Hi Guys.

 

So over the weekend I installed my new inverter solution on my small holdings outside Pretoria.  The old solution that I removed, was moved to my Flatlet on the property where most of my security systems run.

 

The Inverter has 6x 365W Canadian Sun Solar Panels.

4x 150AH Gell Batteries.

And then the inverter.

It’s a Clone inverter and I’m at such a stage that I’m considering changing it out with a new Sunsynk 5kva inverter.

 

my issue that I have is the following:

On cloudy days and late in the afternoon. When the PV power is low, and insufficient to power the load, the inverter constantly switches between pv and battery, then Utility.  Until the battery reaches peak voltage, then does it again.

 

Will it actually help if I consider adding a Raspberry Pi with the ICC software to the inverter, where I can tell the inverter when to use what?  Or am I not understanding how the ICC software works?  Will the ICC controller work on the Sun Pays inverter?

 

Currently I’m even considering building a DIY controller that will disconnect the PV power from the inverter when it’s to low.  And then connecting it back when it’s sufficient again.

 

the settings I have is as follow and recommended by The Sun Pays.

01  SBU

02 20 Amp

05  Use

12  49

13  54

16  snu

26  56.4

27  55.2

29  48

 

Depending on what you are trying to achieve...

if your aim is to have battery power, in case the utility dies, then SUB should be the chosen option, I would think, this, as far as I understand, would use Solar as primary source, then the Utility (Eksdom/Municipality) as secondary and finally Batteries if primary and secondary fails.

If your aim is to live without Utility, then you'd need to stock up on Batteries to cover your usage and possibly, if your usage is more than the panels provide, including getting the batteries charged, add some more solar panels as well, then the SBU option would make more sense... except, of course, to actually then get rid of the U as well 🙂

29 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

Depending on what you are trying to achieve...

if your aim is to have battery power, in case the utility dies, then SUB should be the chosen option, I would think, this, as far as I understand, would use Solar as primary source, then the Utility (Eksdom/Municipality) as secondary and finally Batteries if primary and secondary fails.

If your aim is to live without Utility, then you'd need to stock up on Batteries to cover your usage and possibly, if your usage is more than the panels provide, including getting the batteries charged, add some more solar panels as well, then the SBU option would make more sense... except, of course, to actually then get rid of the U as well 🙂

There are 3 settings on the setting 01.

SOL

UTI

SBU

 

I wish it had a setting like SUB as you described. 
 

My ideal solution would be as follow.

During night. Utility (as tis is cheaper than discharging the batteries

During day.  PV with battery as supplement until PV is insufficient 

In Load shedding situations.  Battery should be used.  
 

This solution is installed in a flat on the property.  We always had a 3KVA inverter in but since we upgraded our main inverter, we moved the 5KVA into the place of the 3KVA.

I did some research and it seems to me that the ICC software will be the easiest and cheaper solution for now.

 

I upgraded the Main House Inverter with a Deye 8 KVA inverter.  Currently have 16x 360W Canadian Sun Panels on the system together with 2x US3000C batteries.  Getting 2 more batteries at the end of April. This solution works wonders, as it seamlessly blends in all 3 sources into 1. 

The current issue I have that irritates me the most, is the fact that on SBU and SOL the inverter jumps between battery and utility constantly.

 

and the only way around this will be with the ICC controller where I can set schedules on the inverter as to when I want it to be in SBU/SOL and when it needs to be in Utility.

 

It would actually be super cool if they can have this same schedule settings for setting nr16 as well. So you can have a more scheduled setting for the options there

I would squeal back to the importers of the Inverter... WTF? SBU SOL (5hit outta luck?) and Utl, SOL is the same as SBU from what I can see, this is something that should be fixable in firmware and they should give you a SUB option, which is what every sane person is likely to want from this inverter... I don't know this unit, I have 5kW Sunsynk and luckily the Sunsynk's don't have these issues 🙂

I would talk to the importers of your The Sun Pays unit, I'm sure, since it can run off the utility, if the battery hits a low number, it should be able to prefer the utility over the battery... come to think of it... the manual for SOL states "Utility provides power to the loads only when any one condition happens:-Solar energy is not available-Battery voltage drops to either low-level warning voltage or the setting point in program 12." which could be set to 51V, I guess and will not run long off battery, before using the utility power again... I'm just having a bad thought, does this "thing" mix utility with solar or just switch to utility and not use solar, if 2nd option is the scenario, then, I guess its unfixable with firmware or otherwise... my condolences, if that be the case...

