Growatt 5000 ES limiting charge current

[JCKC]

Hi all,

Has anyone had issues with using the Growatt 5000 ES battery settings as LI and attaching a comms cable to your battery BMS only for it to cap the charge current well below what the battery is capable of? The only way around this I have found is by setting the battery to User Defined, and that basically throws the SOC out the window because its all over the place.

Many thanks​

 

[timselectric]

You would have to change the settings in the BMS.
If you want a higher charge rate.

 

[400bird]

Hi all,

Has anyone had issues with using the Growatt 5000 ES battery settings as LI and attaching a comms cable to your battery BMS only for it to cap the charge current well below what the battery is capable of?

My battery works fine with the comms cable attached! And I don't think this forum sells batteries.

I suspect you have a specific brand and model number of battery, that info will help

 

[timselectric]

My EG4 battery and 5000ES, limits the max charging to 50a per battery. I believe that this is done to increase the longevity of battery life.

 

[DirkDM01]

I have the same situation. 5000ES and 6 lifepower batteries. Option 5 is set to L1 with the comms cables connected to my batteries. Been up and running since January and never saw charging go above 50 amps. I just did some checking the other day and it should be charging at 75 amps. If the 5000ES has a max charge of 100 amps to the batteries and the batteries have a max charge rate of 100 amps it seems the system should charge above 50 amps without impairing the batteries. I have never figured out how to up the charge amps yet.
So this can be changed in the BMS?

 

[timselectric]

I have the same situation. 5000ES and 6 lifepower batteries. Option 5 is set to L1 with the comms cables connected to my batteries. Been up and running since January and never saw charging go above 50 amps. I just did some checking the other day and it should be charging at 75 amps. If the 5000ES has a max charge of 100 amps to the batteries and the batteries have a max charge rate of 100 amps it seems the system should charge above 50 amps without impairing the batteries. I have never figured out how to up the charge amps yet.
So this can be changed in the BMS?

It is the BMS that is limiting the charging.
I'm not sure if you are able to change this. (I don't think so)

 

[DirkDM01]

It is the BMS that is limiting the charging.
I'm not sure if you are able to change this. (I don't think so)

Hi timselectric,

So is this documented somewhere? I would like to read more about this.

1: The batteries are advertised as having the ability to have a max consistent charge of 100 amps. If this is not true it raises concerns and further questions.

The 5000ES shows it can charge at 100 amps and that a 6KW array can be added to it to run your loads and charge the battery ( this is where I am now and the charging is being limited on what I am producing with my array).

You can parallel up to 6 5000ES's in a single install and each 5000ES can have a 6KW array attached with the ability to add a charge to your battery (advertised).

2: In a simple install of 2 5000ES's ( I have 2 and have been running them in parallel Since January of 2022, SL1 is powered off now for testing) there is no "real" option to add more solar to your configuration since the battery is limited on the charging amps ( this would be true even if the batteries could be charged at 100 amps) . If I am maxing out what I can charge in a stand alone install and need to install a 2nd 5000ES in parallel to increase my output wattage, adding an array to the 2nd 5000ES will not add ANY value. If true, this raises more questions and concerns.

I hope this makes sense. Just trying to understand the limits and expansion options for my setup.

 

[Darren67-72]

This charge limit has come up here on the forum a few times. It seems to be a software limit in the inverter ( growatt).
I had the same issue (50amp limit) that was rectified with a software update.
I am currently trying to help another growatt owner solve this issue.
Using setting "US2" certainly does create issues of its own.
After my update the charge limit seems to just go away.

 

[DirkDM01]

This charge limit has come up here on the forum a few times. It seems to be a software limit in the inverter ( growatt).
I had the same issue (50amp limit) that was rectified with a software update.
I am currently trying to help another growatt owner solve this issue.
Using setting "US2" certainly does create issues of its own.
After my update the charge limit seems to just go away.

Darren,

Interesting. Thank you .. So currently I am at
Primary 3.0.1 firmware
Secondary 7.0.1 firmware

What firmware version fixes this?
I found this link

Growatt SPF 5000ES firmware update

Hello, Has anybody updated their Growatt 5000 firmware? I believe that I'm on 041 05 701. Does anybody know what the latest version is? And if you do, what updates or goodies are in the latest firmware update? Thanks Dave

diysolarforum.com

which has firmware from Jan 04 2022.
Thanks

 

[Darren67-72]

I'm sorry I can't help here, I am using a 8000 dmv. Mine uses a update for the 8k and 12k, so my firmware update will not be of use for you. I just wanted to help you narrow down the cause.
As you stated earlier, it's not the bms and not limited by the mppt. It is limited by the inverter.
Sorry I could not be of more help.

 

[Darren67-72]

I added more solar to my all-in-one, by getting a separate mppt to the battery bank. I just put the settings slightly lower than the inverter, as that allows the inverter to top of the batteries with fighting with the separate mppt. Just a thought.

