I make use of my solar system by turning off the Eskom power daily from 8 am to 4 pm, that's now if the weather permits. From 4 pm the solar will supply the house until the sun goes down and then the battery will take over through the night and supply the house. The battery never drops lower than 80%. I cannot change the system's setting and until I find someone who can do it I will turn off the Eskom power myself for the day, weather permitting.. My question is, Will I damage the system by running the inverter from 8 to 4? The geyser, stove, microwave and dishwasher are off when the Eskom power is off. Whenever we want to use the high power equipment I switch on the Eskom power. The wife will not use the iron if the inverter is online and Eskom is down..She is quite good and solar wise..My system is 6X555W panels, Growatt inverter SPF 5000ES and Easy 5.1kw battery.  24hr Eskom usage is about 4.7units

Verskoon die swak Engels..

Dankie Dries

Don't understand why you would want to switch of Eskom as the inverter if setup right should switch over to solar automatically. 

Now in summer the inverter should switch over any time from 6am if using SOL and if you using SUB the fading out of Eskom should happen any time before 6 am .

By switch of Eskom should not damage the inverter as it's designed to run with out Eskom and to take constant power failures .

By managing your system you can use high power appliances throw the day even if there's no Eskom as solar will carry most of the load on good days 

Edited November 17, 20241 yr by GMAC

I can only assume switching off eskom

completely eliminates a trickle feed if any. They also mentioned something about not being able to change the settings not sure as I have not used that inverter before but that could be why they do it manually. I am not sure what the effect could be on the switches or if municipality will pick the off and one constantly and have issue but essentially my inverter does this based on settings from 6/7am to about 6pm 98% of my needs are met be solar unless we use the oven in the night. 

I disconnect myself from the grid to eliminate the trickle feed of my Sunsynk to synch with the grid as well as not be exposed to the voltage swings of Eskom throughout the day. If I see that my batteries will not last me throughout the night, then I reconnect to the grid.

I use a 63A smart breaker for that, which is connected between my main breaker and my inverter feed breaker

7 hours ago, Kory said:

I can only assume switching off eskom

completely eliminates a trickle feed if any. They also mentioned something about not being able to change the settings not sure as I have not used that inverter before but that could be why they do it manually. I am not sure what the effect could be on the switches or if municipality will pick the off and one constantly and have issue but essentially my inverter does this based on settings from 6/7am to about 6pm 98% of my needs are met be solar unless we use the oven in the night. 

Correct. I try to run about everything off solar power during the day and let the battery do whatever we need at night. The inverter setting is SBU, but somehow, there is still an Eskom trickle of about 5 units over 24 hours should I leave Eskom on. That's with the geyser element off as per the Geyser wise settings, but the Geyser wise pump will circulate the water to and from the water solar panel on the roof using Eskom.  With Eskom ON we use about 14 units over 24hrs, Eskom off 4.5/5 units over 24hrs..I'm retired and don't mind doing the switching..I just wanted to know if it is okay for the inverter to "work" the fan running temp 30c for 8hrs..We don't use the microwave or dishwasher with Eskom off.. By 9an in the morning the battery is back to 100%charge, and it never drops below 78% during the night.. Best Regards..

23 hours ago, Saluki said:

Correct. I try to run about everything off solar power during the day and let the battery do whatever we need at night. The inverter setting is SBU, but somehow, there is still an Eskom trickle of about 5 units over 24 hours should I leave Eskom on. That's with the geyser element off as per the Geyser wise settings, but the Geyser wise pump will circulate the water to and from the water solar panel on the roof using Eskom.  With Eskom ON we use about 14 units over 24hrs, Eskom off 4.5/5 units over 24hrs..I'm retired and don't mind doing the switching..I just wanted to know if it is okay for the inverter to "work" the fan running temp 30c for 8hrs..We don't use the microwave or dishwasher with Eskom off.. By 9an in the morning the battery is back to 100%charge, and it never drops below 78% during the night.. Best Regards..

Wow 78%, folks are not pushing their batteries at all. I drive my battery down to 30% with no loadshedding and 40 when there is loadshedding. The intention is to maximise savings. Hybrid inverters are designed to blend power sources so I can only assume they are can cope with working 24/7.

Hi Saluki.

I have the same inverter and sort off the same question. I also want to get the most out of daylight, but also want my battery to be fully charged at, let's say, 19:00 in summer. We recently had some power outages at 20:00 and then the battery was not fully charged. I don't want to use more units to charge my battery after sunset than I "saved" by being off grid during daytime.

• Setting 01: I set mine on solar. (Sol) This means that when the inverter senses enough sun on the panels, it switches off Eskom. It then runs on solar & battery. When sunlight is not enough to do any significant charging, it changes back to Eskom.
  • This setting does not cause the battery to be fully charged at 19:00 or when the sun sets.
• Setting 49: This setting allows us to set a time to start & stop time charging the battery with Eskom.
  • But it doesn't work as I want it to.
• Earlier today I changed setting 01 to SBU, setting 14 to SNU (Solar & Utility) and setting 49 to start using Eskom to charge at 16:00 and end at 19:00. It is now 16:50 and is indeed helping solar to charge my battery.
• I just had a look and currently the inverter is importing 95W of Eskom to help solar, currently 490W to power the household while charging the battery.

