Hi, I have a Growatt spf5000es inverter with a Lithium battery and 6 x 455w solar panels the problem is when the Utility is on the inverter does not use power from the solar panels. The output setting is SUB solar Utility then battery so it should work as soon as i switch the Utility off the inverter starts drawing power from the solar panels.

Hi @Raymond88please post pictures so we can see the problem, when I put my inverter in SUB it shows 

Solar first

Utility first

Does yours also show the same thing? mine only does what you describe when in solar first(SBU) mode when the solar is not enough and in winter production is less.

With your 6panels x 455watts=2730 watts at midday with no clouds or tree shade. 

 

Please post a picture of your inverter screen.

It should look like this.

Edited June 13, 20215 yr by Buyeye

Sub setting

There should be a 3rd line going through the inverter. Have you ever seen a 3rd line?

Mine only shows 2 lines for a few seconds after switching to SUB mode. Then the solar line goes away after sunset as you can see in my picture.  

 

It seems to be prioritizing charging the battery instead of prioritizing the load which is what it's supposed to do.

 

I'm thinking the bms is overriding your settings because of your back to ac setting. Set the back to ac lower or just use battery first since you have a lithium battery which is meant to be cycled. I was using SUB mode to protect my lead acid batteries(SLA's) which the municipality killed anyway.

 

One more thing is your setting 5 on Li mode?

Can't edit the previous post. It's supposed to prioritize the load not the battery in SUB mode. But it seems some battery setting is causing the inverter to prioritize charging the battery.

Edited June 20, 20215 yr by Buyeye

I did a firmware update, hope it's fixed now 

This is firmware related for sure, had the same issue and a firmware bump resolved it.

I have the firmware available if your issue is not resolved yet (040 04 301).

It's better now but having issues with charging when solar is giving power with utility there is still a small discharge showing on the inverter screen from the battery 

On 2021/06/20 at 4:48 PM, Buyeye said:

Can't edit the previous post. It's supposed to prioritize the load not the battery in SUB mode. But it seems some battery setting is causing the inverter to prioritize charging the battery.

For me, the SUB prioritization and energy mixing function only works while the battery is charging (LI Battery from GROWATT model ARK 2.56KW on CAN) . When the battery charge reaches 100% the current from the solar panels becomes insignificant when mixing (from 3600W available from 8 solar panels is used in the middle of the day with full Sun  -  6-8W).
When I change  settings to SOL or SBU, it immediately takes 1800-2000w from the panels depending on the load and zero from the Grid......

I asked Supergeek to send me the new firmware and I hope that this problem will be solved ...

 

Hi! again

 

If is possible to make these files (firmware for SPF5000ES from Growatt and tool for upgrade) for public download under this forum and maybe a tutorial explaining step by step how to make the firmware upgrade in safe mode would be extremely useful for others too ...
 

 

@PaulC I'm afraid it sounds like your system is working well. You have a lot of PC panels and not enough storage.

 

With you current panels it should not take more than an hour,  hour and half at most to charge 2,4kw battery which is never 100% empty.

The solution would be to get more loads to run consistently at peak sun hours like I did with my geyser which is on a timer set to run everyday at peak sun hours. I have screenshot of what happened when my battery was full before the geyser turned on. The inverter just shut off the pv production since it had nowhere to go. Now I make sure my batteries are empty during the day so that there is somewhere for the pv to go. As you can see on the screenshot the batteries charged faster than expected luckily the geyser came on.

@PaulC - Check your inbox, I sent you a link to the firmware that fixed(for me) the issue you are describing.

I could post the link here publicly, but I am not sure if there are some rules against it, or if there are some "you-shall-not-share" fineprint from Growatt that I have not seen. Also, these firmware flashes are considered a risky operation, so there is a fair chance that things can go sideways and you end up with a bricked inverter.

Does anyone know about the fineprint? Also, are these public links allowed on the forum?

