I am still not sold on the Sol-Ark. Their feature set looks great, and the software looks pretty good, but it just seems a bit finicky. I was truly annoyed at my Schneider when I realized it can't function AC coupled on it's own, but now that I did get the PLC working to run it, I can't be happier. Thanks to Hurricane Kay, we have had spotty to heavy clouds for a few days, even got some rain up here. Solar production was all over the place. My PLC watches the solar input and the house loads and adjusts the battery charge current every 5 seconds. So it ends up looking like this.
View attachment 111631
The green trace is the charge current, following the extra solar as it changes from the clouds going by, and the loads being used in the house. Since we had really poor solar production last night, I did have it charging at just 11.5 amps all night until 6 am. Then it started to run the house, drawing 11.8 amps before the sun came up. As the sun rose, the battery current dropped until the solar was enough to start charging at 8:40 am. Then it was grabbing all the energy it could. Since it is on the cheap power time, if the solar dropped way low, or the loads get too high, it drops to just 7 amps of charge current, the minimum I can command, but I leave it charge and let the loads use some grid power. It is a little cooler, so the A/C did not run as much today. Looks like it started up before 1 pm and ran almost 2 hours. I see that because of the charge current staying at minimum most of that time, but the solar didn't do great either, could have been clouds too. After 4 pm, I use battery power to eliminate using any grid power. The A/C cam on again at about 3:45. but at 4 pm, I stop charging, and the batteries supplied all the power the solar could not to keep my A/.C running. In the 5 to 6 pm hour, you can see the battery current ramping up as the solar production is falling off. It got to almost 57 amps at the battery before the A/C cycled off again. Solar was still making enough to run the house (with the A/C off) until after 6 pm where you once again see the battery current ramping up to run all my loads.
It looks like I managed to store up enough today to make it well past the 9 pm end of the peak rate time. One of the great features of the XW-Pro is that it powers the output loads, AND will also push additional current back to the main panel, while it is fully grid code compliant. All of my solar is currently AC coupled Enphase installed in the output backup loads panel. The XW-Pro does frequency shifting to reduce solar production while off grid, not just when the batteries are full, but to also limit charge current if needed.
The Schneider software still has limitations and some odd issues, so it is not perfect. It really should not need a PLC to make it do this. But my little PLC only cost about $300, but it did take me a while to figure out the programming, and I still want to add a few features. Until I see something that can do the power time shifting as good as I can now with the PLC, I think this is about as good as it gets. The sad part is you need to be a programmer to do it.
SunPower is now selling their SunVault battery storage system, and they are also using a Schneider XW-Pro, with their own controller to make it act properly with AC coupling. A Pwerwall2 comes close, but no dealer near me would install one with my existing Enphase Solar. And they would not just sell me a unit either. The Panasonic and Generac system look pretty good, but they are pricey.
I have yet to find a decent video testing the Outback Mojave system. I am hoping it can do good energy time shifting.
