At the end of the day it's about what you're using it for, the Tesla systems aren't really marketed as "off-grid", they're more hybrid systems and their equipment is fancy looking, has a nice app, etc.
It's my understanding you don't need fuses at all, but I though I read somewhere that with 600a of batteries, you could overdraw and trip one of the 200a breakers, so it's best to distribute the batteries between both breakers?
I would see if you can get one of the EG4 people on here like @EG4_Jared to comment on this and help explain why the sum of the outputs doesn’t match the PV input closer?
I think you meant 100-watt panels. If you have two strings in parallel you have approximately 11.72 amps. Using the 125% rule, take 11.72*125% = 14.65 amps, then use the closest breaker size, larger than your calculated amps. In this case, it would probably be a 15-amp breaker.
Like the...
The beta version of solar assistant has automation features in it. I believe you can schedule it to do things like trigger stuff off and on. If not, you could use Home Assistant in conjunction with solar assistant, and use a scheduled automation in Home Assistant to trigger the charging through...
I looked into this and think I concluded they might be using a secrets file. I seem also to recall that the Grafana version that SA is using is multiple releases behind the current release. I also asked about generating my own reports through Technical Support and was told they won't open it...
Here is what I'm ultimately going to do, unfortunately it costs another freaking $400, but it will work.
They're the exact same voltage and amps, just different manufactures and about a year difference in age, but the original batteries have not been cycled hard, probably less than 100 cycles...
When like panels are connected in parallel no one panel is restricting the output of any other panels.
With all three panels in parallel you will get the full output of each/all panels assuming they are the same power rating.
Read this article which will help you understand the variances...
Growatt works with Solar Assistant in any configuration (grid tied/off grid/hybrid), so there is no problem there.
To get multiple SA connections into Home Assistant (HA) you would want to run the mqtt broker in HA and configure SA to report to the broker...
I have an EG4 CommHub and Solar Assistant reading data from LifePower4 batteries at the same time, Solar Assistant is using 9600 while the CommHub is using 19,200.
My guess is that you have some settings that are no filled out like your chemistry and charge profile details.
I've seen these installed where they were running but not charging, only after adjusting the settings and rebooting did the units begin to charge the batteries...
There are multiple levels of “bricked” in my experience.
1: When you turn the power off and lights stay illuminated, when this happened to me I had to RMA another BMS.
2: When the unit shuts off (no lights) , and upon boot an abnormal light behavior is experienced. In this scenario you may...
By they way I would recommend standing up a virgin instance of HA and get it working there since trial and error on your production HA instance will muck up your entities . ?
I’m not sure about the specs on those batteries, but typically mixing chemistries in the same battery array is not a great idea. Since the chemistries will have different characteristics, the inverter will have a harder time, recognizing whether or not there reaching the various stages of the...
Does anyone notice that the communications HUB doesn't show the same amount of current as for example the inverter? In some cases, my Sol-Ark shows say 50 amps coming from the batteries, but the HUB only shows say 32 or in almost all cases something less. When I toggle through the batteries...
Did you figure this out? It might be best to make the changes on the inverter and then compare them to what it was before in SA so you know what changed and can then map that change in your HA automation.
I think option number two is probably gonna be your best cause there’s no conversion loss. However, once the voltage of the lithium drops to the equivalent of the rest of the battery bank, that’s all the power that’ll be pushed. The good news is the lithium don’t drop in voltage until they get...
What firmware are your batteries and what type of EG4 batteries are you using?
What version of Solar Assistant do you have? I'm always running the beta and there may be something different, the change logs always say they're working on protocols.
For reference this is what mine looks like...
I don't know when Sol-Ark is ever going to get another product to market, but this would do what you're asking.
https://practicalpreppers.com/product/sol-ark-smartloads-14-smart-panel/
https://www.sol-ark.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/Smart-Loads-14-Brochure-Print.pdf
Does your inverter have an RS232 port? Maybe try connecting using this method instead and see if it requires a password.
https://solar-assistant.io/help/voltronic/configuration
I think you need more of a check list.
