October 2, 20232 yr Hello everyone, I just moved into a farm fully off grid. We have 2 Mecer 5kva inverters and 8 gel batteries. My problem is that we were having energy normally until 2 am, but then a guy came and did something and now I’m running out of electricity at 8 pm! is there something I can do in the configuration to try to fix this?? What could be the problem? please help!
October 3, 20232 yr but then a guy came and did something It's difficult to know without knowing what that guy did, but maybe he changed the cutoff voltage for your batteries... what is it set to? Also, how old are the batteries? Are they getting fully charged every day (I suspect from panels)?
October 3, 20232 yr Oops, I missed that [ edit: about the guy changing something ], I assumed that your two posts were identical. My bad. Yes, we need to know details: * Brand and model of battery modules, or photos thereof * Battery related settings: settings 05, 26, 27, 29, 12, 13. * Are you charging by solar? * Is the battery getting fully charged? Please tell us what voltage it gets to, about what time on a good solar day, and how long it stays at that voltage before dropping. Preferably with a multimeter, but it would be helpful to know what battery voltage the inverter reports as well. * Eventually, I'm going to ask for the main firmware version number. It may be that patched firmware can help dramatically with something called the "premature float bug". Wow, that's a lot of homework, sorry. But it really helps us to help you. Edited October 3, 20232 yr by Coulomb Added text in [ brackets ].
October 4, 20232 yr Author Thank you! I’ll try to get all the info! batteries are providing 48v and are gettinf fully charged. what happened was that this guy said the slave Inverter was faulty and not providing output, only input. He sent it for repairs, when connected back we started having the issue of running out of power at 8 pm… 2 weeks ago we were running till 4 am, so I don’t think the batteries are the issue.. for the battery settings you asked, maybe you can send me what the correct settings should be? lastly, how do I check the firmware? thank you so much!
October 4, 20232 yr batteries are providing 48v and are gettinf fully charged. If you are going by the battery 'graph' on the display it is not necessarily correct because it is merely based on your settings and doesn't know if the battery is really fully charged or not. You need to make sure the batteries are reaching the bulk charge voltage and staying there while the amps drop off and then only switch to float voltage. for the battery settings you asked, maybe you can send me what the correct settings should be? Here is what I would suggest, @Coulomb can correct me when he gets a chance: 02; 80A 05: USE 11: 20A 12: 49V 13: 54V 26: 58V 27: 54.4V 29: 48V The back to grid and back to battery settings shouldn't affect you as you are off grid, but they do affect the premature float bug afaik. Write down your current settings before changing anything and make sure the settings are the same on both inverters, although I'm pretty sure the master should be setting the slave's settings, but it doesn't hurt to make sure. lastly, how do I check the firmware? You can check this on the display, press up or down until you see the values for U1 and U2. If you can also provide an image of the sticker on the side of the inverter I'm sure it'll make things easier for @Coulomb
October 5, 20232 yr 02; 80A I suggest 100 A between the two inverters; it's a maximum, and the battery modules are rated for 50 A per string. Perhaps 90 A if you want to be more cautious. So this would be 50 A on one and 40 or 50 A on the other. 26: 58V 27: 54.4V I agree for summer; consider changing these to say 58.4 V and 55.2 V respectively in winter. The 58.4 V figure could even be increased to as high as 58.8 V, only in winter, and only for a week or two to "wake up" the battery. this guy said the slave Inverter was faulty and not providing output, only input. He sent it for repairs, when connected back we started having the issue of running out of power at 8 pm… 2 weeks ago we were running till 4 am, so I don’t think the batteries are the issue.. That's starting to sound like maybe the battery cables were disturbed by the removal and replacement of one of the inverters, and/or the inverter that came back has some bad settings. Some of the wiring looks pretty old and possibly corroded from the photo. BTW, the photo of the battery was very helpful, as it has the recommended charge settings written there. Perhaps a photo of the over-all battery cabling would help us spot a problem. I would check that the slave inverter is "pulling its share": check that it is contributing close to half of the power to loads over about 1 kW, and that it is charging the battery with roughly the same current as the other one. It may be that some of the paralleling wiring became disturbed as well. One inverter should say HS (for master) and the other SL (for SLave). If for example one inverter isn't charging the battery, then that could explain at least some of the reduction in run-time. I agree, since the battery was providing power till 4am two weeks ago, your battery is probably in at least reasonable shape, and should be able to do much better. But what setting 29 is set to will tell us whether the battery has been abused over a long time. Running out every night doesn't sound good for battery life, unfortunately.
October 5, 20232 yr I should add that there is also the chance that the battery modules have become unbalanced, and somehow more unbalanced as a result of the recent repair. When loads are fairly steady, use a multimeter to compare all 12 V module voltages. They should differ by not much more than 0.1 V. If a few are lower than the rest, a car battery charger can be used to push them up. It will take hours for a (e.g.) 6 A charger to make any difference to a 240 Ah battery module, so patience is needed. Long term, a battery balancer of some sort is indicated, if you don't already have one.
October 8, 20232 yr Author Thank you for the input, yesterday I had a fault code 72. I ended up disconnecting one of the inverters simce didn’t know what to do, the fault stopped. Of I only use 1 inverter, what settings should I use please?
