Main panel was replaced as part of the project. They re-used the old breakers, including that very old one. The rest of the breakers aren’t that old, just this one.
Funny story. The electrician doing the panel upgrade had no idea what he was in for, the solar guys didn’t explain this setup to him before he arrived on the job. They didn’t have a very good plan either, so I could tell they were scrambling trying to get the work done and power turned back on...
For anyone with inconsistent data points in the new app, I had a support case open and today they sent me a new firmware for the dongle. I've only been running it for a few hours now, but so far it seems much better.
I went through and watched the Sol-Ark training webinars, available on demand via their support page. There were a few things explained in those that SHOULD be in their user manuals, but are missing. One thing you guys might get a kick out of, when they were discussing Load first vs Battery...
I'm just about to start a 15K install, interested in more details in these issues.
I would think this would be the default. In your experience does the 'load first' option do anything?
Isn't that what this TOU setting does? 'Use battery power until they reach 15%'
Again it seems like...
This was for my data points being inconsistent, on my charts I would get data points anywhere from 5 minutes to multiple hours apart. After the update
My charts were showing inconsistent data points, instead of intervals every 5 minutes they would be 10-20 minutes, an hour, 2 hours, all over...
Thanks. Yes I would be grid tied with the main panel neutral bond, exactly like that diagram. I did just check my generator, and while it's not as simple as a screw or plug, there is a jumper wire doing the bonding under the cover that it appears could be removed, un-bonding the neutral. Also...
This is my thinking also. If you have net metering and no TOU, no reason to use the batteries at all unless the grid is down. Any ‘savings’ by discharging the battery are negated by having to use PV to recharge is the next day anyway, so your ‘net’ is the same. BUT you lost efficiency due to...
I just got PTO a couple weeks ago, before that I had the sol ark setup with ‘load first’, so it would start inverting power to load as soon as the sun came up, and only started charging after pv exceeded load. Since getting PTO I’ve set it back to ‘battery first’, and the battery gets 100%of the...
With TOU disabled, once it hits Gen Start SOC, it will charge back up to 95%. With TOU enabled, it charges to either A) the set TOU SOC with charge enaled, B) stops charging completely if it hits the next time slot with Charge disabled (same as your test results), or C) 95% (I suppose).
I was scrolling down just to make this comment. I ran on limited to load/no sell mode for 5 months waiting for PG&E, and with the default I think 20w or 40w zero export limiter, I saw maybe a handful of little spikes to the grid. I would think setting to 200+ watts would make it even less...
Just asked support and got this:
"No, the MySolark app is not live yet. We will be notifying customers once the move is complete. We expect to transition later this month. "
Hello, I am researching for our install, and having trouble with a question on portable generators with the Sol-Ark.
My install should follow their standard wiring diagram (below, with added markups). The plan would be to wire a L14-30 generator inlet directly to the Gen input of the Sol-Ark...
For this one, it seems like your TOU setting at 7-8am might be trying to charge batteries. Have you tried to configure a 'slow ramp', i.e. at 8am leave the TOU battery low, like 20% or whatever your minimum is. Then at 10am increase it to 40%, etc, until you have it up to 100% by 3pm or...
Well I found a calculator, this helps understand what they are looking for.
The eFlex battery datasheet shows two continuous discharge rates, 'recommended' and 'peak (for 60 min)'. Using the higher of the two I get a 13kW system. Using the lower one I get an 8.6 kW system. So again that could...
@MuckMuck are you setup like this? And the CTs were required? They don't have the CTs on this drawing, but they do in others, so I was unsure if they are needed or not.
This drawing DOES show the CTs..
On this one, when your TOU setting says 'Batt 100%', that means 'charge the battery to 100% and leave it there', i.e. it will not discharge any battery. If you are wanting the use battery to supplement PV power, you would have to keep that number lower, like 80% or whatever, so it knows it can...
Hi @robby I will be starting a Sol-Ark 15K/eFlex install soon, and I am interested in this setup. How is everything working?
Does anyone have this, or SA in general, setup with a 15K, and is it fully supported?
Can you explain this part a little more?
I made this sketch to make sure I...
I'm on my first day running my house behind a 15K, and have a couple questions.
First, prior to today, the SA was connected to solar, batteries, and grid (via a main panel that breaks out a grid connection to the SA, and one to my bypass transfer switch). So all the SA saw was the grid...
I’m in the middle of an install by a solar contractor, and have a question on how they have the main panel breaker wired. This is a SolArk install, so the SA is powering the entire panel via the main 200A breaker. They specified 3/0 copper cable, but the 4-lug main breaker doesn’t support that...