I only have my Lithium battery for a week now and was experimenting with settings. I am glad to discover at this moment it seems to do what I want it to.

I must mention that this will be my settings for when we don't have loadshedding. At this stage, I think our load is just a bit too big to go through the night without Eskom. Our load during the night ranges between from 400-550W.

Good luck with your settings. Maybe there is some here with the same inverter that can shed some light onto what we want to achieve.

Deon

 

I don't understand this proposition. I have considered switching off Eskom from about 18:00 to 05:00 because we really do not use a lot during the evening. That's because we do as much as we can during the day. We run the dishwasher, pool pump, etc during the day when the sun is up and we are getting free power. We max that out and still have the battery charged by (at latest) 15:00 most days. Then overnight we run off battery - occasional use of microwave and kettle, exterior lighting, electric fence and alarm, TV and wi-fi. That's about 380W constant drain. We get easily through the night.

In fact the inverter switches off when grid is up and loads are low, so we are taking little sips of grid power throughout the night, and I could save by disconnecting entirely from the grid. Which is why I am looking at the 18:00 to 05:00 switch off. But I don't want to do it manually because I'm likely to wake up of a morning, see I've got 30 minutes to shave, shampoo and the other stuff and get to work and I'll forget to go outside and throw that switch.

But we are in this happy position because we do as much as we can during the day so that we minimise the draw on the battery at night. If we have to use the microwave or do some ironing during the day, there is still time for the battery to recover as long as we have some sun (and not as much as usual, because when the grid is down the pool pump doesn't run). 

use one of these.

 

https://www.takealot.com/geyser-smart-wi-fi-switch-energy-monitor/PLID93647687https://www.takealot.com/geyser-smart-wi-fi-switch-energy-monitor/PLID93647687

 

Edited November 22, 20241 yr by mossie.jhb

2 hours ago, mossie.jhb said:

use one of these.

 

https://www.takealot.com/geyser-smart-wi-fi-switch-energy-monitor/PLID93647687https://www.takealot.com/geyser-smart-wi-fi-switch-energy-monitor/PLID93647687

 

Geyser-wise is installed.. settings are 55c from 10 am till 12.00. 2 hrs is enough. The water solar on the roof and pump will take it up to 72c during the day..

Use the Red Pole switch to connect and disconnect your Eskom supply to the inverter.

reason I suggest the switch is you can control it from your phone so even if you are not home and you need eskom power for what ever reason you can just connect or disconnect the switch via the app.....

On 2024/11/19 at 5:48 PM, Bobster. said:

I don't understand this proposition. I have considered switching off Eskom from about 18:00 to 05:00 because we really do not use a lot during the evening. That's because we do as much as we can during the day. We run the dishwasher, pool pump, etc during the day when the sun is up and we are getting free power. We max that out and still have the battery charged by (at latest) 15:00 most days. Then overnight we run off battery - occasional use of microwave and kettle, exterior lighting, electric fence and alarm, TV and wi-fi. That's about 380W constant drain. We get easily through the night.

In fact the inverter switches off when grid is up and loads are low, so we are taking little sips of grid power throughout the night, and I could save by disconnecting entirely from the grid. Which is why I am looking at the 18:00 to 05:00 switch off. But I don't want to do it manually because I'm likely to wake up of a morning, see I've got 30 minutes to shave, shampoo and the other stuff and get to work and I'll forget to go outside and throw that switch.

But we are in this happy position because we do as much as we can during the day so that we minimise the draw on the battery at night. If we have to use the microwave or do some ironing during the day, there is still time for the battery to recover as long as we have some sun (and not as much as usual, because when the grid is down the pool pump doesn't run). 

I agree with you. I also want to utilise as much PV power during the day as possible especially during this heatwave. Our energy savings are not what I expect and I noticed that the inverter was still pulling power from the grid and hardly any from the solar panels. I couldn't understand this. We have a Deye inverter and I have set mode to Load first and Grid charge. The TOU is 40%. During this heatwave, I expected the energy from the solar panels to not only power the load but also to charge the batteries beyond the set 40%. I therefore imitated Load Shedding by switching off the Isolator at the DB board and my PV output immediately jumped to 2.7 kw, more than enough for the load, and the batteries started charging way beyond 40% which is exactly what I want. Prior to this, I unticked the Grid checkbox but that didn't seem to work so the only solution for me was to switch off at the mains. If anyone could enlighten me I would be very grateful.

4 hours ago, Slarty said:

I agree with you. I also want to utilise as much PV power during the day as possible especially during this heatwave. Our energy savings are not what I expect and I noticed that the inverter was still pulling power from the grid and hardly any from the solar panels. I couldn't understand this. We have a Deye inverter and I have set mode to Load first and Grid charge. The TOU is 40%. During this heatwave, I expected the energy from the solar panels to not only power the load but also to charge the batteries beyond the set 40%. I therefore imitated Load Shedding by switching off the Isolator at the DB board and my PV output immediately jumped to 2.7 kw, more than enough for the load, and the batteries started charging way beyond 40% which is exactly what I want. Prior to this, I unticked the Grid checkbox but that didn't seem to work so the only solution for me was to switch off at the mains. If anyone could enlighten me I would be very grateful.

