Do Sunsynk (5kW) inverters have a system mode in which excess solar is exported rather than used to charge the battery, but without exporting power from the battery? Currently I have "Zero export", "Solar export" and "Priority load" enabled, which only exports once the batteries are full. I've tried disabling the "Zero export" option, but that causes power to be exported from the battery, which is not what I want.

The reason I want this is that I have more PV capacity than the city allows me to export. So I'd rather export in the morning and charge the battery at mid-day (peak production hours) so that I don't lose out on generation capacity.

1 hour ago, bmerry said:

Do Sunsynk (5kW) inverters have a system mode in which excess solar is exported rather than used to charge the battery, but without exporting power from the battery? Currently I have "Zero export", "Solar export" and "Priority load" enabled, which only exports once the batteries are full. I've tried disabling the "Zero export" option, but that causes power to be exported from the battery, which is not what I want.

The reason I want this is that I have more PV capacity than the city allows me to export. So I'd rather export in the morning and charge the battery at mid-day (peak production hours) so that I don't lose out on generation capacity.

Try to use that "Selling First" mode (disable Zero Export), but in combination with the Time-of-Use Timer, where you set the battery power to zero (0) during the time slot where you don't want to be exporting battery power.

I think this is one of those use-cases where you might end up being dissatisfied with the on-board functions of the inverter, and rather want some form of automation assistant for different times of the day.

2 hours ago, GreenFields said:

Try to use that "Selling First" mode (disable Zero Export), but in combination with the Time-of-Use Timer, where you set the battery power to zero (0) during the time slot where you don't want to be exporting battery power.

I think this is one of those use-cases where you might end up being dissatisfied with the on-board functions of the inverter, and rather want some form of automation assistant for different times of the day.

Surely that means it will run the battery down to zero by exporting from the battery, rather than disabling export?

I do have a Raspberry Pi connected to the inverter, so I can easily enough schedule changes to settings.

58 minutes ago, bmerry said:

Surely that means it will run the battery down to zero by exporting from the battery, rather than disabling export?

I do have a Raspberry Pi connected to the inverter, so I can easily enough schedule changes to settings.

No, it's the "SOC" value (State-of-Charge) that will regulate to which percentage you can discharge the battery.

What I'm saying is to change the "Power" value to zero, meaning that you will not be allowing the system to take any energy from the battery. It's probably sitting on a default 5000W if you haven't made changes to it before.

Otherwise, set it to a low value like 100W, so that in the worst case any discharge coming from the battery will most likely just be used up slowly in your house for your own baseload power, then you can charge it back up later, if you can schedule your settings changes with the Raspberry Pi.

Not guaranteeing that it will work, just suggesting you try it.

41 minutes ago, GreenFields said:

No, it's the "SOC" value (State-of-Charge) that will regulate to which percentage you can discharge the battery.

What I'm saying is to change the "Power" value to zero, meaning that you will not be allowing the system to take any energy from the battery. It's probably sitting on a default 5000W if you haven't made changes to it before.

Oh right, I'd misunderstood which setting you meant. That does sound sensible - will give it a try. My one concern is whether that will also limit power from the battery to the load: if a thick cloud comes over and PV can't cover the load, I'd rather supply load from the battery than from the grid.

I just tested it, and we're both right: setting the time-of-use power level to 0 does prevent exporting battery (actually it still discharges 100W), but if I have more load than PV then the difference comes from the grid rather than the battery.

So I think to get what I want I'll need to add some dynamic control on my Raspberry Pi to switch modes based on whether load exceeds PV.