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Posted

Hey guys, 

So I managed to have my new solar installed this past weekend with the following setup: 

Kodak MKS II 5Kva inverter 

12 x 410w Canadian Solar panels 

1 x US3000 - Pylontech battery 

ICC software. 

It seems like my system is not using the solar correctly. I have attached some ICC screen shots. As I understand it, they show me using the battery and not the solar. There is enough generation. I have also attached the inverter and battery settings. 

 

Is there something I am missing? 

 

Appreciate any help 

 

 

Screenshot 2020-08-17 at 13.45.44.png

Screenshot 2020-08-17 at 13.47.07.png

Screenshot 2020-08-17 at 13.47.34.png

Screenshot 2020-08-17 at 13.48.05.png

Posted (edited)

Hi Robert I'm no expert with the inverter type you have, but from the first image you posted it looks like you're running in battery mode. Top right of the image. I think @wolfandymight be able to advise best.

Edit:

I think the charge voltages for the Pylontech are too high.

See here:

 

Edited by francois
Posted
1 hour ago, francois said:

Hi Robert I'm no expert with the inverter type you have, but from the first image you posted it looks like you're running in battery mode. Top right of the image. I think @wolfandymight be able to advise best.

Edit:

I think the charge voltages for the Pylontech are too high.

See here:

 

 

Thanks, I will give that thread a read now. 

 

What I am struggling to find is, how can I see how much PV generation is available? I see some people post graphs of the amount of PV they have during the day - would be nice to see that. 

Posted
6 minutes ago, Rclegg said:

 

Thanks, I will give that thread a read now. 

 

What I am struggling to find is, how can I see how much PV generation is available? I see some people post graphs of the amount of PV they have during the day - would be nice to see that. 

The PV that's available will be subject to what your loads are and what your panels can deliver to service those loads. 

For instance the PV that's available at 12pm might be something like 4kw.

3kw in loads and another 1kw towards charging the battery.

The green line on the screen shots you posted is your PV generation throughout the day. 

Posted
5 minutes ago, francois said:

Here is my graph for the day.

1443872503_Screenshot_20200817-210850_VNCViewer.jpg.8284cff30f8164ceec321fd5c2c635a6.jpg

Same graph looks a bit better in Home Assistant

1895944318_Screenshot_20200817-211221_HomeAssistant.thumb.jpg.cb650f648e8e9b3af4a0a6e28e1f5894.jpg

 

Okay, so if the house is only drawing 800w for instance, then PV will show 800w only or there above (if its not charging the battery? 

My PV graph (from the first post) does not look anything like yours. it fluctuated a lot. Only stayed at a constant 3kw when I was charging the battery with it. 

For oyur HA - are you sending MQTT messages to HA (or your broker) from ICC?

Thanks for sharing and the feedback, I really do appreciate it

Posted
Just now, Rclegg said:

 

Okay, so if the house is only drawing 800w for instance, then PV will show 800w only or there above (if its not charging the battery? 

My PV graph (from the first post) does not look anything like yours. it fluctuated a lot. Only stayed at a constant 3kw when I was charging the battery with it. 

For oyur HA - are you sending MQTT messages to HA (or your broker) from ICC?

Thanks for sharing and the feedback, I really do appreciate it

Yeah if your load is only 800w and the Battery is full the panels will only deliver 800w.

Yes ICC can send MQTT to Home Assistant.

You can configure your HA broker settings in ICC under the  inverter MQTT tab. 

Then you can scan for available topics using MQTT FX. 

You're welcome, I'm hoping other members with more experience on how to configure your inverter for optimal performance will respond soon.

Very neat install by the way! I watched the time lapse video on YouTube.

Posted
3 minutes ago, francois said:

Yeah if your load is only 800w and the Battery is full the panels will only deliver 800w.

Yes ICC can send MQTT to Home Assistant.

You can configure your HA broker settings in ICC under the  inverter MQTT tab. 

Then you can scan for available topics using MQTT FX. 

You're welcome, I'm hoping other members with more experience on how to configure your inverter for optimal performance will respond soon.

Very neat install by the way! I watched the time lapse video on YouTube.

Thanks for that - much appreciated. I will check out the MQTT stuff during the week. 

Yeah, the install was done very well by there guys. I did some wiring myself in the combiner box with the help of @Gielie - but the rest was mostly down to him shouting at us and eating the food lol - That MyBB thread was updated just now with those photos. 
 

Posted
On 2020/08/17 at 1:48 PM, Rclegg said:

Is there something I am missing? 

I trust that you have changed your charging voltages to Bulk 52.5V and Float 51.8V as per the thread that @francois linked?

On your Settings / Battery tab you need to enable 'Use SOC for Control' and adjust the values for switching to Grid and SUB/SBU (see mine below as example). ICC will then take the SOC from your Pylon's BMS and switch your inverter between Grid and SUB/SBU (whichever you have set) accordingly

ICC.thumb.JPG.db06c58272e25ad536fc3fe6f91453ce.JPG

Also, please keep in mind that your single Pylon does not like more than 1800W of load (other than short peaks) if running purely on battery 

Posted (edited)
51 minutes ago, wolfandy said:

I trust that you have changed your charging voltages to Bulk 52.5V and Float 51.8V as per the thread that @francois linked?

