EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread

[y0bailey]

Bad spot for the fire extinguisher.

It will just self activate....lol

 

[y0bailey]

Anyone here AC coupling?

How do I track my AC coupled production for the day?

I started drinking when everything powered on and worked, so I am likely missing something, but any input here is appreciated.

 

[Kenny_]

I'm up and running. So far so good. AC couple is working. More testing tomorrow.

Rats nest complete
View attachment 176194

Excellent!
and mobile too!

 

[neo2299]

@neo2299
Why are you switching from Schneider? I thought that Schneider was bulletproof?

Its over 10 years old... its been amazing overall... just upgrading to 2.5x panels and new inverters. Have nothing but great things to say about the schneider though.

 

[Quattrohead]

I'm up and running. So far so good. AC couple is working. More testing tomorrow.

Rats nest complete
View attachment 176194

Why didn't you stack the inverter on top of the battery?

 

[y0bailey]

Why didn't you stack the inverter on top of the battery?

I didn't want it that high.. I'm not a tall man. It would have been a lot cleaner... But nothing about this is clean

 

[Kenny_]

I didn't want it that high.. I'm not a tall man. It would have been a lot cleaner... But nothing about this is clean

Oh I wouldn't say that... I like the conduit etc. you should see my mess at the moment....(still testing everything out getting it going) will be looking at a more permanent install in just a bit....

 

[y0bailey]

Why didn't you stack the inverter on top of the battery?

I also forgot the shipping company damaged my first conduit box...and the inverter box was also dented. I wanted to get it on the wall and hooked up to the battery ASAP to make sure the inverter wasn't dead. Then once it was up it wasn't coming down! Conduit box came about a week later and I wasn't re-doing anything.


QUESTIONS:
I'm 1:1 net metered, so I'm not looking to "use" my battery much and mostly just keep it near full for emergency outages. I was thinking to let it discharge down to something like 80%, then top itself back up and balance every day.

Is this thought process sound?


Other project for this week is to test out parallel vs. serial for my 8 panels. I get some morning and evening shading in the E/W direction...4 of the panels are in full sun for about an hour ahead of the full array, while 4 of them are getting shading. Reversed direction in the afternoon. Hoping I can squeeze some extra juice from them in parallel, but I'm curious to see if they will maintain voltage.

 

[tmprof]

Did anyone with 18kpv not have their datetime not update with the time change? I have mine set to GMT-6 (I live in Houston) and it's showing an hour ahead. Thanks for your help.

 

[y0bailey]

Did anyone with 18kpv not have their datetime not update with the time change? I have mine set to GMT-6 (I live in Houston) and it's showing an hour ahead. Thanks for your help.

Still working on getting my time correct as well. It's all over the place right now.

 

[sburcham]

Did anyone with 18kpv not have their datetime not update with the time change? I have mine set to GMT-6 (I live in Houston) and it's showing an hour ahead. Thanks for your help.

Same here.

 

[Zapper77]

Change your Station time, User time and inverter time. 3 places.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Change your Station time, User time and inverter time. 3 places. View attachment 176392View attachment 176393View attachment 176394

Yikes, 3 different places for the same thing?

 

[Zapper77]

Yikes, 3 different places for the same thing?

Your user account
Each Station
Each item.

The software is setup like you are the administrator for multiple solar sites.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Your user account
Each Station
Each item.

The software is setup like you are the administrator for multiple solar sites.

I kinda figured.

 

[y0bailey]

A little weird behavior this morning that I want to make sure isn't an issue.

I am getting strange spikes that are occurring as my DC coupled array is working through the shading period. Big spikes in export, weird AC coupling fluctuations.

Anything I need to be worried about or just part of the DC coupled array working itself out with shading?

It didn't do this yesterday and I haven't changed anything besides tightening up my AC coupling settings (start 85%, stop 90%). But the grid is up so that shouldn't have mattered.

EDIT: "Battery priority" was enabled so maybe I did change that. I'm going to leave that disabled for tomorrow's shading period and see if that was the culprit.

 

[tmprof]

Change your Station time, User time and inverter time. 3 places.

I cant find where to change the inverter time???

 

[Zapper77]

I cant find where to change the inverter time???

You can use the eg4 app

 

[tmprof]

You can use the eg4 app

I have the app, but I can't find how to edit inverter time settings.

 

[Zapper77]

I have the app, but I can't find how to edit inverter time settings.

 

[tmprof]

View attachment 176429

Ok, I did that one. And I did the user one. Maybe it's the station one I haven't changed?

 

[Zapper77]

Ok, I did that one. And I did the user one. Maybe it's the station one I haven't changed?

If you did the User, Inverter...only one left is station.

 

[Shimmy]

Does the app require cloud access, or can it function local-only?

 

[Zapper77]

Does the app require cloud access, or can it function local-only?

Works both ways.

Local when directly connected to the dongle Hotspot (max dongle wifi range of 40-60' with 3 walls)

 

[Shimmy]

Works both ways.

Local when directly connected to the dongle Hotspot (max dongle wifi range of 40-60' with 3 walls)

So you cannot connect to it over the LAN, just via the hotspot?