Hello, a real novice to solar here so any help will be much appreciated. The reason I have had to get into solar is because I live in Zimbabwe and we are now having power cuts from 5am to 10pm. We are given electricity from 10pm through to 5am. There is a mad rush for all solar equipment here in Zim as you can imagine and below is what I have ended up buying so thoughts on what I have bought will be greatly appreciated.

Description
IN-AX-5kva-4000w-48v-V - Inverter Voltex Axpert MKS 5K-48v 80Amp MPPT
SOL-JA-330 - Solar Panel JA 330W 5BB Poly x 6
BA-PY-Li-2.4 - Battery Pylon Lithium 2.4kWh US2000B x 2

 

The system has been installed by me electrician who is not fully clued up on programming the inverter settings.So I am struggling to find the best settings for the inverter to suit our electricity situation here in Zim, so would really appreciate some help with the settings.

What would suit us best is if the inverter would use the solar power to power the house load demand through the day while keeping the batteries fully charged and ready to step in once the sun goes down, then the fully charged batteries would be able to support the load of our house from 6pm until 10pm when the electricity will come back on. Then the electricity will charge the batteries through the night so in the morning they will be charged to provide to the load from 5am to 7am until the solar power kicks back in to run the load of the house and keep the batteries fully charged through the day again ready for the following evening from 6pm - 10pm. What is currently happening is the inverter is using the batteries all day and not using solar for load of the household or keeping the batteries charged and then when the sun is about to go down we only have 1-2 hours of battery left when our house is going to be requiring the biggest load and the batteries will die before our electricity comes back on at 10pm to recharge the system. So I am having to run our generator for an hour in the evening to get charge the batteries enough so they last to 10pm and I really want to have to do this or think I should?

The current settings I have been told to use on the inverter are as follows: 01 - SBU, 02 - 40A, 03 - APL, 04 - SDS, 05 - USE, 06 - Ltd, 07 - EFT, 09 - 50HZ, UTI - 50A, 12 - 48V, 13 - 51V, 16 - CSO,

18 - bON, 19 - tEP, 20 - LON, 22 - AON, 23 - byb, 25 - FdS,  26 - Cu 26 56.4V, 27 - FLu 27 53.2V, 28 - 5I O (This number 28 setting is not in the manual?), 29 - COu 29 45.0V, 30 - ONE, 31 - SbE,

32 - AUt, 33 - EdS, 34 - Eu 34 59.0V, 35 - 60, 36 - 120, 37 - 30d, 38 - NEC 38 dI 5, 39 - Ad5

With any changes recommended to my current settings please could you give an explanation why so I can understand myself how the settings will run the inverter to suits us?

Any help and advice will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time and help,

Scottie.

Thanks for the detailed equipment list; it really helps.

5 hours ago, Scottie said:

The current settings I have been told to use on the inverter are as follows: 01 - SBU,

You might want to consider UtI (Utility first), to treat the utility as a generator, and for when you actually need to use a generator. That means you'll be using utility all the time that it's available, even if your battery is full. But it will keep your battery full for when the utility is off.

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02 - 40A,

Pylontech says 25 A per module, and you have two modules, so setting 02 should be 50 A.

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03 - APL, 04 - SDS, 05 - USE, 06 - Ltd, 07 - EFT,

07 = EFT? I don't recognise that option. May as well set 07 = trE (enable restart after over-temperature).

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12 - 48V, 13 - 51V,

Perhaps drop 13 to 50 V. That way, you are more in battery mode, which will support your loads more from solar. But keep at 51 V if it seems to switch from utility to battery mode too often.

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16 - CSO,

That's probably OK for now, since you never have solar and utility at the same time. I'd suggest SnU (Solar and Utility charging) however, in case you ever get utility during the day, and it's cloudy so the battery is low.

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23 - byb,

I suggest ByE (Bypass to utility on overload), even though you won't have much opportunity to use it at present.

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Cu 26 56.4V, 27 - FLu 27 53.2V,

This is probably your biggest problem. Both are too high, so the battery will probably protect itself from over-voltage somehow.

Use the Pylontech recommended settings 26 Cv = 53.2 V, 27 FLv = 51.0 V.

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28 - 5I O (This number 28 setting is not in the manual?),

SiG: single inverter (no parallel or 3-phase). That's what you want unless you get a second inverter and install parallel cards and cables.

