Sol-Ark 12k inappropriately exporting from battery

Just logged into my sol-ark app to see this:

(those dots are moving from the battery to the grid)

I have had 'Time of Use' setup for the last month or so where the inverter will supply the load using PV first, then battery, and then grid. If the battery is full and PV exceeds load, it exports to the grid via net metering agreement I have in place with the utility. However, it is never supposed to use the battery to export to the grid, ONLY excess PV.

This is new behavior (I think) starting today. I keep an eye on the system pretty closely and it has never before exported to the grid when the battery wasn't fully charged.

Here are the system settings:


Any idea what gives?

My monitoring app-and the web based one- have all the data wrong.

Are you sure it’s really happening?

I can only get my battery to discharge to the grid by highlighting the TOU time window under Sell. I also have to set battery percentage for each time window. I your case the percentage is 30% and your battery is 63% so it may be discharging until your battery reaches 30%. The kW figure for that time determines how much power is used from the battery.

Yes definitely double check on the inverter itself to see what it is doing. They're having all kinds of problems with their new monitoring and control system.

Ampster said:

I can only get my battery to discharge to the grid by highlighting the TOU time window under Sell.

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Exactly, my understanding is that is how its supposed to work. I don't have sell checked for any time periods so it shouldn't discharge battery to sell...

I'm not at home so I can't check for sure, but I don't think this is the same as the screwed up reporting (which I'm also experiencing). SOC has always been pretty accurate so I think something else is going on here... Will check it out in person when I get home and also put a ticket in with sol-ark.

Quick update: more strange behavior this morning. Battery is down to 20% and inverter is using excess PV to backfeed the grid instead of charge the battery. No idea why it would do that given the parameters I have set...

Set your parameters and disconnect the dongle.

Kylepharmd said:

Quick update: more strange behavior this morning. Battery is down to 20% and inverter is using excess PV to backfeed the grid instead of charge the battery. No idea why it would do that given the parameters I have set...

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You’ve got the battery charged to the 20% you’ve called for. It’s supposed to sell that to the grid, right?

DougfromdaUP said:

You’ve got the battery charged to the 20% you’ve called for. It’s supposed to sell that to the grid, right?

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My understanding is that since neither the 'sell' nor 'charge' boxes are checked (ONLY the time of use boxes are checked), it should not use the battery to backfeed the grid, nor should it prioritize PV to backfeed the grid UNTIL the battery is fully charged.

This is how it's worked for me for the last two months or so when I installed the system (with these same parameters set) without a problem. Can't figure out why it's not acting differently. I know they've had problems with the my sol-ark act not making sense of the different data its getting (and my e-today numbers have been messed up like many others), but I haven't heard of anyone else having problems with parameter settings not working as they're supposed to...

Quick edit- this is what my goal is:

I want to use 'Time of Use' to tell the inverter to supply the load using PV first, then battery, and then grid.

• If there is more PV than load, excess PV should charge the battery.
• If the battery is full and PV exceeds load, it exports to the grid via net metering agreement I have in place with the utility.
• It is never supposed to use the battery to export to the grid, ONLY excess PV.
• It should never export to grid if the battery isn't fully charged.

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If you see something in my settings (in first post) that is interfering with that goal, please let me know. I am admittedly new at this so maybe I'm overlooking something. Thanks!

But you're in "grid sell"mode. I don't know how that affects it, since I don't use that mode. Once your battery reaches the amount set under TOU, I think it will do something else with the power, like sell it. Try raising your battery percentage. That should force it to charge the battery to that level.

Have you tried "limited to home" mode, with the battery setting high, like 100? Leave your energy pattern at "battery first." Then check the grid sell boxes.

Have you tried calling Sol_ark? They've been pretty good with settings questions for me. Just not so good with this monitoring conversion.

DougfromdaUP said:

But you're in "grid sell"mode

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I agree. The percentage SOC is the thing governing it now. I am curious if he changes that what would happen. I always want my system to charge batteries first. That is why I set SOC high during daylight hours. The exception is at 4PM when I want to sell off batteries to get the higher rate credit. At least that is what works for me based on my rate structure.
EDIT: I am in Grid Sell mode with Batteries First checked. I am also on firmware 6.2.2.2 and have been for at least six months.

So here's an update for everyone. The problem was in fact that the setting at the very top of system work mode was incorrectly set to "Grid Selling" (as @DougfromdaUP pointed out) With that checked, the inverter will essentially prioritize selling to the grid (including battery discharge). By switching that to "Limited to Power to Load" it is now functioning the way it had previously been. According to support, they've had several clients where a setting like this actually got changed during the recent migration.



The only hiccup was the first person I talked to had me put it on "Limited to Home" which should only be used if you have an essential loads panel + main service panel. Since I only have the main service panel which runs directly off the inverter load output, the correct setting for me was "Limited to Load". Using Limited to Home really made some pretty crazy readings come out where it would bounce back and forth from showing super high loads on the house and then zero load while it was backfeeding the grid. Anyway, happy to have it working as I want once again. Hopefully this will be helpful if anyone else in the same situation finds this thread.

I just wish my wife was still around so I could show her that I have been right once.