Hi All

I have 2 x Luxpower SNA5000's connected in parallel. I've got two Solar arrays each connected to an inverter (8 x 480w panels - 4 x panels per string (inverter)). Why is it that although both arrays have sufficient sun (not clouded) but only one inverter's solar is used? I basically have enough solar to produce power to the EPS but only one string/ inverter's solar is used? Is there some settings I am getting wrong? on the attached picture you can see that the inverter picks up that i have an array connected but it does not use the power. 

Basic settings currently:

AC charge off

AC first  00:00 - 00:00 on all 3

hybrid/take load together off

On grid EOD: 90%

 

I would really appreciate the help

 

thanks

Xander 

Hi the more obvious one to me is the end of discharge setting is very high for good weather. Here is mine in good weather 

Hi

I've just for interest sake changed it 80%. So now its using solar and battery, but still only uses one inverters' solar.. weirdly, now its using the other inverter's solar, see below  pic. As if it does not want to use both arrays at the same time. 

P.s. I have noticed in the past when i do change the SOC lower than 90%, it will use solar and battery but when the EPS load exceeds solar and battery, I get a EPS overload warning and then it switches to AC. understandably, it should switch over to AC, but why the warning, does it not switch over knowing its the normal function? Then if I get a couple of EPS overloads, my battery goes into protect and warning as well. 

If the strings are the same, why is the voltage soo much lower on the one string? That is even on the string without a load, so if anything the voltage should be higher as when there is a load the voltage would drop a bit...

 

Something is definitely not right, I do not experience the issue you are experiencing. Check your panels on the string which is not being used - make sure none are damaged or have excessive shading.

If all is good, then maybe move that string to PV2 input on the inverter and see if it makes any difference or if the inverter then starts using power from PV.

 

Take a screenshot of the settings below and share it with us:

 

Edited November 6, 20232 yr by PsyCLown

2 hours ago, Xan77 said:

Hi

I've just for interest sake changed it 80%. So now its using solar and battery, but still only uses one inverters' solar.. weirdly, now its using the other inverter's solar, see below  pic. As if it does not want to use both arrays at the same time. 

P.s. I have noticed in the past when i do change the SOC lower than 90%, it will use solar and battery but when the EPS load exceeds solar and battery, I get a EPS overload warning and then it switches to AC. understandably, it should switch over to AC, but why the warning, does it not switch over knowing its the normal function? Then if I get a couple of EPS overloads, my battery goes into protect and warning as well. 

I'm trying to follow what you are describing, why are you keeping the batteries at 90%? 

It seems you have a lot of panels with no where to send the power, it's the reason I drain my batteries down to 10% just to have somewhere for the pv to go. Even then on sunny days like today my 10kwh battery is full at 10 am. The geyser comes on to use some of the pv but my panels have been idle for 2 hours.

I've seen that Ethekwini municipality now allows feeding back with a bidirectional meter.

I suspect that you might have to enable take load jointly if you don't have a prepaid meter because that allows the grid to supplement the load if pv is not enough. It sounds like your battery is not enough to supplement the pv which is why it's switching like with SBU mode. If Solar and Battery are not enough it switches to Utility.

7 hours ago, PsyCLown said:

If the strings are the same, why is the voltage soo much lower on the one string? That is even on the string without a load, so if anything the voltage should be higher as when there is a load the voltage would drop a bit...

 

Something is definitely not right, I do not experience the issue you are experiencing. Check your panels on the string which is not being used - make sure none are damaged or have excessive shading.

If all is good, then maybe move that string to PV2 input on the inverter and see if it makes any difference or if the inverter then starts using power from PV.

 

Take a screenshot of the settings below and share it with us:

 

Hi thanks for the replies and inputs, I really appreciate it. Been struggling with these inverters for a while now. 

So to maintain total stability in my system without any trips my settings are usually:

AC charge off

AC first  00:00 - 00:00 on all 3

hybrid/take load together OFF

On grid EOD: 90%

 

but I've copied settings from another forum topic to test it out and I still had system trips. It is currently as per attachment. (Which is still the copied settings) 

My oberservation is that the moment the inverter has to blend battery with the ac, there are trips i.e. solar not enough, uses battery, and when solar and battery is not enough and starts to use ac with the solar battery blend, it trips. 

 

Then the other issue pertaining to the two strings, I would have changed them over etc. but the issue is exactly the same. In the morning it used the primary's solar and used 0% of the secondary and then later on it used the seconday's solar and 0% of the primary. See my initial pics it just doest make sense. No shading on either strings. 

 

6 hours ago, Buyeye said:

I'm trying to follow what you are describing, why are you keeping the batteries at 90%? 

It seems you have a lot of panels with no where to send the power, it's the reason I drain my batteries down to 10% just to have somewhere for the pv to go. Even then on sunny days like today my 10kwh battery is full at 10 am. The geyser comes on to use some of the pv but my panels have been idle for 2 hours.