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29 - COu 29 45.0V,

Use the recommended setting of 47.5 V. This affects how the SOC is displayed, as well as affecting switching to and from line mode.

Thank you very much for your help with this, I truly appreciate it.

I will input your recommended settings and see how we go over the next couple of days.

Please could you give me your opinion on the equipment I have bought without the sales pitch just for my understanding of what kind of quality I have here?

Thanks again for your time and advice, much appreciated.

 

Hello Coulomb,

Please when you are able to could you give me an explanation in lament terms of what is battery mode, line mode and any other modes and how we dictate which mode the system goes into?

The inverter has been on utility charging all night and the batteries were showing full charge all lights on. I had changed all the settings to what you recommended above but then 30 mins after the electricity was cut, the inverter started beeping and showing error 4 (Battery voltage is too low but there is no way the voltage could be too low as they are fully charged so full green lights on the batteries)? 

Any ideas on an explanation why this would have happened?

7 hours ago, Coulomb said:

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29 - COu 29 45.0V,

Use the recommended setting of 47.5 V. This affects how the SOC is displayed, as well as affecting switching to and from line mode.

Oops. I assumed too much science was behind the recommended numbers. So drop this back to 45 V (so the battery low warning only starts at 47 V, or 3.13 V per cell). Leave the other settings as I suggested.

5 hours ago, Scottie said:

Please could you give me your opinion on the equipment I have bought without the sales pitch just for my understanding of what kind of quality I have here?

Battery: Pylontech seem quite well regarded, as long as yours is a genuine Pylontech and not a knock-off.

Voltex inverter: these seem to be genuine Voltronic Power inverters. Please post a picture of the sticker with the bar-code, and/or see Do I Own a Clone to be completely sure. Voltex also sell Synerji inverters, at least many of which are clones. Voltronic inverters are a reasonable buy, in my opinion, especially if you can keep them away from heat or upgrade the MOSFET protecting capacitors. Zimbabwe might be too hot to get good life from them. But it seems that your need is for something expedient.

Panels: sorry, I don't know these. Perhaps post separately about them in the Solar Power forum.

5 hours ago, Scottie said:

Please when you are able to could you give me an explanation in lament terms of what is battery mode, line mode and any other modes

Battery mode is where you'd like to be most of the time. The battery runs the inverter, which supplies the load. Any solar power supports the loads, and if any left over, charges the battery (if it's not full). Utility charging is not possible in this mode with this model.

Line mode is where the loads are powered from the AC input (grid, if available, or generator, if you switch over to your generator). Any solar power charges the battery, if it's not full, but is otherwise wasted. Solar power can't support the loads in line mode in this model. AC-in can charge the battery in this mode, and both solar and AC-in can charge the battery together.

The other modes are transient modes, such as fault mode, start-up mode, and standby mode.

5 hours ago, Scottie said:

Any ideas on an explanation why this would have happened?

It didn't help that I didn't think much about the low DC cutoff setting (setting 29). Sorry about that.

If changing that back to 45 V doesn't fix it, I'd suspect something to do with the battery wiring. It would be good to get someone to run a multimeter over the battery cables when you are running a decent load (perhaps a kettle), looking for excessive voltage drops. Also watch the battery voltage over time, and compare the multimeter reading (at the inverter battery terminals) with what the LC Display reports.

It could also be that your loads are too high for your modest sized battery. The two-module battery won't like working at more than 2500 W for very long; your inverter could load it at up to 4 kW for a long time, and a little over 4 kW for short times. You will have to use the microwave and/or an induction cooker (not at the same time), rather than an ordinary stove top, for example.

On 2019/06/29 at 11:25 AM, Coulomb said:

Oops. I assumed too much science was behind the recommended numbers. So drop this back to 45 V (so the battery low warning only starts at 47 V, or 3.13 V per cell). Leave the other settings as I suggested.

Battery: Pylontech seem quite well regarded, as long as yours is a genuine Pylontech and not a knock-off.

Voltex inverter: these seem to be genuine Voltronic Power inverters. Please post a picture of the sticker with the bar-code, and/or see Do I Own a Clone to be completely sure. Voltex also sell Synerji inverters, at least many of which are clones. Voltronic inverters are a reasonable buy, in my opinion, especially if you can keep them away from heat or upgrade the MOSFET protecting capacitors. Zimbabwe might be too hot to get good life from them. But it seems that your need is for something expedient.

