OomD Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Hi guys, Quick intro... I'm new here, but don't see an intro thread so please go easy if I missed it somewhere. Questions I have on the Axpert 5KVA I've just installed, which is not immediately obvious from the manual: 1. What exactly is the difference between SOL and SBU mode, and what does SBU stand for? 2. Does anyone have any kind of logging software for this unit? I see a few threads about people writing their own, but none of it seems available yet. 3. Not axpert specific, but is anyone here also on prepaid electricity? Now that my house is run through the inverter I find the prepaid meter cannot communicate back to the main unit (obviously while my house is still grid-powered), but it seems to read and display the remaining units correctly. Anyone else have this? 4. What does the "HS"or "H5" on the display mean? Thanks in advance for your feedback! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Hobson Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 1. What exactly is the difference between SOL and SBU mode, and what does SBU stand for? 2. Does anyone have any kind of logging software for this unit? I see a few threads about people writing their own, but none of it seems available yet. 3. Not axpert specific, but is anyone here also on prepaid electricity? Now that my house is run through the inverter I find the prepaid meter cannot communicate back to the main unit (obviously while my house is still grid-powered), but it seems to read and display the remaining units correctly. Anyone else have this? 4. What does the "HS"or "H5" on the display mean? Thanks in advance for your feedback! 1. There is a subtle difference. SOL -grid supplies power if either there is no PV input or battery levels drop below threshold, whereas SBU the grid only supplies power once the batteries have dropped below threshold. So under the SOL setup if batteries are too low you will go over to grid and also at sunset whereas under the SBU you will continue to use battery after sunset until the batteries are discharged to below the preset threshold. 2. Software (there is a MPPSolarPatrol) but I could not get it to work with Win10 and USB). Jaco is busy with something that looks brilliant - patience like the rest of us. 3. Don't know I live on a remote farm so no meter. 4. H5 short circuit or over temp(I think). Edit: changed at to after Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OomD Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 Thanks for the feedback, Chris, much appreciated. As far as the H5/HS display is concerned, there is no fault or warning icon shown with it, so I don't think it's a problem code of sorts. It seems to be the default value displayed on the middle 2 digits of the screen... but no reference to it in the manual. According to the manual there are also no codes that start with "H" either. Thanks for the other info, though! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Hobson Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 If I set my battery cut-off to 48V I can get a H4 which looks like a low battery warning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnome Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 SBU = Solar->Battery->Utility Explains the ordering exactly Warren 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Regarding your prepaid meter. I don't have one of these (I have one of the old single-unit types), but I heard of these units where the measuring part sits outside in a box (mostly required in areas where theft is a problem) and you have a consumer unit inside the house. These units use PLC (power line comms) to talk to the outside unit, that is, they put a high frequency carrier signal onto the wire and modulate data on top of it. If your inverter disconnects the grid... the comms link obviously goes down :-) I know many people who have had lots of trouble with the consumer unit, interference, etc. Sometimes it helps to plug the consumer unit into a plug closer to the DB board. In your case, I would expect you need to power it off a plug that is not fed by the inverter, and that should be that. The prepaid bit will continue to work just fine though, because as far as I know, the consumer unit is only there to communicate with it, none of the logic is in the consumer unit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OomD Posted November 9, 2015 Author Share Posted November 9, 2015 Awesome feedback, thanks guys! That parallel guide document helped a lot too, thanks jdp. Yes it seems my unit thinks it is in parallel mode then, but I see that can only be changed in standby mode. I'll try that tonight and see what the display then shows. I'm curious as to what it should show, though? Plonkster you are quite correct re the prepaid meter. I installed a changeover switch close to the inverter so I can switch the house back directly to the grid, in case the inverter ever goes belly-up. So I have the grid mains coming in there, I'll add a plugbox to this line for the prepaid display unit. You are correct in that it is only a display, all the logic is done in the remote unit. But, when loading more electricity you need to be able to communicate back with the main unit. It's strange though that, while the inverter in in bypass mode (i.e. house powered from grid, albeit via the inverter) I can still read the remaining power, but still cannot communicate back to it. So comms still seem to work from remote to display, but not back to it. Anyway, thanks for the input guys, much appreciated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
___ Posted November 9, 2015 Share Posted November 9, 2015 Plonkster you are quite correct re the prepaid meter. I installed a changeover switch close to the inverter so I can switch the house back directly to the grid, in case the inverter ever goes belly-up. So I have the grid mains coming in there, I'll add a plugbox to this line for the prepaid display unit. You are correct in that it is only a display, all the logic is done in the remote unit. But, when loading more electricity you need to be able to communicate back with the main unit. It's strange though that, while the inverter in in bypass mode (i.e. house powered from grid, albeit via the inverter) I can still read the remaining power, but still cannot communicate back to it. So comms still seem to work from remote to display, but not back to it. Wild guess as to why the comms works one way and not the other. There is another analogous situation called ADSL. Now apparently there is a good reason for the "A" an ADSL, Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line, which refers to the difference in speeds between the uplink and the downlink. The reason -- apparently -- is noise. Inside the exchange where the line terminates, you have a lot of noise and interference, but on the consumer end things are relatively quiet. To overcome this, a larger part of the bandwidth is assigned to "shout above the noise", and as a result, your downlink is faster than the uplink (which just happens to be the more useful configuration, seeing as we download more than we upload). In the same way, I would expect that the line end of the PLC pair possible shouts louder than the consumer end :-) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilverNodashi Posted November 15, 2015 Share Posted November 15, 2015 I installed a plug point on my main Eskom feed, specifically for the prepaid meter. You obviously need to have an earth leakage on it as well. But that's the only way to ensure the prepaid meter works fine. This could also be used to feed a generator, if you use thick enough wires (6-10mm) and a generator plug point (looks like a caravan plug) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OomD Posted November 16, 2015 Author Share Posted November 16, 2015 I installed a plug point on my main Eskom feed, specifically for the prepaid meter. You obviously need to have an earth leakage on it as well. But that's the only way to ensure the prepaid meter works fine. This could also be used to feed a generator, if you use thick enough wires (6-10mm) and a generator plug point (looks like a caravan plug) Thanks, SilverNodashi. I installed a separate plug point this weekend and also a 16A breaker for it, but completely forgot about an earth leakage. Off course that is needed, I'll add one tonight. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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