W@P's Solar System

[Steijn1]

Got my generator to work this morning.
Changed frequency to low 47.5Hz and high 53.5Hz
Working and I hope the settings are safe

Eish....
We had a substation fire last night so the grid is totally off.
No PV as rain and cloudy conditions predicted for the whole weekend.

Tried the generator and it is not connecting.
Something is wrong and I suspect it is the earth.

Will continue trying but any suggestions or experiences welcome.

Thanks

 

[Speedster]

My dad's inverter was installed yesterday. Still waiting for the hubbles. Apparently stock is stuck in Durban. 3 containers full afaik. So a lot of people waiting on stock. Meanwhile, i am monitoring his usage with an efergy. And he has these strange spikes in usage at night and in the mornings. Don't know wtf is causing it.
Geyser is on a timer from 06:00 and from 17:00. Then there are 2 double door fridges, one of those under counter bar fridges with the glass door, and an upright freezer. Then just all the bits and bobs that make up the baseload.

Something is chowing power and i don't know wtf it is.

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You sure he only has one geyser? Or perhaps a heater left on during the day? 3kw is a pretty hefty device.

EDIT: looking at that graph again I'm pretty sure it's the geyser. Those spikes are whenever someone runs a hot water tap and then geyser needs to get back to temo

 

[W@P]

You sure he only has one geyser? Or perhaps a heater left on overnight. 3kw is a pretty hefty device.

Yea he has 2 geysers. I keep on asking if the other one is off. He only uses one. Afaik it is off. No heater in the house that I know. It cant be the fridges. Fsck knows. Will have to turn off breakers at the db to try and find the culprit.

 

[Speedster]

Yea he has 2 geysers. I keep on asking if the other one is off. He only uses one. Afaik it is off. No heater in the house that I know. It cant be the fridges. Fsck knows. Will have to turn off breakers at the db to try and find the culprit.

Or the kettle?

 

[W@P]

Or the kettle?

Nope he only uses that in the daytime

 

[Speedster]

Nope he only uses that in the daytime

The kettle would then account for at least some of those spikes. I'd put the balance at the foot of the geyser.

You say the geyser is on a timer for 6am. I would then expect it to turn on at 6am to recover overnight standing losses, but this doesn't seem to happen? I'd double check that the timer is working.

 

[W@P]

The kettle would then account for at least some of those spikes. I'd put the balance at the foot of the geyser.

You say the geyser is on a timer for 6am. I would then expect it to turn on at 6am to recover overnight standing losses, but this doesn't seem to happen? I'd double check that the timer is working.

Yes, I also have a feeling something is wrong with the timer. I mean if it is set to turn on at 06:00 then there should be an immediate spike at 06:00.

 

[Hd7]

The kettle would then account for at least some of those spikes. I'd put the balance at the foot of the geyser.

You say the geyser is on a timer for 6am. I would then expect it to turn on at 6am to recover overnight standing losses, but this doesn't seem to happen? I'd double check that the timer is working.

This looks likely. Only other thing i can think of with that load profile is an oven but surely that's not switching on and off throughout the night.. Aircons?

 

[W@P]

This looks likely. Only other thing i can think of with that load profile is an oven but surely that's not switching on and off throughout the night.. Aircons?

No aircons not being used yet.

 

[W@P]

Look the spikes during the day i can kinda understand. The domestic is there every day and she uses the kettle, washing machine, tumble dryer, iron all at random times during the day. Sometimes some appliances run together. This will have to be regulated soon and she will need to be educated to only run one machine at a time. It's the spikes in the morning hours and at night that i want to figure out.

When there is no one home over a weekend away those morning spikes and night spikes are still there.

 

[Speedster]

Look the spikes during the day i can kinda understand. The domestic is there every day and she uses the kettle, washing machine, tumble dryer, iron all at random times during the day. Sometimes some appliances run together. This will have to be regulated soon and she will need to be educated to only run one machine at a time. It's the spikes in the morning hours and at night that i want to figure out.

When there is no one home over a weekend away those morning spikes and night spikes are still there.

99.9% sure the geyser is your culprit

 

[RonSwanson]

Eish....
We had a substation fire last night so the grid is totally off.
No PV as rain and cloudy conditions predicted for the whole weekend.

Tried the generator and it is not connecting.
Something is wrong and I suspect it is the earth.

Will continue trying but any suggestions or experiences welcome.

Thanks

Do you have a properly installed earth-neutral bridge relay on the inverter?

What is your inverter rated at, and what your genny rated at?

How do you have it connected -- on the Aux or inline with the grid and a changeover switch?

 

[RonSwanson]

Look the spikes during the day i can kinda understand. The domestic is there every day and she uses the kettle, washing machine, tumble dryer, iron all at random times during the day. Sometimes some appliances run together. This will have to be regulated soon and she will need to be educated to only run one machine at a time. It's the spikes in the morning hours and at night that i want to figure out.

