June 22, 20215 yr Hi everyone. So just had a growatt 3kw system installed only two panels for now with plans to expand. The default setting on the inverter is solar first then the grid takes over when the panels are no longer producing power. My concern is that when the solar production in the afternoon drops below the consumption load then the battery takes over until the panels stop producing and eskom kicks in. This is lowering my battery by about 25% every day which means that my battery is cycling to a 25%did every day. Is there a setting on the growatt that will use solar during the day and then switch over to eskom when that starts dropping to keep my batteries at a float charge for when I need them (Load shedding) and hopefully increase the lifespan of my batteries?
June 22, 20215 yr 29 minutes ago, Gazzab said: Hi everyone. So just had a growatt 3kw system installed only two panels for now with plans to expand. The default setting on the inverter is solar first then the grid takes over when the panels are no longer producing power. My concern is that when the solar production in the afternoon drops below the consumption load then the battery takes over until the panels stop producing and eskom kicks in. This is lowering my battery by about 25% every day which means that my battery is cycling to a 25%did every day. Is there a setting on the growatt that will use solar during the day and then switch over to eskom when that starts dropping to keep my batteries at a float charge for when I need them (Load shedding) and hopefully increase the lifespan of my batteries? On setting Nr.01 choose the last option; SUb. SUB priority Solar energy provides power to the loads as first priority. If solar energy is not sufficient to power all connected loads, solar and utility will power loads at the same time. Battery provides power to the loads only when solar energy is not sufficient and there is no utility
June 22, 20215 yr Author Thanks. But according to the manual there is no sub option. Only sbu which will do the same thing as the solar. What voltage would option 12 need to be to keep the battery at float voltage?
June 23, 20215 yr Hi @Gazzab unfortunately only the es model is an axpert type hybrid in the axpert price range. The older models are actually offgrid inverters which means you have to spec your system to be essentially offgrid except for the rare occasion that it's cloudy for 2 days or more. Deye has fortunately made true hybrids more affordable at R19k for a 5kw true hybrid vs R30k plus a year or so ago. Edited June 23, 20215 yr by Buyeye
June 23, 20215 yr 49 minutes ago, Gazzab said: Spf 3000tl hvm 48 I would call your installer and explain that this is not the right inverter for your application and ask that he swaps it out for a Growatt SPF3500ES...
June 23, 20215 yr Author OK thanks. I have raised the voltage at which the battery switches onto utility so even if it does cycle it cycles to a lesser dod Hopefully extending battery life. Does that sound about right?
June 24, 20215 yr does the growatt 5000es do true blending? or which affordable hybrid inverter will?
June 24, 20215 yr 1 hour ago, Sean247 said: does the growatt 5000es do true blending? or which affordable hybrid inverter will? Yes it does.
June 24, 20215 yr Hi @Sean247 the most affordable true hybrid/parity inverter is the deye 5kw inverter. Axpert type hybrid inverters like the growatt es models only blend 2 sources at a time, either grid and pv or pv and battery. The last one not being special as it's a default function. The only thing that makes the es model a hybrid is blending pv and grid which is useful if you have fewer panels than can support your loads and you only want to use your batteries for outages or loadshedding in the case of lead acid. It is not very useful if you have enough solar panels and an appropriately sized Li battery bank.
June 24, 20215 yr 23 minutes ago, Buyeye said: Hi @Sean247 the most affordable true hybrid/parity inverter is the deye 5kw inverter. Axpert type hybrid inverters like the growatt es models only blend 2 sources at a time, either grid and pv or pv and battery. The last one not being special as it's a default function. The only thing that makes the es model a hybrid is blending pv and grid which is useful if you have fewer panels than can support your loads and you only want to use your batteries for outages or loadshedding in the case of lead acid. It is not very useful if you have enough solar panels and an appropriately sized Li battery bank. What do you mean? What scenario would the ES not be good for?
