Growatt SPF 3000 TL LVM ES without batteries

[PGONZO]

Hello my friend,
I had the same overvoltage problem on the SPF 3000 ES inverter. can you let me know which firmware was sent to you.
Thanks!

 

[anonymous]

Hello my friend,
I had the same overvoltage problem on the SPF 3000 ES inverter. can you let me know which firmware was sent to you.
Thanks!

I loaded 2 bin files:
F030_SK052.06_20220524_A.bin
F2809_SK051.06_20220524_A.bin
I guess it is the 6th version. I haven't had an issue yet since the update.

The update procedure is rather hairy (you have to load 2 bin files in the right order). Looks like 51 is for the inverter and 52 is for the charge controller.

 

[PGONZO]

I loaded 2 bin files:
F030_SK052.06_20220524_A.bin
F2809_SK051.06_20220524_A.bin
I guess it is the 6th version. I haven't had an issue yet since the update.

The update procedure is rather hairy (you have to load 2 bin files in the right order). Looks like 51 is for the inverter and 52 is for the charge controller.

Thanks!
This overvoltage error started to occur after adding my growatt hope 4.8 battery
It didn't happen before because it used without battery. What's your battery? Lithium or lead acid?
On my ammeter it marked 170v of DC current and not AC current.
Burnt 1 freezer and a refrigerator

 

[anonymous]

Thanks!
This overvoltage error started to occur after adding my growatt hope 4.8 battery
It didn't happen before because it used without battery. What's your battery? Lithium or lead acid?
On my ammeter it marked 170v of DC current and not AC current.
Burnt 1 freezer and a refrigerator

I was using BigBattery's LAMA when I was having the issues, but I switched to Signature Solar's EG4 since the firmware upgrade. EG4 has a higher voltage range. Because I haven't had the issue after upgrading the firmware and switching to EG4, I partially suspect that maybe the LAMA's lower voltage range was triggering the issue (because nobody else seemed to have it). What is the voltage range for your battery?

 

[PGONZO]

Eu estava usando o LAMA da BigBattery quando estava tendo problemas, mas mudei para o EG4 da Signature Solar desde a atualização do firmware. EG4 tem uma faixa de tensão mais alta. Como não tive o problema depois de atualizar o firmware e mudar para o EG4, suspeito parcialmente que talvez a faixa de tensão mais baixa do LAMA estivesse provocando o problema (porque ninguém mais parecia tê-lo). Qual a faixa de voltagem da sua bateria?

Its operating voltage ranges from 42v to 54v

 

[anonymous]

Looks like yours hits relatively low voltages as well. My overvoltage condition happened in the morning when the battery would get charged to back-to-utility voltage.

 

[PGONZO]

Looks like yours hits relatively low voltages as well. My overvoltage condition happened in the morning when the battery would get charged to back-to-utility voltage.

yea...
same thing, time in the morning when the system leaves the grid and goes back to solar...
sends charge to the battery and to my house...

 

[PGONZO]

Looks like yours hits relatively low voltages as well. My overvoltage condition happened in the morning when the battery would get charged to back-to-utility voltage.

They replaced my inverter now on October 2, 2022. It arrived with the firmware below;
051.01.A28
052.01.A30

 

[anonymous]

They replaced my inverter now on October 2, 2022. It arrived with the firmware below;
051.01.A28
052.01.A30

Looks like the first version.

 

[anonymous]

So, after something like 9+ months of running the 6th version, I haven't had the overvoltage issue. If anyone is interested in the firmware, Growatt rep sent me this PDF that explains how to upgrade.

 

[watchdoc]

I've finally been able to get a battery. I did a lot of testing. I am pretty disappointed with this device.

1. The utility draw disappeared when I connected the battery, however, the battery is getting drained at 0.7 amps AFTER it is discharged below the 'back to utility' voltage. I have it set up to discharge battery first, then use utility. The battery normally discharges at ~10A to 20% state of charge (44.8V) by 5 AM in the morning and switches to utility. However, after the switch, the inverter is still draining the battery at 0.7A, even with it being in the utility mode. Ian from watts247.com got back to me regarding this issue. Growatt engineers told him that when the inverter is connected to the battery, 'the battery will power the LCD, beeper, etc.' So, there isn't any way to solve this flaw.

2. Once the b2ac voltage setting is reached and inverter switches to utility mode, utility continues to be used (even after the sun comes up) to power the load until ac2b battery voltage setting is reached. This can be manually worked around by switching utility input off and back on when there is enough solar to power the load.

3. When the battery is discharged to 'switch to utility' voltage and the inverter switches to the utility, after some time the AC charger kicks in and starts charging the battery, even with battery charge priority set to 'PV Only'. This is another design flaw. I specifically set it to NOT charge from utility. Also, once I kill the utility breaker and reset it, it starts behaving properly again (by not charging the battery). If I turn everything off, disconnect and reconnect the utility and the battery, it starts charging from utility immediately, even though I specifically selected to charge the battery only from solar.

