Adding Schneider XW Pro

[400bird]

I installed my existing 6kw Solar Edge System, got permission to operate from PGE 12/2018
Now, I am adding battery storage.

I started this process nearly a year ago, I submitted the first permit draft in May 2020.
Now, in February 2021 I picked up the Conext XW pro and mini PDP.

Got it hung on the wall just a couple days later.
Wow, is that a huge coil of copper. The entire back 2/3 of the unit is just a giant copper coil.



I've got conduit to run and a battery to pick up, lots of work ahead of me.

Does anyone know what these are for? They are not mentioned in the manual or parts listing for the XW pro.
They also are not mentioned in the mini power distribution panel, but they were in the XW box.

 

[MichaelK]

I have the XW+ version of the same inverter. Those coils are why it can start my 1hp wellpump so effertlessly. Starting surge on the pump is 9120W. Have run my pump, a concrete mixer, and a 7" saw all at the same time with it.

 

[400bird]

I agree, that coil is the reason I went with the Schneider too. The software isn't the best for AC coupling, but the hardware is there.

 

[GXMnow]

I installed my existing 6kw Solar Edge System, got permission to operate from PGE 12/2018
Now, I am adding battery storage.

I started this process nearly a year ago, I submitted the first permit draft in May 2020.
Now, in February 2021 I picked up the Conext XW pro and mini PDP.

Got it hung on the wall just a couple days later.
Wow, is that a huge coil of copper. The entire back 2/3 of the unit is just a giant copper coil.

View attachment 39063

I've got conduit to run and a battery to pick up, lots of work ahead of me.

Does anyone know what these are for? They are not mentioned in the manual or parts listing for the XW pro.
They also are not mentioned in the mini power distribution panel, but they were in the XW box.
View attachment 39065

Your install is looking good.

Those jumpers are for converting the system to 120 volt single phase only instead of 120/240 volt split phase.

I just posted in my thread.... Schneider tech support is at their best yet again. I had a question about the software update, their answer was not very complete, and I asked them again about any chance they could add a trigger to force bulk charge when it comes out of "Charge Block". I got 3 e-mails back from them all times stamped the same minute at 2 am my local time. The first was, do I have any other questions?, the second was since I had not replied, they are closing the ticket, and the third was, Take a survey, tell us how we did. I totally ripped on them and said I will never buy from them again.

I totally agree about the hardware though. The XW series is a beast of an inverter. It has no problem cranking out crazy current, both charging and inverting. It is also amazingly efficient. It is just plain sad that they won't do a simple software fix to make it work properly with AC coupling. I even have given them several suggestions on how to do it. It is sad to see such a well build unit being held back because they won't even listen.

So, I am asking every XW owner to hit them up and ask for this feature. Maybe if a few more of us complain, they might eventually wake up. For backup power, and grid forming, the XW-Pro is working great. Their only dumb issue is the way it refuses to charge when in an AC coupled system.

Here is my proposed fix for Schneider.
Add a switch on the charger setup page. "Force Bulk Charge on end of Charge Block Time" How hard can that be?

What I have been doing for the last month is just clicking "Force Bulk Charge Mode" on the control tab, each morning after 9 am. This puts the system into a full Bulk charge cycle mode. My battery bank tops up in about 5 hours at my current settings. At that point, if my solar is exceeding usage in the backup loads panel, it just sits in standby. If solar output is low it does go into invert and starts supplying the backup loads. At this point it seems to run in a zero export mode as I am in grid sell block until 4 pm. At that point, it starts outputting enough power to not only run my backup loads panel, it also supplies power back to my main panel, and even sells about 500 watts out to the grid. I go back into sell block at 9 pm when my rates go to the cheap overnight. But it will still run the backup panel loads until the battery bank drops to 0.5 volts above the "Recharge Volts" level. Then it goes back into standby mode. With the current software, that is where it stops. It won't charge again without some intervention.

 

[400bird]

Thanks for the info on the jumpers, into trash with them...

Every time you post about Schneider tech support I become less sure about this choice...
I am sure I will be email them soon enough for other reasons! And get to experience your frustration all for myself.
But, when I do get to that point I will be sure to bring that up.

 

[GVSolar]

Yes, sad to say it has gone downhill. When I got my SW4024 some six years ago they were very responsive - up to and including follow up phone calls. But like the man says, great hardware. SW is still rock solid - AC & DC coupled. Best.

 

[JoeHam]

Agreed, mine is a SW4048.

I always say great hardware, average software and horrible support.

 

[GXMnow]

I welded up a new exhaust for my son's car tonight. Ran the welder off the XW-Pro inverter. Watched the power readout running near 4,000 watts with no issues at all. Hit over 67 amps on my battery bank at about 55 volts and the BMS stayed cool. The XW was in grid support mode, so I used no grid power at all, in fact it was still exporting about 200 watts to the grid while running the house and my welder all on the battery bank.