June 24, 20215 yr 12 minutes ago, tetrasection said: What do you mean? What scenario would the ES not be good for? Good question, I'm also interested to know 😃
June 24, 20215 yr 1 hour ago, tetrasection said: What do you mean? What scenario would the ES not be good for? 48 minutes ago, hoohloc said: Good question, I'm also interested to know 😃 No need to be alarmed guys, let me tell you my story. Last year October after much thinking I decided that even though I didn't have much money saved for this project that I needed to have solar installed for reasons known to everyone in the country. I actually lived in 2 different places where the local power substation burnt down. October last year I had +-R50k so I had 6(360watt) pv panels , growatt spf5000es model and four 12 volts 100amp hour SLA batteries installed. The obvious problem was that on the best day my panels produced 2000 watts and on the worst day 200 watts peak at midday, so the blending feature was very useful then. This year it became clearer that our country's electricity supply issue would be around for another 5 to 10 years as local substation burnt down. so i got another 10 panels installed making it a total of 16 which gives me a potential peak production of 5700 watts, inverter supports 6000 pv input. Which is why it's a great inverter with the 150% overload feature. I also got 10kwh of li batteries since then I have had no need for the SUB setting but it cost a lot to get here and SUB feature helped me until then which was only 2 weeks ago.
June 24, 20215 yr 1 hour ago, Buyeye said: I also got 10kwh of li batteries since then I have had no need for the SUB setting but it cost a lot to get here and SUB feature helped me until then which was only 2 weeks ago. Every person will only use one of the pv/battery/utility priority settings. The fact that you use the off-grid setting because don't require utility blending doesn't make the inverter less useful. 😂
June 24, 20215 yr 8 minutes ago, tetrasection said: Every person will only use one of the pv/battery/utility priority settings. The fact that you use the off-grid setting because don't require utility blending doesn't make the inverter less useful. 😂 Very true, poor choice of words on my part.
June 24, 20215 yr 8 hours ago, tetrasection said: What do you mean? What scenario would the ES not be good for? When you have enough panels to supply your load and charge your batteries early in the day and you have loads not connected to the inverter. In this case a grid tied hybrid inverter like the deye or sunsynk could still feed the loads with solar power that are not connected to the inverter, like your geysers, oven, stove, pool pump,heaters.
June 25, 20215 yr So I got an ES for my Dad's setup yesterday. very much a better product than the TL's. There is one setting missing though. You need a combo of SUB and SOL. SUB is great for daytime but if you want to cycle your batteries at night then you need the condition that says if either solar or grid is not available then use battery. SUB will only go to battery when both grid and pv are missing. Anyone that can get them to update their firmware? With this setting it will be as good as any of the others... honestly.. the only thing missing with these... ps: second Growatt I purchased past few months TL and ES... both BMS working as required with Pylons... Edited June 25, 20215 yr by JTK
June 25, 20215 yr Hi everyone I've read through this thread with a lot of interest, as a bit of a solar newbie. Would greatly appreciate some advice as I think my husband and I are in a similar situation with our setup. Setup 1x Growatt 5000 TL inverter 7x 400W PV 2x Dyness 2.4kWh Li batteries Aim To reduce dependency on Eskom as much as possible To power the house and appliances during the day on PV, or a combination of PV and Battery (we are moving to a gas hob and gas geysers next week) To power the house reasonably during load shedding (lights, Wi-Fi and TV). We also have a 20kVa generator that can power the house during load shedding or charge the batteries but I prefer to use it as a last resort, relying more on the solar/batteries combo. Since our install, we've tripped the power a couple of times. We know this is a load issue with the number of appliances so we are managing that better. However, my questions are: Is the 5000 TL the right inverter? From reading this thread and others on this forum, it seems the ES is the better inverter but I'm not 100% sure on how exactly and what the benefits are (not being sarcastic, genuinely trying to learn here ) How can we make the best use of the system - I was told we can only put on an additional 4 panels with this inverter, so my thinking is that maybe we invest in another battery instead of those panels? Our SOC point setting back to utility source is on SBU with 20% - not sure what the SOC point setting for back to battery mode is (still trying to figure out the dashboard settings) Any help gratefully received.