 

[DirkDM01]

I'm sorry I can't help here, I am using a 8000 dmv. Mine uses a update for the 8k and 12k, so my firmware update will not be of use for you. I just wanted to help you narrow down the cause.
As you stated earlier, it's not the bms and not limited by the mppt. It is limited by the inverter.
Sorry I could not be of more help.

Oh Man... BUMMER !! I was so excited thinking this would be the fix.
Thanks for clarifying.

 

[timselectric]

Mine was also limiting the charging. I got rid of communications, and set the inverter to use2. Now I'm in control of the charging, not the BMS.

 

[DirkDM01]

Mine was also limiting the charging. I got rid of communications, and set the inverter to use2. Now I'm in control of the charging, not the BMS.

So what kind of batteries do you have ? Did you change option 5 and to what? Then you changed option 2 ?

 

[timselectric]

I have both EG4 Lifepower4 server rack and diy cells and BMS. I dropped communications, back when I only had the EG4 battery.
Setting #2 is 100a
Setting #5 is US2

 

[DirkDM01]

Ok. This is what I got from Signature Solar Tier 2:
"I will let you know that if we are BMS communicating that the BMS will only take in the amps that it wants at that time even if we have more available. If you did want to manually set your setting 2 to a higher charging amperage then we would have to change setting 5 to us2 on both of the inverters and we would have to manually set the batteries parameters. My suggested settings i'll say below.

Setting 2 - 80A
Setting 5 - US2
Setting 19 - 58v
Setting 20 - 56.5v
Setting 21 - 46v"

Thanks all for the help and replies.

It still leaves several open questions though and it makes sense now. But the way the product is marketed it seems to be much more expandable than what it really is.
Based on what I am being told by Signature Solar when you run more than 1 ES the following applies.

Limit: 100 A charge rate ( This is true regardless of the # of ES systems).
Having more than 1 5000ES with an array attached to the 2nd ES will add very little if any value depending on setting 5. If you use BMS you are limited to 50 amps and that drops to 25 amps if you have 2 ES's in parallel. So having a 6KW array on the primary ES will only charge at 25 amps even if it is producing 75 amps. And if you have a 2nd array on SL1 you will only add 25 amps to battery charging.
If you select US2 for setting 5 and 100A for setting 2 you will be limited to 50 amps for Primary and 50 amps for SL1.
This appears to be a linear function. I.E you have 3 5000ES in parallel you will be limited even further per 5000ES. Even manually setting 2 to 100 amps you will only get 33.3 per 5000ES in a 3 system setup.
Based on this if you are planning on a 3 or more ES system, size your arrays appropriately or you will be very disappointed.

 

[timselectric]

Hopefully, that's incorrect information from them.(I think it must be) I plan to end up with 6 or 7 ,and expect to get full charging capabilities from each.

 

[DirkDM01]

Hopefully, that's incorrect information from them.(I think it must be) I plan to end up with 6 or 7 ,and expect to get full charging capabilities from each.

I hope I am wrong too. However, this is what I am told with 2 ES's:
"The reason that it is splitting in half whenever we turn on the slave inverter is because these are Dual Input units. Since we have solar running to one inverter we will need to have solar running to the slave inverter as well. With the batteries wanting to charge at 50amps ( even though they can handle 100) whenever we turn on the slave inverter its splitting it to charge 25amps from each inverter becasue the slave inverter needs a second power input to provide that 25amps of charging."
I have asked for more info from Signature Solar but awaiting the reply. Perhaps a call to Growatt is in order for clarification.

Keep in mind you will be limited to 100 amps charging the batteries will allow regardless as to how many ES's you have or how much solar you are producing.

 

[timselectric]

I hope I am wrong too. However, this is what I am told with 2 ES's:
"The reason that it is splitting in half whenever we turn on the slave inverter is because these are Dual Input units. Since we have solar running to one inverter we will need to have solar running to the slave inverter as well. With the batteries wanting to charge at 50amps ( even though they can handle 100) whenever we turn on the slave inverter its splitting it to charge 25amps from each inverter becasue the slave inverter needs a second power input to provide that 25amps of charging."
I have asked for more info from Signature Solar but awaiting the reply. Perhaps a call to Growatt is in order for clarification.

Keep in mind you will be limited to 100 amps charging the batteries will allow regardless as to how many ES's you have or how much solar you are producing.

Yeah, I'm not buying that. Paralleling these units would be pointless, if you couldn't get full use of each charger. I'm sure that there would have been many complaints posted, if this were the case.

I completely believe it with communications. Because, there have been several complaints about it. But, that's an issue with the BMS.

I will be needing the (up to) 700a charging, to keep my 200kwh battery bank happy.

 

[DirkDM01]

Yeah, I'm not buying that. Paralleling these units would be pointless, if you couldn't get full use of each charger. I'm sure that there would have been many complaints posted, if this were the case.

I completely believe it with communications. Because, there have been several complaints about it. But, that's an issue with the BMS.

I will be needing the (up to) 700a charging, to keep my 200kwh battery bank happy.

Even if the batteries can only be charged at 100 Amps max? How can you expect 700a charging if the max charging rate for egl batteries is 100a?