The Battery Thread (Solar / Inverter)

[TheChamp]

Okay, never mind, not going to do it. I wanted to max the power on a hazy of cloudy time like it became now, but I go against the max panels for the controller that it recommends.

Must resist hehe

But I don't understand how you are going to go above the current ratings, you have two panels in series currently, at most just under 10A of current, two more in series, same voltage, 20A, still 10A left to play with, am I missing something?

 

[johnjm]

But I don't understand how you are going to go above the current ratings, you have two panels in series currently, at most just under 10A of current, two more in series, same voltage, 20A, still 10A left to play with, am I missing something?

The manual says max 780w of panels.

My understanding is that even though the amps from the panels will be 20A and the controller is 30A, because it is MPPT it will adjust the amperage to maximise the power from the panels. And that will exceed the 30A. It can absorb and waste the extra PV, but it’s way over the limit which is specified to be 50% more than what it is rated at (780w)

An example is the following:
1360w of panels at 20A in total, voltage say 76.

1360/24 means the output would exceed the limit as its then 56A going into the battery.

 

[johnjm]

The manual says max 780w of panels.

My understanding is that even though the amps from the panels will be 20A and the controller is 30A, because it is MPPT it will adjust the amperage to maximise the power from the panels. And that will exceed the 30A. It can absorb and waste the extra PV, but it’s way over the limit which is specified to be 50% more than what it is rated at (780w)

An example is the following:
1360w of panels at 20A in total, voltage say 76.

1360/24 means the output would exceed the limit as its then 56A going into the battery.

Actually, I could do it, it will be tight and I might have to increase the 16A fuse on the PV side, but possible....

Mission, but would be cool.

Edit, no never mind. It’s a waste as I’ll never be able to have more than 780w into the inverter. It would help on a bad winters day though.

Meh. Yolo maybe

 

[johnjm]

Never mind. Lowballing FTL haha.

On the plus side I received the WiFi adapter for the mppt, a few diy sites later and I got a dashboard available now as an app. Includes all stats for solar batter and temps.

 

[Rickster]

 

[russellw1]

The manual says max 780w of panels.

My understanding is that even though the amps from the panels will be 20A and the controller is 30A, because it is MPPT it will adjust the amperage to maximise the power from the panels. And that will exceed the 30A. It can absorb and waste the extra PV, but it’s way over the limit which is specified to be 50% more than what it is rated at (780w)

An example is the following:
1360w of panels at 20A in total, voltage say 76.

1360/24 means the output would exceed the limit as its then 56A going into the battery.

If the MPPT controller is rated at 30A it should limit at that rating to protect itself. The panel voltage then rises above the max power point so that the extra energy is wasted.

 

[johnjm]

If the MPPT controller is rated at 30A it should limit at that rating to protect itself. The panel voltage then rises above the max power point so that the extra energy is wasted.

Yeah but not more than 150% according to the manual.

 

[russellw1]

Yeah but not more than 150% according to the manual.

Does that refer to solar input or current output. 30A for 12V batteries is 360W of panels or 720W for 24V. 150% on output is 45A which is 50% over the rating. Most electronic devices have only 20% overload rating.

 

[johnjm]

Does that refer to solar input or current output. 30A for 12V batteries is 360W of panels or 720W for 24V. 150% on output is 45A which is 50% over the rating. Most electronic devices have only 20% overload rating.

Power output. You can have a look at the manual for the epever 3210AN.

Limited to 1080w which is 50% over the 780w max for the 24v

 

[russellw1]

The HA integration is a big deal to me, I integrate everything I can in there.
The Solcast solution sounds interesting, the manufacturers dont seem to be baking this functionality into their software, but the theory is really sound and it could make a bif difference.

Im sure Victron works with HA, but Im not willing to spend that kind of money on an inverter.

My Victron should work with HA. At the moment I am working on a Raspberry Pi4 with Venus os and Modbus to controll it all from HA. It's more difficult than I thought, especially to get the correct modbus registers from Victron documentation.

 

[russellw1]

Power output. You can have a look at the manual for the epever 3210AN.

Limited to 1080w which is 50% over the 780w max for the 24v

The epever 3210AN says it has good eficiency. We have got 8 panels (connected 64Volts X4) on a 48V PWM solar charger and 8 (256Volts) on a Solis grid-tie (PV) inverter. The Chinese PWM has low efficiency because it only does 36A to 38A (about 1800W) at midday from 2400W of panels but the Solis does about 2200W easily. This is mostly in August and September when solar power seems to be very good.