I can't advise on settings for your inverter. But I think I am correct in saying that Load First means PV is given to servicing loads first, then charging the batteries.

So have you checked to see if there's a significant decrease in load when you disconnect from the grid? If you do then there's your answer: the non-essential load (loads that only get powered when the grid is up) are high. When you turn off the isolator then those loads fall away and more of the PV is directed towards your batteries.

If you don't see a change in loads then I can't help you. I am not familar with the Deye.

One more thing: It seems to be a common problem with Deye/Sunsynk that the CT clamp is installed the wrong way around (or they have so much of the market that it looks like this is a common problem).

Edited December 12, 20241 yr by Bobster.

On 2024/11/14 at 11:28 AM, Saluki said:

24hr Eskom usage is about 4.7units

Sjoe, jou load is ontsettend laag 

Ek het 'n Growatt 5kw inverter gehad, hulle settings is baie gevoelig as die firmware nie op datum is - laat die persoon wat system installeer het by jou dit opdateer.

47 minutes ago, Demo said:

Sjoe, jou load is ontsettend laag 

Ek het 'n Growatt 5kw inverter gehad, hulle settings is baie gevoelig as die firmware nie op datum is - laat die persoon wat system installeer het by jou dit opdateer.

English dude English.

Translated.

Wow, your load is exceptionally low.

I had a Growatt 5kW inverter, and their settings are very sensitive if the firmware is not up to date – get the person who installed the system for you to update it.

 

Hi I have a similar problem, producing 30KW of solar, using 19 KW per day but my prepaid meter is charging me +- 20-24 KW per day. Whats going on?

 

10 minutes ago, mzm75 said:

Hi I have a similar problem, producing 30KW of solar, using 19 KW per day but my prepaid meter is charging me +- 20-24 KW per day. Whats going on?

 

The usual issue is where a pre-paid meter cannot distinguish between power purchased inwards and power exported out to the grid, so it treats everything it measures like a purchase.

Please share all your details of your setup. Inverter model and all settings, and maybe graphs of your PV, grid usage, battery usage, gor a typical day.

Hi Greenfield. Everything was running fine, last 4 months hardly used any eskom, then suddenly this month, although im producing solar my prepaid deducted 420KW. I.ve attached a couple of screen shots from my app. There was an issue of sending to grid (on the setting), which my installer changed to 0, but it didnt help.

1 hour ago, mzm75 said:

Hi Greenfield. Everything was running fine, last 4 months hardly used any eskom, then suddenly this month, although im producing solar my prepaid deducted 420KW. I.ve attached a couple of screen shots from my app. There was an issue of sending to grid (on the setting), which my installer changed to 0, but it didnt help.

Okay, so it does look like you are exporting power into a prepaid meter, which you rather don't want to do because of the cost, nevermind that it's probably illegal to export power if you're not registered for it.

Seems to be the 8kW Deye inverter, but I can't interpret the actual settings from these app screens. If this is correct, please send photos of the Work Mode screens, battery settings screen, and time of use screen.

Thanks greenfields, please find attached.

Still not all the needed screens. But go through them all and set the following:

GEN PORT USE - ignore that screen for now.

Basic Setting: Ignore that screen for now.

Battery Setting (Batt Set 3): Ignore that screen for now. No critical issues. Arguably could be tweaked, but not the cause of your issues.

Battery Setting (Batt Set 2): 

Battery setting (Batt Mode): Set Max A Charge = 80A. And remove the tick for "Activate Battery" - leave it blank.

System Work Mode (WorkMode4) - Tick all the boxes on that screen -every day with a box ticked against it.

 

But now go back to all the other Work Mode screens (WorkMode1, WorkMode2, WorkMode3). Post images of those screens too.

Especially the screen with "Zero Export to CT" and "Solar Sell" on it. Make sure that "Solar Sell" is disabled.

Hi Greenfield. Everything was running fine, last 4 months hardly used any eskom, then suddenly this month, although im producing solar my prepaid deducted 420KW. I.ve attached a couple of screen shots from my app. There was an issue of sending to grid (on the setting), which my installer changed to 0, but it didnt help.

thanks GF forthe time and replys.

Could've been something as simple as someone playing around with your settings.

Anyways, System Work Mode Screen 1 is your issue.

There where you've got the block selected "Zero Export to CT" - that part is okay - but right next to it you've got a block that says "Solar Sell."

Take away the tick next to "Solar Sell."

In fact, switch briefly to the work mode "Zero Export to Load" and just take away the "Solar Sell" tick there, and then switch back to "Zero Export to CT."

You should be okay after that. Arguably like I said one could tweak some other stuff according to preferences, but already this should resolve your big issue of exporting power to the grid. I'm assuming that your CT coil is installed correctly by your installer.

So both ticks?