My System: EG4 18Kpv - Six EG4 LifePower4 Batteries - AC-coupled 8kW Solar Array and Grid-tied Inverter - Utility Interconnection Agrreement to Export
I am four days into my initial grid-down simulation, and I'm mostly pleased with the system performance. This is probably the time of year when my loads are the least, and I've had sunshine each of the four days. The AC-coupled system shuts off around 6 PM, and it comes back on around 8 AM. Nightly drain on the batteries is from 99% to 70%, and the batteries are replenished each day to 99% . At this time of year it looks like I can run indefinitely when there is some sunshine during the day. My nightly usage is around 9 KWh, so I can probably last through two days of no sunshine. Summertime is going to be different.
The first morning, after shutting off the utility the night before, the AC-coupled system did not start on its own, so I had to try tweaking some settings. I think this was due to my successful trial the day before of using seven 200W portable solar panels to supplement the AC-coupled solar, and I still had the MPPT Setting on PV3 Only. I'm not sure if that was it, but I got it working after switching to Off Grid. I tried lots of things (while driving the car, definitely not safe or smart), and I'm not sure which of those did the trick since there seems to be some delay in the response of the EG4 18Kpv to new settings in the remote app. I switched back to No PV for the MPPT Setting that evening, and turned off the Off Grid setting, and the AC-coupled power came on by itself the next morning.
I am not happy with the EG4 18Kpv's habit of turning off the AC-coupled solar and switching to battery power (with grid down) as soon as the batteries are fully charged by the solar panels (set at 57 V). It'll do this even when there is more than ample solar power to cover all the loads. There is no reason to use anything other than solar power if there's enough of it available. I hope EG4 or LuxPower gives us the option of only using batteries when there is no other power available. There is no way to make this happen when using the SOC% or Vdc settings (as far as I can tell). I think they could use a "logic tree" approach, rather than SOC% or Vdc settings, to accomplish this.
Example 1: If the grid is up, and there is adequate solar power available, use solar power for loads. If there is inadequate solar power, use grid power to supplement the solar power for loads. There should never be a need to use battery power if the grid is up. 200A pass-through should take care of anything. I realize that some folks will use battery power to reduce expensive grid power consumption, but my preference is to maximize how long my batteries can supply my home when the grid is down. electricity is fairly cheap here in Florida.
Example 2: If the grid is down, and there is adequate solar power available, use solar power for loads. If there is inadequate solar power, use battery power to supplement the solar power for loads. If the solar power increases above the load requirements, start charging the batteries with the excess solar power. When batteries won't take any more charging, shut them down and continue using only solar power for loads.
I don't care what settings they need to use to accomplish this. I don't need to know. The settings they've made available to us do NOT accomplish this. Based on some feedback I've received, I think that EG4 is working to update their software to allow some of this capability while the grid is up. Now that I've done my first grid down simulation, I can say that I'd also like them to make changes to cover when the grid is down.
I am four days into my initial grid-down simulation, and I'm mostly pleased with the system performance. This is probably the time of year when my loads are the least, and I've had sunshine each of the four days. The AC-coupled system shuts off around 6 PM, and it comes back on around 8 AM. Nightly drain on the batteries is from 99% to 70%, and the batteries are replenished each day to 99% . At this time of year it looks like I can run indefinitely when there is some sunshine during the day. My nightly usage is around 9 KWh, so I can probably last through two days of no sunshine. Summertime is going to be different.
The first morning, after shutting off the utility the night before, the AC-coupled system did not start on its own, so I had to try tweaking some settings. I think this was due to my successful trial the day before of using seven 200W portable solar panels to supplement the AC-coupled solar, and I still had the MPPT Setting on PV3 Only. I'm not sure if that was it, but I got it working after switching to Off Grid. I tried lots of things (while driving the car, definitely not safe or smart), and I'm not sure which of those did the trick since there seems to be some delay in the response of the EG4 18Kpv to new settings in the remote app. I switched back to No PV for the MPPT Setting that evening, and turned off the Off Grid setting, and the AC-coupled power came on by itself the next morning.
I am not happy with the EG4 18Kpv's habit of turning off the AC-coupled solar and switching to battery power (with grid down) as soon as the batteries are fully charged by the solar panels (set at 57 V). It'll do this even when there is more than ample solar power to cover all the loads. There is no reason to use anything other than solar power if there's enough of it available. I hope EG4 or LuxPower gives us the option of only using batteries when there is no other power available. There is no way to make this happen when using the SOC% or Vdc settings (as far as I can tell). I think they could use a "logic tree" approach, rather than SOC% or Vdc settings, to accomplish this.
Example 1: If the grid is up, and there is adequate solar power available, use solar power for loads. If there is inadequate solar power, use grid power to supplement the solar power for loads. There should never be a need to use battery power if the grid is up. 200A pass-through should take care of anything. I realize that some folks will use battery power to reduce expensive grid power consumption, but my preference is to maximize how long my batteries can supply my home when the grid is down. electricity is fairly cheap here in Florida.
Example 2: If the grid is down, and there is adequate solar power available, use solar power for loads. If there is inadequate solar power, use battery power to supplement the solar power for loads. If the solar power increases above the load requirements, start charging the batteries with the excess solar power. When batteries won't take any more charging, shut them down and continue using only solar power for loads.
I don't care what settings they need to use to accomplish this. I don't need to know. The settings they've made available to us do NOT accomplish this. Based on some feedback I've received, I think that EG4 is working to update their software to allow some of this capability while the grid is up. Now that I've done my first grid down simulation, I can say that I'd also like them to make changes to cover when the grid is down.
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