shared between the MPPTs - you can have uneven sized arrays (behaviour seen on Goodwe, Sunsynk, no reason to believe Solis will be different). No problem having oversized arrays either as although this is somewhat wasteful of possible peak power generation, you do get the benefit of higher generation before and after the peak power limit compared to a "right sized" array. Oversized solar is also useful for cloudy/overcast days where the array wont reach peak power anyway but will provide more power overall than a small one.

Edited August 28, 2023 by AlexTZA

[Zeldavs]

Looking for a installer that no how to install Solis 5kw advance pro. Want to link it to or Hubble am5 or BSL proline. What will be your take on this and is there anybody in Cape Town area that can give me quote for installation? 

[Mattg]

@AlexTZA

How are you finding the Solis App in terms of refresh rate for data, and the minimum 5 minute refresh period?

So far the inverter is doing what it's meant to do on my end, however the 5 minute data relay is problematic if you're trying to monitor from offsite.

 

Also struggling to get the inverter generator we've got to connect - currently through Aux port, but the inverter doesn't accept any voltage from it (generator has power chart on side, this doesn't move when plugged in).

 

Small teething issues which we'll get right, but cannot wait for Solar Assistant to support Solis, then can have some real time monitoring.   

[AlexTZA]

@Mattg

The data refresh rate is the same as the Sunsynk app and yes, it's not high speed but I guess that's the tradeoff for a free cloud-based monitoring platform.

As for the generator integration, I did a test earlier with a small 3.5kw generator with a variable throttle (left on for these tests) which worked without issue. Note that I'm using app v4.05 and my inverter firmware is v0501 for the DSP and HMI is v0901 seen when connecting locally. If your firmware is older, I'd probably contact Solis support to update it.

Here are the settings I used to test the gen (connected locally via Bluetooth):

 

Main things I noticed are:

- The inverter behaves essentially like a Sunsynk inverter - it will switch all the loads and battery charging onto the generator so make sure the generator is large enough to handle what you have configure plus some loads (or turn all the loads off ).

- If the loads are larger than the GEN rated power setting, the inverter will not attempt to connect the generator.

With regards to the settings:

- I presume the voltage droop enforces a minimum voltage on the gen input - if it drops below this value, the inverter will not engage the generator or will disconnect it.

- AC Coupling should be off - strange that the app allows you to enable this along with the With Generator setting but it should be off.

- Couldn't figure out what Min input power does - thought it might relate to the minimum load that has to be present before the inverter will use the generator but that didn't seem to be the case.

- Gen Max Charge power sets how much of the generator power goes to charging the batteries. This setting is very generator friendly as the inverter ramps up the load so as not to make the generator frequency drop and get disconnected.

- The GEN_Start_SOC is the level which the battery has to be below before the inverter will consider using the generator. GEN_Exit_SOC is the SoC where the inverter will disconnect/shutdown the generator.

- Gen Start/Exit Voltages are presumably used if you are just using battery voltages instead of SoC via BMS, so in most cases, these won't need to be changed.

- Gen signal would be used if you want to use the inverter contact to auto start a generator that has a controller or support for remote start signalling.

- Gen force usually forces the inverter to use the gen input, regardless of the other configured conditions. I didn't test this function but presume it's the same as the settings on a Sunsynk/Deye.

- Gen Stop on my app can't be enabled but maybe it's a toggle - perhaps one can manually force the start signal contact to open and thus stop the generator.

- Smart Load Switch - not sure how this could be enabled if With Generator or AC Coupling is enabled - seems like only one of these should be possible to enable at once.

Note, there are no frequency tolerance adjustments here. I presume the inverter uses the same frequency tolerances on the gen port as the grid settings so one might have to adjust those, especially the lower end side if the inverter switches in the generator but then tends to kick it out immediately as a load is turned on and the frequency drops too low. You can find the frequencies under Grid Code Setting ->Grid Code Parameters. I believe the ones of interest are the Startup/Recover FH/FL settings near the bottom of the list. I didn't have to adjust mine for charging the battery and turning on an inverter-type aircon, but the inverter chucked the generator off when I turned on a 1.2kw hob plate. That is often also related to the use of the dynamic throttle on the generator which sometimes isn't fast enough to respond.

It would be diagnostically useful for Solis to add some real-time details to the generator info section that shows the current generator input frequency (and voltage, if it's not there, can't recall now as it doesn't show up if the generator is not connected).

Here's a screenshot of the power flow with the generator working:

 

Edited September 8, 2023 by AlexTZA

[cp69]

@AlexTZA you should be a Solis brand ambassador!! The knowledge you have shared on this topic is of high value - infact the only reason I purchased my s6 pro. So thank you and Solis should show you their appreciation!!

[AlexTZA]

@cp69 Thanks, glad to hear the information has been useful. I have no desire to be a brand ambassador though, just trying to be objective and hopefully that's useful to others.

On to some other info.

- While I was busy discharging my batteries to get them below the minimum settable battery SoC for the generator to be usable (90%), I had a substantial load running on the inverter for about 45 minutes, that included my geyser, aircons and an electric hob plate or two. I noted the inverter internal fan was switching on when the load was higher than 3kw and off below that. Here is a graph of the load and resulting internal temperature,y which peaked at just over 57 deg.C. Generally the temperature tends to sit at between 30 and 35 deg.C.

- There is an interesting issue with the Solis app where if you have no Internet access, you can't seem to connect to the device locally to configure it. I tried a few times of restarting the app and waiting a fair while but it gets stuck on the screen below. Easy enough to get around with a mobile data connection via your phone, but still somewhat bizarre to require an Internet connection to perform local Bluetooth configuration.

- The inverter is currently connected to Pylontech batteries and I wanted to test it with a Greenrich battery, which I have been told by Greenrich is compatible the Pylontech BMS protocol. As I didn't see it listed in the settings area for batteries, I simply left the inverter in the Pylontech setting and the BMS worked perfectly with the greenrich battery. However, the inverter didn't want to enable the load output and on investigation I could see there was some strange bus voltage alarm. After reviewing the battery parameters displayed by the inverter, I could see the high voltage charge protection value I had previously set to 53v for the Pylontech was probably the issue as the Greenrich was already above that value. However, I could not find the setting anywhere in the settings menu indicating it was probably removed at some point. I eventually ran the Quick Setup again which actually has a much longer list of supported batteries (including Greenrich) than the settings menu where I was looking. Here's the current list. I suspect Hubble batteries will also work with the Pylontech setting.

[Mattg]

@AlexTZA

 

Thanks for the great feedback, I'll try the generator again later today.

 

[Mattg]

@AlexTZA

 

Thanks for the assist, got the generator to tie in.

2 Questions:

- Generator powers loads, doesn't seem to charge batteries?

- Zero output display via bluetooth for the generator, see below, this was under load and supplying power to essentials