CANNOT GET SOLIS RAI-3K-48ES-5G AC COUPLED WORKING PROPERLY

[semc]

Hope somebody can help please
I have a Solis S5-GR1P3.6K with datalogger and RAI-3K-48ES-5G AC coupled inv with a US 5000 plyon tech battery
the RAI-3K-48ES-5G, I have been through all of the threads i can find.
I cannot get the time to work whatever setting i use, also my smart meter at home shows a draw of 3kw for 20seconds (charging battery) then the battery discharges for 20seconds and smart meter shows zero KW, and it does this all day long, I dont know what is wrong with my settings so i have put them all on a PDF file and would appreciate it if sombody with same system could look them over for me.
I have moved over to octupus from british gas so i can use cheep tariff and hopefully feed back in in the summer, any settings for this would be handy
thankyou in advance

 

[SeaGal]

You have zero charge current set and also have disabled charge from grid.

You have specified a discharge time - that will force discharge from battery to grid which I guess is not intended. Although not specific to your model, this guide should be helpful.

Solis Hybrid Inverter: charging from the grid

How to configure your Solis Hybrid Inverter to charge from the grid on schedule.

blog.jonsdocs.org.uk

 

[semc]

I was hoping to get it to use the battery between 18:00 1nd 21:00 and hopefully charge on low rates between 2 and 4 in the morning but all its doing is charging at 3kw for 30 seconds then discharging for 30 seconds all day long and my electric bill it twice as much daily then if i just switch the battery and unit off, i have changed all the setting trying to get it to discharge manually between 18:00 and 21:00 but i cannot get it to do that even

 

[rpdom]

Do not set a discharge time. That is to dump the battery contents to the grid, not use it for your house. Set all discharge times to 00:00 for normal use. You should only need to set the charge times.

 

[semc]

Thankyou will try in the morning. Shame their is not a lot of information on Solis site

 

[SeaGal]

Shame their is not a lot of information on Solis site

... it's Chinese

 

[semc]

I took off the discharge time, but for some reason it keeps charging the battery outside of the time set (02:00-04:00), with the battery turned off i am using 230w in the house but it keeps charging the battery at 1.5kw from the grid, i dont know how to stop it charging outside of my charging times

 

[SeaGal]

2 thoughts...

a) What is the battery SOC and have you got a force charge % set to a highish value?
b) Has the CT clamp been installed the correct way round?

 

[semc]

Finally got battery charging between 02:00 and 04:00 but after 04:00 it starts to discharge to house load.

 

[jgh]

Isn't that what you want, though? Use that cheap energy you stored rather than basic-rate grid power?

I've set mine for 1kW or so from 2-5 AM for the cheap rate, then it runs the house background loads until/if there's any PV, and I run
a 400W discharge for the peak rate 4-7 PM just to (try to) not import during that time.

(I wish it had a control for grid-export rather than for battery-discharge, but that's a separate issue... And the Solis /CT combination
seems to typically settle at 10 - 30W import, not zero)

 

[rpdom]

I've set mine for 1kW or so from 2-5 AM for the cheap rate, then it runs the house background loads until/if there's any PV, and I run
a 400W discharge for the peak rate 4-7 PM just to (try to) not import during that time.

(I wish it had a control for grid-export rather than for battery-discharge, but that's a separate issue... And the Solis /CT combination
seems to typically settle at 10 - 30W import, not zero)

I do something like that at certain times. I set the maximum discharge current on a timer and enable the Grid Feed in Power Limit at 2A (100W). It doesn't prevent all import, but it cuts it down close to 0.

 

[SeaGal]

Finally got battery charging between 02:00 and 04:00 but after 04:00 it starts to discharge to house load.

If you want to prevent battery usage (say) between 04:00 and 07:00, when you might be on economy 7 cheap rate, then could you just configure a force discharge of 0.00A between 04:00 and 07:00. That will allow you to charge the battery up on cheap rate, and then just run the house on cheap rate directly. It's a good solution, because there is no point charging the battery up and then running it down all at the cheap rate - you'll only waste energy due to conversion inefficiencies by doing that.

 

[semc]

If you want to prevent battery usage (say) between 04:00 and 07:00, when you might be on economy 7 cheap rate, then could you just configure a force discharge of 0.00A between 04:00 and 07:00. That will allow you to charge the battery up on cheap rate, and then just run the house on cheap rate directly. It's a good solution, because there is no point charging the battery up and then running it down all at the cheap rate - you'll only waste energy due to conversion inefficiencies by doing that.

Thankyou

 

[semc]

If you want to prevent battery usage (say) between 04:00 and 07:00, when you might be on economy 7 cheap rate, then could you just configure a force discharge of 0.00A between 04:00 and 07:00. That will allow you to charge the battery up on cheap rate, and then just run the house on cheap rate directly. It's a good solution, because there is no point charging the battery up and then running it down all at the cheap rate - you'll only waste energy due to conversion inefficiencies by doing that.

Thankyou

 

[semc]

If you want to prevent battery usage (say) between 04:00 and 07:00, when you might be on economy 7 cheap rate, then could you just configure a force discharge of 0.00A between 04:00 and 07:00. That will allow you to charge the battery up on cheap rate, and then just run the house on cheap rate directly. It's a good solution, because there is no point charging the battery up and then running it down all at the cheap rate - you'll only waste energy due to conversion inefficiencies by doing that.

Thankyou

 

[SeaGal]

YW, but you didn't have to thank me three times

 

[jgh]

If you want to prevent battery usage (say) between 04:00 and 07:00, when you might be on economy 7 cheap rate, then could you just configure a force discharge of 0.00A between 04:00 and 07:00. That will allow you to charge the battery up on cheap rate, and then just run the house on cheap rate directly. It's a good solution, because there is no point charging the battery up and then running it down all at the cheap rate - you'll only waste energy due to conversion inefficiencies by doing that.

Are you saying one can set both charge- and discharge-battery concurrently? Or that charging would need to be done at some other time?

 

[SeaGal]

Are you saying one can set both charge- and discharge-battery concurrently? Or that charging would need to be done at some other time?

No. Consecutively, not concurrently. Having concurrent settings will confuse the hell out of the Chinese software!!

Let's say your cheap period continued to 7am, you could have charge period from 2am to 4am and then a 'zero' discharge period from 4am to 7am. But equally you could just charge at a lower rate from 2am to 7am. Horses for courses.

 

[jgh]

Lower copper-loss if you charge more gently for longer - but I don't know what the assorted converters on the path will do with their efficiencies.

 

[rpdom]

Let's say your cheap period continued to 7am, you could have charge period from 2am to 4am and then a 'zero' discharge period from 4am to 7am.

I seem to recall someone saying that some of the early inverter firmware needed that to be charge 02:00 - 04:00 and discharge 04:01 - 07:00. It didn't like the end time of one slot "overlapping" the start time of another. Recent firmware should be fine.