Good day to all.

I have installed my system on Friday 19th of April which is the following;

1x MKS 5KVA (looks like not branded)

4x 6-CNFJ-100 Allgrand GEL-VRLA-BATTERY

3x 400w Canadian solar panels Model type CS3W-400P

This was the absolute maximum my budget would allow. Now I have a few questions if you don't mind.

1. The image attached shows a menu on the inverter I can not find in any manual. (The other one on the right says ALL, but it was flashing). Does anybody know what this is for? Also menu #16 on the inverter do not match. Inverter shows SnU, oSo, Uti, Sol and the manual shows CSO, CUt, SNU, OSO.

2. Specs indicate that the 5kva needs 200ah batteries, but the salesman said 100ah would work, which it does, so I think I'm getting half the battery run time. (100ah 48v compared to 200ah 48v). This was another budget restriction. (CRAP!)

3. Googled the batteries and found only good reviews about them. Says it's Lead Crystal (sound very grand) Are they as good as they say, like they could totally discharge to 0 without damage? which I would never do. My back to grid voltage is set to 51V. Still wondering if 48V (default) would be better, but if Eskom load-sheds at night, I have less run time?

4. This happens constantly. Watchpower lose and establishes communication about five times a minute, but only at night when I'm not on solar. I found that this is very crappy software.

5. The inverter is connected to a wall socket using 2.5mm 3 core, so I limited the charging from utility to 10Amps. Is this ok? I live in a small (ish) house so I can not hook up to the db. It's one of those crappy sealed db boards.

6. Stuff hooked up to the inverter is,

Fridge 120w

Freezer 240w

Laptop about 20w inc. all the internet equipment

TV+Android box 150w

Amplifier About 100w

LED tube lights 18w x2

It was a cloudy few days, But once I managed to generate 1.2kw out of the panels. (is that even possible, or is the display wrong on the inverter?) During the day I use about 630w, but varies as the appliances switch on and off. I would like to know if it is at all possible when solar goes below the load, say 400w that utility helps the load, the other 230w and not go to battery, so as my batteries are topped up if load-shedding occurs during the night. I found that late afternoon when it starts getting dark, it uses battery power and when its dark the utility starts charging the batteries. What settings on the inverter do I need to change and to what?. Maybe battery (FULL)? or higher back to grid voltage?

Thank you for a great forum. I have found many answers that could relate to my questions, but I'm not sure they relate to my setup.

 

 

 

 

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

1x MKS 5KVA (looks like not branded)

Mmm (see below).

 

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

4x 6-CNFJ-100 Allgrand GEL-VRLA-BATTERY

3x 400w Canadian solar panels Model type CS3W-400P

This was the absolute maximum my budget would allow. Now I have a few questions if you don't mind.

Ok, this is really a budget system.

Quote

1. The image attached shows a menu on the inverter I can not find in any manual. (The other one on the right says ALL, but it was flashing). Does anybody know what this is for?

That's presumably the solar balance setting. It should only come up if you are in parallel mode (setting 28). Note: setting 28 can only be changed with the power off. Yours should say SnG for Single (not paralleled at all).

 

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

Also menu #16 on the inverter do not match. Inverter shows SnU, oSo, Uti, Sol and the manual shows CSO, CUt, SNU, OSO.

Heh. You have a clone with patched firmware. I can tell by the clean "font". SNU and OSO are the same, Sol is renamed from OSO, and Uti is renamed CUt. We figured that SoL was easier to read and remember than OSO. See the Aussieview™ and KettleKomp™ manual here. If as I suspect you have patched firmware version 72.70c (lead acid flavour), then you unfortunately won't have KettleKomp™, and likely won't be able to update to it (I think that model of clone can't be updated at all).

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

2. Specs indicate that the 5kva needs 200ah batteries, but the salesman said 100ah would work, which it does, so I think I'm getting half the battery run time. (100ah 48v compared to 200ah 48v). This was another budget restriction. (CRAP!)

You should restrict total output until you can get more battery. 4 kW at 93% efficiency is some 90 A from 48 V. The 100 Ah lead-acid battery won't appreciate that. Try to stay under 2 kW load.

Quote

3. Googled the batteries and found only good reviews about them. Says it's Lead Crystal (sound very grand) Are they as good as they say, like they could totally discharge to 0 without damage?

I'll let others comment on this. I think it's cheap and nasty, but I don't know lead acid very well.

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

My back to grid voltage is set to 51V. Still wondering if 48V (default) would be better, but if Eskom load-sheds at night, I have less run time?

That's a good thing. It means that the battery will still have a reasonable reserve in case of load shedding. This setting won't affect run-time when there is no AC-in.

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

4. This happens constantly. Watchpower lose and establishes communication about five times a minute, but only at night when I'm not on solar. I found that this is very crappy software.

This may be a nuisance feature of the clones. If you can afford it, ICC is much better than Watchpower.

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

5. The inverter is connected to a wall socket using 2.5mm 3 core, so I limited the charging from utility to 10Amps. Is this ok? I live in a small (ish) house so I can not hook up to the db. It's one of those crappy sealed db boards.

Battery charging is in battery amps, not mains amps. So 10 A of charging is only 500 W or so. If you are on a 16 A breaker, you should be able to handle a lot more utility charging. But your battery will only be able to handle about 15 A, say 20 A maximum. So leave setting 02 (maximum total charge current) to 20 A, and leave maximum utility charge current the same.

