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All in one inverter solar charge controller recommendations?

SteveDeFacto

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May 16, 2022
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I am currently using a Growatt SPF 3000TL HVM-24. I have 2 problems with this unit:

1. Minimum voltage shutoff can't be configured below 21v. The batteries I'm using can go down to 18v so a significant amount of capacity is never used.
2. Unit requires minimum voltage of 23v to turn on. Meaning if voltage falls below 21v, the charge controller won't change batteries and we are in the dark for 2-3 hours while we wait for batteries to charge from shore power or generator.

Does anyone have a recommendation for a unit that is as efficient and reliable as my growatts but doesn't have these issues?
 
To me it sounds like the real issue is you don't have enough battery capacity. Are you running down to low voltage cutoff every night? How much and what type of battery do you have?
 
To me it sounds like the real issue is you don't have enough battery capacity. Are you running down to low voltage cutoff every night? How much and what type of battery do you have?
No, it doesn't cut off every night, it's just when I leave the AC running for too long after sunset or on cloudy days.

I have 10.6kWh or 2x Tesla Battery Modules. Even if I had more battery capacity, I have maxed out the roof of my bus with 3000w solar and cannot fit more.

Additionally, there is also a 3rd issue with the growatts. When the batteries are above 23v, the solar charge controller won't always enable the PV input until the batteries fall below some arbitrary threshold.
 
Hmm.. finding a 24v inverter that will allow you to set it for a 18v low voltage disconnect/shutdown might actually be tricky. I would be surprised if you could find one that would allow a setting lower than 20v. I mean, i hope you can, but i can foresee a likely possibility that you will either have to A: leave everything below 20-21v unusable, or B. devise a secondary inverter system to make use of what remains as a sort of 'critical loads' system, or address the 'solar startup' issue as well by C: Substantially or entirely replacing the growatt system with different components.

Are you using ~230vac for all of your loads? Or using an autotransformer to make ~120vac? How many watts would you need to continue powering your 'critical loads'? That would change my idea for what that secondary power system from option B would be.

I see you are using the inverter in a skoolie. I imagine that if you are not just trying to upsize the system to use AC all night, then your critical loads that you would like to stay running even when the Growatt is currently shutting down, are probably no more than few hundred watts and might be under 100w. IF that is the case, you could do something as simple as buy a solar generator which will take up to ~28-29v on its solar input, hook your tesla batteries to that solar input, hook your Growatt AC output to its AC charging input, put it in UPS mode, and power your critical loads off of its AC output. That would essentially have your tesla batteries keeping the solar generator fully charged at all times (because its solar input would probably accept anything between ~12-29vdc and step it up to charge the internal battery), have its inverter be basically idle because it sees the ac input from the Growatt and passes it through to the output for your critical loads, and then when the Growatt goes down the solar genny UPS thingy will start powering loads from its internal inverter and battery. If your critical loads 'draw' was lower than your charge rate from the Tesla batteries, you would get all the Tesla batts remaining capacity + the solar genny battery capacity (small) before your critical loads finally shut down. If the draw was higher than the "solar" charging from your tesla batts, you would get something in between before it all shut down. This is basically using a solar genny as a UPS that happens to accept DC charging from your tesla pack. It is perhaps not the most elegant solution but if you have only a small amount of critical loads it may end up being pretty cheap and you still get to carry the solar genny around as a separate little useful toy if you ever cared to. You could accomplish the same thing with an actual UPS that used a 12v battery, and hooked a 24 to 12v (preferably 13.8) step down converter to charge its internal batteries from your tesla pack, but then you wouldn't have a solar generator as a toy. Lol
 
Hmm.. finding a 24v inverter that will allow you to set it for a 18v low voltage disconnect/shutdown might actually be tricky. I would be surprised if you could find one that would allow a setting lower than 20v. I mean, i hope you can, but i can foresee a likely possibility that you will either have to A: leave everything below 20-21v unusable, or B. devise a secondary inverter system to make use of what remains as a sort of 'critical loads' system, or address the 'solar startup' issue as well by C: Substantially or entirely replacing the growatt system with different components.

Are you using ~230vac for all of your loads? Or using an autotransformer to make ~120vac? How many watts would you need to continue powering your 'critical loads'? That would change my idea for what that secondary power system from option B would be.

I see you are using the inverter in a skoolie. I imagine that if you are not just trying to upsize the system to use AC all night, then your critical loads that you would like to stay running even when the Growatt is currently shutting down, are probably no more than few hundred watts and might be under 100w. IF that is the case, you could do something as simple as buy a solar generator which will take up to ~28-29v on its solar input, hook your tesla batteries to that solar input, hook your Growatt AC output to its AC charging input, put it in UPS mode, and power your critical loads off of its AC output. That would essentially have your tesla batteries keeping the solar generator fully charged at all times (because its solar input would probably accept anything between ~12-29vdc and step it up to charge the internal battery), have its inverter be basically idle because it sees the ac input from the Growatt and passes it through to the output for your critical loads, and then when the Growatt goes down the solar genny UPS thingy will start powering loads from its internal inverter and battery. If your critical loads 'draw' was lower than your charge rate from the Tesla batteries, you would get all the Tesla batts remaining capacity + the solar genny battery capacity (small) before your critical loads finally shut down. If the draw was higher than the "solar" charging from your tesla batts, you would get something in between before it all shut down. This is basically using a solar genny as a UPS that happens to accept DC charging from your tesla pack. It is perhaps not the most elegant solution but if you have only a small amount of critical loads it may end up being pretty cheap and you still get to carry the solar genny around as a separate little useful toy if you ever cared to. You could accomplish the same thing with an actual UPS that used a 12v battery, and hooked a 24 to 12v (preferably 13.8) step down converter to charge its internal batteries from your tesla pack, but then you wouldn't have a solar generator as a toy. Lol

That sounds way too complicated. I built a 24v to 24v dc-dc converter which I can use to bump up the voltage but I'll probably need large diods to keep power from the charger from feeding back into the dc-dc converter.

I would much rather do it right and just get a new inverter/charge controller unit to replace the growatt but if that's not an option, I have a backup plan.
 
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If you were willing to go away from an all-in-one then the Victron components are very programmable, quite reliable and some of the most efficient.
 
That sounds way too complicated. I built a 24v to 24v dc-dc converter which I can use to bump up the voltage
I agree it is inelegant unless you have other uses/integrations for the solar generator (could also tie it to starter batt system), but the DC-DC step up converter, unless you spend almost as much money as a small solar generator, is going to put a hard limit on how much your inverter can draw at the times that the DC-DC is boosting the voltage. If it were a 100w step up you would be limited to a 100w draw before the inverter pulled the circuit down to 'true' battery voltage and went into low voltage shutdown. Again, kind of depends on what the load you are trying to keep running is. If it's <300w a step up converter could support that for a reasonable amount of money. Large ones get into the 3-digit dollar range and at that point i'd be buying different inverter hardware rather than applying an expensive bandaid.
 
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