EG4 Powerpro capacity

[addision]

Please tell me where I am going wrong in my thinking. I decided to buy 3 EG4 Powerpro batteries because they could be placed outside and they appeared less expensive than my Fortress 18.5.

I was of the understanding that these batteries had a capacity of 14.3kWh (280Ah) each x 3 batteries should be 42.9kWh. The batteries appear to show correctly in the Sol-ark 12k bms. They show 840Ah for the 3 batteries.

Now, I look in the PvPro app and it shows that my batteries only charged 20.5 kWh. As a test I allowed my batteries to discharge from 100% down to 11% last night before they started charging this morning.

Where could I be losing out? My wife uses about 18.5 kWh on her car per day that I am looking to replace and I thought I had that amount easily covered, obviously not. I will need to wait until the weekend when its not raining to take a look at the batteries. Could I have a bad connection on a conductor? Would the BMS show the rated capacity but not somehow notify my if one battery had a bad connection?

I have an image of my Pvpro screen attached.

 

[wpns]

What do the LCD screens on the individual batteries say about SOC?

It’s raining and you only put 20.5 KWHR into the batteries? Given your posted details that sounds about right.

 

[DIYrich]

Charge settings?
Did they fully charge?
Resting charge voltage?
Voltage on battery at 10% after full charge?
Do you have a shunt?
What does it say?

 

[Zapper77]

Please tell me where I am going wrong in my thinking. I decided to buy 3 EG4 Powerpro batteries because they could be placed outside and they appeared less expensive than my Fortress 18.5.

I was of the understanding that these batteries had a capacity of 14.3kWh (280Ah) each x 3 batteries should be 42.9kWh. The batteries appear to show correctly in the Sol-ark 12k bms. They show 840Ah for the 3 batteries.

Now, I look in the PvPro app and it shows that my batteries only charged 20.5 kWh. As a test I allowed my batteries to discharge from 100% down to 11% last night before they started charging this morning.

Where could I be losing out? My wife uses about 18.5 kWh on her car per day that I am looking to replace and I thought I had that amount easily covered, obviously not. I will need to wait until the weekend when its not raining to take a look at the batteries. Could I have a bad connection on a conductor? Would the BMS show the rated capacity but not somehow notify my if one battery had a bad connection?

I have an image of my Pvpro screen attached.

56v charge seems low...should be pushing around 56.5v or slightly higher.

 

[addision]

What do the LCD screens on the individual batteries say about SOC?

It’s raining and you only put 20.5 KWHR into the batteries? Given your posted details that sounds about right.

For charging when cloudy yes I would agree.

The batteries fully charged during the clear day and it has rained since that night.

I will check the display and connections this weekend when the rain has stopped and I have the time. I really feel there is something wrong with one battery. Maybe a bad connection. The numbers just don’t add up to me.

Maybe the numbers are correct and I just underestimated the amount of electricity I need to charge my car and the amount that the batteries can supply.

On a clear day my system can charge the batteries to an appeared full state in about 3.5 hours when it is kicking out 13k watts. So adding more batteries is not a problem saystem wise. I also have an additional 10 panels I can add to the system.

But I think I have a battery problem I want sort out before more changes to the system.

 

[Zapper77]

For charging when cloudy yes I would agree.

The batteries fully charged during the clear day and it has rained since that night.

I will check the display and connections this weekend when the rain has stopped and I have the time. I really feel there is something wrong with one battery. Maybe a bad connection. The numbers just don’t add up to me.

Maybe the numbers are correct and I just underestimated the amount of electricity I need to charge my car and the amount that the batteries can supply.

On a clear day my system can charge the batteries to an appeared full state in about 3.5 hours when it is kicking out 13k watts. So adding more batteries is not a problem saystem wise. I also have an additional 10 panels I can add to the system.

But I think I have a battery problem I want sort out before more changes to the system.

My experience. If my EV uses 20 kWh, it needs 23 kWh to recharge. If I'm recharging from my 60 kWh of battery storage I need another 7-10%.

A total 25 kWh to recharge my car battery.

 

[DIYrich]

On a clear day my system can charge the batteries to an appeared full state in about 3.5 hours when it is kicking out 13k watts. So adding more batteries is not a problem saystem wise. I also have an additional 10 panels I can add to the system.

Doesn't the 12k have a 185 amp max (9.6kW)? That would be 4.5+ hours (charge slows near full) to charge 43kWh of batteries.

