Govendl3 Posted August 19 Share Posted August 19 Hello all Looking for some assistance and guidance. I have a growatt invertor and pylontech 5kw battery with no panels. I am on a prepaid eskom connection and have been monitoring my electricity consumption since the start. I had installed a backup solution about 3 years ago. I noticed about 6 months ago that my overall grid consumption has gone up. I initially thought that this was due to pricing changes. However also noticed that my overall kw used monthly had gone up. I thought it may be due to a faulty geyser but was investigated and ruled out. I then systematically went through a process of eliminating one item at a time. I have now found that my invertor and battery setup.is consuming approx 300 to 400 watts at all times leading to this higher usage. I have tested this hypothesis by basically manually managing the charging of the battery and confirmed that the extra consumption was in fact due to the backup solution. The invertor is essentially charging the battery at all times regardless. Not sure what the downstream impact of this would be either. I have tried to reset the invertor and battery but problem prevails. I have tried various setting changes with no luck either. Any advice would be appreciated Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zsde Posted August 19 Share Posted August 19 An Inverter consumes energy. In your case you have no panels, thus the Inverter is permanently powered by the battery. The Battery needs to be charged in addition to the typical 65 to 75W that the Inverter consumes. Battery charging is never 100% efficient. There are numerous losses , thus you need more energy to recharge than what you actually get out. Your options are basically limited to either getting panels to use solar energy for maintaining battery charge during the day, or to switch off your Inverter and Battery whilst there is grid power available. TaliaB, Scorp007, Youda and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaliaB Posted August 19 Share Posted August 19 Yep fully agree with @zsde the self consumption of the inverter alone equates to ~54kwh per month extra on your utility bill. Basically without solar panels to replinish the battery their is no way around it. If you had solar panels you could set the inverter to not use utility and charge the battery with pv only. Otherwise flip your transfer switch and shut the inverter down. Youda, Antonio de Sa, zsde and 1 other 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Govendl3 Posted August 19 Author Share Posted August 19 Hello.. thanks for the replies.. so agree that there is consumption expected. My concern is that this has substantially increased about 6 months ago. With prepaid electricity as well as a monitoring solution on the DB it is quite easy to reconcile over time. I have seen a marked increase approx 6 months ago. Daily consumption with backup on is approx 6kw per day or approx 180kw per month greater ...this was not the case prior. Hence my confusion The only anomaly is that this increase coincides with a incident where (again approx 6 months ago) we were not aware that eskom power was not available and we drained the battery unknowingly. This increase (perhaps only in my mind) coincides with the increase. Seems like simple solution would be to install a few panels to subsidize the excessive usage. I however dont want to mask a potential issue if that poses some inherit risk. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GMAC Posted August 20 Share Posted August 20 300 to 400 Wats constantly sound a bit high just for charging as when lithiums reach full charge accordingly to volts set the amps drop to almost nothing as does Wats . So what has change 6 month ago . Most of the time people have noticed an grid usage increase after an back up system has been installed but you noticed this only 6 month ago . Best have the lithium inspected . The inverter will show on the display on battery charge amps and Wats so check and see if the battery is really being charged at a constant 300wat+ . Bobster. and Derek3 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Govendl3 Posted August 20 Author Share Posted August 20 300 to 400 Wats constantly sound a bit high just for charging as when lithiums reach full charge accordingly to volts set the amps drop to almost nothing as does Wats . Battery is always reading 97%... i so I also suspect that I may have set the charge Voltage incorrectly Failing which i guess "Best have the lithium inspected" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Govendl3 Posted August 21 Author Share Posted August 21 300 to 400 Wats constantly sound a bit high just for charging as when lithiums reach full charge accordingly to volts set the amps drop to almost nothing as does Wats . Battery is always reading 97%... i so I also suspect that I may have set the charge Voltage incorrectly Failing which i guess "Best have the lithium inspected" Ps .. who does one contact for support and service on pylontech batteries thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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