I've seen that Ethekwini municipality now allows feeding back with a bidirectional meter.

I suspect that you might have to enable take load jointly if you don't have a prepaid meter because that allows the grid to supplement the load if pv is not enough. It sounds like your battery is not enough to supplement the pv which is why it's switching like with SBU mode. If Solar and Battery are not enough it switches to Utility.

Hi, thanks for the help. I keep it at 90% because that is the only time the inverters does not use the battery. The moment I have a situation where battery is blended with ac i have trips. 

I don't mind setting the EOD to 30 or 40% but then i have trips. 

This afternoon I enabled take load together and set the EOD to 80%, was not even 10min when I had the first trip.

Some more info on my system: 

AC is fed before house earth leakage so comes down to fed directly from street breaker. (I still have a mains/EL to supply rest of my loads that comes from my inverter).

I have one battery shared between the two inverters (but this issue was also present even when i only had one inverter. 

I have lights breaker fed by EL

When the trips occur, it is within the inverters, not the earth leakage. The inverters will trip.

I have a prepaid meter

 

 

Edited November 6, 20232 yr by Xan77

When you say trips, do you mean the inverter restarts? It's possible to have an ac feed of 6600 watts which could trips when trying to draw the full 10kw from both inverters. 

I'm interested in the battery as with 2 inverters you need a 20kwh 0,5c battery or a 1c 10kwh battery. Anything less than those would likely cause problems.

Edited November 7, 20232 yr by Buyeye

15 hours ago, Xan77 said:

Hi thanks for the replies and inputs, I really appreciate it. Been struggling with these inverters for a while now. 

So to maintain total stability in my system without any trips my settings are usually:

AC charge off

AC first  00:00 - 00:00 on all 3

hybrid/take load together OFF

On grid EOD: 90%

 

but I've copied settings from another forum topic to test it out and I still had system trips. It is currently as per attachment. (Which is still the copied settings) 

My oberservation is that the moment the inverter has to blend battery with the ac, there are trips i.e. solar not enough, uses battery, and when solar and battery is not enough and starts to use ac with the solar battery blend, it trips. 

 

Then the other issue pertaining to the two strings, I would have changed them over etc. but the issue is exactly the same. In the morning it used the primary's solar and used 0% of the secondary and then later on it used the seconday's solar and 0% of the primary. See my initial pics it just doest make sense. No shading on either strings. 

 

Hmm, ok - let us start from the beginning.

How many batteries do you have and which batteries? Also how are they connected to the inverters?

 

Make sure your inverters are both on the latest firmware as per the below screenshot:

 

If you do not have access to the Remote Update, then speak to your installer and get them to make sure its on the latest firmware. Get the installer to send a screenshot and the code should match the above.

 

Next, let's make sure the inverters are setup in parallel on the portal as per the below, based on the screenshots you shared I think this is done correctly. Lets double check though:

 

Then we also need to make sure that the settings for parallel is the same for both inverters:

If the same battery is shared between the inverters then make sure that Battery Shared is Enabled.

 

With all of the above set correctly, when you make a config change to one inverter via the portal it should automatically apply the same change to the other inverter (ie. Changing the AC first times on the one inverter should change it on both inverters).

 

Then next please try the following settings and see if it makes any difference and prevents the inverter from tripping / giving an EPS overload error.

I assume in all instances, you are below 10KW output from the inverters?

 

 

So copy the highlighted settings above, this might not be ideal but it is just for testing purposes to ensure the inverters no longer trip or give you the EPS overload error. If that is resolved then we can tweak the above settings to suit your batteries and your needs better.

 

Let me know how it goes with the above settings in place and once you have confirmed the inverters are on the latest firmware and the parallel settings are done correctly.

Thanks a lot Psy, I'm going to give it a shot. I see i need to update firmware so I'll start with that and keep you posted. thanks again!

Good morning 

Just an update.

1. I've updated the firmware
2. Copied most of the settings above (some I cannot access - don't have installer's account) 
3. Set to take load jointly

It appears the system is running stable under all circumstances (sunny, rainy, cloudy, night, load shedding), provided I don't bring battery load into the equation when blended with AC. 

So my findings currently are:

1. When AC first is set to the above configuration - where the battery is not used whenever AC  is available, everything runs smoothly in all scenarios as stated  above. 
2. When I change the AC first timing to for example 00:00 - 05:00; 14:00 - 00:00 (Meaning I want the system to use Solar & battery first during 05h00 - 14h00) I still experience inverter trips whenever the loads exceed solar power. With inverter trips, I mean the inverter self would trip, causing power failure and would restart a couple minutes later) there is no tripping of the E/L.