June 25, 20215 yr 4 hours ago, MrsMoose said: Hi everyone I've read through this thread with a lot of interest, as a bit of a solar newbie. Would greatly appreciate some advice as I think my husband and I are in a similar situation with our setup. Setup 1x Growatt 5000 TL inverter 7x 400W PV 2x Dyness 2.4kWh Li batteries Aim To reduce dependency on Eskom as much as possible To power the house and appliances during the day on PV, or a combination of PV and Battery (we are moving to a gas hob and gas geysers next week) To power the house reasonably during load shedding (lights, Wi-Fi and TV). We also have a 20kVa generator that can power the house during load shedding or charge the batteries but I prefer to use it as a last resort, relying more on the solar/batteries combo. Since our install, we've tripped the power a couple of times. We know this is a load issue with the number of appliances so we are managing that better. However, my questions are: Is the 5000 TL the right inverter? From reading this thread and others on this forum, it seems the ES is the better inverter but I'm not 100% sure on how exactly and what the benefits are (not being sarcastic, genuinely trying to learn here ) How can we make the best use of the system - I was told we can only put on an additional 4 panels with this inverter, so my thinking is that maybe we invest in another battery instead of those panels? Our SOC point setting back to utility source is on SBU with 20% - not sure what the SOC point setting for back to battery mode is (still trying to figure out the dashboard settings) Any help gratefully received. Hi @MrsMoose the TL is a great offrid inverter, it can take upto 4500 watts of pv panels, you currently have 2800 watts peak production. You also have 4,8kwh li battery which is decent kit. 1. Your problem is that you are using an offgrid inverter which means you have to adjust your usage to suit an offgrid lifestyle. 2. You could add more panels and more batteries and probably another 5000tl inverter in parralel to cover your peak loads but that will be very expensive but worthwhile if looking to be completely offgrid. 3. A middle ground option won't be popular in this thread is to switch teams and join the deye/sunsynk bunch with your current panels and batteries and you will be pleasantly surprised how they just work to reduce your dependence on eskom and it won't trip when you use the hairdryer. I have a growatt and happy with mine but I have moved just about all heavy loads to daytime including washing machine, dryer. I got rid of our 3kw electric kettle got a whistling kettle to use on the induction plate. I checked that the peak our microwave uses is 1250 watts , coffee machine only uses 850 watts and toaster the same. That is how you have to be if you are using an offgrid inverter. You have to know the usage of every appliance in your house to avoid tripping. I actually started my journey with a 32 amp municipal feed which used to trip when the geyser was on and we used the oven and another appliance. We have not tripped the municipal feed in many months. When the time comes to replace the inverter I will be going with a parity/true hybrid like the deye or whatever is good then. Edited June 25, 20215 yr by Buyeye
June 26, 20215 yr On 2021/06/24 at 8:17 PM, De0n19 said: When you have enough panels to supply your load and charge your batteries early in the day and you have loads not connected to the inverter. In this case a grid tied hybrid inverter like the deye or sunsynk could still feed the loads with solar power that are not connected to the inverter, like your geysers, oven, stove, pool pump,heaters. The Growatt ES also has an AUX port, though it's limited to 3A. You could always just use that to energize a solenoid switch to turn on the secondary loads when the batteries are charged to a certain voltage. Though with the Growatt you'd still be limited to 5kw where the Sunsynk can use the grid above and beyond that. Edited June 26, 20215 yr by tetrasection
July 2, 20215 yr Hi Buyeye Thank you so much for the detailed and informative post - it's massively helpful. So I'm not sure if this changes your advice at all but turns out they installed the wrong inverter. We were actually quoted for the 5000ES but they accidentally installed the TL (all fixed now and they sorted it so happy with their service as it was a genuine mistake). Having said that, we've also gone gas geysers and gas hob now which alleviates the load - we also had a 3kW kettle (I never started paying attention to these things until we got solar). Feeling like we are getting there with managing our appliances and when to maximise the solar usage of them. Thank you again!
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