Battery disconnect, nothing connected.
Turn battery off
Follow battery startup procedure
Plug in the charger and attach it to the battery
If these steps don’t work, then you may have some other challenges with the battery.
Let’s make sure your question is understood.
You want to use SOC from your EG4 batteries as the battery energy measurement in your Schneider inverters. Is that correct?
I wasn't arguing the PCI/laws compliance point, I realize what they're doing is a result of how their site is configured and staying within the guidelines/rules/laws. However, the best experience would be the mimic the most successful etailer in the world "Amazon" and create a buying experience...
Typically when you pull battery information from the inverter, it's a subset of the data available directly from the batteries. If you find this to be true in your scenario, you can connect to both the battery bank and the inverter to try and capture everything from the inverter, and the...
Upon closer look, that entire panel is shaded across the bottom section which during that shading event effectively reduces the output very close to zero on that panel and impacts the whole string. If you don't want to add an optimizer, I would at least consider moving that panel perhaps to the...
I think you're asking how to hook up 4 series panels to your LVX6048 inverter. If so, when you add panels in series voltage increases, when in parallel amperage increases. If you're going to add these 4 panels in series make sure their combined voltage doesn't exceed your inverters maximum on...
I reached out to another contact in Sales this morning and he confirmed they're still shooting for Q1. However, he would not give me any more details surrounding the delay, or potentially when in Q1 (beginning/end).
I wish I had more info, maybe someone else has an inside contact that can get...
Well, first and foremost, you need to figure out what communication protocol is common between the batteries and the inverter. CAN-BUS, RS485, and RS232 are the three protocols available in your inverter. You will most likely need to get your batteries set to one of these protocols. However...
I've not personally done it, but you essentially map out what each circuit runs and when you enter an off-grid situation, which circuits a opened and which ones are closed. There might even be more sophisticated ones where they monitor the current flow and open the circuit if it exceeds a...
Rather than wait for your response I re-read your post and I’m pretty certain I understood your question.
The short answer is you don’t need a shunt if you’re using closed loop communication which can be enabled between your Schneider Insight and the EG4 batteries.
See this forum thread for...
I have replaced a BMS myself and it's easy, it took about 40 minutes and you just need to take some pictures before you start taking it apart, be cautious and don't rush, carefully unhook everything and re-connect it at a comfortable pace.
One of the ideas proposed to me when my BSM was dead...
I have a situation where I was asked to look at a client's relatively new 6000XP. When the generator starts, the unit clicks and clicks and clicks, and if you let it click long enough, it eventually restarts the inverter.
Anyone have any idea why this would make this clicking noise when the...
I can't answer that, but it sounds like it's either the communications hub and or combination of the hub and the batteries adjusting the Sol-Ark so that it no longer pushes and current to the batteries when the batteries and or hub have decided they are full.
As @marionw mentioned, the CommHub's job is to allow EG4 LifePower4 batteries to talk with other non-EG4 inverters for closed-loop communication. The CommHub serves as a central controller, directing the inverters on how and when to charge and providing the overall status of the batteries. It...
For confirmation purposes.. adjusting between UPS and APL mode is done by flipping this switch on/off?
Is there a mention of what the idle usage is for APL and UPS mode?
Finally, would the recommendation be to leave this feature off, or I guess in APL mode when running off-grid?
This little guy?
I made that, it is a standard patch cable using the standard sequence on both ends.
I didn't want a long cable dangling in the Sol-Ark wire compartment so I decided to make a small mini chord to keep things tiddy.
According to the manual for your inverter, only two different batteries support closed-loop communication with your inverter.
https://eg4electronics.com/backend/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/EG4_6.5_Manual_2.3.2.pdf
Pages 23-26
I wrote my own python code to get estimated runtime and charge time. But I found this recently and it looks like a nice method if you’re interested in validating your method with what looks like a lot of feedback over multiple years of tinkering...