diy solar

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EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread

I too am very confused as to how the remote shutdown is to be wired into the inverter.

I have reviewed the manual, and looked over the device quite a bit and have zero understanding of where I am supposed to wire this, yet I find it very important (and required by code). I have a kill switch/button purely based on what I gathered from researching, but again have no idea how to connect it to the inverter.

I'd love some feedback from SS. This seems like quite the safety issue to me. Hopefully it's readily available and straightforward information.
Turns out it's not required here. YMMV. Some places want an RSD up on the solar panel. There's a $150 box for that. Per panel. I have my PV breaker panel outside next to my meter/breaker box. I get a little iffy feeling about some of the safety improvements provided by RSD. It's simple enough to throw the breakers, and I actually find it a bit disconcerting that there could be a radio device that could just shut off my PV inputs. I'm thinking if you shorted the wires you'd start blowing fuses in the panels. I'd be more worried about the Lithum batteries.
 
Sorry my friend, I'm gonna bitch about a complete lack of documentation of the RSD function in the box.

This is not an expertise problem. The book sez something about a radio controlled RSD device built into the box and a couple of pins you can hook a switch to. No examples, no explanation of what one might wire to the pins... A momentary switch? Here's a picture of some box by some other company that interacts in some way with this thing, you can use one of them. How do you reset it if you trip it? How does it interact with the RSD switch(?) on the side? And the big rotary switch? I'm sorry but this is not something you should be making an educated guess about because you are an expert. That is how people get killed. They added a couple of random paragraphs in the V1.3 manual. So this probably goes here. (poof).

Every single connection and switch on *ANY* device that has the potential to kill you if you screw up should be documented in the manual as to it's function, how and what you might connect it to with an example. You don't have to have a book for each, nor explain power calculations with Ohms law. Something like: "This rotary switch on the left (show pic) is the master PV disconnect. When in the off position all PV inputs are disconnected from the internal PV bus/MPPT's. When on the MPPT's will receive current. The push-button switch next to the rotary switch (picture/arrow) (does something, not sure, I haven't pressed it and got happy with a multi-meter) might activate RSD, which performs some internal voodoo that blows up your inverter, requires you to ...

On the other hand they do spend a bit of time on things like wire sizes, which would actually be generally commonly understood by someone with prior experience. The organization of the manual is pretty bad as well. It starts out pretty decent, describing the mounting, then kind of runs all over the place. Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell Them. Tell them what you told them.

Until I watched a youtube video I had no idea how the PV connections worked. I mean pretty slick, but a couple of still pics with a flat blade screwdriver showing someone inserting the wire below would have been nice, with an actual picture of an actual wire in the clip. Fortunately there were lots of pictures of the battery and AC cables that attach with a hex nut that would be commonly understood by anyone with some electrical experience. It causes frustration when you document well things most people understand, and then fail to document the things that are quite different about the product, or that may be confusing.
It is not a momentary switch it’s a NC Contact block you need to use. We have a white paper made for this exact thing you are talking about. It will be released very soon but I can help you out with this. This is very good feedback I will take this and share it with our team.
 
I could not get it to work, but by that time I was hot and bothered.
check out this post and two below it.


Pylon listed as CAN #2
 
Yep, it was total failure ? The concrete block was too friable so even when the hole was very tight getting the bolt in the nut just kept turning and never had any good grip to the point that most of the threads are out of the wall now. This is 1940's construction and above ground level block which looks different then the below ground block but the 18kPV would be too low if I tried using those blocks.
Look for 1/4 inch titan bolts. Very strong and reusable.
 
18kPV won't charge my batteries any more, it says syncing to grid ever since last remote firmware update. Is there a way to get a manual for all the settings and/or do a factory reset of the settings?

The latest PDF on the website looks quite different from what I see on the display.

My use case is whole house UPS with grid going in and connected to a large lifepower4 bank.
 
18kPV won't charge my batteries any more, it says syncing to grid ever since last remote firmware update. Is there a way to get a manual for all the settings and/or do a factory reset of the settings?

The latest PDF on the website looks quite different from what I see on the display.