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

6. Stuff hooked up to the inverter is,

That all sounds fairly modest, and should work OK.

Quote

It was a cloudy few days, But once I managed to generate 1.2kw out of the panels. (is that even possible, or is the display wrong on the inverter?)

It's entirely possible, but only for 10-30 seconds or so, until the panels heat up.

Quote

During the day I use about 630w, but varies as the appliances switch on and off.

That sounds like your whole house, or is that just the essential loads you listed? You won't get much run-time from your tiny battery for that load.

 

15 hours ago, Warlok said:

I would like to know if it is at all possible when solar goes below the load, say 400w that utility helps the load, the other 230w and not go to battery, so as my batteries are topped up if load-shedding occurs during the night.

That's what setting 12 is about, or close to it. When the load exceeds solar production for a while, the battery will start to go down in voltage; when it passes the voltage in setting 12, the whole load will switch to the grid. Then all the solar charge power goes to charging the battery, until either the battery is full (setting 13 = FUL), or it reaches the voltage in setting 13. By fiddling with settings 12 and 13, you can get approximately what you want.

On 2019/04/22 at 10:43 PM, Warlok said:

Good day to all.

I have installed my system on Friday 19th of April which is the following;

1x MKS 5KVA (looks like not branded)

4x 6-CNFJ-100 Allgrand GEL-VRLA-BATTERY

3x 400w Canadian solar panels Model type CS3W-400P

This was the absolute maximum my budget would allow. Now I have a few questions if you don't mind.

1. The image attached shows a menu on the inverter I can not find in any manual. (The other one on the right says ALL, but it was flashing). Does anybody know what this is for? Also menu #16 on the inverter do not match. Inverter shows SnU, oSo, Uti, Sol and the manual shows CSO, CUt, SNU, OSO.

2. Specs indicate that the 5kva needs 200ah batteries, but the salesman said 100ah would work, which it does, so I think I'm getting half the battery run time. (100ah 48v compared to 200ah 48v). This was another budget restriction. (CRAP!)

3. Googled the batteries and found only good reviews about them. Says it's Lead Crystal (sound very grand) Are they as good as they say, like they could totally discharge to 0 without damage? which I would never do. My back to grid voltage is set to 51V. Still wondering if 48V (default) would be better, but if Eskom load-sheds at night, I have less run time?

4. This happens constantly. Watchpower lose and establishes communication about five times a minute, but only at night when I'm not on solar. I found that this is very crappy software.

5. The inverter is connected to a wall socket using 2.5mm 3 core, so I limited the charging from utility to 10Amps. Is this ok? I live in a small (ish) house so I can not hook up to the db. It's one of those crappy sealed db boards.

6. Stuff hooked up to the inverter is,

Fridge 120w

Freezer 240w

Laptop about 20w inc. all the internet equipment

TV+Android box 150w

Amplifier About 100w

LED tube lights 18w x2

It was a cloudy few days, But once I managed to generate 1.2kw out of the panels. (is that even possible, or is the display wrong on the inverter?) During the day I use about 630w, but varies as the appliances switch on and off. I would like to know if it is at all possible when solar goes below the load, say 400w that utility helps the load, the other 230w and not go to battery, so as my batteries are topped up if load-shedding occurs during the night. I found that late afternoon when it starts getting dark, it uses battery power and when its dark the utility starts charging the batteries. What settings on the inverter do I need to change and to what?. Maybe battery (FULL)? or higher back to grid voltage?

Thank you for a great forum. I have found many answers that could relate to my questions, but I'm not sure they relate to my setup.

 

Hi, and welcome to the forum, and solar

 

1. The "onE" means there's just one inverter. And the "ALL" just means all the inverters in your setup, which is just one, is being used. Regarding the SNU, CSO, etc, perhaps the inverter you have is a clone, as @Coulomb said,so the manual might be different
2. 100Ah is too little for this inverter, it will switch more between solar and batteries than in should, in the morning and evening and this is not good for the batteries.
3.  Those are good batteries but I wouldn't drain them to 0. And 48V might be too low for that small bank
4. This could be due to the battery bank being to small and the inverter keeps switching between batteries and eskom
5. No. A NO, in fact. Don't run the inverter off a plug, and use at least 4mm2 square wire. Even if you limit the charging current, the inverter will still draw the full amount with a surge / spike, of upto 10,000VA. What do you mean, sealed DB board? No DB board is allowed to be sealed. They can be locked with a pad lock, in public places but not sealed. 
6. 1.2Kw is possible, if it's cold enough and the sky is open. Your solar panels voltage drops by 0.29 %for every degree above 25 degrees Celsius. And the specs are calculated at 1Kw/sqm radiation. Your inverter doesn't have much control over where X amount of watts are being used. It will use it as you program it, i.e. run everything off solar, or eskom. 

Sorry how this looks, It's in the garage. What I meant was, I can't get a screwdriver in there to open it up. I'm renting, but moving very soon. End of April. I have already disconnected everything. Just wanted to see if everything works before I move to a new house that's more permanent so it can be installed properly.

And a very big "thank you" to the salesman which I will not name. (maar die wiel draai)

Thank you (no really) for the help. With your help I am ready to make more informed choices in future

 

 

Thank you very much.

I have family living in Brisbane.

The prices are ridiculous where I live. That's why I couldn't get anything better. Lesson well learnt.