On your Settings / Battery tab you need to enable 'Use SOC for Control' and adjust the values for switching to Grid and SUB/SBU (see mine below as example). ICC will then take the SOC from your Pylon's BMS and switch your inverter between Grid and SUB/SBU (whichever you have set) accordingly

ICC.thumb.JPG.db06c58272e25ad536fc3fe6f91453ce.JPG

Also, please keep in mind that your single Pylon does not like more than 1800W of load (other than short peaks) if running purely on battery 

 

Thanks for this. I have the float and bulk voltages set as per the thread title linked. 

At the moment, I am having issues where the PV will not run the house. It will charge the battery, not a problem at 1900watts - but as a test, I turned off the battery and grid to see how the inverter would respond - forcing it to use PV. It dropped all loads and gave me a warning of low PV (Error 15) on the display. But I am sure I have enough PV to keep the 800w load I had at the time on. 

For about 10 mins today, the Inverter did use solar to power the house: 
8386dfb3-9ede-47ae-96c3-80d53d2d247e.thumb.jpg.735d581169a61670e1b8057f4dcc844d.jpg

Then later it stopped and switched to battery charging from solar. Once that was done it looks like it tries to switch to house power, from the graph below, it appears to me that the inverter tries to power the house but PV but keeps dropping. 

 

6363730d-e5b4-4828-b896-de293e1d1b9d.jpg

Edited by Rclegg
Posted

Hi Rclegg

Your back to Grid seems a bit low, and your back to discharge can be a bit lower. See below the settings that we use.

Capture.JPG

Posted
6 minutes ago, Ridiq said:

Hi Rclegg

Your back to Grid seems a bit low, and your back to discharge can be a bit lower. See below the settings that we use.

Capture.JPG

 

Posted

I would also drop the PV charging amps to 30A

Recommend Charge/Discharge Current (A) 37 Max.

Charge/Discharge Current (A) 74

Peak Charge/Discharge Current (A) 100A@15sec

 

Posted
3 minutes ago, Ridiq said:

I would also drop the PV charging amps to 30A

Recommend Charge/Discharge Current (A) 37 Max.

Charge/Discharge Current (A) 74

Peak Charge/Discharge Current (A) 100A@15sec

 

 

Thanks. I have made the following changes: 

1625820125_Screenshot2020-08-18at16_34_57.thumb.png.a7a5edad125df487f20097071de589c7.png

 

The Inverter has now switched to battery. When I expect it to be on utility if there is not enough PV. I must be missing something. 

Posted

I think it would be helpful if I list my desired results for the inverter operation. 

I would like the following to apply / happy 

Power house using the Solar - when that is not enough, go to grid. If the grid fails, go to battery. And to only charge the battery using the solar. 

Posted
32 minutes ago, Rclegg said:

Okay with @Ridiq's changes - the inverter went to charge batteries: 

 

1595536906_Screenshot2020-08-18at16_37_09.thumb.png.f6d6dec1ca925f8602c2b16e636498e4.png

 

My question is this: Why is it not powering the house with that much PV available? 

That's weird.

It's not even powering the loads with PV. Using PV exclusively for charging the battery.

Posted
1 minute ago, francois said:

That's weird.

It's not even powering the loads with PV. Using PV exclusively for charging the battery.

Okay, so it's not just me that thinks its odd. 😅

I'm not sure where else to look, to be honest. 

Posted
9 minutes ago, Rclegg said:

I wonder if its the panel configuration?

Currently its 3 string of 4 panels, making 12 in total. 

I doubt it.

Are you able to post the settings from the inverter menu and post them here? 

Maybe it will help with troubleshooting.

 

 

Posted
14 minutes ago, francois said:

I doubt it.

Are you able to post the settings from the inverter menu and post them here? 

Maybe it will help with troubleshooting.

 

 

Sure, here is every setting on the inverter - not sure what is related - 

  • Program 1: SOL
  • Program 2: 30A
  • Program 3: APL
  • Program 4: SDS
  • Program 5: USE
  • Program 6: Disabled 
  • Program 7: Disabled
  • Program 8: 230v
  • Program 9: 50Hz
  • Program 11: 30a 
  • Program 12: 48v 
  • Program 13: 50v
  • Program 16: OSO
  •  Program 26:  52.5
  • Program 27: 51.8
  • Program 29:  42.0
  • Program 30:  ONE - can't see this in manual? 
  • Program 31: SBE
  • Program 32: Auto 
  • Program 33: Disabled
  • Program 34: 58.4v

 

Posted
7 minutes ago, francois said:

Maybe try Program 1 on SBU?

 

I did try that and it seemed to make little difference. I will try it again tomorrow when the sun is up. 

Posted
3 hours ago, Ridiq said:

Your back to Grid seems a bit low, and your back to discharge can be a bit lower.

If @Rclegg has enabled the 'Use SOC for Control' on the Settings/Battery tab, then these voltages should be at 46V or 47V for 'Back to Grid' and 58V for 'Back to Discharge' - to ensure that the Axpert's own settings do not interfere with ICC switching the inverter 

3 hours ago, Rclegg said:

Why is it not powering the house with that much PV available? 

Your 'Charger Source Priority' is set to 'No AC Charge. Solar Charge Battery first then power Loads'. You can see that your PV (green line) was slightly higher than your Battery (purple), which means you were producing slightly more than your set battery charging current. The surplus was used to power the loads, supplemented by AC (your blue Loads line is slightly higher than your red AC line). I do not know what other settings you have available for 'Charger Source Priority', but there should be something like 'No AC Charge. Solar power Loads first, then charge Battery' (I do not know your model that well)

Then just make sure that you have the settings above in place and the 'Use SOC for Control' enabled with SOC settings of your choice

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