On 2022/06/09 at 11:13 AM, Jonathan Leichner said:

Thank you so much for this.

 

So, I'm building a new house and i am able to have two separate DB's for non and essential loads.

My concern is if i have only essential DB, if my geyser is heating up and then my wife runs the dishwasher and maybe the washing machine, it might peak the 5kw.

So my thoughts are to put everything on essential except the pool, dishwasher and washing machine. And these should hopefully receive excess power from PV if available?

And then use smart switches on the essential side of things to schedule.

Another question, do you have SPD's on both sides of your inverter, grid and load. If so, what units do you use? They are pricey!!!

I think it might be cheaper to make up my own DB with this stuff in it.

Thanks for all the info, you guys have been a great help.

 

Regards

 

The other thing that you need to consider when thinking about how you are going to connect things is the limit on maximum pass thru current. 

5kw inverter max is 35A =  +-8kw 

8kw max is 50A = +- 11.5kw 

Connections to the non-essential side do not contribute to this limit

I have read through all the threads and it makes sense, however the results I see don't reflect the discussions.

My Test:

1. I disconnect the inputs from the Solar panels so there is no PV

2. Set Power to 1000W.Aux off 96% and on 100%

3. Switch on Geyser which is on the AUX load whith SOC at 93%

From the screenshots you will see the system drawing from the batteries. Am I wrong or don't I understand it correctly

On 2022/06/28 at 9:58 AM, Sc00bs said:

Hi @McAllstar

I decided for simplicity to stop using the geyser automation flow and just to use the smart switch timers to switch the geysers on/off as there seemed no reason to optimise the whole thing as I usually have more than enough power to run everything and isn't an option for the geysers to not switch on. 

The only thing that I am still using is the automation for the swimming pool pump to only switch it on when there is sufficient production forecast.  

I have attached the flows for you to have a look at. 

Good luck 🙂 

flows (12).jsonUnavailable

Hi,

 

This type of set up with smart devices and business rules is exactly what I am looking for. However I don't have the tech knowledge more time to learn it all. Do you know of any professionals who would set up these smart devices and rules for me. Currently the installers I talk too, either don't know or are not interested in setting something like this up.

Reviving this old thread as it doesn't seem like the question is answered clearly. Does anyone have the AUX/Smart load working as expected?

Hoping some updates by now and it makes a good case for having the geyser on AUX rather than non-essential.

From what I gather, it will use PV+battery when battery SOC is between the set limits AND power required is below the set Watts. Otherwise it will draw from grid (if option ticked). If no grid available and conditions not met, it will not switch on.

 

Linking to this thread which contains the answers (and a lot of other useful detail) for the benefit of others (like myself!) who found this one first using Google:

 

34 minutes ago, JayMardern said:

Linking to this thread which contains the answers (and a lot of other useful detail) for the benefit of others (like myself!) who found this one first using Google:

 

Not everything is correct in that thread. The second statement from the OP:

2) If you have grid available and the total load - normal loads + Smart load - exceeds the PV available, it draws the balance from the grid and not from the battery.

Is incorrect. Even, if grid is available and normal loads + Smart load - exceeds the PV available, the inverter may draw from the battery or the grid depending on your System Mode battery settings.

Also, many people make the mistake to set Aux Load ON at 100% and the Solar Power too high. In such cases (unless you have a very high load which requires lots of Solar Power to be drawn at the same time by something else) the Smart Load will never kick in. When your battery reaches 100%, your Solar Power drops significantly, as the battery is only balancing. If you want the Smart Load to kick in at 100%, you have to set the Solar Power to a very low value. This setting does not, how much your panels can potently produce at that point of time, but how much your are actually drawing from the panels at that point of time.

Edited July 12, 20233 yr by PowerUser

1 hour ago, PowerUser said:

Not everything is correct in that thread. The second statement from the OP:

2) If you have grid available and the total load - normal loads + Smart load - exceeds the PV available, it draws the balance from the grid and not from the battery.

Is incorrect. Even, if grid is available and normal loads + Smart load - exceeds the PV available, the inverter may draw from the battery or the grid depending on your System Mode battery settings.

Also, many people make the mistake to set Aux Load ON at 100% and the Solar Power too high. In such cases (unless you have a very high load which requires lots of Solar Power to be drawn at the same time by something else) the Smart Load will never kick in. When your battery reaches 100%, your Solar Power drops significantly, as the battery is only balancing. If you want the Smart Load to kick in at 100%, you have to set the Solar Power to a very low value. This setting does not, how much your panels can potently produce at that point of time, but how much your are actually drawing from the panels at that point of time.

