EG4 6500EX minimizing AC input line power consumption

[Dinobot248]

Newbie question.

Current setup and info
One EG4 6500EX
6 Lifepower4 batteries
4kw PV array setup and working
6kw of panels waiting to be setup
About 10 kwh used per day
Have and connected grid power, but want to move all usage to solar or battery



Is there a way to eliminate or minimize the AC input line from drawing or pulling electricity?

During the day when I have some solar power from the panels, the AC input side power draw varies from 1.6 watts when getting lots of solar to about 50 watts when little to no solar. I don't mind the 1.6 watts. I do not like that the 50 watts is not drawn from the battery

I want the inverter to pull from the solar and/or battery first. I have it set to SBU and not to bypass (setting 23 if I remember correctly).


My ideal setup is to
- Use solar and/or battery 100% of the time
- Have grid power as backup, but don't expect to use it unless it is a worst case scenario e.g. rainy and cloudy for the multiple days
- Only pay the service fee to keep the electric company account open


My current setup as I work to optimize my setup
-Unplugged the AC input to not draw 50w from the grid when solar is not enough

 

[Texican]

I believe turning off the AC input is the only way to stop it.

 

[setite]

No way to do this in the inverter. I have an issue where sometimes the solar stops (drops to 0.2 or 0.3A) and I have to turn off AC input to get it to turn MPPT back on. So to that end I am looking for some sort of smart relay to disable and enable AC input. I'd consider something like that or just manually turn off the AC input.

 

[Dinobot248]

I have to decent solutions/ compromises


1. I already bought the 48v charger from Signature solar for $200 so I can connect that to the battery bus bar with a wifi smart plug. I would leverage Solar Assistant to view the SOC and turn on the charger remotely and at night. The Kasa smart plug allows for scheduling, timer, or manually remote on/off. This the better of the two solutions.


2. Use the Kasa smart plug and extension cord and pigtail and plug directly in the AC input of the inverter. While this works, the 6500ex cannot do grid assist or power assist or whatever you want to call it. It's all or nothing. Either AC input is feeding all loads and charging the battery or it's not doing anything by setting SBU. A 15a line cannot feed all loads and that's why this is the worse of the two solutions so far