diy solar

diy solar

Buying a Sol-Ark 12k tomorrow

HighTechLab

HighTechLab

AKA Dexter - CTO of Current Connected, LLC
Joined
Sep 23, 2019
Messages
1,691
I've read nothing but good things about sol-ark inverters.

I live in a totally off-grid scenario (no grid connections). Our daily usage at this time of the year is around 20-30 KWh. We have a 14kw Wacker Neuson backup diesel generator, and 64x CALB CA180 batteries.

Currently we have a FoxPower Inverter/charger, but it's practically identical to the signieer inverters that a few other members are buying up from Electric Car Parts Company. The capability is great, however, the idle draw of 3.69 amps at 52 volts is atrocious. In the 2 1/2 years that I've ran it full time, it's over 2 MWh of power that has been turned into heat in my electrical room. Around 5KWh per day of just idle power.

I've been running my PLC data logging, and we only rarely have spikes over 8000 watts, typical load is 1000 (at night) - 2400 watts during the day, but up to 6000 watts during the day in summer with ACs running.

Sol-Ark units are extremely efficient. They also have extremely low idle draw. Seems like a no brainer to me to be more conservative on the power I already have.

My plan already was to expand my solar array to be around 150x 250 watt panels on a fixed pole-style ground mount rack. This would require me to add either 6 more Outback FM80s or with a sol-ark I can utilize the 12kw of solar input per unit. My thought is starting with 1 of the sol-arks and then in the future add a second one and parallel them up.


Another thought driving this is they can charge batteries at 180 amps versus the 100 amps of the unit I currently have. Right now I have one 12kw inverter that is always in "invert" mode and another one that turns on via PLC control when the generator starts up and charges the batteries...The loads on the property never transfer to the generator to prevent overloading the generator, rather just continue to pull off the DC buss. The Sol-Ark can work with the generator like generator support, so now we can utilize the generator's prime power output range, therefore saving fuel and reducing the hour count on the generator.


I can't think of anything really that doesn't make more sense with this unit, other than the cost. I've been quoted around 6800 and one distributor down to 6400. My plan tomorrow is to find someone local that can get it for around 6400, and then pull the trigger and get my first unit.

Missing something here, or sound about right?
 
Since you're going down that route you should start a blog chronicling your adventure; I'm sure a lot of folks would love to see that. ?

Don't know if it's fact or fiction, but heard on these forums Sol-Ark's monitoring was sub-par. Might be worth checking into that and what they have in the way of an API for your own stuff.
 
svetz said:
Since you're going down that route you should start a blog chronicling your adventure; I'm sure a lot of folks would love to see that. ?

Don't know if it's fact or fiction, but heard on these forums Sol-Ark's monitoring was sub-par. Might be worth checking into that and what they have in the way of an API for your own stuff.
Click to expand...
The funny part is, prior to planning on getting this unit, I made a shunt array that has 6 shunts in order to monitor power flow throughout the system; all of the solar charge controllers go through one shunt, generator power through another, power out yet another, controls, etc. Now with the Sol-Ark, I loose this ability since it's all done internally and can send the solar power directly to loads...

I'm really excited for the AC coupling feature, we need to run our well pump that is around 1600 feet from our solar system, original plan was to run some heavy cable at high voltage, now we could possibly just put some micro "grid" tied panels down there so the amperage draw across the long run is reduced...And just use a PLC to control the whole thing.
 
HighTechLab said:
we need to run our well pump that is around 1600 feet from our solar system, original plan was to run some heavy cable at high voltage, now we could possibly just put some micro "grid" tied panels down there so the amperage draw across the long run is reduced...And just use a PLC to control the whole thing.
Click to expand...

If you can deliver 500% of nominal current through the long cable to start the well pump, I wouldn't worry about 100% of nominal current to run it. The grid-tied inverters might provide all the running current, but won't start it. Either step-up/step-down transformers, or a battery inverter located at the load. Unless you put in a pump with inverter drive or PV-direct.
 
Hedges said:
If you can deliver 500% of nominal current through the long cable to start the well pump, I wouldn't worry about 100% of nominal current to run it. The grid-tied inverters might provide all the running current, but won't start it. Either step-up/step-down transformers, or a battery inverter located at the load. Unless you put in a pump with inverter drive or PV-direct.
Click to expand...
Or another sol-ark AC coupled to the "grid" on the top of the hill....Hmmmmm my curiosity is a scary thing
 
 
I've got some 4/0 battery cable on the way, arriving tomorrow and my 16 ton hydraulic crimper just arrived, super excited to get this thing installed. My office is setup in my electrical room (Long story) and today we have had cold and rain...My office is being kept warm by the heat off of these ineffecient inverters charging up the batteries from Generator power right now. Takes about 6-8 hours to fully charge with my current units on gen power alone.
 
HighTechLab said:
I've got some 4/0 battery cable on the way, arriving tomorrow and my 16 ton hydraulic crimper just arrived, super excited to get this thing installed. My office is setup in my electrical room (Long story) and today we have had cold and rain...My office is being kept warm by the heat off of these ineffecient inverters charging up the batteries from Generator power right now. Takes about 6-8 hours to fully charge with my current units on gen power alone.
Click to expand...
Die for crimper may not be a great fit for the terminals. Read up on it around the forum, possibly crimp, rotate, crimp if hex die to avoid pinching.
Got heatshrink with glue inside? Can probably slip over later if not on hand at the moment.
 
Hedges said:
Die for crimper may not be a great fit for the terminals. Read up on it around the forum, possibly crimp, rotate, crimp if hex die to avoid pinching.
Got heatshrink with glue inside? Can probably slip over later if not on hand at the moment.
Click to expand...
Great advice, will give it a try tomorrow to see how well things go. It makes total sense for some of the lug material to end up pinching since it is turning a circle into a hex shape. I'll try going half way or so first then turn, then farther, then turn and then finally finish it. I imagine that the two turns to make sure that all 6 sides have had pressure applied will make things come out the best.
 