My use case is whole house UPS with grid going in and connected to a large lifepower4 bank.
I can help you out. PM me
 
hello all. (especially Marcus and Gilbert) I think I found the bug in the software finally. once in a while when my batteries run low before solar kicks in I find two strage things happen and this is always.
1. the grid power kicks on as you would assume but it for some reason even with the AC charge off, decides to charge the batteries fir about 30 min, so the amount taken from the grid is more then required to run house.
2. the system catches this error and then cuts off the charging but it than never switch on solar to start running the house or changing the batteries unless I force a reactivation either by a) a restart or b) lowering the discharge cut off to reactive the batteries and then solar also comes on. see the attached charts from this am. you can clearly see the start of the grid at 4:20am. note the spike up to 1320 watts before returning to the house draw of 500-550w as everyone was sleeping, note also that teh solar was producing very well starting at 5:30am but no power was being used by solar generation, at 6:59am I lowered the battery cut off to 5% and low and behold it drops the grid feed and switched to solar to run house and charge batteries again. this same phenomenon has happened 12 of 22 days since these new firmwares. Before that it was actually feeding the grid in the oldest ones. If the batteries hold thru the night until sunup then there is no issue. I have tried using both SOC and Voltage to control the discharge and seems to be about the same but I do notice the voltage amounts do not correlate very well to charts of voltage vs SOC.

anyone else seen this? or have ideas. I think its a bug in the firmware period.
Screenshot 2023-07-28 at 7.44.45 AM.png
 

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hello all. (especially Marcus and Gilbert) I think I found the bug in the software finally. once in a while when my batteries run low before solar kicks in I find two strage things happen and this is always.
1. the grid power kicks on as you would assume but it for some reason even with the AC charge off, decides to charge the batteries fir about 30 min, so the amount taken from the grid is more then required to run house.
2. the system catches this error and then cuts off the charging but it than never switch on solar to start running the house or changing the batteries unless I force a reactivation either by a) a restart or b) lowering the discharge cut off to reactive the batteries and then solar also comes on. see the attached charts from this am. you can clearly see the start of the grid at 4:20am. note the spike up to 1320 watts before returning to the house draw of 500-550w as everyone was sleeping, note also that teh solar was producing very well starting at 5:30am but no power was being used by solar generation, at 6:59am I lowered the battery cut off to 5% and low and behold it drops the grid feed and switched to solar to run house and charge batteries again. this same phenomenon has happened 12 of 22 days since these new firmwares. Before that it was actually feeding the grid in the oldest ones. If the batteries hold thru the night until sunup then there is no issue. I have tried using both SOC and Voltage to control the discharge and seems to be about the same but I do notice the voltage amounts do not correlate very well to charts of voltage vs SOC.

anyone else seen this? or have ideas. I think its a bug in the firmware period.
View attachment 159768
What firmware version do you have installed on your 18Kpv?
 
hello all. (especially Marcus and Gilbert) I think I found the bug in the software finally. once in a while when my batteries run low before solar kicks in I find two strage things happen and this is always.
1. the grid power kicks on as you would assume but it for some reason even with the AC charge off, decides to charge the batteries fir about 30 min, so the amount taken from the grid is more then required to run house.
2. the system catches this error and then cuts off the charging but it than never switch on solar to start running the house or changing the batteries unless I force a reactivation either by a) a restart or b) lowering the discharge cut off to reactive the batteries and then solar also comes on. see the attached charts from this am. you can clearly see the start of the grid at 4:20am. note the spike up to 1320 watts before returning to the house draw of 500-550w as everyone was sleeping, note also that teh solar was producing very well starting at 5:30am but no power was being used by solar generation, at 6:59am I lowered the battery cut off to 5% and low and behold it drops the grid feed and switched to solar to run house and charge batteries again. this same phenomenon has happened 12 of 22 days since these new firmwares. Before that it was actually feeding the grid in the oldest ones. If the batteries hold thru the night until sunup then there is no issue. I have tried using both SOC and Voltage to control the discharge and seems to be about the same but I do notice the voltage amounts do not correlate very well to charts of voltage vs SOC.

anyone else seen this? or have ideas. I think its a bug in the firmware period.
View attachment 159768
Mind sharing a few photos of the settings?

All screens associated with AC charge, Discharge
 
hello all. (especially Marcus and Gilbert) I think I found the bug in the software finally. once in a while when my batteries run low before solar kicks in I find two strage things happen and this is always.
1. the grid power kicks on as you would assume but it for some reason even with the AC charge off, decides to charge the batteries fir about 30 min, so the amount taken from the grid is more then required to run house.
2. the system catches this error and then cuts off the charging but it than never switch on solar to start running the house or changing the batteries unless I force a reactivation either by a) a restart or b) lowering the discharge cut off to reactive the batteries and then solar also comes on. see the attached charts from this am. you can clearly see the start of the grid at 4:20am. note the spike up to 1320 watts before returning to the house draw of 500-550w as everyone was sleeping, note also that teh solar was producing very well starting at 5:30am but no power was being used by solar generation, at 6:59am I lowered the battery cut off to 5% and low and behold it drops the grid feed and switched to solar to run house and charge batteries again. this same phenomenon has happened 12 of 22 days since these new firmwares. Before that it was actually feeding the grid in the oldest ones. If the batteries hold thru the night until sunup then there is no issue. I have tried using both SOC and Voltage to control the discharge and seems to be about the same but I do notice the voltage amounts do not correlate very well to charts of voltage vs SOC.