It seems that the system does not want to blend battery power with solar and AC. It does not seem to be able to do Solar,Battery, AC. It does solar and AC blending, hybrid function on AC and solar, but would not combine all 3.

As a solution, I would  deactivate hybrid and keep the AC first settings as mentioned above in point 2. In that case it would only use Solar and Battery and switch over to AC if  both are not enough to carry load. 

@Xan77 hi I had to turn hybrid mode back on due to the rain for the past 2 days. I can confirm it works as advertised as seen on this screenshot. 

I do not think the inverter blends all 3 - I also do not see a situation where it would need to use all 3.

ie. If it is blending PV & Battery, why would it be using AC as well? How much power must the inverter know to draw from the PV & Battery and how much from AC?

 

I am thinking the issue may be your battery, I believe the Dyness batteries are not 1C, I think they are either 0.5C or 0.75C which means you would only be able to draw 2560W  to 3840W from the battery and the rest would need to come from PV... Keeping in mind it can take a bit of time for the MPPT to "ramp up" when the demand increases.

 

So for example, if you have a load of 6KW and lets say your battery is able to provide 3.8KW and your PV is only producing 1KW then the inverter would trip and give you an EPS overload error as the inverter won't blend AC & battery.

PV is the priority and then it either needs to blend the rest of the demand from battery or from AC.

 

 

The solution to this would be to either use less battery or only use battery when the demand is low or when there is no grid (not ideal, as without grid you could still draw too much from the battery).

Alternatively, add more batteries or sell the Dyness and get a 1C rated battery which can provide more power (keeping in mind, you may still require an additional battery if the load is over 5KW).

Greenrich have some batteries (not sure if all of them offer the same specs) which provide a 1.5C discharge rating meaning that the 4.9kWh battery would be bale to supply upto 7.3KW and this should make it easier for you and less likely that the inverters will trip. You could then stick with a single battery.

2 minutes ago, Buyeye said:

@Xan77 hi I had to turn hybrid mode back on due to the rain for the past 2 days. I can confirm it works as advertised as seen on this screenshot. 

I have also had mine do this, however 1W discharge is basically nothing. I have never seen a high discharge from the battery while using AC.

 

I high seen high battery charge power, combined with AC & PV though. I do not think the inverter blends AC & Battery.

5 minutes ago, PsyCLown said:

I have also had mine do this, however 1W discharge is basically nothing. I have never seen a high discharge from the battery while using AC.

 

I high seen high battery charge power, combined with AC & PV though. I do not think the inverter blends AC & Battery.

The geyser will come on in an hour I will post a screenshot then but why would the inverter need to draw from the battery? My grid feed is a huge 60 or 80 amps AC. 

That's what I've been asking the OP what are the values of the 3 sources he is trying to blend.

 

Here is the screenshot with the geyser on. I think in SUB mode it would draw from the battery too but I'm not sure. Maybe other people can confirm. 

Edited November 13, 20232 yr by Buyeye

Morning Guys

Thanks again for all the replies and advise. 

So I've monitored the system these past couple of weeks after all settings changed as per advised above. I'm not sure whether about the Dyness' rating 1C etc. 

What my experience is:

1. I don't get inverter trips when load  shedding kicks in and the load is low i.e. 800kw 

2. I get Inverter trips when load shedding kicks in and the load is "high" i.e. 3000kw 

3. I don't however get trips when It is load shedding already and i start using higher loads i.e. 3000kw

So in summary, the inverter trips when the load is high (3000kw) and inverter needs to switch over to PV & battery during load shedding. I can however use that very same amount of load i.e. 3000kw when I ramp it up. 

*In all scenarios i have sufficient power both battery and PV to actually carry the load. 

It seems to me that it comes down what Psyclown said that it might take a while for the MPPT to ramp up before bbeing able to use higher amounts of loads?

3 hours ago, Xan77 said:

Morning Guys

Thanks again for all the replies and advise. 

So I've monitored the system these past couple of weeks after all settings changed as per advised above. I'm not sure whether about the Dyness' rating 1C etc. 

What my experience is:

1. I don't get inverter trips when load  shedding kicks in and the load is low i.e. 800kw 

2. I get Inverter trips when load shedding kicks in and the load is "high" i.e. 3000kw 

3. I don't however get trips when It is load shedding already and i start using higher loads i.e. 3000kw

So in summary, the inverter trips when the load is high (3000kw) and inverter needs to switch over to PV & battery during load shedding. I can however use that very same amount of load i.e. 3000kw when I ramp it up. 

*In all scenarios i have sufficient power both battery and PV to actually carry the load. 

It seems to me that it comes down what Psyclown said that it might take a while for the MPPT to ramp up before bbeing able to use higher amounts of loads?

AFAIK the Dyness is a 0.5C battery. Thus you are limited to only 50% of the maximum current bases on the Ah size. This then keeps the total load in check at a much lower level.