Yeah OP is presumably using the default System Mode/System1 settings which would work mostly as he describes if I'm not mistaken.

The Aux Load ON and OFF percentages seem to confuse people but it is indeed covered in that thread,

And as you say, the Solar Power (W) value in that first image is going to be too high for most people - most of the time it makes sense to have it just below daytime base-load to allow the port to trigger when there's sun (and allow the battery dropping to the OFF percentage to tell us if there's enough sun); although this does get covered there.

For me, reading that thread was the first time I actually understood how this feature works. Reading it has me now considering moving my smaller geyser from Non-Essentials onto Aux to capitalize on PV during daytime  load shedding.

If you find other inaccuracies post there so that we have a record for future reference!!  I may just use your advice myself 😀

22 minutes ago, JayMardern said:

Yeah OP is presumably using the default System Mode/System1 settings which would work mostly as he describes if I'm not mistaken.

The Aux Load ON and OFF percentages seem to confuse people but it is indeed covered in that thread,

And as you say, the Solar Power (W) value in that first image is going to be too high for most people - most of the time it makes sense to have it just below daytime base-load to allow the port to trigger when there's sun (and allow the battery dropping to the OFF percentage to tell us if there's enough sun); although this does get covered there.

For me, reading that thread was the first time I actually understood how this feature works. Reading it has me now considering moving my smaller geyser from Non-Essentials onto Aux to capitalize on PV during daytime  load shedding.

If you find other inaccuracies post there so that we have a record for future reference!!  I may just use your advice myself 😀

There is a lot of confusing information regarding the Smart Load and the settings are not explained properly in the documentation. That’s why I moved my geyser a week ago to the AUX port and I have been testing all the settings myself, in order to understand how it works exactly. Still testing and thinking, if I should leave it there or move it to the Load side of the inverter. 

19 hours ago, PowerUser said:

There is a lot of confusing information regarding the Smart Load and the settings are not explained properly in the documentation. That’s why I moved my geyser a week ago to the AUX port and I have been testing all the settings myself, in order to understand how it works exactly. Still testing and thinking, if I should leave it there or move it to the Load side of the inverter. 

 

Exactly; the conflicting info out there is the reason I like that thread. Even Keith's videos on the topic aren't very clear.

In my case I run CBI Astute timers that keep each of my two non-essential-connected geysers heating separately during the day (to reduce overshooting of PV availability) from the Sunsynk via zero-export to CT; and then the timers switch them off in the evenings. It works really well, but when there's daytime load shedding those non-essentials are of course powered down; so the result is a lot of wasted PV since my essentials average at just 0.7kW (and peak at 2.5kW briefly when we use the kitchen).

I've attached a chart of this morning's usage with load shedding starting at 8AM and causing a loss of at least 4 units; (yesterday was twice as long - around 8 units wasted). The large geyser is on from 10:00; the smaller one would have been on until then but didn't get the chance due to LS.

Aux would allow me to move this smaller 2.5kW geyser to the inverter and keep it running if the PV/battery levels suffice.

The catch is that I only run a 5kW Sunsynk so I might be flying a bit close to the maximum AC power output if the kitchen gets used at the same time (although I could perhaps undervolt the Inverter Output from 230V to 200V to drop the resistive loads' power usage and give me an extra 15% headroom on both the Geyser and the kitchen equipment; 200V is what I often get from the utility.)

 

What are your reservations with regard to running your geyser like this? Any major issues?

1 hour ago, JayMardern said:

What are your reservations with regard to running your geyser like this? Any major issues?

I tried first running the geyser on the non-essentials but I didn't like. Yes, there is a lot of wasted energy during day loadshedding periods and also, if the transformer down the street burns or for any other reason Eskom is down for 2 - 3 days, there might be lots of sun and still end up with cold water.

For this reason the AUX port will be better and I like that it gives me control over battery charge and production, against using only a simple timer. But at the moment I have only 6 panels and right now on days with full sun in Joburg, the production is not quite enough to charge the battery fully and bring the geyser up to temperature. I got 2 more panels, which I'll install soon and see how it goes from there.

Is there any switchgear or anything like that to add the geyser to your aux load, haven't installed like this before so I'm just trying to make sure