Growatt 5000 ES will not charge with generator running and supplying power to home

[YahkiIsreal]

Hey i connect my generator to my system 240v input, but for some odd reason my inverter only charges when its in standby mode. when i turn on inverter to power home it still displays 240v input on inverter but no running to inverter. May someone please help.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Most growatt have an odd AC charger, and Growatt is notorious for not being tolerant of genny input.

Things to check:

If battery voltage is above setting 12, it will not charge. If below setting 12, it will only charge until voltage reaches setting 13.
Setting 14 must be CSO or SNU.
Setting 11 may need to be lowered.

 

[YahkiIsreal]

unfortunately that didn’t work and I still have to turn off inverter in order to change batteries via generator. He’s some pics of my settings.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I'm seeing setting 12 at 44V.
I'm seeing a battery voltage of 46V.

Battery voltage is above setting 12. Battery will not charge. Setting 12 must be HIGHER than battery voltage.

If you desire to charge any time the generator is running, setting 12 should be the max of 51.2V.
If you wish to charge to full on generator, setting 13 should be same as setting 19.

With CSO, if ANY solar is available, will not charge from AC input. Try SNU. SNU is more desirable on generator if you desire charging from generator. CSO makes more sense if grid connected.

 

[Vigo]

I agree it is likely your settings for either/both 12 and 21 are too high to trigger utility charging at 46v.

Other Settings stuff:
01 Output source priority: If you set this to utility first and it starts working it has something to do with your voltage setpoints 12/21.
09 Output frequency: Are you set to 60? Shouldn't matter whether you're on 50 or 60 but i think the inverter won't switch to a source doing anything higher than 65hz so flip through the screens and see what the generator's frequency is.
49 Utility charging time: If you set up a time window for grid charging and you're not in the window, it won't charge.

 

[YahkiIsreal]

Ok thank, I’ve updated the setting but that still doesn’t work now it’s just doing the AC bypass. One pic is with inverter on and the other pic is with inverter off.

 

[YahkiIsreal]

I agree it is likely your settings for either/both 12 and 21 are too high to trigger utility charging at 46v.

Other Settings stuff:
01 Output source priority: If you set this to utility first and it starts working it has something to do with your voltage setpoints 12/21.
09 Output frequency: Are you set to 60? Shouldn't matter whether you're on 50 or 60 but i think the inverter won't switch to a source doing anything higher than 65hz so flip through the screens and see what the generator's frequency is.
49 Utility charging time: If you set up a time window for grid charging and you're not in the window, it won't charge.

Hey thanks for the reply so setting 12 is set to 51.2 and setting 20 is set to 56.0 and 21 is set to 42.0 is that ok?
1 is SUB
9 is 60
49 is 0000
?

 

[Vigo]

As Sunshine said, you are not going to get battery charging from your grid/gen power until your battery voltage falls below either setting 12 or 21. When your battery was at 46v and your #12 was 44v and your #21 was 42v, neither one of those was triggering ac charging to begin.

However in your recent pics you ARE getting grid/gen charging. Comparing the two pics, an arrow appeared pointing from your inverter to your battery and its voltage raised from 52.1 to 52.8.

As far as the bypass thing, I had to learn as well that the Growatt CANNOT grid charge without also being in ac bypass. This is because the internal device it uses to take your grid/gen 240v down to battery 48v is the same device it uses to take your battery 48v up to the inverter output's 240v, and it cannot do both at the same time. So you can either charge batteries (and power loads) from grid/gen, or power loads from battery, but you cannot charge battery from grid/gen and power loads from battery at the same time. You also cannot power loads from grid/gen AND battery simultaneously.

It's sad but that's one of the big limitations of this type of inverter. Fancier units like Victrons can do all those things, but this one cannot. I didn't understand this when i bought my Growatts, but i'm still very happy with them.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Ok thank, I’ve updated the setting but that still doesn’t work now it’s just doing the AC bypass. One pic is with inverter on and the other pic is with inverter off.

Is this a language thing? I don't know how to say it more clearly.

IF BATTERY VOLTAGE IS ABOVE SETTING 12, YOU WILL NOT GET CHARGING IN BYPASS MODE. PERIOD.

You are showing a battery voltage of 52.1V. This is above setting 12. NO AC CHARGE.

Set setting 12 to 51.2. If battery drops below 51.2, AC will charge.

If set to SCO, NO AC charge if solar is available. Set to SNU.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Last thing I have to say:

Set 12 to 51.2V
Set 14 to SNU
Set 13 to setting 19
Set 11 to 10A

If battery drops below 51.2, you will get AC charge until voltage raises to setting 13.

11 can be increased until generator rating = charging power + loads. If too high, it may refuse to charge due to dirty generator power. Growatts don't like generator power, so this number must start low.

Example:

4000W generator

2000W loads
2000W for charging

2000W/56V = 35.7A. Round down to 32A.

 

[Vigo]

I have fed my Growatts' ac inputs from all kinds of ugliness including an MSW 120v inverter fed through an autotransformer to make 240v. It even sounded bad. ? I've also stalled a 5000w generator with the Growatt repeatedly, and tripped a 17a(@240v) thermal breaker on the generator repeatedly while experimenting. I've also manually slowed the generator down to ~50hz just fine. They have accepted and used everything that fell within the voltage/frequency range stated in the manual. I haven't had any trouble getting them to charge from the ac input, which makes me wonder if this reputation you mentioned is based on people just having trouble with the settings.

The only thing I haven't gotten them to do is start grid charging from 120v. Which it doesn't say it will, granted! But it does say it can accept from 90-280vac and even gives a graph of how it derates from those lower voltages. And i have fed it 240v, let it start charging, and then rapidly switched it to 120v and had it continue charging from 120v. So i wish it would just let you charge from 120. But since it has to go into AC bypass to charge, i understand why it doesn't 'allow' that.