 

[addision]

My experience. If my EV uses 20 kWh, it needs 23 kWh to recharge. If I'm recharging from my 60 kWh of battery storage I need another 7-10%.

A total 25 kWh to recharge my car battery.

I thought the same about my car and that is how it was working with my previous battery. But I have 3 batteries now that should put out at least 30kWh of the 42kWh they are rated for. But they are only doing about 20kWh. So I think something is wrong.

Can’t wait until the weekend to take a look at it again.

 

[wpns]

I thought the same about my car and that is how it was working with my previous battery. But I have 3 batteries now that should put out at least 30kWh of the 42kWh they are rated for. But they are only doing about 20kWh. So I think something is wrong.

Can’t wait until the weekend to take a look at it again.

So what happened with this issue?

 

[addision]

So what happened with this issue?

So it turned out I was wrong. The first problem was that I took a picture of the usage from my wife's car believing it was a full commute back and forth to work and I kept referencing that photo as the correct usage. Wouldn't you know it she had to go to another workplace that day and I didn't know it. When I would ask her if she drove to work she kept saying "Yes" and didn't know I was trying to establish a baseline commute at the building she normally works at. It was only when I was frustrated and explained to her that I didn't know where I was going wrong did she mention she had been driving to a different work location during the time I took the photo.

She actually uses around 30kWh per day in her commute. 12 more than I accounted for.

The second problem was also an oversight on my end. Although the batteries have a full capacity of 14.3 kWh, the BMS only allows a discharge to 25% of that value using a closed loop connection. This puts the output about the 10kWh each I was getting. In fact EG4 states that the practical usage will only be the 10kWh, I just missed seeing that statement. Now I know if i don't want to extend the life of my batteries I can discharge further using an open loop setup.

There is nothing wrong with these batteries and I really like them a lot. Customer service was good, and they work fine with my inverters.

 

[addision]

Doesn't the 12k have a 185 amp max (9.6kW)? That would be 4.5+ hours (charge slows near full) to charge 43kWh of batteries.

You are correct, mine is set at 185A. I usually get sun on my panels between 8:30-9:00am and they are usually full (98-100%) when I look at my app between 12:30-1:00pm. And it turn out that the amount of charging I needed was 30kWh not the 43kWh I thought I was using.

 

[wpns]

Although the batteries have a full capacity of 14.3 kWh, the BMS only allows a discharge to 25% of that value using a closed loop connection. This puts the output about the 10kWh each I was getting. In fact EG4 states that the practical usage will only be the 10kWh, I just missed seeing that statement.

First I’ve heard of this, when/where did you discover it? I have six of these batteries on order, which is overkill if they are 14.3 KWHR each but not quite enough if they are only 10 KWHR.

@EG4_Jared is this correct with 18Kpv inverters or is this some Solark interface thing?

 

[rhino]

First I’ve heard of this, when/where did you discover it? I have six of these batteries on order, which is overkill if they are 14.3 KWHR each but not quite enough if they are only 10 KWHR.

@EG4_Jared is this correct with 18Kpv inverters or is this some Solark interface thing?

I'm surprised that I've had trouble finding someone who has done a capacity test on the battery which will show this and what the true capacity is.

 

[shadowmaker]

is this correct with 18Kpv inverters or is this some Solark interface thing?

I bet it is a battery thing. I encountered the same problem with my rack batteries (not EG4 though) either being closed loop or not with my Deye 12K (=SolArk 15K). To solve this I needed BMS tool and surprisingly got it from the manufacturer with the master key. Just unticked "SOC protection" from the BMS software and now I can set Deye to decide how low I want to discharge them (of course there are still normal BMS safety parameters working as I didn't want to chance those). With "SOC protection" on I could get them down only to 3,2V which is about 20%. Now I get them down to 3,05V (~10%) which is still very safe with LFP chemistry. That got me about 7-8kWh more capacity out of my 76,8kWh system.

 

[EG4_Jared]

First I’ve heard of this, when/where did you discover it? I have six of these batteries on order, which is overkill if they are 14.3 KWHR each but not quite enough if they are only 10 KWHR.

@EG4_Jared is this correct with 18Kpv inverters or is this some Solark interface thing?

The BMS is designed to queue a low battery warning once the discharge reaches 20% with BMS communication. However, I know that in products like the 18kPV, you can set the discharge to a lower percent in the settings.