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EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread

pmccut said:
Finally got my single 18k + 3 Powerpros setup. I was honestly expecting the SW to be more polished. The 'eg4 monitor' app has different settings than the eg4 web interface than the interface on the device. Why?

So time of use...who's got it working? Peak is 3pm-midnight and I want to run entirely off batteries (pulling from grid only if I exceed the 12kw capacity). There's a 'force discharge' section but that doesn't seem right. The 'eg4 monitor' app has 'discharge setting - peak shaving' that I tried but I ended up still using battery power after midnight which is not what I want (two EVs charging at 48A will deplete the batteries real quick).
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Are you on NEM2 or NEM3?

In my theorycrafting of whether I want this under NEM2, the optimal strategy for me as an annual net consumer (setting aside emergency power; I would use V2L to save my bacon) is to go on the PG&E superpeak plan, self-consume only during superpeak, and force-discharge at the end of superpeak. Off-peak grid power at all other times.
 
@Markus_EG4 Is the 18kpv capable of self-consuming from AC coupled microinverters when on-grid?

IE, charge as much as possible instead of letting the microinverters export. When I looked at the manual yesterday, it does not seem to be supported.
 
zanydroid said:
Are you on NEM2 or NEM3?

In my theorycrafting of whether I want this under NEM2, the optimal strategy for me as an annual net consumer (setting aside emergency power; I would use V2L to save my bacon) is to go on the PG&E superpeak plan, self-consume only during superpeak, and force-discharge at the end of superpeak. Off-peak grid power at all other times.
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NEM2 thankfully. I just fed my existing SolarEdge7600 to the gen side of the inverter. With 3xPowerPros I can easily sustain running off batteries from 3pm-midnight but the EVs will run those batteries down right quick at midnight when they kick on.

@Markus_EG4 do you know what settings I'm missing to run off batteries from 3pm-midnight? Do I just set the peak shaving start time 1 = 15:00, end time 1 = 00:00 (or do i need to set 23:59?) with 'grid peak - shaving power' = 0kw?
 
pmccut said:
NEM2 thankfully. I just fed my existing SolarEdge7600 to the gen side of the inverter. With 3xPowerPros I can easily sustain running off batteries from 3pm-midnight but the EVs will run those batteries down right quick at midnight when they kick on.
Click to expand...
Cool, you would be able to answer my question ;-) Does it correctly absorb all SE output when you're on-grid?

If you're on EV2A you can force-export all but about 1kWh before 9PM and re-import it at 12:01 from EV charger (incurring about $0.02/kWh of NBC, but you probably didn't want to discharge battery into EV).

If you're in PCE territory you might even get a healthy check for generation credits in April if you do this. (Unless I'm mistaken they don't cap credits for net energy producers / positive cash balance).

Another idea is to install reverse CT on the EV in parallel with the consumption EV to subtract those out from the zero export / self consumption calculation.
 
pmccut said:
NEM2 thankfully. I just fed my existing SolarEdge7600 to the gen side of the inverter. With 3xPowerPros I can easily sustain running off batteries from 3pm-midnight but the EVs will run those batteries down right quick at midnight when they kick on.

@Markus_EG4 do you know what settings I'm missing to run off batteries from 3pm-midnight? Do I just set the peak shaving start time 1 = 15:00, end time 1 = 00:00 (or do i need to set 23:59?) with 'grid peak - shaving power' = 0kw?
Click to expand...
You mind if I look at the inverter on the remote monitoring system? There could be something else that is conflicting with other settings.
 
EG4_Jarrett said:
You mind if I look at the inverter on the remote monitoring system? There could be something else that is conflicting with other settings.
Click to expand...
Please do! I disabled the peak shaving days ago as I've been playing with different settings to see if there was another way.
 
zanydroid said:
Cool, you would be able to answer my question ;-) Does it correctly absorb all SE output when you're on-grid?

If you're on EV2A you can force-export all but about 1kWh before 9PM and re-import it at 12:01 from EV charger (incurring about $0.02/kWh of NBC, but you probably didn't want to discharge battery into EV).

If you're in PCE territory you might even get a healthy check for generation credits in April if you do this. (Unless I'm mistaken they don't cap credits for net energy producers / positive cash balance).

Another idea is to install reverse CT on the EV in parallel with the consumption EV to subtract those out from the zero export / self consumption calculation.
Click to expand...
I've only seen ~4kw peak from solar over the past week the solar has been hooked to gen since the conditions have been so cloudy. I haven't noticed anything unusual about that - i've seen ~3kw going to grid or batteries depending on the mode it was in (standby/normal) since my base usage is ~1kw.