Great hardware... Please guys, fix the software.

 

[400bird]

AC wiring is complete!
Also yeah, I have to mount the insight gateway and do the communication wiring.
I have a small temporary 48-volt battery to support some usage and set up. It isn't going to do much for me. But it will work until I can get the real deal.


oops, AC wiring is not complete.
I forgot that I ran out of wire for the neutral.
I've got to pick up some more #4 to wire that in tomorrow.

I guess I don't get to test the system just yet.

 

[400bird]

This is getting frustrating.
The Schneider gateway will not connect to my network if I assign it a static IP at the router.
It appears to use a static IP internally in the settings, but every time I power down the XW and gateway it seems to come back to life with a new IP, but that takes like 30 minutes!

I even connected ethernet cable to the gateway as the wifi is a bit weak out in the garage. That didn't help much with connection speed after power up. But, the wired connection did drastically increase the communication speed.

 

[pvdude]

I’m way behind you installing my XW+ Pro, so this is very instructive & educational!
When I read the gateway “quickstart” and “owners guide”, the only description of IP addressing is DHCP
(Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). I can’t find anything about assigning a static IP address.
So possibly it is just doing DHCP, and getting confused by the static address.
I would try DHCP, no static address, and see if it works OK.
The delay you describe might be due to the low WIFI signal, DHCP might be trying and failing over and over until it finally gets through.
It has been a long time since I was in the IP world, but I seem to recall DHCP is a UDP (User Datagram Protocol), so there is no ACK, no checking if the communications were successful.
The router just sends it and good luck.
Timeout & retry again and again. Does your router log show DHCP events?

 

[400bird]

Thanks! I will check the DHCP settings.

But, in searching back through the router, it appears that I did not turn off the static IP address. It may have just been my fault all along...

 

[GXMnow]

I have mine set to DHCP, but in my ASUS router, I have it set to always give the same address to the MAC address of the Gateway when it tries to connect. It only takes a couple minutes on boot up and I can connect to it on my network. It is pretty slow to start even before it even tries to connect. The only network issue I have is that I never installed the security cert. So Windows 10 keeps trying to save me from going to that dangerous site on my local network. So about once a week and have to re enter the IP address into Chrome, click advanced, and yes, proceed to the dangerous site. I should install the cert, but it is tedious.

 

[400bird]

Ah yes, extreme danger! That site inside your network (mine too) is much danger.

I should look into a nice ASUS router with that feature.

The warnings have gotten almost annoying enough to install the certificate.

 

[pvdude]

I’ve not used the static/DHCP mapping on my router, looks like I will when the gateway is installed.
Router is a Ubiquity Edgemax firewall. I don't think they make this model any more, found some on ebay searching for

Ubiquiti Networks EdgeRouter Lite ERLite-3 EdgeMax​

 

[400bird]

That does show static IP. Not sure if it would work.

I have been running in "test mode" now for a couple days playing with stuff and seeing how it works. The discharge side works great. It will support my loads as needed. Push kw back into the grid to match my settings.

Charging, less good.

Either Schneider needs to figure out how actual AC coupling should work. Or either I need to or GXMnow needs to figure out how to program something to watch AC current and adjust charging current to match.

I am not going to be happy long term clicking the button every morning to flip it over to charging and adjusting up the current as the sun gets higher in the sky.

 

[pvdude]

I don’t know anything yet about configuring the system, planning to order the PV panels the end of the month, batteries month after that.
So I expect to start it sometime in Summer 2021.
I have read GXMnow about some kind of problem with charging, but don’t understand it.

If I use my system “off grid”, I would expect there is some configuration that would cause the batteries to charge automatically, when the PV panels are receiving enough energy.

If I connect to the grid (no sell back) to obtain AC battery charging, I would expect the batteries to charge from the grid when there is no energy received by the PV panels.

But I’m just guessing here, no idea how the thing works / does not work due to software issues.

 

[400bird]

With the DC charge controller in your signature, you will be fine. Or if you are off grid, it will work normally.
But, when connected to the grid, you have to force it to charge from an AC source (click 1 button) and it will not try to zero out the grid. It will just charge at whatever current you have set.

If you are producing 2,000 watts of PV, using 1,000 watts, and charging on the remaining 1,000 watts everything is fine. But, if a cloud rolls over or you kick on an extra load, now you are charging from the grid as it is still putting 1,000 watts into the battery but you don't have that to spare from the PV.

 

[lew]

I have an xw4500 that has been running for many years. The relay for gen input began arcing. Switched to
grid input and it works great again. (off grid!) Any schematics/part numbers to help me replace the failed
relay?

 

[GXMnow]

Doing a quick search online, I can't find just the relay. I found one place selling the whole AC board for $1,600 OUCH!
Looking in my XW-Pro, it looks like the relays are soldered to the board, not in sockets.