Panels: sorry, I don't know these. Perhaps post separately about them in the Solar Power forum.

Battery mode is where you'd like to be most of the time. The battery runs the inverter, which supplies the load. Any solar power supports the loads, and if any left over, charges the battery (if it's not full). Utility charging is not possible in this mode with this model.

Line mode is where the loads are powered from the AC input (grid, if available, or generator, if you switch over to your generator). Any solar power charges the battery, if it's not full, but is otherwise wasted. Solar power can't support the loads in line mode in this model. AC-in can charge the battery in this mode, and both solar and AC-in can charge the battery together.

The other modes are transient modes, such as fault mode, start-up mode, and standby mode.

It didn't help that I didn't think much about the low DC cutoff setting (setting 29). Sorry about that.

If changing that back to 45 V doesn't fix it, I'd suspect something to do with the battery wiring. It would be good to get someone to run a multimeter over the battery cables when you are running a decent load (perhaps a kettle), looking for excessive voltage drops. Also watch the battery voltage over time, and compare the multimeter reading (at the inverter battery terminals) with what the LC Display reports.

It could also be that your loads are too high for your modest sized battery. The two-module battery won't like working at more than 2500 W for very long; your inverter could load it at up to 4 kW for a long time, and a little over 4 kW for short times. You will have to use the microwave and/or an induction cooker (not at the same time), rather than an ordinary stove top, for example.

Thank you very much. I changed setting 29 back to 45V and have kept all the other settings and everything has worked really well over the weekend. Thank you.

Over the weekend when the sun was high and beaming down on the panels there was up to 1.6 KW coming in as PV. DO you think it would be possible to have our maid get stuck into the ironing when it is a hot day and she does it from 11am to 3pm when the sun is delivering its best? I am looking to try buy the lowest watt iron I can find as the one we have at present draws 1,800 watts. 

Please could you give me your opinion on what we could safely use/run through the day off the solar panels with the batteries fully charged ready to help take some of the load as well?

My friend has just installed the same inverter at his house but has only got one battery (Same as mine) and 3 solar panels (Same as mine). How would the settings change for his inverter compared to mine? Your help and advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

 

 

 

46 minutes ago, Scottie said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

46 minutes ago, Scottie said:

 

 

 

 

On 2019/06/29 at 11:25 AM, Coulomb said:

It could also be that your loads are too high for your modest sized battery. The two-module battery won't like working at more than 2500 W for very long; your inverter could load it at up to 4 kW for a long time, and a little over 4 kW for short times. You will have to use the microwave and/or an induction cooker (not at the same time), rather than an ordinary stove top, for example.

The reason I ask what I did above about what we can run off our solar panels during the day is because I was told we wont be able to use any heating elements, such as iron, kettle or microwave. We have a gas cooker so that's not an issue. Above you mention we should use the microwave and induction cooker separately so am I right to believe you are saying we should be able to use our microwave? Would that be only when we have solar and batteries or would we be able to use the microwave at night off the batteries alone?

Your help and advice on what we could actually do off our system will be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

 

 

3 hours ago, Scottie said:

what we could safely use/run through the day off the solar panels with the batteries fully charged ready to help take some of the load as well?

You could keep your current iron. Even though when it's on it will be draining ~200 W from the battery, the panels will easily recover that when it switches off. A smaller iron may be impractical.

3 hours ago, Scottie said:

My friend has just installed the same inverter at his house but has only got one battery (Same as mine) and 3 solar panels (Same as mine). How would the settings change

No changes needed for the fewer panels, just drop setting 02 to 20 A. 25 A would be better, but you can't choose that from the menu. Besides, with three panels (1 kW), he'll only have about 20 A at the very best of times.

6 hours ago, Coulomb said:

You could keep your current iron. Even though when it's on it will be draining ~200 W from the battery, the panels will easily recover that when it switches off. A smaller iron may be impractical.

No changes needed for the fewer panels, just drop setting 02 to 20 A. 25 A would be better, but you can't choose that from the menu. Besides, with three panels (1 kW), he'll only have about 20 A at the very best of times.

Thank you so much for everything, all your time help and advice is much appreciated. Thank you.

Good job @Coulomb, this is what makes our forum so special.

Don’t you guys think that Coulomb needs a lot of praise for his hard work on this forum? 

