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ReVOV Batteries


HennieJH

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On 2020/12/25 at 8:53 PM, HennieJH said:

Is anyone else having issues with ReVOV batteries? Specifically referring to "VE. Bus System  - Low battery: Alarm ".

How does one establish the reason for this error? Battery just shuts down when error pops up. 

Please assist if possible.

There are a number of different issues that could cause this, but it depends on the configuration of the inverter (particularly the low voltage disconnect setting) and the condition of the battery. A number of Revov batteries have been found to have significant cell imbalance, which will take the BMS a significant amount of time to correct. 

When this low battery: Alarm condition  occurs, does the Revov BMS produce an Error (Red) or Alarm (Orange) LED?

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On 2021/02/21 at 7:27 AM, HennieJH said:

So after being up and down, and getting the installer and battery supplier out to fault find problem, and still not able to get it solved, they are bazzled as they haven't seen this type of problem before.

System Life: 16months old

Problem Persistance: 14 months

20210221_071239.jpg

 

 

We've seen this problem in a few instances. It may be resolved with an inverter firmware update. I would try that as a first measure. 

If an inverter firmware update does not resolve the issue, then you will need to connect a set of DC cables (Not too big, about 1.5mm2 is sufficient) from the Inverters "Voltage Sense" Port/Terminals and connect this to the battery. This will allow the Victron inverter to measure the battery DC voltage.
 

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On 2021/02/21 at 9:20 PM, HennieJH said:

Why would battery voltage jump around so erratically? Unit has shut down completely. 

 

This may be a result of the battery BMS engaging protection as a result of an out of bounds condition, such as a low or high cell. You will need to read the BMS directly in order to establish the specific nature of the problem.

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2 hours ago, Nicholas said:

There are a number of different issues that could cause this, but it depends on the configuration of the inverter (particularly the low voltage disconnect setting) and the condition of the battery. A number of Revov batteries have been found to have significant cell imbalance, which will take the BMS a significant amount of time to correct. 

When this low battery: Alarm condition  occurs, does the Revov BMS produce an Error (Red) or Alarm (Orange) LED?

The supplier swapped out the old set of batteries with a new set, haven't had issues since. What i have noted however is they have removed the option where excess available solar would be pushed to the Non essential loads, thus, all the Non essential loads (Geyser and stove) are now fed directly from the Eskom supply. Has caused an increase in consumption from the grid again. I suppose they do this to better protect their batteries, since they don't want these heavy loads to work from their battery.

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4 minutes ago, HennieJH said:

The supplier swapped out the old set of batteries with a new set, haven't had issues since. What i have noted however is they have removed the option where excess available solar would be pushed to the Non essential loads, thus, all the Non essential loads (Geyser and stove) are now fed directly from the Eskom supply. Has caused an increase in consumption from the grid again. I suppose they do this to better protect their batteries, since they don't want these heavy loads to work from their battery.

This is then a misunderstanding on the behalf of the supplier. 

Supplying loads in your home, whether they may be essential or non-essential, is the objective of a renewable power system. 

As long as your inverter & charge controller do not exceed the specified maximum charge and discharge current on the product datasheet, then it is expected that you may use the full capability of that battery to perform as intended. 

I would not accept the reconfiguration by the supplier as it is band-aid solution effectively throttling the battery's operating environment and consequently compromising your system's return of investment and monitoring insights. 

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19 minutes ago, Nicholas said:

excess available solar would be pushed to the Non essential loads

That's not right, non-essential loads, surely would not use battery power anyway, so why would they think this to be a good option? Unless the inverter uses battery power also for non-essential loads, this configuration is wrong....

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6 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

That's not right, non-essential loads, surely would not use battery power anyway, so why would they think this to be a good option? Unless the inverter uses battery power also for non-essential loads, this configuration is wrong....

Yes it is right. That is how a Victron ESS configuration operates. This is not an Axpert (Off-Grid) Inverter. 

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2 hours ago, Nicholas said:

Yes it is right. That is how a Victron ESS configuration

ok, so, non-essential is really the same as essential, use Solar + battery power... don't know Axpert, it would just make sense to me to not waste battery energy on non-essential loads...

Edited by Kalahari Meerkat
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2 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

ok, so, non-essential is really the same as essential, use Solar + battery power... don't know Axpert, it would just make sense to me to not waste battery energy on non-essential loads...

If you store excess solar energy in a battery (Specifically LiFePO4) and intend to discharge that stored energy later through the evening and into the morning - then why does it matter whether your inverter power system supplied it to a geyser heating element (non-essential) as opposed to lights, TV and other essential circuits?

