Is there a device that will prioritize PV for load my battery bank stays charged due to the amount of PV input I have. My average load is only 500w but I have over 4kw coming in. I am looking for something that will run my load during the day and only use battery when there is no PV input but cant seem to find it. My current Hybrid inverter says it can but when I set it to that setting it seems do drain the battery down to the set limit before using PV to carry the load. My goal is to insure my battery is charde in full before the sun goes down.
Looking for a device that will use pv to carry my load
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timselectric
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Model?
DIYrich
Solar Wizard
Post the model of the inverter, and the settings you have done.
I’ve tried the solar priority on the load setting and hybrid on the charger side
timselectric
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Setting #1 to SBU, should operate the way you want.
Settings #4,and 5, will control when it switches to and from grid. Setting #6 let's it charge from the grid or not.
Okay thank you ive tried SOL on #1 but not SBU also any recommendations on the setpoints for #4,5 and 35?
Sorry with your AIO type there is no way to isolate the battery from the inverters operation. You can tweak your settings somewhat for like the battery recover voltage (#37) that would allow a return to bulk charging at a higher voltage amount so that you do not take as much from the batteries capacity. Depending on your batteries type it is also possible to run a higher float voltage (#11) when in battery type User defined.
timselectric
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4 and 5 are personal preference. Based on how much reserve you want to keep in the battery.
Defaults are fine, until you see the need to adjust.
So that leads me back to my original question. what 24v device can do that? I'll go buy it.
12VoltInstalls
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Are you using lithium or lead-based batteries?
Proper settings on lead batteries will just naturally/systematically operate as you desire: float voltage and ‘return to boost’ setting should be really close
With lithium as @timselectric mentioned you can configure it to SBU - solar first, then battery, then utility- and tweak some settings to achieve your goal.
So my goal it to use PV as much as possible durring the day for load and keep the battery for night. In the end i want to cut the grid ac and test my system for a week and make sure i have the capacity needed. math is great but loads can fluctuate you know what i mean lol
Yeah i have 1 24v 300ah battery its Lifepo4
timselectric
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Should work fine.
Depending on your battery capacity and loads, of course.
12VoltInstalls
life passes by too quickly to not live in freedom
Reconnect boost at 27.6V seems like that should work? I do that except 13.8V
The ones that can function batteryless*. However there are limitations that these types also have. Your best bet is to adjust your seetings as already mentioned and see what works best for your particular situation. Understand that it is possible you will not achieve optimal considerations for perfect battery charging, PV load carrying.
* I recently put in a similar SRNE made PowMr to your SRNE made Eco-Worthy, but can operate without battery. It has a mixed function mode as well. It runs with higher PV voltage however (up to 450vDC). Incidentally I did a long term Thread on your AIO type/model in the off grid inverter sub-forum area. It is here: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/e...review-and-updated-for-1-year-of-usage.45138/
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So my average load is 500w I have 1400w coming into this Controller then I have 2 epever 60a controllers with 1500w coming into each of those going straight to the Battery so 4.3kw total pv and I cant seem to keep that battery full (I haven't tried the SBU setting yet) battery is 24v 300ah
what do you mean by this (sorry I'm pretty new to all this)
timselectric
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Just switch to SBU and you'll be good to go.
Ill change it now and report back after some time
This seems to be a different issue. If you are not able to charge your battery to full with 4300w PV during a normal day it is time to look into your overall loading situation and possibly examine if there is a battery issue.
Your battery bank is 300ah at 25vDC giving you ~7500wh worth of power of which a usable amount of about 80% => 6,000wh
Your stated load is 500w average (I do not know if you included the AIO's idle draw of ~50w). Over a day that is 12,000wh. Understand that during night you have no PV production so the battery must carry the load.
With 4300w PV and a typical 5 hours of insolation gives 21,500wh/day.
There are some conversion losses to account for but that is the basic picture. Based on this you should have no problem charging your batteries if they are not faulty but you do have a problem with sufficient battery capacity (6000wh). Starting the nighttime at say 7pm and ending it at 8am gives 13 hours at 500w per hour average load or 6500wh. This means you likely are at low voltage cutoff or have transferred to utility bypass (setting #4) on your AIO.
I say average but honestly most of the day my load sits between 200w and 300w that average is occasionally using the toaster or my wife blow drying her hair (which is rare) I do think my battery is faulty but I just ordered a new one so hopefully that fixes things o want to put 2 300ah batteries in parallel to fix that capacity issue
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DIYrich
Solar Wizard
Starting on Page 21 of the manual:
01: Output Source Priority [01] SBU. Switch to mains when battery is under voltage.
02: Output Frequency: [02] 60.0 for USA
03: [03] UPS. APL is ok. Depends upon how much you want to protect your appliances.
Assume 8 cell LiFePO4 for these
04: [04] 24.0 8 cells at 3.0v is 10% SOC. 22.4v is 5% SOC.
05: [05] 25.6 (20% SOC).
06: [06] OSO PV charging only. SNU is ok if you want to charge from grid.
07: [07] 20-30% of Amp Hour Rating on your batteries. up to 50% is ok. Look at your battery specs. Your actual rate is about 0.20c.
08: [08] LF08
09: [09] 28.8v is ok.
10: [10] 500 minutes. You need at least 6 hours to recharge 7500 watts @1400 watts.
11: [11] 27.2 (will's recommended rate)
12: [12] 21.0 to 24v. Maybe 1.0v under #4.
...
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12VoltInstalls
life passes by too quickly to not live in freedom
A) how are you determining “full”
Define this please.
B) what percentage of charge typically remains at sunrise?
B.2) what determines this as in “A”
C) a 48V nominal lithium battery may charge to say 58.x Volts (not a recommendation, just an example). It will then usually “settle” over a few hours or a day to something like 54.x Volts. That 54V still is “full” it is just not the maximum voltage.
Answers to those questions will help those more astute than myself to be able to help you if there’s issues with your answers.
A0 28.6v is what I consider full and what the charge Controller does as well
B) The 2 times I've tested this with the grid off I had about 10% left according to the Controller
B.2) unfortunately I don't remember what the voltage was
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