diy solar

diy solar

Growatt 12KW inverter seems to have a fundamental flaw.

If you have the Growatt Shinelink and you can't set the needed values, e-mail their customer service, not the dealer customer service, service@ gininverter.com and ask them for help. I had problems here, since the utility voltage often drops below 170v and the Growatt grid tie inverter I have wouldn't stay online. They reset my voltages for me over the internet and now it works great. the dog
 
I've had no luck with the software because there is no wifi access anywhere near the inverter so the dongle won't work. I've yet to connect a data cable to the inverter but perhaps if I get some time in the next weeks and a long enough cable I'll have a play around with it.

Honestly, some kind of data link to my laptop would be appreciated as stumbling around in the dark with a torch during the Tassie winter just to find the battery voltage is losing its charm.
 
Try a Shinelink Box https://www.ginverter.com/Monitoring/10-600.html . They are available with or without the stick. I have one of these. All I did was place it in my home plugged into the router and position it in a window near our power room so it could communicate with the inverter. Communication into and out of our power room is very difficult as it is in a Faraday Cage as well as solid concrete. Under normal circumstances it can work within 100ft, mine is 30ft away. the dog
 
So its sound like the 12k Growatt is not that good? I was thinking of getting one to make my first 48v system.
I don't think I would use this one post to make a decision on which inverter to purchase. I have 48v system also. My growatt 6kW inverter arrived today. I intend to use Growatt only for inverter. I have other solar charger and PFC charger for generator. The manual is lacking, but sounds like support is good.
 
I don't think I would use this one post to make a decision on which inverter to purchase. I have 48v system also. My growatt 6kW inverter arrived today. I intend to use Growatt only for inverter. I have other solar charger and PFC charger for generator. The manual is lacking, but sounds like support is good.
My grid tie 8kw Growatt works real good. I run a pool pump and 5 split a/c units on it. I just ordered a Growatt 12kw off grid to replace the Aims 10kw unit that never worked right. Funny, the Growatt, including shipping costs1/2 of what the Aims did without the shipping, has a 5 year warranty vs. Aims 1 year.
 
I finally got the Growatt 12kw installed. It was supposed to take 2-3 months for it to arrive, but Grace Zhang, the girl I ordered it from kept watch on Growatt and she was able to get one earlier and had it shipped. I found her on Alibaba at Xiamen Sweet Power Tech. They are a Chinese distributor for them that serves Asia, but she sends them to The US and Canada as well. She was easy to work with and easy to understand and checked back with me regularly. They accept Pay Pal and credit cards no extra charge. They offered the 12kw Growatt Split Phase Off Grid inverter for $1700. including shipping. I paid almost $4000. for that stinking Aims that never worked right. This one works great! It was easy to program changes I wanted, I'm not using the built in solar charge controller, I just connected it to all my batteries and left the existing charge controllers in place. It has a setting for battery priority so it only sees the charge of the batteries and works fine that way. It connects to their Shineserver so you can monitor it online and on your phone. So far my experience with the 2 Growatt inverters I have is 100% positive. From now on any new inverters will come from Grace and Growatt. That's about it, the dog
 
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I know this is really late but I have/had the same problem with the Growatt not wanting to charge on utility when any amount of PV was recognized by the system. I did find a work around even though it isn't an ideal situation. It is almost like the Growatt needs to be reset with the power/batteries turned off and then turned back on for it to then charge off of utility if it is set up as utility as the priority for charging. I have also noticed this is only if the battery voltage drops below 50 volts as it seems to be fine above 50 volts.

So, turn off the batteries, turn on the generatorm wait 5-10 seconds and then turn the batteries back on to turn the inverter back on. It should then take the charge from utility.

I hopes that helps anyone in the same situation.
 
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