I noticed that almost every time someone asks for advice, settings on their Axpert (what is it that everyone has an Axpert? 🤔),  some unusual problem to solve, some strange fault code or any other question... Coulomb will generally be the first to answer it. And he doesn’t just give a roundabout answer, he gives a thorough breakdown of every setting needed to make our lives easier. 😊

I don’t know what he does for a living, but it seems to me like he sits in front of his computer all day long, just waiting for some newbie to ask a question about a problem they encountered. Then within minutes the full description of how to solve that problem, is given to them on a silver platter.. (or in my case on a grey iPad 😂)

I would like to personally thank him for helping many of us solve our solar glitches. 👍

17 hours ago, Solaris said:

I would like to personally thank him

Thanks for the kind words. I have a health issue that kept me housebound for a while, but I'm gradually improving. Now I have a few more distractions, such as a new-to-me Nissan Leaf, which will unfortunately take some time away from the forums. But I'll try and keep up. Revently there are a few more advanced Axpert users, who can hopefully fill in any gaps.

2 minutes ago, Coulomb said:

a new-to-me Nissan Leaf

wow that is so cool. I am also considering getting one. I am particularly interested in the V2G and V2H (vehicle to grid and vehicle to home) technology. Does the Nissan Leaf support this?

On 2019/07/02 at 11:54 PM, Fuenkli said:

V2G and V2H... Does the Nissan Leaf support this?

I believe so, as long as you get a model with the CHAdeMO fast charge port. The CHAdeMO port is an option for some models in some countries.

Edit: I should have added that you need a special box from Nissan to plug into the CHAdeMO port to achieve V2G etc, and this doesn't seem to be easy to come by.

Edited July 10, 20197 yr by Coulomb
Clarify that the option is for the CHAdeMO port, not the V2G box.

from my limited interaction @Coulomb seems like a great guy so i full heartedly agree

@Fuenkli, please see the edits to my post. I'd hate you to get the wrong idea and make a large purchase decision based on that.

On 2019/07/03 at 5:02 PM, Coulomb said:

special box from Nissan to plug into the CHAdeMO port

thanks @Coulombfor the update. I will research this issue in detail before I make the decision which EV to buy. To be able to integrate the vehicle battery into the home PV system would be a very attractive option for me. A lot of my PV capacity is waisted at the moment because feeding it into the grid is not financially beneficial here in Cape Town. It would also make the system much easier to manage. I would not have to worry (and fight with the wife) about timing the power usage in the house to match the production anymore 😀.

PLEASE HELP! Found this very interesting. Am interested to know if Scottie managed to get his system working 100s. Am also from Zimbabwe and have been having a horrid time trying to get our system to work as Scottie's. 

We have 8 × 330w panels, 5kva synerji inverter and 2 x 2.4kw pylontech batteries. Our problem is panels stop/disconnect/deactivate once batteries are full (6 lights) even if its 11 am. Then load is being supplied from batteries come sundown batteries are low. 

we would ideally like to use solar entire day (while sun is able to power) then batteries at sunset, electricity to only kick in to charge up batteries or keep/maintain it at least at a good rate say 3 or 4 lights..

 

Does your Synerji inverter have a charge LED like the Axperts? If so, at the end of the day's charge, does it indicate float (LED on solid for Axperts) or no charge (LED off for Axperts)?

It sounds like it's going to zero charge instead of a float charge. Is it possible that your float voltage setting is too low for the Pylontechs?

Still having problems with this solar system ! Now a new problem. When batteries have gone down at night to the new setting of 2 lights. Utility kicks in to maintain the batteries on 2 lights until the next morning. When this happens however our utility goes haywire. It will go up to 247 and then as low as 003 or nothing. This affects appliances and lights. Why would this happen???? We are having very cloudy overcast days, and have been told that this could be to do with the panels as they are polycrystalline panels and they don't do well under overcast and cloudy conditions. Please what is your take on this? Feedback much appreciated.

On 2019/07/01 at 1:21 PM, Coulomb said:

You could keep your current iron. Even though when it's on it will be draining ~200 W from the battery, the panels will easily recover that when it switches off. A smaller iron may be impractical.

No changes needed for the fewer panels, just drop setting 02 to 20 A. 25 A would be better, but you can't choose that from the menu. Besides, with three panels (1 kW), he'll only have about 20 A at the very best of times.