Hi community,

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out the scheduling and config I need on my SS inverter. I'm hoping to achieve the following:

• During sunshine use the solar panels to cater for usage and charge the battery.
• During dark hours use the battery to around 30%-35% charge before switching over to grid.
• The battery must only be charged from the panels and not the grid.

The whole idea is to reduce the time I spend drawing from the grid.

Alternatively, saying 09:00 to 16:00 Solar only, 16:00 to 22:00 battery only, 22:00 to 09:00 grid only (without charging the battery).

The solution was initially built to merely cover me for load shedding I'm generating quite a bit of excess during the day which will easily charge my batteries fully during the sunny times, I'm hoping to make use of this instead of losing out.

5 hours ago, SebastiaanR said:

Hi community,

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out the scheduling and config I need on my SS inverter. I'm hoping to achieve the following:

• During sunshine use the solar panels to cater for usage and charge the battery.
• During dark hours use the battery to around 30%-35% charge before switching over to grid.
• The battery must only be charged from the panels and not the grid.

The whole idea is to reduce the time I spend drawing from the grid.

Alternatively, saying 09:00 to 16:00 Solar only, 16:00 to 22:00 battery only, 22:00 to 09:00 grid only (without charging the battery).

The solution was initially built to merely cover me for load shedding I'm generating quite a bit of excess during the day which will easily charge my batteries fully during the sunny times, I'm hoping to make use of this instead of losing out.

Firstly, make sure you have the latest software on your inverter. 

These setting can be configured on the system work mode screen. You will set the minimum SOC value and it will then manage the batteries according to the schedule. You can also put a tick in priority load and then the inverter will take the solar that's coming to first supply the load and any excess will then go to charging the batteries. I've found this to be the best setting to reduce reliance on the grid. 

On 2021/08/01 at 11:19 AM, SebastiaanR said:

Hi community,

I'm hoping someone can help me figure out the scheduling and config I need on my SS inverter. I'm hoping to achieve the following:

• During sunshine use the solar panels to cater for usage and charge the battery.
• During dark hours use the battery to around 30%-35% charge before switching over to grid.
• The battery must only be charged from the panels and not the grid.

The whole idea is to reduce the time I spend drawing from the grid.

Alternatively, saying 09:00 to 16:00 Solar only, 16:00 to 22:00 battery only, 22:00 to 09:00 grid only (without charging the battery).

The solution was initially built to merely cover me for load shedding I'm generating quite a bit of excess during the day which will easily charge my batteries fully during the sunny times, I'm hoping to make use of this instead of losing out.

Hi there

What works for me is the following. 

Grid from 0600 until the panels take over after sunlight increases.  Solar is programmed to supply load first the excess to battery charging.  Grid kicks in again after sunset and supplies till 22:30 when it switches over to DC (batteries) until 06:00.  DOD is normally in the region 65% which leaves enough power for unsuspected load shedding during overcast conditions.  This way the grid covers the heavy current consumers -heat pump, oven, microwave convection, kettle. 

It leads to an average Escom usage of 30-50 KW/h in a 30 day period.

 

On 2021/08/01 at 4:36 PM, Achmat said:

Firstly, make sure you have the latest software on your inverter. 

These setting can be configured on the system work mode screen. You will set the minimum SOC value and it will then manage the batteries according to the schedule. You can also put a tick in priority load and then the inverter will take the solar that's coming to first supply the load and any excess will then go to charging the batteries. I've found this to be the best setting to reduce reliance on the grid. 

Thanks. Pretty sure I do, I'll be playing around with those timers until I get it where it needs to be, much appreciated.

1 hour ago, CobusK said:

Hi there

What works for me is the following. 

Grid from 0600 until the panels take over after sunlight increases.  Solar is programmed to supply load first the excess to battery charging.  Grid kicks in again after sunset and supplies till 22:30 when it switches over to DC (batteries) until 06:00.  DOD is normally in the region 65% which leaves enough power for unsuspected load shedding during overcast conditions.  This way the grid covers the heavy current consumers -heat pump, oven, microwave convection, kettle. 

It leads to an average Escom usage of 30-50 KW/h in a 30 day period.

 

Thanks, I will try this schedule.

Is my assumption of the following configuration correct, that it will use prioritize battery between between 22:30 and 09:00 I will consume from battery to a level SOC of 40%. At 09:00 it will recharge the battery using solar if available, else grid?

 

1 hour ago, SebastiaanR said:

Thanks. Pretty sure I do, I'll be playing around with those timers until I get it where it needs to be, much appreciated.

Thanks, I will try this schedule.

Is my assumption of the following configuration correct, that it will use prioritize battery between between 22:30 and 09:00 I will consume from battery to a level SOC of 40%. At 09:00 it will recharge the battery using solar if available, else grid?

 

Correct. But I would just leave everything at 40% and prioritise load. Basically if your loads are 2kw and pv is producing 3kw, with your settings, it will send all the pv of 3kw to the batteries and pull 2kw from the grid for the loads. 

When you prioritise load it takes 2kw from the pv to supply the loads and sends the excess to the battery thus not taking anything from Eskom. 

BTW that is old software. The system mode on the new software is split over two screens and with start and end times. 

Edited August 2, 20214 yr by Achmat

Thanks. I have mine set up exactly like that now, at 40% across the board. the installation of my inverter was recently installed, so I assumed at least the latest version of the software.

This morning the SOC was around 65%, but I noticed it seemed as though there was feed being sent to the grid, which didn't make sense to me. I've been monitoring during the day and all seems fine, and will keep an eye on it for the next few days to tweak it where required.

 

1 hour ago, SebastiaanR said:

Thanks. I have mine set up exactly like that now, at 40% across the board. the installation of my inverter was recently installed, so I assumed at least the latest version of the software.

This morning the SOC was around 65%, but I noticed it seemed as though there was feed being sent to the grid, which didn't make sense to me. I've been monitoring during the day and all seems fine, and will keep an eye on it for the next few days to tweak it where required.

 

The Solarman app is delayed and only updated in 5 to 10 minute intervals. 

Best place to check this is to look at what the inverter is doing. Normally when a high load is switched off, it takes a few seconds for the inverter to stop the excess going back to the grid and you will find some feeding back. If it's constantly feeding back for longer than a few seconds then it could be an issue with the CT coil being not installed properly. 

Is there a way to configure the Sunsynk inverter that when it hits a specific SOC to switch to grid and to supply the load and charge the batteries for X amount of time? Second scenario is to set a specific time during which the inverter switches to grid and supplies the load and charges the batteries so it does not look at the SOC it only does this during the set period. Is there any way of doing this? As example at 5pm to 7pm i want to make sure that the inverter charges the batteries so that I have enough battery to last me when the pv starts generating power again. Bonus would be that if the inverter sees there is 90-100% SOC at 5pm then it does not switch over to grid it continues to draw power from the battery. 

Is any of these scenarios possible? 

Hi Community,

Is there a way to get the battery to start solar charging at a specific time, like 10:00 am currently it starts charging as soon as the panels start producing. At around 09:45 my panels are producing 5300 watts and I am told that power up to 6500 W can be produced with the surplus 1500 watts going to the battery. any help would be appreciated.