 

9 minutes ago, Kalahari Meerkat said:

I would squeal back to the importers of the Inverter... WTF? SBU SOL (5hit outta luck?) and Utl, SOL is the same as SBU from what I can see, this is something that should be fixable in firmware and they should give you a SUB option, which is what every sane person is likely to want from this inverter... I don't know this unit, I have 5kW Sunsynk and luckily the Sunsynk's don't have these issues 🙂

I would talk to the importers of your The Sun Pays unit, I'm sure, since it can run off the utility, if the battery hits a low number, it should be able to prefer the utility over the battery... come to think of it... the manual for SOL states "Utility provides power to the loads only when any one condition happens:-Solar energy is not available-Battery voltage drops to either low-level warning voltage or the setting point in program 12." which could be set to 51V, I guess and will not run long off battery, before using the utility power again... I'm just having a bad thought, does this "thing" mix utility with solar or just switch to utility and not use solar, if 2nd option is the scenario, then, I guess its unfixable with firmware or otherwise... my condolences, if that be the case...

 

Unfortunately these inverters are sold as “off grid” inverters.  They are in some cases marked as Hybrid inverters.  It can’t mix Grid with Solar/ Battery. It mixes PV with Battery and if that's not sufficient, it uses Utility.  Something not fixable with a firmware upgrade.

 

I used this inverter for close to 3 years. But decided that it’s not sufficient for what I really want to do.  Then I opted in for the Deye 8Kva Hybrid Inverter.  And this thing is insanely easy to uses and setup.  And it blends the PV seamlessly.

36 minutes ago, JpPaulKruger said:

The current issue I have that irritates me the most, is the fact that on SBU and SOL the inverter jumps between battery and utility constantly.

I think it is a software issue with these clones it is like they switch to utility when it starts to get dark but it than sees there is still pv available it than goes to pv again and jumps around between utility and PV until it is not seeing any pv at all.  I have set mine to SBU but leave utility switched off.

What I done is use my clone inverter off-grid only by forcing PV and battery power during day time, therefore not feeding Eskom power during the day, I do however have a sonoff switch that control the Eskom charging at night if I need to charge the battery. Normally I do not need Eskom to charge as the pv during the day charges the battery to a acceptable level and charge with Eskom only in very cloudy weather or when load shedding is on the cards. The system is automated with Sonoff switches and change-over contactors that has been working well for more than a year now, if it wasn't for the automation I would off chucked this clone in the bin long ago.

1 minute ago, Gerrie said:

I think it is a software issue with these clones it is like they switch to utility when it starts to get dark but it than sees there is still pv available it than goes to pv again and jumps around between utility and PV until it is not seeing any pv at all.  I have set mine to SBU but leave utility switched off.

What I done is use my clone inverter off-grid only by forcing PV and battery power during day time, therefore not feeding Eskom power during the day, I do however have a sonoff switch that control the Eskom charging at night if I need to charge the battery. Normally I do not need Eskom to charge as the pv during the day charges the battery to a acceptable level and charge with Eskom only in very cloudy weather or when load shedding is on the cards. The system is automated with Sonoff switches and change-over contactors that has been working well for more than a year now, if it wasn't for the automation I would off chucked this clone in the bin long ago.

I’ve been contemplating on doing a contactor solution on the PV input side. With a sonoff timer to say turn on PV at 9 in the morning and off at 4 in the afternoon.  But now that the ICC software support teams notified me that the ICC will work on my inverter, I’ll be buying one and use this to control the 01 setting on a time schedule.  I just want the inverter to stay on utility after a certain time. And obviously if I force it into utility mode, the batteries will not work during the night. Only during day to assist PV and when we have Loadshedding.