When there is no one home over a weekend away those morning spikes and night spikes are still there.

It looks like a hot water heating device. Isolate all geyser circuits and monitor. Are you sure that he doesn't have a "prepper" bunker in the basement or elsewhere?

 

[Hd7]

Look the spikes during the day i can kinda understand. The domestic is there every day and she uses the kettle, washing machine, tumble dryer, iron all at random times during the day. Sometimes some appliances run together. This will have to be regulated soon and she will need to be educated to only run one machine at a time. It's the spikes in the morning hours and at night that i want to figure out.

When there is no one home over a weekend away those morning spikes and night spikes are still there.

Can't see it being anything but the geyser. You will need to test it. You may also need to double check at the actual geyser/isolator - instead of taking the "db word" for it that the geyser breaker is in fact managing the geyser circuit.

 

[W@P]

Thanks will see what i can do. Also think its the geyser

 

[Steijn1]

Do you have a properly installed earth-neutral bridge relay on the inverter?

What is your inverter rated at, and what your genny rated at?

How do you have it connected -- on the Aux or inline with the grid and a changeover switch?

Hi,

Yes there is a earth-neutral bridge professionally installed on the 8kW Sunsynk.
The generator is 5.5kW but I limit the load to 3kW max.
The generator is connected to the AUX port.

Thank you

 

[Steijn1]

Finally got the generator to work properly.

Hopefully this will help someone else.

Here is what I had to do:

1. Connect the generator to the AUX port

2. Connect the AUX port earth to the earth on the GRID port. I do not have the generator connected to a earth spike.

3. Connect earth and neutral together on the generator

4. On AUX menu, tick Gen Input and tick Gen peak shaving and set the shaving value to 80% of your generator capacity. Then set Gen Load OFF to 95% and Gen Load ON to 80% (choose your own values that work for you)

5. On System menu, work mode 2, tick Zero Export, AND Limit to load. My generator would disconnect if Limit to load was not ticked.

6. On System menu, work mode 1, make sure the SOC for the time slot you are running your generator in, is set to 100% and tick GEN box to charge from generator.

7. On Battery menu, make sure the Charge Amps on Batt Type is the same as the Amps in the first block on the second screen Batt Charge. Also important is to make sure the charge amps is not set too high. Consider the power drawn from the generator to charge the batteries PLUS the power required to run the load and inverter.

8. Tick Gen Charge, Gen Signal and Signal Island mode on Battery menu under Batt charge.

What a mission to figure all this out.

 

[RonSwanson]

Finally got the generator to work properly.

Hopefully this will help someone else.

Here is what I had to do:

1. Connect the generator to the AUX port

2. Connect the AUX port earth to the earth on the GRID port. I do not have the generator connected to a earth spike.

3. Connect earth and neutral together on the generator

4. On AUX menu, tick Gen Input and tick Gen peak shaving and set the shaving value to 80% of your generator capacity. Then set Gen Load OFF to 95% and Gen Load ON to 80% (choose your own values that work for you)

5. On System menu, work mode 2, tick Zero Export, AND Limit to load. My generator would disconnect if Limit to load was not ticked.

6. On System menu, work mode 1, make sure the SOC for the time slot you are running your generator in, is set to 100% and tick GEN box to charge from generator.

7. On Battery menu, make sure the Charge Amps on Batt Type is the same as the Amps in the first block on the second screen Batt Charge. Also important is to make sure the charge amps is not set too high. Consider the power drawn from the generator to charge the batteries PLUS the power required to run the load and inverter.

8. Tick Gen Charge, Gen Signal and Signal Island mode on Battery menu under Batt charge.

What a mission to figure all this out.

This is great, deserves a sticky in its own thread.

All of it makes a whole lot of sense, just one point that I want to question:

2. Connect the AUX port earth to the earth on the GRID port.

Is this really necessary?

 

[Katelknaap]

Still waiting for the hubbles. Apparently stock is stuck in Durban. 3 containers full afaik.

Sadly, my Hubble also in those containers ...
Steve said they'll only arrive in Johburg on 01/06/22 and must then be distributed.

 

[Steijn1]

This is great, deserves a sticky in its own thread.

All of it makes a whole lot of sense, just one point that I want to question:

Is this really necessary?

Thanks. Much appreciated.

I am not 100% sure but I think so.
Last night I could not get the inverter to "see" the generator at all. Just nothing on the AUX port and on the Grid side with the change over switch.
This morning the first thing I did was connect the earth from the GEN port to the earth of the GRID port. Then connected the generator to the AUX port and the inverter connected to the generator. The problem was it only stayed connected for a short while before it would disconnect with a audible click.