 

[johnjm]

The epever 3210AN says it has good eficiency. We have got 8 panels (connected 64Volts X4) on a 48V PWM solar charger and 8 (256Volts) on a Solis grid-tie (PV) inverter. The Chinese PWM has low efficiency because it only does 36A to 38A (about 1800W) at midday from 2400W of panels but the Solis does about 2200W easily. This is mostly in August and September when solar power seems to be very good.

I can connect the MPPTs in parallel if I want to add more, but I just use the solar to keep the batteries on float and for lodshedding which hasn’t happened yet.

But I’m loving this solar stuff

 

[russellw1]

I can connect the MPPTs in parallel if I want to add more, but I just use the solar to keep the batteries on float and for lodshedding which hasn’t happened yet.

But I’m loving this solar stuff

I am thinking of getting another PV inverter so i can get rid of the rat nest of wires. Its nice to have just one ac 16A plug to feed power into the mains anywhere and the Victron ESS stores the excess power in the batteries.

 

[Spizz]

The installers are nearly finished with a solar installation at my house. Long story short, there was a change in inverter due to the one planned being a new model they carried but it is not compatible with the battery or something so they changed it out for a better one. Basically panels were set up coming in at 110, MPPT range is 120-450 but they ran out of time yesterday so will finish on Monday.

So until Monday I've got a Synapse 5.0+ inverter hooked up to a 4.8KWh battery which is charging from the grid, and as a complete noob, I'm wondering how you all monitor the inverter from your desktops and phone? Inverter apparently has bluetooth and an ethernet port.

Sorry if this has been asked before, it's a big old thread and I've not read it all.

 

[The_Librarian]

The installers are nearly finished with a solar installation at my house. Long story short, there was a change in inverter due to the one planned being a new model they carried but it is not compatible with the battery or something so they changed it out for a better one. Basically panels were set up coming in at 110, MPPT range is 120-450 but they ran out of time yesterday so will finish on Monday.

So until Monday I've got a Synapse 5.0+ inverter hooked up to a 4.8KWh battery which is charging from the grid, and as a complete noob, I'm wondering how you all monitor the inverter from your desktops and phone? Inverter apparently has bluetooth and an ethernet port.

Sorry if this has been asked before, it's a big old thread and I've not read it all.

here, have a shufty at my thread : https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...or-and-software-to-use.1112179/#post-26452689

 

[Spizz]

here, have a shufty at my thread : https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/thr...or-and-software-to-use.1112179/#post-26452689

Thanks fella. I will indeed have a shufty when I’m back home later.

 

[TheChamp]

The installers are nearly finished with a solar installation at my house. Long story short, there was a change in inverter due to the one planned being a new model they carried but it is not compatible with the battery or something so they changed it out for a better one. Basically panels were set up coming in at 110, MPPT range is 120-450 but they ran out of time yesterday so will finish on Monday.

So until Monday I've got a Synapse 5.0+ inverter hooked up to a 4.8KWh battery which is charging from the grid, and as a complete noob, I'm wondering how you all monitor the inverter from your desktops and phone? Inverter apparently has bluetooth and an ethernet port.

Sorry if this has been asked before, it's a big old thread and I've not read it all.

110V while mppt is 120 to 450V?

 

[wingnut771]

110V while mppt is 120 to 450V?

Yeah, how is that going to work?

 

[thehuman]

The installers are nearly finished with a solar installation at my house. Long story short, there was a change in inverter due to the one planned being a new model they carried but it is not compatible with the battery or something so they changed it out for a better one. Basically panels were set up coming in at 110, MPPT range is 120-450 but they ran out of time yesterday so will finish on Monday.

So until Monday I've got a Synapse 5.0+ inverter hooked up to a 4.8KWh battery which is charging from the grid, and as a complete noob, I'm wondering how you all monitor the inverter from your desktops and phone? Inverter apparently has bluetooth and an ethernet port.

Sorry if this has been asked before, it's a big old thread and I've not read it all.

How many panels?
Add 2 or 3 strings of 110v in series

 

[Spizz]

I don’t profess to know anything this man is talking about, but he was flicking through the settings and showed me something showing 110v. Then he pointed to the side of the inverter and pointed out the MPPT voltage range of 120-450. He said that’s because the panels were grouped or configured in such a way.

Seriously, I am very new to all this and a bit lost. Maybe he’s talking rubbish?