Just wondering if there are any updates on this? Did anyone find this 'pass-through' setting, or have newer firmware versions fixed this? I'm debating installing a transfer switch, I've heard Sol-Ark says you don't need it, neither does my installer, but it seems like there could be times when...
Related for anyone wondering, because I just messed with this recently. I have lithium batteries, so there is no ‘need’ for the battery temp probe to be hooked up, but I wanted to use it anyway to monitor battery compartment temp vs BMS temp. Well I found out that when you are closed loop, and...
There have been a couple updates to the PVPro platform recently (you can see the release notes on the website), last one was 5/23. I was having a couple strange issues with my new install, and had to reseat the Wi-Fi dongle once to get correct data again. Opened a ticket with sol-ark, they said...
Thanks. And you still use the 'pinout converter', I guess that comes with the eFlex?
What SA USB cable are you using? Did you buy the one from SA/Watts247, or something else?
That sounds right, but do you have the CTs installed and have you tried it? I wonder if Limited to Home will help the behavior you are seeing with PV not supplying your full load. I think most installs I have researched are using Limited to Home, including those with 15Ks running the whole...
I think your TOU times need to be fixed, the manual says they need to be in time order, so from midnight (at the top) to midnight (at the bottom). It looks like you have a 7am setting at the very bottom?
Other than that I think your settings should do what you are asking, is there something...
When mine came he pulled the meter then checked to make sure the house side of the meter was not energized (to confirm the system wasn't backfeeding while 'grid down'), then put the meter back in and that was it. He didn't care at all that I was using PV and batteries in zero-export mode.
@jrcromer thanks. In more research after this post I found a better description of that 'pinout converter' and what exactly it's used for in one of the Fortress videos. I agree it could use a better name.
As for your new diagram, that does look like a good solution, however I ALSO just ran...
@GregTR I'd like more details on these parts. Hopefully starting my install soon, and I've already loaded SA onto a Pi with a M.2 SATA disk as I was afraid of SD card failures. I'd still like to configure backup though, wondering how you accomplished this.
Hopefully starting an install soon, and trying to get realistic expectations for CA SGIP. I'm planning 16.4kWh of battery, it looks like that would put me in the 'Large Scale >10kW' group rather than the 'Small Residential <10kW' group? And I don't qualify for any of the additional rebate groups...
If I setup my TOU settings for M-F and leave Sat/Sun unselected, what will the behavior be on those days? Does it just completely ignore TOU and not use any battery power, and just keep the batteries at 100%? Does anyone who has M-F TOU leave sat/sun unselected, or to you just leave it on all 7...
monitoring is still terrible here, and I just discovered a new issue, there appears to be an issue with the value ranges for settings, a setting I've had configured forever is now reported as 'out of range', so it won't let me save any settings changes. here's the response from support;
'I do...
With that setup my understanding is that TOU would stop discharging batteries at 15%. That would prevent them from getting to your 10% gen start threshold. What happens if you change gen start to 20%? It should start the gen as the battery crosses 20% on its way down to 15%, and the gen start...
It seems to be pretty clear about the 10 kW, just doesn't sound right since it's so low.
Trying to determine if I'm reading the capacity correctly, and it seems like it? So with 3 48v 100Ah/5kw batteries puts you over 10 kW..
Is there any specific code I can reference here? I.e. can conductors at the end of a wire be cut/modified? Do all four poles of a quad ganged breaker need to be filled? Can wire gauge be used that is not specified by the breaker manufacturer? I would assume these are all no-nos, but would like...
I just got PTO a couple weeks ago, so most this data is with low throughput doing only self consumption. Now that I’m selling back maybe it will change some?
@Kdmax did you resolve this? Did you enable Gen charge? I’ll be setting up a similar config soon, I want to make sure I have the settings correct to charge from portable generator when needed.
Agreed, another thing I find confusing. I'm installing a Sol-Ark 15K, with 11.84kW PV, so everything in my system is above '10 kW', and yes the 'discharge time' is something I'm not sure how they are calculating.
That is from the 'SGIP Handbook', can be found here...
Did you get this worked out? The wiring diagram shows this setup, but the instructions are a little light on details. It just says when using a whole home gen and ATS to select ‘gen on grid input’ and disable grid sell. I guess this just means that gen ATS and grid sell back aren’t supported...
My installers used a 200A panel in place of the 200A disconnect. At first I was skeptical of it, (after watching Engineer775's videos, he always just taps off the disconnect) but I suppose this is one benefit. So there is a 200A breaker coming IN from the meter, then two 200A breakers going out...
I think that's what he's saying. Go into Batt Setup, Charge, and enable Gen Charge or Grid Charge (whichever input your Gen is on) and set the Start %. Then go to TOU, enable Charge, and set the Off %.