Goodwe 5Kva - Suddenly doing its own thing.

[LLTHB]

Hi. About 4 weeks ago my Goodwe suddenly started to charge my batteries from midnight onwards.

So, running in General Mode - batteries set to deplete to 50 % of charge when Eskom power is on.

Sun goes down at 19h00, batteries on 100%. Slowly they draw down to 50% and stay there.

Now, here is the problem - they should just stay at my chosen point of 50% until the sun shines and PV makes power, excess power made will now charge the batteries.

BUT - now suddenly the Goodwe is charging the batteries from 00h01 each day.

So now I have to buy Eskom to charge the batteries.

Have Goodwe changed something, do I need a firmware update etc?

Anyone else have this issue? Thanks.

[Bobster.]

47 minutes ago, LLTHB said:

Hi. About 4 weeks ago my Goodwe suddenly started to charge my batteries from midnight onwards.

So, running in General Mode - batteries set to deplete to 50 % of charge when Eskom power is on.

Sun goes down at 19h00, batteries on 100%. Slowly they draw down to 50% and stay there.

Now, here is the problem - they should just stay at my chosen point of 50% until the sun shines and PV makes power, excess power made will now charge the batteries.

BUT - now suddenly the Goodwe is charging the batteries from 00h01 each day.

So now I have to buy Eskom to charge the batteries.

Have Goodwe changed something, do I need a firmware update etc?

Anyone else have this issue? Thanks.

I assume this is an ES series inverter. This is what I have. If you have a different model then what follows may not apply.

That the charging starts at the same time every day says that there is some sort of time based rule in place. So first check that you are in general mode, don't assume that you are.

Goodwe can remotely update inverters, but usually they only do so by agreement. They discuss something with the client and then tell you they are going to upgrade the firmware. They don't update all inverters everywhere. The approach is that they don't try to fix what the customer isn't complaining about. My Goodwe doesn't have the latest firmware, but I'm happy so they leave it alone. 

However what if the installer (who will have admin rights on the inverter) requests an update? My installer has always told me when they have requested an update (which they did a couple of times early on) but some may not do that.

So do you have old screen shots that show the firmware version? That's a way to check if the firmware is changed. But I think that unlikely.

How is the grid voltage where you live? A while back I noticed strange and unpredictable behaviour on the part of my Goodwe. At the same time there was very low grid voltage. Often in the low 180s, occasionally into the 170s, never getting close to 230. The municipality changed something and that bought the grid voltage back up to a more acceptable range. And the misbehaviour stopped.
 

[LLTHB]

3 hours ago, Bobster. said:

I assume this is an ES series inverter. This is what I have. If you have a different model then what follows may not apply.

That the charging starts at the same time every day says that there is some sort of time based rule in place. So first check that you are in general mode, don't assume that you are.

Goodwe can remotely update inverters, but usually they only do so by agreement. They discuss something with the client and then tell you they are going to upgrade the firmware. They don't update all inverters everywhere. The approach is that they don't try to fix what the customer isn't complaining about. My Goodwe doesn't have the latest firmware, but I'm happy so they leave it alone. 

However what if the installer (who will have admin rights on the inverter) requests an update? My installer has always told me when they have requested an update (which they did a couple of times early on) but some may not do that.

So do you have old screen shots that show the firmware version? That's a way to check if the firmware is changed. But I think that unlikely.

How is the grid voltage where you live? A while back I noticed strange and unpredictable behaviour on the part of my Goodwe. At the same time there was very low grid voltage. Often in the low 180s, occasionally into the 170s, never getting close to 230. The municipality changed something and that bought the grid voltage back up to a more acceptable range. And the misbehaviour stopped.
 

Hi Thank you for the reply, it is appreciated.

Yes, it is an ES series unit.

100% sure the unit is in General Mode.

General Mode is supposed to only use excess power to charge the batteries. And it used to do this for 4 years without missing a beat. But now suddenly it starts charging the battery just after midnight. I see Goodwe have updated their manuals and it looks like the mode names have changed and they now speak about time based charging parameters that can be set like a Sunsynk unit. I will look into this further.

We have had lots of low power issues from Eskom lately, whole town going down to 1 phase only 110v or so, in the Karoo the wind and Eskom are not friends I can assure you.

Cheers.

[Bobster.]

28 minutes ago, LLTHB said:

General Mode is supposed to only use excess power to charge the batteries. And it used to do this for 4 years without missing a beat. But now suddenly it starts charging the battery just after midnight. I see Goodwe have updated their manuals and it looks like the mode names have changed and they now speak about time based charging parameters that can be set like a Sunsynk unit. I will look into this further.

Mode names on my unit have never changed. The mode with time based rules is always Economical Mode. But maybe you have different firmware than I do.

This sounds like Economical Mode. Nothing else on the ES relies on time of day.