At this point, I got the unit powered up with one of those LEAF battery packs from Bigbattery, but certainly not what I plan to run the unit on!!! The BMS tripped out on too high of a current 3 times while trying to charge the caps in the sol-ark...Let alone that it's way undersized for running any sort of power levels that the sol-ark is capable of.

Either way, got the unit powered up and tested, because I wanted to make sure that before I went and shut everything down and took out a perfectly good inverter, that I was covered and the installation would go flawlessly. After digging through the manual for a bit, I found a few great takeaways:

  1. The new version of the 12k is designed to be outdoor rated, but not yet approved as 3R, which means an inspector could write you up for using a unit that is indoor rated outdoors, but in the manual it says clearly that the approval for outdoor rating is pending and that using the unit outdoors would not void the manufacturers warranty.
  2. I am obviously in an off-grid situation, with a 14KW generator. In the manual, they say if your generator is larger than 10KW, and you are in an off-grid application, to use the "GRID" terminals for the generator. My concern here was that the generator support mode wouldn't work, which in fact it does. All you need to do here is use the CT's provided with the unit on the generator power feed...The Sol-Ark treats the generator as "GRID" and conveniently the sol-ark can do GRID SUPPORT PEAK SHAVING!!! The more I read about this thing the more excited I am to become a dealer for Sol-ark some time in the future....Hopefully things can fall into place.
  3. At idle, the panel on the unit was showing .5 amps draw on the battery, or approximately 30 watts, which is around 1/2 of their spec'd idle draw. After using a clamp meter, I got a bit over an amp, so I will need to do further testing once the unit is installed to determine the accuracy of the sensors within the unit.
I am already planning to have amperage-reading current transformers on both the output of the Sol-ark and on the power going from my generator to the sol-ark...So with that combined with my battery voltage reading and shunts on the input, I can accurately use my PLC system to compare the specified efficiency of the unit to the actual values. My PLC is highly accurate even at low amperage readings...I trust it far more than a clamp meter.

More to come soon.
 
Soooooo, I got the inverter in, few days ago now.

Just when I thought I knew stuff about things, this thing shows up and destroys all of that.

Those wondering what it takes to become a dealer; You have to sign a Non-Disclosure agreement with regard to their dealer price, and your initial purchase must be 25 units or more. After that you can buy 5 on a pallet at a time....If anyone wants to do a group buy on Sol-Arks, Let me know!!!! I might be able to negotiate them down to 20 units, but that's still a boatload of units.

Either way; a few calls to tech support, I have this thing close to dialed in.

First issue I had: On the menus, you literally have to press "OK" and close the menu before changing screens. If you change tabs without pressing "OK" the settings do not save.

Second issue: Transfers from Grid (Generator connected to GRID input), to generator were slow and stuff would shut down during the transfer. The cause here was the lowest allowable input voltage was somehow default set to 115 volts instead of around 215v or so. In other words, the generator would already be shut down by the time the sol-ark realized there was no power going to it, hence the rough transfer.

Third issue: The manual is very rough to follow along with, stuff is spread out all around the whole thing, and this is where I get to the point of me thinking I know things and really only know some things; Normally things like TORQUE SPECS are in a table somewhere near the step of INSTALLING THE BATTERY CABLES.

Another example, on the displays if your battery amperage is NEGATIVE, somehow this means CHARGING. I would think it makes total sense that POSITIVE amperage on the batteries means the stored power is going UP or MORE POSITIVE IN TERMS OF POWER STORED...-endrant

Fourth: Generator Support, or as Sol-Ark refers to it "Peak Shaving". By the way, there are CTs that go in various locations depending on setup type. Something simple as THE POLARITY OF THE SIGNAL WIRES FOR THE CT took 15 minutes to find in the manual, both because sometimes I struggle to find things but also because THE PINOUT OF THE HEADER WAS IN PARAGRAPH FORM, NOT A DIAGRAM OR SOMETHING OF SIMILAR NATURE.

More to come; we are working on editing the install video and finalizing the details of the install. Now that things are dialed in, I can collect my thoughts and have a less-frustrated review - Part of the frustration was my own lack of knowledge and part of it was Sol-Ark changing things up for both the better and some for the worse.
 
Glad you're blogging all this, what great information for everyone else! So cool they're going NEMA!
 
We are in and installed! Not much in the form of writeup to add on yesterday's post...Here's the video of the install:

 
I think the included ferrites are great. They are likely for RFI suppression and most inverter manufacturers don’t give a crap about that when they really should according to FCC rules.

I was going to suggest zip ties to clean up the install but you were way ahead of me.

When you talk with SolArk please ask if the ferrites are mix 31 or 43. Those are the two most likely material mixes and it will reveal what frequencies they are most concerned about suppressing.
 
JoeHam said:
I think the included ferrites are great. They are likely for RFI suppression and most inverter manufacturers don’t give a crap about that when they really should according to FCC rules.

I was going to suggest zip ties to clean up the install but you were way ahead of me.

When you talk with SolArk please ask if the ferrites are mix 31 or 43. Those are the two most likely material mixes and it will reveal what frequencies they are most concerned about suppressing.
Click to expand...
Trying to get an oscilloscope from my engineer for the next video on the sol-ark. Then we can do a couple of things - Probe the battery cables without ferrites, probe the output waveform, all sorts of stuff like that. I will see if they are willing to disclose that - I'm wondering if one is a different mix than the other to get different harmonics reduced, or if one ferrite just wasn't enough.
 
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