4. The back to battery voltage setting range is not usable. It starts at 48V. I wish I could go lower. My battery range is 40V - 51V. I would like to go lower than 48V for back to battery voltage setting.

5. The whole b2ac/ac2b mode switching combined with too high back to battery voltage setting and phantom utility charging is causing utility to be used when it wouldn't strictly be necessary. This creates a lot of inefficiency. The only solution I can see is to have big enough battery bank to never need utility, which makes the whole utility feature pretty useless. Ian from watts247.com suggested setting utility charging current to 1A, which mitigates the problem somewhat but it is not an acceptable solution.

6. PVkeeper software sucks:
- crashes all the time
- version 2.0 doesn't show battery discharge current
- there is no temperature display, it only shows up in logs
- password feature is useless and annoying
- there is no manual b2ac/ac2b switching in the software, I wish I had that option
- 'PV Charge Current' value in the software is incorrect, shows 3x true value

7. Battery state of charge indicator is incorrect.

8. b2ac/ac2b switching is not seamless. My UPS that I have connected as load cuts out, sometimes in and out multiple times in a few seconds, when the inverter is doing the switching.

9. The inverter voltage and current readings are off. I am going to attempt calibration sometime to see if I can solve this issue.

10. Some lights connected to the output of the inverter flicker intermittently when the battery is charging with solar. It doesn't happen with all light bulbs. My fridge's compressor makes a slightly different noise when the flickering happens. It does not occur in utility mode or when the battery is discharging. Ian from watts247.com had said that this is related to reactive loads feedback. He recommended using some inline appliance filtering or by adding some resistive loads. I am not sure if I buy that explanation due to the fact that the flickering is only happening during battery charging.

I would appreciate any ideas and recommendations. Thanks.

did the firmware update do anything to address the .7 amp parasitic draw on the batteries? Are you using EG4 communications with your Growatt now?

My SPF3000TL LVM-ES with EG4 Lifepower4 battery is setup SBU, Li, OSO. It will change over to utility just fine but then the battery continues to discharge at roughly 1% per hour. I use the Growatt to charge my EV so this means it ends up spending more time charging the battery from solar that could be used for charging the EV. Maybe I should try batteryless mode with grid assist??

 

[anonymous]

As I recall, Growatt support said nothing can be done about the 0.7 amp draw, it was designed to do that.

I did switch to EG4 communications recently to fix a problem I was experiencing. I was on user 2 setting but there was a problem where the charge controller would stop charging the battery (especially during cloudy days) before it would reach 100% SOC. Growatt support said that it was because the inverter's battery SOC estimator was somehow getting confused about the SOC. So, I switched to lithium option and set up the battery communication. The problem seems to have gone away, however, I did notice another problem couple of times where the SOC indicator would get stuck at a certain value, even though the battery SOC continues to change. I had to reboot the inverter to get it unstuck. Not sure what that was about. I am continuing to gather data on this issue.

I set the max grid charge current setting to 0A. This prevents the battery from getting charged from utility.

I'm not sure what's going on with your EV situation. As I understand, solar supplies load first, the remaining extra power generated by solar would go to the battery. Can you give some more details about your problem?

 

[watchdoc]

As I recall, Growatt support said nothing can be done about the 0.7 amp draw, it was designed to do that.

I did switch to EG4 communications recently to fix a problem I was experiencing. I was on user 2 setting but there was a problem where the charge controller would stop charging the battery (especially during cloudy days) before it would reach 100% SOC. Growatt support said that it was because the inverter's battery SOC estimator was somehow getting confused about the SOC. So, I switched to lithium option and set up the battery communication. The problem seems to have gone away, however, I did notice another problem couple of times where the SOC indicator would get stuck at a certain value, even though the battery SOC continues to change. I had to reboot the inverter to get it unstuck. Not sure what that was about. I am continuing to gather data on this issue.

I set the max grid charge current setting to 0A. This prevents the battery from getting charged from utility.

I'm not sure what's going on with your EV situation. As I understand, solar supplies load first, the remaining extra power generated by solar would go to the battery. Can you give some more details about your problem?

My only problem is the parasitic drain on the battery in Line Mode but I guess this is normal It charges my EV fine from Solar, Grid, or battery. I'm just trying to come up with a "set it and forget it" routine that maximizes solar and battery but I don't want the battery to end up dead overnight from the .7amp drain and I don't want waste solar charging the battery unless there is excess solar. I'm trying 20% back to AC and 25% back to battery and see how that works. BTW, I just got this unit from Signature Solar and it came with the 06-524 firmware.