Growatt 5000ES Not showing we have our panels array hooked up

Question: We hooked out our battery, growatt, and panels and had the Battery sending power to our Loads through the growatt. Unfortunately we had a cloudy day but our panels were getting Some light and sending a few volts to the growatt (measured with volt meter).
My question is as followed, How many volts/amps does it take to have the growatt sense the panels to send charge to the battery? The min PV charging current/voltage to trip the growatt.
We have a 240V Growatt 5000ES. a 48V LiFePhO4 5.1kw battery.
Our panels are (8) x 280W 45Volt (voc) 8amp panels hooked up in 2S4P (Output 90V at 32Amps).
We have an off grid cabin and unfortunately our first day up there was a bit cloudy. We thing it could have been one of two things:
1) our wiring could have been off in the solar array
2) it was just cloudy.
let me know if there is any trouble shooting I can do. Thanks in advance.

Other questions non related but still could use some answers: can we put our LiFePO4 battery vertically? right now we have it laying flat, wasn't sure if the cells within the battery needed to be laying upright.

I have the same Growatt 5000ES model. Your problem is your panel configuration, 90V is too low ! Look at the specs for the 5000ES, it shows the min mppt voltage as 120V. ALSO, the spec for the inverter is 18amps max!! Your config is 32amps !!

I have 18 panels, 270W ea, connected 9S2P which gives me between 250-350V depending on the daily conditions. The inverter begins charging very shortly after sunrise when the PV voltage exceed 120V, current is very low at first but increases as the sun rises more. Its been in service for just over a couple months now.

You need to connect your 8 panels ALL in series for the inverter to operate properly. This is a high PV voltage inverter, spec is 450V max.

Sparky_SC said:

I have the same Growatt 5000ES model. Your problem is your panel configuration, 90V is too low ! Look at the specs for the 5000ES, it shows the min mppt voltage as 120V. ALSO, the spec for the inverter is 18amps max!! Your config is 32amps !!

I have 18 panels, 270W ea, connected 9S2P which gives me between 250-350V depending on the daily conditions. The inverter begins charging very shortly after sunrise when the PV voltage exceed 120V, current is very low at first but increases as the sun rises more. Its been in service for just over a couple months now.

You need to connect your 8 panels ALL in series for the inverter to operate properly. This is a high PV voltage inverter, spec is 450V max.

Click to expand...

Yep, Just realized that after calling signature solar. And wait, 18 Amps max? where are you reading that by chance? I checked the specs but its said max PV charge current amp is 100 amps...

Also just wondering, where are you located? and what is your sun hours like?

wtrey613 said:

Yep, Just realized that after calling signature solar. And wait, 18 Amps max? where are you reading that by chance? I checked the specs but its said max PV charge current amp is 100 amps...

Also just wondering, where are you located? and what is your sun hours like?

Click to expand...

the 18amp max spec is current from your pv array. In my case, the panels produce around 7 amps ea normally, so 9 in series still yields 7 amps BUT at around 300V give or take, THEN there are 2 strings in parallel So.... 7 amps per string for a total of 14 amps coming out of my array.

The max pv charge spec of 100A is something totally different ! That is the maximum current INTO the batteries when charging. The array input is high voltage, the inverter steps that voltage down BUT increases the current (same power, voltsxamps= watts) for charging the battery. The setting for max pv charge all depends on what ratings your batteries have. The default 60A is a good all around setting there if in doubt. Most of the time it will NOT charge at the 60A anyways because the solar array can't produce that much power while both charging the batteries and powering the loads.

I am located in USA, South Carolina. It is a excellent area weather wise for solar. My system usually produces about 20KWH a day on average, highest I seen was 26KWH and on bad rainy/dark days it does about 10KWH.

Got it, the 18 amp max is news to me... So looks like the max parallel I can have is 2. not 3. that's a bummer.

We are located in upstate NY so mostly cloudy and we probably wont generate that much energy.
Another question for you, what kind of DC breaker do you have from your Panels to your growatt? if you have any brands/links you could send that would be great.

We have the EG4 5kw 48v battery. Its max charge current I think is 100A....

wtrey613 said:

Got it, the 18 amp max is news to me... So looks like the max parallel I can have is 2. not 3. that's a bummer.

