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Growatt inverter shuts off after 20 min when connected to PV

AHUSAIN

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May 1, 2021
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Hello,

I really need some help please. I am on a cross country journey and I'm 5 days behind because my RV Growatt keeps shutting off with no warning. When connected to utility power I have no problem. When I connect the PV panel input it lasts anywhere from a few minutes to 20 minutes and then shuts off (goes black). Any ideas on the likely cause? There is no fault code or warning sound. After about 5 minutes it turns back on and the cycle repeats.

Only my mini split runs off of it. Nothing else. The house batteries are not connected to my solar set up.

Thanks in advance for any tips. My family and I were really suffering in the heat.
 
We need more details such as the PV panel spec, how many and how they are connected together and how they are fed to the SCC.
Growatt model?
Pictures?
 
Hello,

I really need some help please. I am on a cross country journey and I'm 5 days behind because my RV Growatt keeps shutting off with no warning. When connected to utility power I have no problem. When I connect the PV panel input it lasts anywhere from a few minutes to 20 minutes and then shuts off (goes black). Any ideas on the likely cause? There is no fault code or warning sound. After about 5 minutes it turns back on and the cycle repeats. q arw

Only my mini split runs off of it. Nothing else. The house batteries are not connected to my solar set up.

Thanks in advance for any tips. My family and I were really suffering in the heat.

We need more details such as the PV panel spec, how many and how they are connected together and how they are fed to the SCC.
Growatt model?
Pictures?
Thank you Bud. Typing on my phone here but will try. 3000 watt Growatt all in one model. 2000 watts of 100w monocrystalline Grape Solar panels. 4 strings of 5 panels each. These 4 strings are paralleled together. I will gather the specs and post shortly along with a video. I really appreciate it.
 
I have 4 series strings of 5 panels each. Open circuit voltage is 23.1 for a single panel. 5 x 23.1 = 115.5v. As far as I can tell the Growatt accepts up to 145v. Specs attached.
 

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I'm using the two 12 volt lithium batteries without a BMS. According to the Growatt instructions this is possible and I have set the voltage maximum to 29 volts using custom battery settings. I did balance the batteries before connecting them to the system.
 
After researching similar threads I found that a likely cause was a BMS cutting off the inverter connection due to exceeding maximum charging current. I tested this out by connecting solar input after dark and I didn't see it shutting off. So the problem seems to be related to high solar charging input. Also the first day I ran this it was less sunny and I didn't have this problem.

However, I don't have a BMS but I do understand that Valence batteries have some kind of internal minimal BMS. I don't know what it is capable of.

For now I reduced the charging current maximum to 50 amps. I'm hoping for good results in the morning .
 
Hi - might be pushing those components a bit hard.

2 awg wire ampacity is ~ 100 amps, not 200 amps

Those batteries are rated for ~ 150 amps max, so you are calling for them to deliver pretty much at max.

4 might be closer to the real need.

Do you have the external BMS controller + external relays for protecting them?

The internal circuit board / balancer inside is really for communication and balancing. Without the external controller and external relay there isn't any protection to speed of.
 
Hi - might be pushing those components a bit hard.

2 awg wire ampacity is ~ 100 amps, not 200 amps

Those batteries are rated for ~ 150 amps max, so you are calling for them to deliver pretty much at max.

4 might be closer to the real need.

Do you have the external BMS controller + external relays for protecting them?

The internal circuit board / balancer inside is really for communication and balancing. Without the external controller and external relay there isn't any protection to speed of.
Thank you for all of that great information Harry. I do not have a BMS. I was relying on the maximum voltage setting in the Growatt and the other battery settings.

I do have 2 additional backup batteries on hand for a total of 4. To get 24 volts would I set up 2 groups of a series pair and then parallel them? Would that achieve what you are suggesting?

It would be a bit difficult given my travel circumstances but I might try. I wad hoping for now if I decrease the charging current of the Growatt it would prevent the black out while producing a lower level of solar power.
 
The valence batteries recommend charging at 0.5C, so a maximum charging current of 69A for your 138AH Valence batteries.

Given the solar panel OCV is ~24V, then I assume you're using 5 of the grape solar 300W panels, for 1,500W maximum output. The could result in just over 60A of charging current, but still below what the batteries should be capable of - when new.

My suspicion is that the batteries are in poor shape. Have you done a capacity test? What could be happening is one cell in one of the packs is a runner.

The solution is the same - lower charging current - but I'd guess you should be charging at 30A or less if that's the case.

Regardless, since you're using used batteries, you should try to do some sort of capacity test to confirm the health of the batteries.

Given the inverter's behavior, it's almost certain the batteries are cutting power. These inverters will shut down without warning or fault if the battery is disconnected. Any issue fault will result in a warning or fault, but they depend on the battery for their primary internal power. Page 7 of the manual indicates this, by suggesting a minimum battery capacity of 200AH for the 24V model.

