any help or ideas for a newbie

[andyriches]

So i ended up getting the below
1kw complete solar system . The system consists of 4x250w panels 1x EPEver 2.4kwh continuous discharge hybrid none grid tied inverter.
The batteries i have are power safe 195APH and i have 4 of them.`
That's the inverter below.

EPEVER UP3000-M6322 24v 2400w inverter charger - Sunstore Solar

EPEVER UP3000-M6322 24v 2400w inverter charger The UPower series is a new type of the inverter/charger combining with solar & utility charging and AC output.

www.sunstore.co.uk

I have it all wired in now and all was good till i tried to run the heat pump, it turns on and runs but the compressor is quite noisy and it kills the battery's in a matter of 10/15 mins.
I thought i would have a good few hours running from them, it was drawing about 4 amps but the charge state fell very quick, but soon picked up again once the heat pump was turned off, its not a big heat pump, around 900 w.
Do i need a bigger battery bank ? We have some more power safe batteries i can get hold of but these are 12v 65aph and am i correct in saying you cant mix the APH in batteries ?
It is running the water flow pump with no issues at all, the guy who i got it from had it running his hot tub which will draw way more than my heat pump so i can only think its the batteries ?
Any help or ideas would be great

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Are these new 195Ah 12V batteries arranged 2S2P for 24V?

If so, did you individually and then in parallel charge the 12V to 14.4V and hold for 4 hours?

Have you checked to see if all 4 12V batteries are at nearly identical voltages?

Are you using sufficiently thick wire?

Are all connections of high quality and all nuts/bolts properly torqued?

 

[Rednecktek]

LFP or lead acid? You're right that 15min is way too low, even if they were lead acid and you only had the 195ah from that, that's still 195 × 24 = 4680wh which should be good for a few hours at least.

What kind of alarms are showing up on the inverter? Low voltage? Anything else? What size wire are you using for that 50+ amp load? Needs to be 6awg at minimum.

 

[andyriches]

Are these new 195Ah 12V batteries arranged 2S2P for 24V?

If so, did you individually and then in parallel charge the 12V to 14.4V and hold for 4 hours?

Have you checked to see if all 4 12V batteries are at nearly identical voltages?

Are you using sufficiently thick wire?

Are all connections of high quality and all nuts/bolts properly torqued?

These are not brand new but they were of little use.
I haven't separately charged them but i will do tonight, the inverter was saying they were fully charged though which is what was confusing me. They are power safe 12v 190f batteries.
I have used 16mm cable for the batts to the inverter.
The inverter will run the water pump fine but it wont touch the heat pump really.

 

[andyriches]

LFP or lead acid? You're right that 15min is way too low, even if they were lead acid and you only had the 195ah from that, that's still 195 × 24 = 4680wh which should be good for a few hours at least.

What kind of alarms are showing up on the inverter? Low voltage? Anything else? What size wire are you using for that 50+ amp load? Needs to be 6awg at minimum.

Hi They are lead acid, where the battery voltage is on the inverter below it starts showing the % dropping off really quickly.
Im a little confused at the 50 amps question ? Im using 16 mm cable

 

[andyriches]

battries wirred like this just ignore the AH as mine are 195ah

 

[Vigo]

Used lead acids are a real crapshoot as to their health because they degrade just from sitting at a less than full charge, so a set of lead acids can be ‘ruined’ to some extent just by letting them sit around unused for 6 months in some cases.

So, one to-do item is to fully charge and individually assess the batteries. If the batteries are flooded cells (sloshing liquid inside and cell caps yoy can take off to see the water, and dont say AGM or SLA or VRLA anywhere on them) I would pick up a cheap hydrometer and even if they are sealed i would pick up a cheap 50amp load tester such as they sell at harbor freight. possible to get both for $40 total. If you want to invest multiple days in the project you can get small battery capcity testers fairly cheap but they can only draw as much power as they can dissipate as heat with their fans. You can DIY a capacity test with a ‘coulomb meter’ aka ‘battery monitor’ and supplying your own load for the test, at which point you choose the length of the test by the size of the load. If you discharge these things at 100w or less youre going to take basically a day, EACH, to work through that.

Past that, you also need to verify the performance of your wiring under load, which means either simultaneously measuring voltage at both the battery and inverter ends of the wiring (inverter has voltage readout and you can permanently add a tiny voltage screen at battery terminals for <$10) or measure the voltage difference across the wiring end to end with a multimeter (voltage drop test). Multimeters generally start at about $12 online and by the time you hit $40 you’re getting 99% of the features a typical DIYer would ever want. Voltage drops proportionally to current so any wiring issue typically has to be observed under load. It has to be seriously bad to show symptoms under low or no load, so you can’t judge anything just by having same voltage at battery and inverter when nothing is realy flowing.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

battries wirred like this just ignore the AH as mine are 195ah

View attachment 153921

Wired incorrectly. The main leads need to be pulled off opposite strings, i.e., either the positive or negative needs to be moved to the lower string of batteries.

