Hi. I am visiting friends in Bonnievale who recently had a R160 000 solar system installed to use as backup for loadshedding. They have 15 panels (approximately 2KW) of input and 2 x 2000 pylon tech batteries with a Mecer hybrid plus 5KVA inverter. The installation was done by an installer and in the day the appliances connected to solar all work when the panels are active. But at night or during load shedding the batteries only last about half an hour. The appliances connected do not draw more than about 500w so the batteries should last longer. There are fuses between the battery and inverter but no DC breaker. I have heard these fuses sparking and crackling a few times already concerns me.....should there not also be a DC breaker? And what might be causing that problem of sparking? Is it possible that the batteries are perhaps faulty or is it more likely a communication or settings issue between the inverter and the batteries? The installer sent an electrician to check all the cables and voltages but all are fine. The pi goody is also working. Is it not now the responsibility of the installer to follow up? I have never had any issues on my side with an installer or my meter/pylontech system but my friends have no solar experience so I am just looking to try help them as it sounds to me like the installer has left them in a bad position. Is there a way to test if the batteries are faulty and should the installer not take responsibility for this too? 

 

Sounds like some settings are not right, is the pi seeing 2 battery's or one?

We don't have access to the pi, only the installer does. But thank you for this question to ask him. 

 

Sounds like the low voltage cut-off is not set correctly. I would suggest getting access to the pi immediately. If the pi is there and connected (with the proper pylon cable) it should be as easy as connecting a screen via the pi's HDMI port and then seeing the inverter settings, dashboards etc.

If you have that, you can share the settings here and someone will be able to confirm. Remember the Mecer does not read the pylontech batteries SOC correctly and that is why the pi is needed to manage the inverter with the correct voltage settings.

Regarding the sparks, that can only be a cabling or fuse problem, a breaker will have no influence here as it just disconnects load, if the sparks fly under load there is some serious connection problems.

So in short, get access to the pi to see settings then someone here will be able to help. I can share my settings with you, I use the US3000 pylons, but settings will be close

As a side note, I do not know you get to R 160,000 with what you mentioned here, some of these installers are sharks. This system's material cost should not even be more than R 90,000 (and I am now very generous), where did the other R 70,000 go to?