So you're already under the battery capacity minimum for the inverter, and on top of that they are used batteries and may even be half what the inverter requires.

Secondly, I'm concerned about the AC power draw. A 30A breaker at 220VAC is 6.6kW - well over twice what your inverter can handle, and more than what your transformer can handle. While the batteries, when new, could provide 3kW of power output, you should consider using an AC breaker that will protect both the loads and the power source.

I don't think that's the source of your problem, but if you size all the protections in the system conservatively then you'll not only protect your equipment and investment, but you'll find the source of a fault much more quickly.

At any rate, the suggestions I make are:
1. Reduce charging current even further, to 30A. If it works fine, you can increase it, but since you don't know what the actual limit is, and it will vary with temperature and charge, then being conservative with this number will reduce your problems.
2. Check the capacity and internal resistance of your batteries. This exact scenario could be caused by low capacity cells with high resistance even when the charge current is low, so the first recommendation might not solve all the cutoffs, and you may be left scratching your head when it does occur, even if it's no longer common after #1.
3. Increase your battery capacity to the inverter's recommended minimum of 200AH (actual measured capacity, not just what the batteries claim when new). While it's not cheap, adding 100AH of 24V batteries in parallel with what you've got will resolve several possible reasons this is happening.
4. Use more conservative protection devices (fuses/breakers/etc), including on the battery, so you can more quickly determine the source of a fault.
 
Yes on how to connect the batteries in 2 series like you have, and then another similar pack in parallel.

It is rather difficult to do this on the road because ideally all 4 batteries are charged to the same level to match them prior to connecting them up. If you had the controller it self balances all of them, but in this case it will not.

Unfortunately I have no experience with that inverter brand so I cannot help with that aspect. There are a lot of funky inverters on the market. Your load is heavily inductive and it takes a very healthy inverter to do that.

Perhaps try to run some other loads that are smaller and see if the problem is still present - shuts off after 20 minutes?

If the battery voltage is holding at 26 volts when the inverter shuts off, then it is possible (speculating completely here) that the inverter is getting too hot and doing a thermal shut down, it isn't capable of the task, or perhaps is defective.

As an example, between my son, a customer of mine, and myself, we had a 60 % dead on arrival or died within 30 days failure rate on victron inverters and they are supposed to be decent ones.
 
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Have you contacted Growatt technical support and have they run thru the diagnostics to help determine the issue?

You also should buy one of these or something similar. These are good for both AC and DC testing.

https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/clamp-meters/acdc-digital-clamp-meter-auto-ranging-400-amp

I had a similar issue different scenario but similar results. What I found was the input DC amps exceeded the limits of the inverter, shutting the inverter down for over protection. Result is that the inverter was to small for the job even though the AC out was not exceeding the output AMP limits.

The other thing to check is the voltage at the batteries prior to turning anything on. Then monitor the voltage at the batteries when you turn on the mini split until it shuts down. Does the voltage fall below the acceptable limits of the Growatt? If so not enough battery
 
Thank you so much to everyone for all of this terrific information. I'm going through it to digest it and try all the suggestions. The current status in a nutshell is that yesterday I decrease the charging rate to about 40 amps and it worked well all day long. However just about 20 minutes ago it shut down again. The sun is very strong right now and I'm on the edge of the southwestern desert nearing New Mexico. If I can get it to turn back on I will lower the charging rate to 30 amps as suggested by Solar Addict.
 
I have been slow to respond just because of being in the middle of travel and trying to keep this thing alive but I will answer all the questions as soon as I can
 
Hello,

I really need some help please. I am on a cross country journey and I'm 5 days behind because my RV Growatt keeps shutting off with no warning. When connected to utility power I have no problem. When I connect the PV panel input it lasts anywhere from a few minutes to 20 minutes and then shuts off (goes black). Any ideas on the likely cause? There is no fault code or warning sound. After about 5 minutes it turns back on and the cycle repeats.

Only my mini split runs off of it. Nothing else. The house batteries are not connected to my solar set up.

Thanks in advance for any tips. My family and I were really suffering in the heat.
Put up all your settings on the Growatt. And what mini split?
 
Have you contacted Growatt technical support and have they run thru the diagnostics to help determine the issue?

You also should buy one of these or something similar. These are good for both AC and DC testing.

https://www.kleintools.com/catalog/clamp-meters/acdc-digital-clamp-meter-auto-ranging-400-amp

I had a similar issue different scenario but similar results. What I found was the input DC amps exceeded the limits of the inverter, shutting the inverter down for over protection. Result is that the inverter was to small for the job even though the AC out was not exceeding the output AMP limits.

The other thing to check is the voltage at the batteries prior to turning anything on. Then monitor the voltage at the batteries when you turn on the mini split until it shuts down. Does the voltage fall below the acceptable limits of the Growatt? If so not enough battery
Thank you for the suggestion. I have contacted Growatt and they requested a video of all of my settings. I will try to post that today.
 
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