diy solar

diy solar

EG4 Chargeverter vs AC-In on Inverter?

Again, all conceptual. I don't even have a chargeverter. Might get one for my generator at some point, but trying to think of additional uses.
 
Another niche benefit i have been thinking about.
Most AIO's have a SCC that is large enough to charge the batteries and power the loads. If loads are small, there's some solar that's unclaimed.
Plugging the chargeverter into your system could eek out the remaining solar. Any put it into the battery.
These are the thoughts that keep me awake at night. lol
 
timselectric said:
Another niche benefit i have been thinking about.
Most AIO's have a SCC that is large enough to charge the batteries and power the loads. If loads are small, there's some solar that's unclaimed.
Plugging the chargeverter into your system could eek out the remaining solar. Any put it into the battery.
Click to expand...
Nice! Never thought about that.
timselectric said:
These are the thoughts that keep me awake at night. lol
Click to expand...
I know what you mean. That's kinda where my original thought came from.
 
DIY solar really still is the wild west. Innovative people coming up with new or alternative ways to make use of existing tech. I have to admit it's a lot of fun. At least it is when stuff isn't blowing up. Although blowing up stuff has its moments.

Or maybe it's just the redneck engineering I like - not calling anyone out or anything ...
 
w8dev said:
That’s kinda what I’m trying to figure out. It’s all conceptual.
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The efficiency numbers for the Chargverter and the battery inverters in the 6500s are here on the forum In certain posts where people measure it.
You can also take a chance that the numbers in the manuals are correct. The only unknown is how the lifespan of the LFP batteries will be degraded with constant charging and discharging and no downtime.
To me it sounds like a worthy test. Just do some capacity test on your batteries so when you test them every 6 months you will have a reference to see if they are degrading normally or accelerating.
Just going to add that my own experience with keeping Li batteries on a constant charge system.
It was not good, for instance the more I cycle my laptops down to 20% and then back up is the longer the batteries last. The worst case is keeping them pluggeg into the charger 24/7.
 
Thanks

robby said:
You can also take a chance that the numbers in the manuals are correct.
Click to expand...
Yeah...they're not... They could be off by 20W+

I wasn't thinking of constantly keeping the chargeverter constantly maintaining the battery. It would only be used if the pack voltage got down to a low level where I would normally have my inverter switch back over to grid (which is why I was thinking about using the dry contact relay on the inverter). Then it would bring the voltage up to whatever preset level and then switch back off so that solar could potentially provide the bulk of the power supply. From the battery perspective, I wouldn't think it would be any different than if you had your inverter set to grid-charge while in grid-bypass.

robby said:
Just going to add that my own experience with keeping Li batteries on a constant charge system.
It was not good, for instance the more I cycle my laptops down to 20% and then back up is the longer the batteries last. The worst case is keeping them pluggeg into the charger 24/7.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I found that one out the hard way myself. So have most of my relatives as soon as they take them to another room. Then they ask me why their 1 year old laptop keeps dying... ?
 
What I did was use solar assistant to do the change over from sbu to sub base on state of charge. Then I wired a 240v grid feed to a 40amp wifi/servo breaker. The breaker can be programed to switch on and off base on scheduled times and also can be switch on/off using the mobile app. To me it was the easiest way to get grid charging if needed. Usually, I have it the wifi breaker scheduled "off" during the day and and 4am it will turn "on until 9am. If by some miracle my batteries were to get below the threshold set in solar assistant it will find grid feed. Knowing my system when I use the batteries hard during the night at 4am approx I'm at 35%SOC.
 
w8dev said:
I do appreciate all the back and forth. Nice to have a sounding board.
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Go for it!
Worst case scenerio is that you have to sell back a Chargeverter that should still retain 80% of it's value.
Just know that your trading off some power efficiency for convenience. If you can live with that then it's a solid plan.
 
In a scenario where a generator is powering the chargeverter: does the Dry Contact power on/off the generator or does the Chargeverter.
 
Texican said:
not sure if you could get it automated so it turns on/off at set SOC
but you could use a wifi switch or similar and turn it on/off manually when needed

I have dual lv6548 setup and 1 thing that bugs me with the ac input in SBU is that it uses 40w each inverter all night from the grid, thats over 1kwh each night
I could flip the breaker off manually but thats a pain for a small savings
wish there was a mode SB that was a selectable option with no utility, just solar or batts even though ac input is hooked up
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I have my ac input breaker off all the time. Only time I turn it on is if I need to work on batteries or charge controllers connected to the DC bus.
 
Alex Amper Watterson said:
In a scenario where a generator is powering the chargeverter: does the Dry Contact power on/off the generator or does the Chargeverter.
Click to expand...
To elaborate, will the dry contact from the inverter turn on a generator which is connected to the chargeverter which charges the batteries directly.

Basically, what can auto turn on/off the generator/chargeverter combo.
 
Zapper77 said:
Your generator needs to support remote start via a dry contact. Will the dry contact know (via programming)
Click to expand...
Correct, a generator will have a two wire auto start.

Will the inverter be able to turn off the generator after a preset SOC is reached or will it be confused by the Chargeverter providing power to the battery bank. This is my ultimate concern. Will the inverter know the state of battery vs the incoming amps thought the Chargeverter.
 
Alex Amper Watterson said:
Correct, a generator will have a two wire auto start.

Will the inverter be able to turn off the generator after a preset SOC is reached or will it be confused by the Chargeverter providing power to the battery bank. This is my ultimate concern. Will the inverter know the state of battery vs the incoming amps thought the Chargeverter.
Click to expand...
Assuming you use closed loop battery communication and SOC, It should.
 
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