Hello,

I have a specific use case and I'm unsure whether the EM 5KW can satisfy it. Basically I want to run a 1 Kw pool pump, fridge, freezer and washing machine during the day whist charging the 48v lead acid 100aH battery bank. There will be 6 x 355w Mono panels as a start.

1.  I only want to switch to the battery backup in the event of AC failure. 

2.  if solar power generation is insufficient, I want AC to supplement power, not the batteries.

3.  Is it fine running a 1 kw pool pump on the Goodwe ?

4. Does the Goodwe EM have at least 2 AC outs ? ie 1 for critical loads e.g lights and 1 for non critical loads  ? So lights on critical and pool pump on non critical so in the event of AC failure, only the lights will be powered by the batteries.

 

Can this be achieved using the Goodwe EM 5kw ?

 

Thanks very much.

Bump. Anybody out there that can offer advice 

Solar power is expensive.

The first step is to measure the startup and running amps of all the machines you intend running. Then you can do the sums and decide on whether you want all of it to run at the same time. It is difficult to manage power consumption if you don’t do it personally. 

You can bargain on getting 90% (debatable) of your installed panel wattage if everything is in your favour i.e. no clouds, rain and sun is shining. This is possible from 09h00 to 15h00 if you live on the Highveld. The limiting factor for your proposal is the number of solar panels you want to install.

It is more cost efficient to first change your equipment to energy efficient models. You don’t mention the big consumption items like the stove and geyser.

Edited May 16, 20197 yr by Johandup

Thanks Johan. The plan is to add more panels gradually. With 2 MPPTs I plan to add another string on the North West roof. 

Stove is on Grid, I have 3 phase power and a separate DB with a UPS for critical loads. The plan is to replace the UPS with a solar inverter. 

 

@Moe Joe  I think a 3kw inverter is adequate for small loads.

Look in the forum for posts on db's with 3P power supply. 

We recently installed PVs and Batteries.  (A Goodwe system).  I want to set it up so it runs off both pv & batteries in the morning until about 13:30, the switch to charging the batteries so they give us back up if we have a power failure overnight.  But I find the options on the stsrem PV Master confusing. I have been switching them manually, is there any way of automating this?  I also want to add more batteries to the system which I am told can accommodate 8 batteries.  Any suggestions?

 

11 hours ago, [email protected] said:

I want to set it up so it runs off both pv & batteries in the morning until about 13:30

you can choose the "economical mode" and set up the battery discharge time based on your preference. If you want the batteries not to be discharged if there is insufficient PV power after 13:30 (except for back up if the grid fails) set the discharge start time to 09:00 and discharge end time to 13:30 

Thank you, I will give this a shot and let you know how it works.  For you (And anyone's interest), I shot this material when they were doing the installation.  

 

 

Thanks once again

Further to my enquiry and answer by FUENKLI.  There are some things that I don't understand, so I have listed what I desire in order and hope some clarity will emerge.

What I would like to achieve with our PV/Lithium Battery system;

Achieve as much economy as possible but also want to make sure that I have back-up when we have load shedding.  I have a Goodwe Model GW5048D-ES with 12 PV Panels, six facing about 3 degrees off North and six facing about 3 degrees off East and 2 x Lithium Ion Batteries (Pylon 2V 2.4KW).  So the morning time is the strongest scenario, in winter the sun starts hitting the PV array about 07:45. In summer I assume that would be somewhere around 05:30.

In winter, I would like the system to use PV/Battery as much as possible between 08:00 and 14:30 daily.  At 14:30 I would like the system to then switch over to using mainly the PV to charge the battery system so that I have at least 80% by the time it gets dark. In summer I would like the system to use PV/Battery as much as possible between 06300 and 16:00 daily.

Based on advice I set up the system in the following way: (Sequence of setting windows)

Safety Area: South Africa (Not shown in Image panel)

Work Mode: Economic Mode

Economic Model: Set Battery Power Group 1 (Selected blue switch)

               Start Time: 08:00 End Time: 14:30

               Rated Power: 15%

               Battery Mode: Charge

Repeat: Every Day

What I don’t understand is:

1.      (ECONOMIC MODEL) - Battery Group 1. Does this refer to a pair of batteries (As I have two batteries is this the only switch I should select or is it a switch per battery?) What are Battery Power Groups?

2.      (SET-UP TIME) – Is this start and finish of charging (or discharging)

3.      Rated Power: Does refer to the maximum discharge point? Or ?

4.      Battery Mode: Should I have charge or discharge here? (Refers to #2 above)

I like to understand what I am dealing with so I can get it set-up appropriately.  Thank you in advance for any help you can provide to enable me to understand some of the issues.

1 hour ago, [email protected] said:

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide to enable me to understand some of the issues.

My Goodwe ES inverter is connected to lead acid batteries and the set up in "Eco Mode" is much different (simpler) than what I can see you have with the Pylontech's. So I am afraid I can not be of much help here. If you don't get the help you need here I would contact Goodwe support. I found them to be very helpful.

 [email protected]

If I had Lithium batteries (where you don't have to worry about partial state of charge) I would only set the minimum SOC and let the inverter in "General Mode" use the batteries as much as possible. This will give you the highest possible utilization of you PV generation capacity and best ROI on your battery investment. The only problem is that load shedding might hit you with empty batteries. But load shedding does not usually  come out of the blue and you can if necessary change to "Back up Mode" (keeps batteries always fully charged) during load shedding periods. This is what I do and it has worked well for the last 2 years my system has been in operation.  

Thank you this information.  So yesterday we had an electricity supply failure out of the blue at 17:55, the system was in Back-up mode and it didn't kick in. The whole place descended into darkness.  In looking at the plant Status, it seems that we had a communication failure, so the system didn't work.  We also had a communication failure yesterday at around 12:00 and again this morning at around 02:55.  However the house WiFi is working fine.  Is it a scenario that if it loses WiFi signal for any reason it doesn't work?  If that is the case then it is very worrying. I would wonder what would happen if the internet went down (As has happened in the past).

2 hours ago, [email protected] said:

Is it a scenario that if it loses WiFi signal for any reason it doesn't work?

No. The back up supply (in case of a Grid failure) does not need a WiFi connection to work. If there is a sufficiently charged battery connected to the inverter it should continue delivering power on the back up output within about 10mS after the grid went down. I can think of the following points leading to what you experienced:

1. Battery flat (unlikely because you are running the inverter in "Back up" mode which keeps batteries always fully charged)

2. Connection of the essential loads to the back up output on the inverter faulty (tripped circuit/ RCD breaker, bad wire connection)

3. Back up supply (in advanced settings) not turned on

4. Inverter is faulty