cowduck
New Member
I will be powering a 4ton AC with micro air soft start. Just waiting to get the 18kPV installed. Should be in under 30 days.
Inrush amps dropped from 75 to ~37. Running amps are 9.7-10.3
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EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread
- Thread starter SignatureSolarJames
- Start date
Inrush amps dropped from 75 to ~37. Running amps are 9.7-10.3
ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
4T, 14 seer Goodman package unit. To be fair, without the MicroAir even on grid the unit "blinks" the lights. You want the 'MicroAir' style kit. A regular soft-start kit with an extra cap doesn't cut it, a simple inline thermister works better than the cap kit, but both still brown out the inverter pair enought to distrupt the big-screen TV. With the MicroAir I have a blink, it generally does not disrupt the TV.
Zapper77
Renaissance Man
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- Jul 23, 2022
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2-18Kpv? Or 1?
Gotshocked!
Solar Enthusiast
I'm not, but I've got a 3t & a 1.5t that at times will be going at the same time.
Please tell me what should I turn on prior to commissioning or should I wait until I'm ready to commission? Everything is connected. I'm just dialing in a few things, but my system is nearly done. I've checked the SOC of the batteries & checked the strings volts, but that's it. The manual transfer switch is on grid and I've never turned the inverter on or any of it's breakers.
I'm fearful of turning on the wrong thing at the wrong time, so I made a start up procedure for myself based on what I found in the manuals pasted below. I did see commissioning details for parallel systems but nothing jumps out at me for my simple setup which is grid tied but not feeding the grid. Is it right in front of my face but I cannot see it?
START UP PROCEDURE FOR SOLAR SYSTEM: PG 62 INVERTER MANUAL
- Turn off all load panel breakers + 200 amp main breaker & 200 amp breaker that's feeding the inverter.
- Turn on battery breakers in inverter 1st then power on all batteries (pg 6 battery manual). Watch Will's youtube vid on checking batteries.
- Make sure pv string voltages are in operating range. Turn on IMO switches then isolator switch on side of inverter.
- Make sure steps 2 & 3 are good before turning on grid power!
- Flip manual transfer switch on to "inverter" (reads "generator" on box).
- Turn on all load panel breakers + 200 amp main breaker & 200 amp breaker that's feeding the inverter.
- Turn on breakers in inverter.
- Program Communication Hub (pg 6 comm hub manual). Settings for batteries pg 5 of battery manual. Using SD Card pg 8.
- Program wifi dongle (pg 39 & 40 inverter manual). Google "eg4 18kpv getting started guide" for dongle/monitoring. Instructions taped to side of inverter.
I have a 3.5ton with micro air. Off grid with 50kwh battery it still flicks the lights once briefly on startup . On grid its fine.
Led house light. With incandescent idk if you would notice. But it does drop the voltage to 219v or so from 240.
Led house light. With incandescent idk if you would notice. But it does drop the voltage to 219v or so from 240.
Quattrohead
Solar Wizard
Do you have the latest firmware ? The ac voltage regulation was improved in one of the updates.
OkieFarmer
New Member
Query: the manual says to use 60 amp breakers to feed the grid inputs when using two inverters. How do you ever get 200 amp pass through? Is there any reason I can’t use two 100 amp breakers to feed the two inverters rather than the 60?
Zapper77
Renaissance Man
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- Jul 23, 2022
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Gotshocked!
Solar Enthusiast
Markus, let me rephrase my question for you. If I turn everything on, I've got to move forward with programming, setting up or "commissioning" the thing, right? If I don't, then what's the point of turning it on prior to commissioning?
I'm going to have my electrician present and want to set a date to commission and I'd like to know what I must do prior to that date.
If my line of questioning is too remedial for you, please have someone email me with the answer. If this info is all readily available in the manuals and I'm just not getting it, I apologize.
I did get a reply to some old questions from someone at Sig Solar, just out of the blue, shortly after posting the above, poorly phrased question.
Zapper77
Renaissance Man
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Benefit would be performing firmware updates for the inverter and make/review initial settings.
EG4_Jarrett
Solar Enthusiast
Here is the start up procedure for the 18k.
1. If equipped, turn on(close) the DC breaker between battery and inverter first. Turn on the BAT
breaker located in the cable box of the inverter and then power on the battery system.
85
2. Make sure the PV voltages of the strings are within operating parameters. Turn on(close) PV
isolator switches between the inverter and array and then on the side of the inverter.
3. Make sure Steps 1 and 2 are running properly before turning on the grid power or generator
breaker.
4. Power on the load breakers in the cable box of the inverter and then in the load panel
Before commissioning, you need to make sure that you have your connections already made. That's your solar, batteries, AC in, and AC out. Not all setups will have these, just make sure the ones that apply to you are there and connected properly.
If you have multiple units, you will want to make sure that you have all of your communication/paralleling cables connected as well. Once you power on the unit, you will need to set the master and slave inverters appropriately. This can be done from the inverter menu. I will link the manual below that goes over all of the step by step instructions on how to do this on page 28
Turning the system on before commissioning will allow you to get the wifi dongle set up. You'll need to make sure that firmware is able to be updates so that the system can be commissioned properly. If you need your firmware updated you can call Tech support, or DM me and we can set a time where I can update your firmware for you.
On page 28 of the manual, it gives you all the things to do before commissioning. HERE is a link to the manual.
If you have any more questions about the 18kpv, please feel free to DM me. I'm here on the forum specifically to help any one that needs it.
Gotshocked!
Solar Enthusiast
I thought pg 28 pertained only to parallel setups as the instructions are under "4.9.3 Parallel Configuration". I was fearful without knowing for sure, but now I do. Thank you.
EG4_Jarrett
Solar Enthusiast
No problem! I does have parallel set up instructions there, but if you are only using a single unit, just disregard the parallel information (master/slave inverter set up) and the rest of the info is good.
Gotshocked!
Solar Enthusiast
The manual linked is nearly 30% larger (version 2.0.3) than the manual I've been using (version 1.3.0) which I downloaded straight from SS's website off inverter page. What I have is 74 pages long and the linked version has 96. I do not see any of the commissioning information on the version I've been using. Nutz.
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Markus_EG4
I am from Germany. Don't mean to come off rude
Here is a new video for Tigo we just integrated into our monitoring system.
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ksmithaz1
Solar / EV Junkie
(See Sig) I have two of the big EG4 AIO's for a total of 100A of AC output. I honestly don't think another inverter would help much either, maybe if you doubled it, not sure (see below). The AIO's react poorly to very rapid demand changes. A later firmware rev's did improve this fairly dramatically, but it's still pretty weak. After reading up, I think its just the nature of a high frequency inverters, they don't react to drastic load changes well. For example, If I hook up my EV charger, it cranks fairly quickly up to 7KW, you'd never notice because it ramps up. Overall load doesn't change it either, the disruption is the same when the HVAC cuts on all by itself, or when the car is charging, the HWH is on, and the range is cranked with a 12+ KW load. 13->18KW or 1->6KW pretty much the same brown-out. I do think it's worse running pure off batteries, and it's definitely noticably worse when the shift crosses the pure solar to solar+battery threshold. I don't see the boundry issue that much now, but in August I was home quite a bit during the day charging the car and the AC would cut on and off and on and off until it finally just stayed on for hours
. The extra batteries may help with this. We shall see.