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3 hours ago, HennieJH said:

The supplier swapped out the old set of batteries with a new set, haven't had issues since. What i have noted however is they have removed the option where excess available solar would be pushed to the Non essential loads, thus, all the Non essential loads (Geyser and stove) are now fed directly from the Eskom supply. Has caused an increase in consumption from the grid again. I suppose they do this to better protect their batteries, since they don't want these heavy loads to work from their battery.

That doesn't sound right. I have Revov's and my system happily pushes from the batteries back to the non essentials, as long as there is power available from the grid. 

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1 minute ago, Bobster said:

That doesn't sound right. I have Revov's and my system happily pushes from the batteries back to the non essentials, as long as there is power available from the grid. 

Or maybe not. Maybe it just sends PV to the non-essentials instead of charging the batteries.

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12 minutes ago, Nicholas said:

then why does it matter

You are missing my point, if there is excess solar (the batteries are charged and normal loads are satisfied) then I would think this excess should, mixed with the grid, power the non-essential loads, so when the grid fails, the essential loads can rely on a fully charged battery + some solar to keep things ticking over.

From what I read/understand from @HennieJH's post is that the non-essential loads are not using excess solar power now, only grid power.

In my case I have no non-essential loads, no HWC, since that is purely evacuated glass tubes and no heating element. So everything on my inverter is on essential load output.

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4 hours ago, Nicholas said:

This is then a misunderstanding on the behalf of the supplier. 

Supplying loads in your home, whether they may be essential or non-essential, is the objective of a renewable power system. 

As long as your inverter & charge controller do not exceed the specified maximum charge and discharge current on the product datasheet, then it is expected that you may use the full capability of that battery to perform as intended. 

I would not accept the reconfiguration by the supplier as it is band-aid solution effectively throttling the battery's operating environment and consequently compromising your system's return of investment and monitoring insights. 

I fully agree.

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20 hours ago, HennieJH said:

The supplier swapped out the old set of batteries with a new set, haven't had issues since. What i have noted however is they have removed the option where excess available solar would be pushed to the Non essential loads, thus, all the Non essential loads (Geyser and stove) are now fed directly from the Eskom supply. Has caused an increase in consumption from the grid again. I suppose they do this to better protect their batteries, since they don't want these heavy loads to work from their battery.

I have kept mine on 'priority load' using excess PV to grid, and use batteries to discharge for 'non essential' but only when batteries are 80-100% SOC in the evenings for short periods of time. Only issue REVOV is currently looking at for me is 1 battery is FCC 104AH whilst the other one is 68.8. Not sure what that is all about, but suspect battery may well have been in this state when it was installed. I only fiddled with battery menus 2 weeks after installation and picked this up 

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23 hours ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

You are missing my point, if there is excess solar (the batteries are charged and normal loads are satisfied) then I would think this excess should, mixed with the grid, power the non-essential loads, so when the grid fails, the essential loads can rely on a fully charged battery + some solar to keep things ticking over.

From what I read/understand from @HennieJH's post is that the non-essential loads are not using excess solar power now, only grid power.

In my case I have no non-essential loads, no HWC, since that is purely evacuated glass tubes and no heating element. So everything on my inverter is on essential load output.

You're making the assumption that the Victron ESS or general energy storage hybrid systems seek to achieve a fully charged battery as first priority before satisfying the objective of minimising consumption from Grid. This is incorrect.

Victron ESS configuration supplies solar power to AC Load (This consists of essential and non-essential loads) FIRST and then only excess solar power is used to charge the battery. The battery reserve is configured by setting a minimum/reserve state of charge (SOC) on the Victron GX device which storage energy will only be utilised in the event of a grid power failure.

Edited by Nicholas
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5 minutes ago, Nicholas said:

making the assumption that the Victron ESS or general energy storage hybrid systems

if you're grid tied, that would make sense to me, but I suppose, that's a local thing, since rolling blackouts and a unreliable grid are not neccessarily common everywhere but are, of course, in our country...

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8 hours ago, CBbrewery said:

I have kept mine on 'priority load' using excess PV to grid, and use batteries to discharge for 'non essential' but only when batteries are 80-100% SOC in the evenings for short periods of time. Only issue REVOV is currently looking at for me is 1 battery is FCC 104AH whilst the other one is 68.8. Not sure what that is all about, but suspect battery may well have been in this state when it was installed. I only fiddled with battery menus 2 weeks after installation and picked this up 

Ok, I am looking to get increased battery capacity for the evenings, current 10.24kWh is too small. But considering if I should go to another battery brand (Pylontech, Freedom won). Not sure how that would integrate with the REVOV batteries. 

Edited by HennieJH
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