October 9, 20232 yr On 2023/10/08 at 7:34 AM, Miguelb said: Thank you for the input, yesterday I had a fault code 72. I ended up disconnecting one of the inverters simce didn’t know what to do, the fault stopped. Of I only use 1 inverter, what settings should I use please? The voltage settings can remain the same. Only adjust the maximum PV charge to 40A and the combined grid and PV to 40A as well as you have no grid charge.
October 14, 20232 yr Author Hello friends, so I ended up changing the batteries, got a lithium one from LBSA. Got it installed yesterday and the power went off at 22:30! It was very frustrating since my consumption at 8:30 when I last check was at 200 watts! please help what can be the issue??
October 15, 20232 yr Author Battery is LBSA, 5 kwh, 53v. settings 29 - 44 27 - 54 26 - 56.4 13 - 54 12 - 47 11 - 20 a 2 - 20 a battery is switching off when reaching 52.5 v approx and is not switching back on in the morning. any ideas of what could be the issue?
October 15, 20232 yr 27 minutes ago, Miguelb said: Battery is LBSA, 5 kwh, 53v. settings 29 - 44 27 - 54 26 - 56.4 13 - 54 12 - 47 11 - 20 a 2 - 20 a battery is switching off when reaching 52.5 v approx and is not switching back on in the morning. any ideas of what could be the issue? @Miguelb Just a question? what is parameter 13 and 27, I think that's where your problem is. I have one of LBSA 5 Kw 100 Ah, 51.2 V running for over two years now with no issues whatsoever, with the exception of the stupid cycle count, it counts one cycle every time SOC drops below 80%.
October 15, 20232 yr 1 minute ago, Miguelb said: Hey, what do you have for 13 and 27? @Miguelb I have a different inverter that is why I'm asking you what the meaning of those parameters are. My set up is as per LBSA recommended settings. Charge current they recommend 40 Amps I have mine set at 30 Amps. Charge voltage 56 V Float voltage 54 V Back to utility voltage 49 V Back to battery 50 V Cut out voltage 48 V.
October 15, 20232 yr Author Sorry I see, yes so 13 is volt point back to battery and 27 is float. So maybe I should change 13 to 50v instead of 54?
October 15, 20232 yr 3 hours ago, Miguelb said: Hey, what do you have for 13 and 27? @Miguelb Yeap, so your setting 13 is to high, you can even set it at 49 V. What is your back to utility set at?
October 16, 20232 yr 20 hours ago, Miguelb said: 29 - 44 27 - 54 26 - 56.4 13 - 54 (shouldn't matter as you are off grid) 12 - 47(shouldn't matter as you are off grid) 11 - 2 a 2 - 20 a Those settings seem mostly correct, you can reduce the max utility charging current to 2A as you have no grid and I think those 2 might conflict with each other. You need to make sure the inverter is charging to 56.4V and staying there long enough for the battery to reach 100% or it won't be fully charging. If it isn't you'll need to either set the float or equalization to 56.4V for the battery to charge fully. That battery is a bit too small for those 2 inverters, it can only put out 100A max (50A recommended) which is 5kVA and you have 10kVA of inverters, not a good combination.
October 16, 20232 yr Author I have realized that the battery charges to 56v but the SOC goes only to 90%. Is that normal?
October 16, 20232 yr 1 minute ago, Miguelb said: I have realized that the battery charges to 56v but the SOC goes only to 90%. Is that normal? @Miguelb No, not normal at all, at 56 V you should get close to 100% SOC, maybe in the 95% 97% range, where are you taking this percentage from? at the battery display? I have a similar battery, 2 years old and I get 99% at 56 V see dashboard of my battery SOC in the last 12 hours.
October 16, 20232 yr 5 minutes ago, Miguelb said: What could be the issue in this case? The battery will need some time at 56.4V to top balance before it will seem to jump to 100%. Make sure your inverter stays at 56.4V for an hour or more. The battery will look like it is turning on and off while it is balancing. If the inverter is reaching 56.4V and then going to float voltage before 100% then you need to increase your float to 56.4V also or set the equalization to 56.4V for 1hr and see if that gets to 100%, otherwise increase the time.
October 16, 20232 yr Author My flot is already at 56.4, and it’s been more than one hour now and no change.. how do I set the equalization please and how do I increase the time?
October 16, 20232 yr 9 minutes ago, Miguelb said: What could be the issue in this case? @Miguelb No idea, if I was you, I would contact LBSA and show them this, you could have a unbalanced battery or maybe some cell are not getting to full charge, my battery from day one has a cell that does not get to full charge. see dashboard. I contacted LBSA and they told me to take the battery over, I decided to live with that problem is minor and I still get SOC to 99% so I'm satisfied.
October 16, 20232 yr 5 minutes ago, Miguelb said: My flot is already at 56.4, and it’s been more than one hour now and no change.. how do I set the equalization please and how do I increase the time? Depending on your model, it should be settings 33: EEN 34: 56.4V 35: 60 36: 120 37: 1 39: AEN You can probably access the cell voltages on the battery lcd screen if you want to see if there is any imbalance.
October 16, 20232 yr Author My settings are completely different for those 33 - eds 35 - 5 36 - 5 37 - 32d 38 - ena 39 - aen
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