Ecoworthy 5K (SRNE) sanity check. Can it grid-feed?

[ricardocello]

That's where I measured! On the way in, and on the way out. Load is reasonably well behaved. ECOWorthy + load is being funny.

I've even seen the Power Factor as low as 0.2 something. At some point, it's going to pass zero ... (joke, I hope!)

Negative power factor is well defined! You would be exporting lagging inductive or importing leading capacitive.




However, as usual, there is a disagreement over which quadrants.

https://www.productinfo.schneider-electric.com/pm2100/5afb1fab46e0fb00011e440d/PM2100%20series%20User%20Manual/English/M_PowerAndPowerFactorPM2100_0000202389.xml/$/C_Measurements_PowerFactor_SignConvention_PM2100_0000170761

 

[SolarUKWM]

Negative power factor is well defined!

That's all well and good. I'm trying to get back towards 1.0 (!)

 

[mike@mikesphotography.]

I just bought the Ecoworthy 5000w inverter and they had no number 34 ToGrid parameter. They removed it and I asked if there was a firmware and they said no.
Same goes with POWMr.
Sungoldpower 5000 which is exactly like the Ecoworthy 5000 had #34 TOGRID

I didn't want to test it longer as I didn't want to back feed even I'm on NEM 2.0 to cause any issues.

My brother in Puerto Rico wants to feed to the grid as they are more relaxed in feeding to the grid as that country has power issues constantly.

What I really wanted to is feed excess to the grid and at night switch to battery. Instead they draw from the grid at night and not using battery making it into a UPS mode. Sungoldpower said to change Parameter #1 back to battery to load and not grid to load. However when choosing that then it won't back feed to the grid anymore once the sun is up and I have to change the settings again so Parameter 34 ToGrid which makes it difficult to do daily
A workaround is to install a smart plug on the grid load (AC IN). At night set the smart plug to turn off so the inverter will use the battery. During the morning turn the AC IN Smart plug back on and it will charge the battery from the panels and feed excess back to the Grid.

I guess the EG4-12k PV, 18k PV, and Growatt 10000 can feed to the grid and use battery at night without any issues.


Some unrelated tips I found out
My watt meter can read the inverter load from grid and read what is feeding to the grid. What it won't tell you if it's positive or negative. I can tell because it starts with a 500w draw. As the solar kicks in the watts drop and then zero and slowly craws back up which is actually going negative (Feeding back to the grid)

The smart plug by Taco on Amazon (4 plugs for $30) that reads your amperage can read also what you are feeding back to the grid. It won't say positive or negative to the Grid but the wattage is correct.

 

[SolarUKWM]

which makes it difficult to do daily
A workaround is to install a smart plug on the grid load (AC IN). At night set the smart plug to turn off so the inverter will use the battery. During the morning turn the AC IN Smart plug back on and it will charge the battery from the panels and feed excess back to the Grid.

I did originally think I was going to do this -- cut the "grid" input during day to ensure loads ran on battery/solar, then re-enable for 7 hours overnight to recharge (and run loads) from low-rate electricity. However, between changing the [01] Work Mode and [06] Charge priority it seems to behave correctly. Day: 01=SBU, 06=OSO and Night: 01=UTI, 06=SNU.

Better still, unlike forcing a grid disconnect, the Ecoworthy can act as a UPS at night (so if grid goes down, battery comes back), and if loads are excessive on the day/battery gets too low, it can revert to grid. I find this a useful redundancy, so did not enforce grid disconnection.

Making these changes daily _are_ a nuisance. 01:30 am, go down and jab inverter into night mode. 08:30 am, jab it back. Beep beep beep beep enter beep beep beep beep enter ... this is why Solar Assistant was high on my list of priorities to get working, the automation (based primarily on time-of-day for me) does this daily for me. As well as adjusting charge rates.

My watt meter can read the inverter load from grid and read what is feeding to the grid. What it won't tell you if it's positive or negative.

Ah, well that's because watts are always positive ... negative watts are an illusion!

Same with AC voltage measurements -- reverse the probes if the voltage comes up negative. No, wait ... that don't work!

I know what you mean though, same with clamp-on meters/normal ammeters on an _AC_ link, you can see magnitude of amps flowing, but not which _way_ they are flowing, because the current is flowing both ways. AC.

Calculating the power transfer needs more information on the voltage/phase relationship.