anyone else seen this? or have ideas. I think its a bug in the firmware period.
View attachment 159768
I am looking into this.
 
hello all. (especially Marcus and Gilbert) I think I found the bug in the software finally. once in a while when my batteries run low before solar kicks in I find two strage things happen and this is always.
1. the grid power kicks on as you would assume but it for some reason even with the AC charge off, decides to charge the batteries fir about 30 min, so the amount taken from the grid is more then required to run house.
2. the system catches this error and then cuts off the charging but it than never switch on solar to start running the house or changing the batteries unless I force a reactivation either by a) a restart or b) lowering the discharge cut off to reactive the batteries and then solar also comes on. see the attached charts from this am. you can clearly see the start of the grid at 4:20am. note the spike up to 1320 watts before returning to the house draw of 500-550w as everyone was sleeping, note also that teh solar was producing very well starting at 5:30am but no power was being used by solar generation, at 6:59am I lowered the battery cut off to 5% and low and behold it drops the grid feed and switched to solar to run house and charge batteries again. this same phenomenon has happened 12 of 22 days since these new firmwares. Before that it was actually feeding the grid in the oldest ones. If the batteries hold thru the night until sunup then there is no issue. I have tried using both SOC and Voltage to control the discharge and seems to be about the same but I do notice the voltage amounts do not correlate very well to charts of voltage vs SOC.

anyone else seen this? or have ideas. I think its a bug in the firmware period.
View attachment 159768
This is the Force Charge logic from. The offgrid cut off Soc you have set Is 7%. When you are within 3% the logic will force charge your batteries to to stay 3% higher then your cut off SOC set. After it hit 10% it stopped charging. So this is normal not a bug. When this happens the inverter goes into standby mode, this activates the AC bypass so you can keep your loads running. You would only need to take it out of standby and it will operate normal again/
 

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This is the Force Charge logic from. The offgrid cut off Soc you have set Is 7%. When you are within 3% the logic will force charge your batteries to to stay 3% higher then your cut off SOC set. After it hit 10% it stopped charging. So this is normal not a bug. When this happens the inverter goes into standby mode, this activates the AC bypass so you can keep your loads running. You would only need to take it out of standby and it will operate normal again/
Can you have the logic changed to always check for solar? I can't think of a reason anyone wouldn't want solar to automatically begin charging batteries when available. Heck, even Will brings this up with Ecoflow style units. I'd say this is a key feature, try to make it as hands off as possible.

My thinking being that logic is generally if/and/or type arguments. If the unit is passing through grid power and can clearly charge the batteries as you mentioned, I can't imagine anyone would be upset with the slight hit in power draw to keep the charge controller active. Hell, I imagine you could even add some logic to estimate when to turn it on based on lat/long and time. IE it obviously doesn't need to burn power at midnight, but by 6am it would make sense to wake it.
 
This is the Force Charge logic from. The offgrid cut off Soc you have set Is 7%. When you are within 3% the logic will force charge your batteries to to stay 3% higher then your cut off SOC set. After it hit 10% it stopped charging. So this is normal not a bug. When this happens the inverter goes into standby mode, this activates the AC bypass so you can keep your loads running. You would only need to take it out of standby and it will operate normal again/
Sadly that is not what is happening. It never goes into standby and I am running in self-consume mode. so It should only hit grid when no batteries (as in the am early) and. no solar which there was over 1000 watts but it never returned to feeding in solar. that is why I said only to ways to get it going again on solar is drop the min, SOC on battery to 7% from 10 or 5% from 8% (I've done both over the last few weeks) and then I will start bring in the solar when the battery starts again. that cannot be some safety mechanism. look close at teh charts and you will see how magically it jumps up to over 1000 watts at 6:59am when I dropped the min SOC on the battery. I am always grid connected FYI. But in self consume its solar/battery/grid priority.
 
Can you have the logic changed to always check for solar? I can't think of a reason anyone wouldn't want solar to automatically begin charging batteries when available. Heck, even Will brings this up with Ecoflow style units. I'd say this is a key feature, try to make it as hands off as possible.

My thinking being that logic is generally if/and/or type arguments. If the unit is passing through grid power and can clearly charge the batteries as you mentioned, I can't imagine anyone would be upset with the slight hit in power draw to keep the charge controller active. Hell, I imagine you could even add some logic to estimate when to turn it on based on lat/long and time. IE it obviously doesn't need to burn power at midnight, but by 6am it would make sense to wake it.
exactly this is a bug if you have to interact with the system to get solar to feed into inverter again once battery runs down, it should run on grid only until solar can take the load again, as other inverters work, (solarc for ex)
 
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