 

1 hour ago, JpPaulKruger said:

The current issue I have that irritates me the most, is the fact that on SBU and SOL the inverter jumps between battery and utility constantly.

Hi @JpPaulKrugerI have a Must which is very similar to what you have and also experienced the same sort of issues. I have set mine up on either SBU or SOL they both seem the same and don't seem to do anything different. I choose to not charge from the Grid and have set my Go to Grid setting to swap to utility when my batteries are at about a 75% SOC. By setting the Go back to battery(Or something like that) setting to a higher voltage, say 28V(on my 24v inverter) this prevents the inverter cycling if the voltage raises slightly after the load is taken off.

Not sure if this would work for you however if you can get ICC I think that would be a win, just wish they could get my inverter on their list!

1 hour ago, JpPaulKruger said:

I’ve been contemplating on doing a contactor solution on the PV input side. With a sonoff timer to say turn on PV at 9 in the morning and off at 4 in the afternoon.  But now that the ICC software support teams notified me that the ICC will work on my inverter, I’ll be buying one and use this to control the 01 setting on a time schedule.  I just want the inverter to stay on utility after a certain time. And obviously if I force it into utility mode, the batteries will not work during the night. Only during day to assist PV and when we have Loadshedding.

Would you be able to pm me those comms with the ICC team?

I have a 4kw/5kva Sun Pays victron clone with 2 x 4.8kw lithium ion batteries (their older ones without the screen) and we were told that the software cant communicate with the inverter and the batteries. The problem being that there is no comms between the inverter and batteries, ICC would be great for this.

 

We've been waiting on Sun Pays to release a firmware that can communicate.

42 minutes ago, Bl4d3 said:

Would you be able to pm me those comms with the ICC team?

I have a 4kw/5kva Sun Pays victron clone with 2 x 4.8kw lithium ion batteries (their older ones without the screen) and we were told that the software cant communicate with the inverter and the batteries. The problem being that there is no comms between the inverter and batteries, ICC would be great for this.

 

We've been waiting on Sun Pays to release a firmware that can communicate.

I’ve received confirmation from Manie that ICC will work on the inverter only. Not sure if it will work on the “The sun pays” lithium battery packs.  I know they have some issues when it comes to communication between the inverter and batteries. 
 

I however only need coms on the inverter.

Does anyone have any recommendations on what Battery Monitor from Victron is recommend in order to better communicate with the ICC software?

For those that are interested in SoC control for The Sun Pays lithium batteries and Axpert type inverters, please have a look at the following option: https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/pages/online-solar-monitoring     and to monitor online : https://tspsolarbot.com/register . The software is still a work in progress and is updated weekly with new features.

 

As for the original post question, please get into contact with The Sun Pays developers to add requests for the existing software : [email protected]

On 2021/05/04 at 8:40 AM, TSPHeino said:

For those that are interested in SoC control for The Sun Pays lithium batteries and Axpert type inverters, please have a look at the following option: https://shop.thesunpays.co.za/pages/online-solar-monitoring     and to monitor online : https://tspsolarbot.com/register . The software is still a work in progress and is updated weekly with new features.

 

As for the original post question, please get into contact with The Sun Pays developers to add requests for the existing software : [email protected]

Thanks

Installed v1.16.1 last night and seems to be working except for one bug.
Have been in touch with Gerrit and Pieter.

I have also suggested adding in SoC control, such as what percentage to go back to grid and back to battery.
Battery is at 81% but still on grid

Hi 

I purchased a new 4.8kw from esquire

When connecting to my synapse 7.2kw inverter which is a voltronic the inverter sees the battery but cannot generate any power.

 

Pls advise what I should do differently ?

 

I have a battery bank with 4 x Hubble and they work fine, when trying to use just the TSP battery it won't work.

 

Regards

Doron

 

1 hour ago, Doron said:

I purchased a new 4.8kw from esquire

Do you mean a 4.8 kWh battery? And it's branded TSP?

I'm finding it hard to follow your setup.