 

Hi, can you send me the link as well 

Not sure if anyone can assist with this one. I think this topic deals with settings and firmware that could help with my problem below.

 

I have a Growatt SPF5000ES Pro and 1 x Pylontech US3000C battery. They are connected from ACAN to BMS on the Inverter and I am using Profile 36 = L52. I also have 13 x 440W solar panels in 2 strings.

 

The problem I have is related to setting 02 - SBU

 

The battery continuously charges and discharges. Where I live, we are prone to a number of power outages that last several hours due to a problematic substation. Most of these outages happen between 1am and 3am and can last 8 - 10 hours. Today the power went off at 2am and it is now 6pm and the power hasn’t returned. My battery shut down at 6am. Now if my battery is in discharge state, and assuming it’s at 70% and there is a power outage at that point, then I basically have 50% of battery capacity to carry me through the power outage (70% to 20%). I would much prefer if my battery would not discharge below 90%, but using profile L52, I cannot adjust setting 12 (default 50%). Is there any way I can select 12 = 90% and 13 = 95% or 100%?

 

If I set 02 to SUB, Then the battery remains charged, but as my load goes higher than my PV production capacity, my inverter switches all loads to Utility and I don’t get the benefit of savings from PV.

@Deeps 

SUB only works if the grid is available, it should never use battery in SUB mode as long as the grid is available

Depth of discharge is definitely settable, you press enter and then adjust the numbers as you like.

@Buyeye. With BMS, settings 12 and 13 can’t be changed. 12 defaults to 50%. My issue is ensuring the battery has enough capacity when a mains power failure occurs. The issue with SUB us that when load exceeds PV production, only Utility supplies load, not solar as well. In SBU, battery goes through charge and discharge cycles and could be in discharge state when the grid goes down, giving me limited backup capacity.

@Deeps I assure you on the growatt spf 5000es you can set your set your depth of discharge. Try selecting Li in setting 5 again.

Edited July 21, 20214 yr by Buyeye

So as per the above photo it changes on the app, but when you go back to the inverter, setting 12 shows 50%. Try to change it on the unit and it defaults to 50%. Either there is a firmware issue on the inverter, or the setting has changes via the app, but doesn't display properly on the unit. Setting 13 changes on the inverter no problem. Since I set the above parameter to 90% on the app, the battery has not been discharging below 90%. My supplier has also been trying to resolve this with me. I'll monitor for a day or 2 and let you know. thanks for the help. 

For a depth of discharge to be 80% you need to set the back to ac(setting 12) to 20% have you tried that? In the video it looked like you were trying to set it at 80% which ahoild still work. Please humor me and enter 20%.

Let me understand you. I want my battery to only discharge to 80% of full capacity under normal utility conditions as it cycles between battery and mains. So are you saying that setting it at 20% means a 20% discharge? This is not setting 21 which is 20% and the point at which the inverter shuts down. Anyway I tried the 20% and it still defaults to 50%. No joy.

Very strange, but yes 20% on setting 12 means 80% depth of discharge. 

I tried changing setting 12 on another Growatt connected to a Pylontech battery, and it changes without issue. My inverter software must have a bug. I have written to Growatt for help.

I ask those who have software that solves the problem of charging from solar panels and Utility together to send it to me, and I am thankful to him

Can you please send to me as well?  They sent me a later firmware - but, it has messed up my BMS communication.   So want to downgrade one version   on 40.05 and 41.05 now

 

On 2021/07/21 at 9:50 AM, Supergeek said:

@PaulC - Check your inbox, I sent you a link to the firmware that fixed(for me) the issue you are describing.

I could post the link here publicly, but I am not sure if there are some rules against it, or if there are some "you-shall-not-share" fineprint from Growatt that I have not seen. Also, these firmware flashes are considered a risky operation, so there is a fair chance that things can go sideways and you end up with a bricked inverter.

Does anyone know about the fineprint? Also, are these public links allowed on the forum?