Growatt 3kW 24v Problems

[Jcashin]

Have a Growatt 3kw 24 Off-Grid Inverter and it's pulling in ~50% of solar wattage incoming. What's happening?!

Voltage incoming: 90
Amps incoming: 25
PV incoming: 500-900watts

I thought incoming PV ought to be close to rated max of unit at 2000 watts with the incoming: 90v*25a=2250w. Am I missing something??

I'll get a float charge of 100-300watts when batteries at 95+%, but want that 2000watts during full sun and 50%SOC battery.

System:
Solar: 12 250w Panels in 4 strings of 3 panels run in series.
Batteries: 3 EG4-LifePower4 24v Li batteries.
Inverter: Growatt 3kw stackable off-grid inverter | spf 3000tl LVM-24p
Location: SoCal with lots of sun

 

[MichaelK]

You don't have a load running. As the battery becomes fully charged, the charging current drops down to zero, and the only power coming out of the panels will be to match the slow drain of the system itself.

If you want to see the full capacity of your panels you need to apply a load as big as what your system can handle. Resistive loads like toasters, toaster ovens, hair driers, ect are good test loads to apply to your system.

Turn on the loads one by one and see what happens to production.

Keep in mind, that in direct sun, with the panels exactly perpendicular to the sun, you should not expect to get more than ~85% output. That means for 3000W of panels, you are never likely to get more than ~2550W.

 

[Jcashin]

@MichaelK

Thank you. That's it. Pulls in at the 2kw with loads running and sun out.

Also realized I was benchmarking against summer months down this way and the winter months aren't going to be pulling in the same wattage at the same SOC and time of day.

 

[Jrlozano316]

You don't have a load running. As the battery becomes fully charged, the charging current drops down to zero, and the only power coming out of the panels will be to match the slow drain of the system itself.

If you want to see the full capacity of your panels you need to apply a load as big as what your system can handle. Resistive loads like toasters, toaster ovens, hair driers, ect are good test loads to apply to your system.

Turn on the loads one by one and see what happens to production.

Keep in mind, that in direct sun, with the panels exactly perpendicular to the sun, you should not expect to get more than ~85% output. That means for 3000W of panels, you are never likely to get more than ~2550W.

I have the same system 3000 growatt 24v 200 amph and with 95% SOC the battery drained to zero with No Load after 3.5 days of snow / ice on my 800 watt panels. Does the inverter drain the battery this fast?

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I have the same system 3000 growatt 24v 200 amph and with 95% SOC the battery drained to zero with No Load after 3.5 days of snow / ice on my 800 watt panels. Does the inverter drain the battery this fast?

Please don't cross-post. It's rude.

Growatt 3000 + EG4 24v 200 amh l

Recent snow storm- My 3000 growatt + EG4 24v 200 battery drains down to empty after 3 days of no sunlight with Zero load- just inverter on. Is this normal?

diysolarforum.com

 

[Jrlozano316]

Finding it hard to believe its idle consumption is 50w per hour when max PV input is 140a? Seems like a huge % of energy is spent keeping the inverter on. Does anyone else have a different experience? Any suggestions to off-set this if true? Any setting to help reduce the power consumption of the Growatt? Thanks.

 

[MichaelK]

Finding it hard to believe its idle consumption is 50w per hour when max PV input is 140a?

First off, you need to get your units straight, otherwise you will have little or no understanding of what is happening here. What is "140a" supposed to mean? Do you mean 140amps? That is not correct. Do you actually mean 140Volts? The Growatt 3000 has an amp limit of 80A, so 140a does not match up?

Any setting to help reduce the power consumption of the Growatt? Thanks.

No, the consumption is built into the inverter design. Poor, low budget design gets a cheap product on the market fast, but mediocre design results in inefficiencies that are reflected in the high idle consumption. Bottom line is you get what you pay for. Quality of design, using better components of the tier-1 products results in idle consumption in the 20-30W range.

I have an XW+6848, twice as big as your inverter, and it only consumes 30W per hour. Basically, now you are paying the price for going cheap.

 

[Jrlozano316]

First off, you need to get your units straight, otherwise you will have little or no understanding of what is happening here. What is "140a" supposed to mean? Do you mean 140amps? That is not correct. Do you actually mean 140Volts? The Growatt 3000 has an amp limit of 80A, so 140a does not match up?

No, the consumption is built into the inverter design. Poor, low budget design gets a cheap product on the market fast, but mediocre design results in inefficiencies that are reflected in the high idle consumption. Bottom line is you get what you pay for. Quality of design, using better components of the tier-1 products results in idle consumption in the 20-30W range.

I have an XW+6848, twice as big as your inverter, and it only consumes 30W per hour. Basically, now you are paying the price for going cheap.

Thanks for your help!

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Finding it hard to believe its idle consumption is 50w per hour when max PV input is 140a? Seems like a huge % of energy is spent keeping the inverter on. Does anyone else have a different experience? Any suggestions to off-set this if true? Any setting to help reduce the power consumption of the Growatt? Thanks.

@MichaelK got you sorted on units.

This is the hidden cost of these "cheap" units.

When you do your energy audit, you should include the inverter idle consumption. That way this situation is avoided.

It takes power to drive the circuitry that makes 120 and/or 240VAC power available even when no loads are present. These cheap Chinese units use low quality components from the lowest bidder and may switch components with each production run based on availability/price such that the exact same model uses different components.

 

[GSXR1000]

your watts calculation is off.. you are multiplying PV voltage times battery amps... so what you need to do is multiply 24v times 25 amps is 600w