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Proline Energy 5Kva


BradZA

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Hi All,

Im having issues with my proline energy 5kva inverter. For some strange reason, my batteries only give me between 2 and 3 hours run time. I ran the watchpower software, and I picked up that my battery discharge current was running at 9 amps, but my load is 350W. 

Does anyone have some suggestions for me? Theoretically I should get over 20 hours run time off my battery pack.

My setup is:

4x 300W 24v panels

16x 105aH Batteries giving me a total of 400aH @ 48v

IMG_3002.jpg

IMG_2999.jpg

IMG_3005.jpg

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Hi Brad

What does the battery bank voltage do while discharging and just before switch over to grid?
What is your "back to grid" voltage set at? I think my Axpert was set at 49V. Voltage is a poor indication of SoC and at higher current draw will drop, making the Axpert think that the SoC is less than it actually is. However I think 350W (if it is constant) is not a lot for a 400Ah bank.

BTW, I suspect 4x300W panels to be a wee bit light for your battery bank. Is your inverter set up to only charge from solar or solar & grid?

Cobus

Ps, welcome to Powerforum.

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Those look like Excis SMF type "deep cycle" batteries. Not particularly brilliant batteries

9 * 48 = 432W. Given that at part load the inverter efficiency is usually in the mid 80s, so that sounds about right.

So how do you know it doesn't "last"? Does the voltage drop too low? If it does, you could have one failed battery bringing one string down, which in turn affects al 4 strings.

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Hi Cobus,

The battery voltage drops constantly, and on the inverter is shows that the discharge amps from the battery varies between 3-9amps. My back to grid voltage is set at 44V. 

The inverter is setup to 0S0, so only solar power charges the batteries. The batteries charge fully in a day as I'm getting over 850W and 17amps from the panels. Im planing in a month or so to put another 4x300w panels to the system.

Im using 105aH Royal deep cycle batteries, and the whole system is only 3 days old.

Attached is the history log. From page 77, you can see the discharge amps and the Load. I ran a log for 2-3days to see what was happening.

IMG_3001.jpg

History_datas.pdf

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Hi Brad

You definitely don't have enough panels for your bank (The rule for lead acid is that you need +-10% minimum of your rated ah capacity as charging current.)
This is +-40A (Around 2000w) that you need to put into your bank in the bulk stage.

1 hour ago, BradZA said:

The inverter is setup to 0S0, so only solar power charges the batteries. The batteries charge fully in a day as I'm getting over 850W and 17amps from the panels.


Highest seen in the log is around 11A (+-525w)going to the bank that's definitely not enough the rest is used to run the load.
What is your charge and float voltage set at?

Another thing you should also take into consideration is that you are powering loads while charging the bank and your PV only reaches the Max rated power with cloud edge effect.

The other thing is you need to consider running your panels in 3 per string.
I see the MPPT voltage never passes 70V  (Mine seems to perform best at around 90V)

Like mentioned before you cant rely on the inverters SOC (Battery Capacity in the log) reading as it is not accurate at all.
You will see most of us with these inverters installed the Victron BMV battery monitors to overcome this problem.

Thys

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8 hours ago, BradZA said:

The inverter is setup to 0S0, so only solar power charges the batteries. The batteries charge fully in a day as I'm getting over 850W and 17amps from the panels. Im planing in a month or so to put another 4x300w panels to the system.

I missed that the first time round, but I agree. You have 4 times more battery than I do, but only 30% more PV than my teeny weeny 900W array. Based on my own numbers, I expect your system to make 4.5kwh to 6kwh in a day as it stands now. Your batteries are 48*400 = 19.2kwh however. Doubling your PV array should almost get you there, then just stick to low DoD levels (no more than 20%) so you can carry some loads too.

The problem with that many parallel battery strings, however, is that low levels of DoD is about the worst thing you can do. Look at this (somewhat technical) paper where it is explained that you need to take the batteries down somewhat if you want to work your strings equally.

http://neuralfibre.com/paul/wp-content/uploads/2007/05/can-we-now-sin.pdf

At low levels of DoD, some strings will be worked harder than others and the batteries will age differently and go out of balance over time. So you might also want to invest in battery balancers, or less+larger batteries. Two strings of 200Ahs would be better.

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Thanks for all the assistance. I agree that my panel size is to small and I don't have enough to keep the system going.    What my plan is to do. Im going to buy another 2x300W panels and setup 2 strings of 3x300W panels to increase my voltage through my MPPT. In another month or so, I will purchase another 3x300W, so then ill have 9x300W panels with 3 strings and look into Viltron BMV 702 monitor.

This is my first time using a mppt controller as I have always used the standard for my small systems on my towers.

I will post an update this weekend or next week to the improvements of adding and changing my panel strings.

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So I have ordered another 5x300W solar Panels. That will give me 3x strings of 300W solar Panels with a total of 2700W

I will be installing them on Friday Afternoon, and will post a new picture and let you know of my results. I am hoping this will solve the problem.

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I have been running my system for a few days now. I have a total of 9x 300W Solar Panels. They are connected in a string of 3 and working well. My batteries get fully charged but I still only get about 2-3 hours backup on the batteries. So I now run a larger load during the day to consume the power generated as its sits between 1.5KW to 2KW from the solar power. I am happy to do this as I'm using the power generated to run most of my load during the day.

IMG_0010.jpg

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On 6/16/2016 at 4:36 PM, BradZA said:

So I have been running my system for a few days now. I have a total of 9x 300W Solar Panels. They are connected in a string of 3 and working well. My batteries get fully charged but I still only get about 2-3 hours backup on the batteries. So I now run a larger load during the day to consume the power generated as its sits between 1.5KW to 2KW from the solar power. I am happy to do this as I'm using the power generated to run most of my load during the day.

IMG_0010.jpg

Partial shading issues...  Tree & chimney

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The pic was taken around 16:30 in the afternoon. The panels are fully exposed to the sun from 9:30.

The system is producing between 1.4KW to 2.1KW

Since I have 9x300W (2700W )Solar Panels and the system indicated in the manual that it can handle 3000W / 60A, does that mean that I can put another 3 Solar Panels on as im only producing 2.1KW on the system where it can handle 3KW?

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Another parallel string should do the trick. The inverter will only draw what it requires, even if you have 6000Wp worth of panels, the inverter will only draw 3000W from the panels.

When adding panels with a total Wp more than what your inverter can utilise you just have to ensure that the Max Voc of your panels never go above the Max Vin on the inverter.  Since you are running 3 parallel strings already and just adds another parallel string of the same kind of panels that should not be a problem, because you should have checked the Max V on your current set-up already.

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