I have 2 48A EVSEs running off the sub-panel hooked to the load side. I wish I had wired that to the main meter panel instead so I don't drain the battery in off-grid scenarios but no way I want to rip up my walls again. Totally not planning to do any crazy arbitrage with NEM2 ToU pricing though lol.
 
pmccut said:
I have 2 48A EVSEs running off the sub-panel hooked to the load side. I wish I had wired that to the main meter panel instead so I don't drain the battery in off-grid scenarios but no way I want to rip up my walls again. Totally not planning to do any crazy arbitrage with NEM2 ToU pricing though lol.
Click to expand...
Maybe you can add some contactors or smart breakers at the EVSE. I have my EVSE behind a load shed contactor, eats some idle power though. The CT hacking I suggested won't work for off-grid. Two ways to control the contactors:
  • Use 120V coil:
    • With the input tied to some breaker that is only up if grid is up. (Step-down from 120V for Class 2 compliance for the control wiring and using a lower voltage coil could make fishing easier)
    • With the input tied to the output of something cheap like Emporia smart plug, that has load shedding logic that can be controlled wirelessly
    • If there is a programmable output on the EG4 you can use that.
Did you get permits/PTO for the system? IMO if you went through all that (and this system you have is eligible AFAIK) you should arbitrage away to offset the cost of the system, as long as you're within one of the approved Power Control schemes (IE don't buy from grid sell to grid). When I theory-crafted this I figured:
  • (I'm a net consumer over the year. Math is very different for a producer unless CCA is more generous than PG&E for surplus, which is rare; for most net producers it's not worth it, self consume with EV2A or E-ELEC is enough)
  • System is expensive and I doubt I can get the max value out of this otherwise
  • PowerWalls are configured to do this anyway. I have a neighbor whose powerwall full sends at 4:01. Tesla allegedly has a severe weather prediction algorithm though to hedge against potentially needing backup power.
  • I'm unlikely to use the full cycles of the battery before it hits calendar aging
 
Hello, I have a recently installed 18kpv, I’m new to the whole solar battery inverter, but not to computers in general. is anyone having the system time change? , seems random but frequent 2x/day (only been up a few days though), is there something obvious? like that’s not system time in upper right of lcd screen? also date sticks, minute sticks, just the hour changes..
 

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whosbob said:
Hello, I have a recently installed 18kpv, I’m new to the whole solar battery inverter, but not to computers in general. is anyone having the system time change? , seems random but frequent 2x/day (only been up a few days though), is there something obvious? like that’s not system time in upper right of lcd screen? also date sticks, minute sticks, just the hour changes..
Click to expand...
Make sure your time zone is set correctly. The 18kpv updates its system time and time zone via the internet. See this video to set it on both your user profile and the device via the app.
 
If you are in San Jose, when you connect to the dongle from the phone using the LAN of the dongle, you can set the time zone to -9 GMT and then put in the correct local time and this should work for San Jose, it does for me in San Diego. If you cannot do it, ask your system administrator to do it for you.
 
glandpuck said:
If you are in San Jose, when you connect to the dongle from the phone using the LAN of the dongle, you can set the time zone to -9 GMT and then put in the correct local time and this should work for San Jose, it does for me in San Diego. If you cannot do it, ask your system administrator to do it for you.
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Careful of daylight savings; currently San Jose is GMT-8. Dunno if the 18kpv takes this into account.
 
Yes it does take DST into account. Anyways, the way to set time is to make certain you have correct GMT set for your zone, whether + or - and set date and local time correctly. The GMT is accessed via dongle settings.
 
glandpuck said:
Yes it does take DST into account. Anyways, the way to set time is to make certain you have correct GMT set for your zone, whether + or - and set date and local time correctly. The GMT is accessed via dongle settings.
Click to expand...

Hi, not until going through registration did the other options appear, namely the ability to set tz, so in california Daylight Savings checked and -7 for the zone, gives correct time. thanks glandpuck for replied
 
Pushing over 12,000 watts without tripping the 18Kpv, so is the total usable watts = AC coupled watts plus 12,000 (18Kpv watts)?


"The inverter can accept PV solar inputs to both MPPT channels and AC coupled solar input at the same time. The AC coupled solar input can be up to 90A of AC power or 21.6kW of solar. The MPPT channels can handle up to 18kW of solar, with 12kW available for back feeding the utility grid. After the AC couple function is enabled:When the grid is on, the GEN terminal is connected to the GRID terminal inside the inverter. In this case, the hybrid inverter will bypass the interactive inverter AC to the GRID and LOAD." guess so.
 
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BKY2003 said:
Pushing over 12,000 watts without tripping the 18Kpv, so is the total usable watts = AC coupled watts plus 12,000 (18Kpv watts)?


"The inverter can accept PV solar inputs to both MPPT channels and AC coupled solar input at the same time. The AC coupled solar input can be up to 90A of AC power or 21.6kW of solar. The MPPT channels can handle up to 18kW of solar, with 12kW available for back feeding the utility grid. After the AC couple function is enabled:When the grid is on, the GEN terminal is connected to the GRID terminal inside the inverter. In this case, the hybrid inverter will bypass the interactive inverter AC to the GRID and LOAD." guess so.
Click to expand...
Not sure what you mean by total usable watts.

When on grid AC coupled inverters will worst case just shoot onto the grid. Max 12kW charging or discharging into/out of the battery from AC couple.

Case 1: consume 33kW. Then the hybrid flips to invert mode and supplies 12kW from battery. MPPT attached solar will not help except to offset battery use

Case 2: charge as fast as possible. It depends on how much capacity there is on the HVDC to 48V DC DC converter. If there is 30kW of capacity then the 18kw from MPPTs can combine with 12kW from AC for 30kW. If not then the limit is probably 18kW.
 
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