 

[andyriches]

Like this

 

[andyriches]

Like this ?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Like this ?

yes

 

[andyriches]

So I’ve checked

yes

Thanks
It’s still playing up since I changed it around though
The voltage under load when the heat pump is on is going from 190 to just over 230 v
I’ve impedance tested each battery and all is ok,and they won’t accept any more charge either from my battery charger
Is is possible the inverter is to small ?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

You might want to delete some attached images.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

209VAC? Seems like the inverter might be in a power saving mode. I would disable this if that's the case.

My concern was on the DC side. What is the battery voltage AT the battery terminals and AT the inverter battery terminals when the load is on?

 

[andyriches]

You might want to delete some attached images.

hahah yea i just seen that

209VAC? Seems like the inverter might be in a power saving mode. I would disable this if that's the case.

My concern was on the DC side. What is the battery voltage AT the battery terminals and AT the inverter battery terminals when the load is on?

So with the load on, the DC side at the inverter is 26v and the same at the batteries and its the same when the load is off.
The AC jumps around as soon as the air source heat pump kicks

 

[sunshine_eggo]

hahah yea i just seen that

So with the load on, the DC side at the inverter is 26v and the same at the batteries and its the same when the load is off.
The AC jumps around as soon as the air source heat pump kicks

Sorry, forgot to mention that you need to check all 4 12V batteries when under load.

 

[andyriches]

All sat at 13 v when on load
I will get a battery health tester to double check them
Would that cause the voltage fluctuations?
Or could it be the start up current of the heat pump

 

[sunshine_eggo]

All sat at 13 v when on load
I will get a battery health tester to double check them
Would that cause the voltage fluctuations?
Or could it be the start up current of the heat pump

13V is good.

Something I just realized... the SoC reported by the inverter is junk. It's purely voltage based and doesn't reflect reality. You should be able to run the 12V down to 11.8V each or 23.6V total and stay above true 50%.

I have no explanation why the compressor is noisy. Does it do that when powered by grid?

 

[andyriches]

The pump works fine in the mains,a little lost with it now,I will get a battery health checker today and discharge test them

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

13V is good.

Something I just realized... the SoC reported by the inverter is junk. It's purely voltage based and doesn't reflect reality. You should be able to run the 12V down to 11.8V each or 23.6V total and stay above true 50%.

I have no explanation why the compressor is noisy. Does it do that when powered by grid?

???? you sure he she it is not running a modified sine wave(or a cheap sine wave that is lying) ... back to basics folks.

 

[SamDeleted]

Fantastic batteries those powersafe's . You've got 9kwh capacity if you take them down all the way to 0%soc (which is ok on these, don't worry about any 50% rule, these big yellows are built like a tank)

 

[Daddy Tanuki]

Fantastic batteries those powersafe's . You've got 9kwh capacity if you take them down all the way to 0%soc (which is ok on these, don't worry about any 50% rule, these big yellows are built like a tank)

except his shit is shutting down... back to the main issue.

Fantastic batteries those powersafe's . You've got 9kwh capacity if you take them down all the way to 0%soc (which is ok on these, don't worry about any 50% rule, these big yellows are built like a tank)

well obviously they are not that buit like a tank or the OP wouod not have posted this. everything else you said is worthless. back to basics. were they fully charged? to what voltage? for how long? what kind of connections didi he have or not have? Is he running a modified sine wave inverter? please bow out.

 

[andyriches]

???? you sure he she it is not running a modified sine wave(or a cheap sine wave that is lying) ... back to basics folks.

Hi This is my inverter, batteries and heat pump below (4 batts)

When its on load with the heat pump the voltage definitely drops as i had my meter on the supply side on my consumer unit the inverter powers. It runs the smaller pool water pump fine, also when the heat p[ump was on the battery % drops off really quick,i have impedance tested the batts and they came back at 2.6m ohms,data sheet states it should be around 3.5 m ohms, i get the lower the resistance the higher the current but i cant see why this would make them drain quickly or not keep the heat pump powered.
Unless these battery's cant hold the charge under load

This is my inverter below cd

 

[SamDeleted]

Hi This is my inverter, batteries and heat pump below (4 batts)

When its on load with the heat pump the voltage definitely drops as i had my meter on the supply side on my consumer unit the inverter powers. It runs the smaller pool water pump fine, also when the heat p[ump was on the battery % drops off really quick,i have impedance tested the batts and they came back at 2.6m ohms,data sheet states it should be around 3.5 m ohms, i get the lower the resistance the higher the current but i cant see why this would make them drain quickly or not keep the heat pump powered.
Unless these battery's cant hold the charge under load

This is my inverter below View attachment 154069cdView attachment 154070 View attachment 154071

Are you able to individually capacity test each battery


One by one, fully charge each battery , stick a 12v inverter on , with a load and a power metering plug , you should get about 2kwh~ before the battery hits 10.5v

 

[SamDeleted]

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nevsetpo-Monitor-Consumption-Electricity-Calculator/dp/B07H1ZFVFM/ref=mp_s_a_1_1_sspa?crid=L7YPUPM4C8PW&keywords=power+meter+plug&qid=1687523722&sprefix=power+meter+plug%2Caps%2C121&sr=8-1-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9waG9uZV9zZWFyY2hfYXRm&psc=1