We are located in upstate NY so mostly cloudy and we probably wont generate that much energy.
Another question for you, what kind of DC breaker do you have from your Panels to your growatt? if you have any brands/links you could send that would be great.

We have the EG4 5kw 48v battery. Its max charge current I think is 100A....

Click to expand...

Take a look at ebay item#174854735190 That is what I used for a breaker for the panels, I used the 32A size. It also serves as a way to shut down the PV power into the inverter which is highly desirable.

You should also have a disconnect out at the panels BUT beware, it has to be rated for DC and over 450V (600V being the common rating)

Yes, 2 strings in parallel is the best solution. 9 panels in each string is the norm. I was tempted to use 10 BUT in cold weather, due to the temp coefficient of panels it would exceed the max 450V open circuit rating on cold mornings. Thats why 9 is the norm.

Regardless, you won't charge your batteries with as high of a current as you would like, the weather and PV power will ultimately determine the charge current at any given time.

I know the upstate NY weather well ! I moved from Rochester NY to South Carolina just over 8 years ago. Spent all my life in NYS. (60+ years)

wtrey613 said:

Question: We hooked out our battery, growatt, and panels and had the Battery sending power to our Loads through the growatt. Unfortunately we had a cloudy day but our panels were getting Some light and sending a few volts to the growatt (measured with volt meter).
My question is as followed, How many volts/amps does it take to have the growatt sense the panels to send charge to the battery? The min PV charging current/voltage to trip the growatt.
We have a 240V Growatt 5000ES. a 48V LiFePhO4 5.1kw battery.
Our panels are (8) x 280W 45Volt (voc) 8amp panels hooked up in 2S4P (Output 90V at 32Amps).
We have an off grid cabin and unfortunately our first day up there was a bit cloudy. We thing it could have been one of two things:
1) our wiring could have been off in the solar array
2) it was just cloudy.
let me know if there is any trouble shooting I can do. Thanks in advance.

Other questions non related but still could use some answers: can we put our LiFePO4 battery vertically? right now we have it laying flat, wasn't sure if the cells within the battery needed to be laying upright.

Click to expand...

according to this: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/f...in-series-and-parallel-based-on-your-mppt.75/

Each MPPT can take up to 80Amp, so you are low on V with 90V only.

Any updates? Thanks!

wtrey613 said:

We have a 240V Growatt 5000ES

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I have been attracted to the Growatt 5000ES except for the 240v Output. From my study of data sheets, I think that means 240vac single phase output only, and not 120vac or 240vac split phase ( - USA Standards ). Are you living in a country where that 240vac single phase is the norm? .. or did you have to get an additional piece of equipment like a transformer to convert 240vac to 120vac? ... IMO: Growatt seems lame in their data sheets for not clearly answering this arena of questioning. Maybe you, or someone else can provide some informative type answers to these type of questions. ???

hi Capt, I have the growatt 5000 and I purchased a transformer to create a neutral and split the 240 into 2 120 sides, its a solaredge seauto-tx-5000

wtrey613 said:

Got it, the 18 amp max is news to me... So looks like the max parallel I can have is 2. not 3. that's a bummer.

We are located in upstate NY so mostly cloudy and we probably wont generate that much energy.
Another question for you, what kind of DC breaker do you have from your Panels to your growatt? if you have any brands/links you could send that would be great.

Click to expand...

There are some tricks you can use to still add extra panels. Right now if you wire your panels in a 4S2P configuration, you'll theoretically get about 16A at ~150V. If you wanted to add another 4-panel string, you could face string #1 Southeast, string #2 South, and string #3 Southwest. Since all the strings won't be at full output at the same time, you can stay below your 18A limit. It will tend to dampen the noon peak, but broaden the overall peak for a longer period of the day.

Play with the orientation of each string to see what output a single string will put out at 9am, 10am, 11am, and noon. With rotating mounts like this one, you can tune your arrays to put out no more than 18A over the course of the whole day, but maximize the totals produced. This will especially help on those cloudy days when output is lower. Since the light is more scattered, each array will be at more or less maximal (though lower) output at the same time.