Growatt SPF5000 ES is not a 5000w Inverter

[skylink]

Growatt SPF5000 ES is not a 5000w Inverter; this inverter is 3500w to 4000w at best. However, if the AC load is low, say 2000w, it will charge the battery @ 3000w, giving a total of 5000w, but it cannot supply 5000w to the AC load. As soon as the load goes past 3800w, the pv voltage can drop 20-30% and will start discharging the battery to carry the load this happens in SOL Mode as well as SBU Mode if you switch to SUB Mode, the unit seems to behave better, with only a few watts from the grid, I have been in contact with the factory for the last 4 years and still no solution to the unit not performing to spec.

 

[timselectric]

Growatt SPF5000 ES is not a 5000w Inverter

I have pulled 5kw from these units continuously without issue.
it sounds like your issue is not with the inverter (unless you have a defective unit), but on the DC side.
Reading further into your post, it's either a settings issue or a defective unit.

 

[skylink]

I have pulled 5kw from these units continuously without issue.
it sounds like your issue is not with the inverter (unless you have a defective unit), but on the DC side.
Reading further into your post, it's either a settings issue or a defective unit.

Thanks for the reply. The 5kw that you pulled continuously was this AC output 5kw? It has great DC-DC charging batteries but not with the AC output, like I said, at best, around 4kw.

 

[Vigo]

I have pulled 5kw from mine without issues, but ive never done it for long periods. Ive run it at >85% for long periods though and it has been fine.

Do you mean that the inverter won't supply 5000w from battery, from solar, or both? If you mean that the inverter won't support 5000w from solar, how long are you watching it? Because mppts don't 'move' that fast, so if you apply a large AC load it's probably going to power it partially from battery at first and then transition to mostly solar if the solar is enough. But it will always pull from battery on application of a large AC load, at least temporarily.

 

[skylink]

I have pulled 5kw from mine without issues, but ive never done it for long periods. Ive run it at >85% for long periods though and it has been fine.

Do you mean that the inverter won't supply 5000w from battery, from solar, or both? If you mean that the inverter won't support 5000w from solar, how long are you watching it? Because mppts don't 'move' that fast, so if you apply a large AC load it's probably going to power it partially from battery at first and then transition to mostly solar if the solar is enough. But it will always pull from battery on application of a large AC load, at least temporarily.

It will do the load with solar and battery, however, if it was doing, say, 4800w solar 3800w AC out and 1000w charging, then if you put, say, another 500w of AC Load to it, the voltage drops and you end up with 3500w solar and 800w taken from the battery, makes no sense just lost 1300w , now this may be fine for those that are not home all day and just want to charge batteries, so there you have it

 

[skylink]

It can perform well its just that it sucks with ac loads above 4000w

 

[Vigo]

It will do the load with solar and battery, however, if it was doing, say, 4800w solar 3800w AC out and 1000w charging, then if you put, say, another 500w of AC Load to it, the voltage drops and you end up with 3500w solar and 800w taken from the battery, makes no sense just lost 1300w , now this may be fine for those that are not home all day and just want to charge batteries, so there you have it

Got it. I cant say ive ever been looking at mine at times when its getting 5kw solar and running >4kw of loads. Im curious if mine does that but doubtful i will successfully remember to test for it.

 

[timselectric]

The 5kw that you pulled continuously was this AC output 5kw?

Yes

 

[skylink]

Got it. I cant say ive ever been looking at mine at times when its getting 5kw solar and running >4kw of loads. Im curious if mine does that but doubtful i will successfully remember to test for it.

Yes, it would be great if you were around, maybe you could have a peek some time it would be interesting to know

 

[skylink]

Yes

 

[ricardocello]

Do you have resistive or inductive loads (e.g., HVAC, well-pump, air compressors,...)?

 

[skylink]

Most are inductive, pool pump, well pump, HVAC only 12000btu, and a hot water heat pump, they all have their own time slots to run but at times they could overlap if needed

 

[AshleyL]

Most are inductive, pool pump, well pump, HVAC only 12000btu, and a hot water heat pump, they all have their own time slots to run but at times they could overlap if needed

So....HVAC only 12000btu = roughly 3.4kW power consumption on load........have your calculate the HVAC surge rating yet?

All those inductive loads have their own power surge rating.

Remember, SPF5000ES has rated surge rating of 10000VA for 5 seconds only.
I got a feeling you are overloading the inverter instead.



First step is to learn what is VA (apparent power).
Most people confused on active power (which often advertised on air conditioner, pump etc), but failed to account for the reactive power. The inverter still have to produce the reactive power which bring us to the concept of apparent power.

 

[skylink]

Hi Ashley, yes, I have checked out the power, The 12000btu is only about 1230w as the 3.4kw is the cooling capacity. I hardly ever use it, but it has been pretty hot these last few days, The start-up would be at a guess about 3X the power however the unit is a little undersized so it just runs and never cycles , there is about zero apparent power running around here, only the inverter that draws around 60w but higher amps than 60w only when on the grid , I have a new 5000ES here maybe I should swap them out and see how the brand new one does ?? I tested another brand 5kw unit and it had no issues, but crap monitoring software, had to stare at the display to get the real story, Yeah I think over the weekend I'm going to swap out with a new unit and report back

Thanks for your reply

 

[doityourself2021]

Growatt SPF5000 ES is not a 5000w Inverter; this inverter is 3500w to 4000w at best. However, if the AC load is low, say 2000w, it will charge the battery @ 3000w, giving a total of 5000w, but it cannot supply 5000w to the AC load. As soon as the load goes past 3800w, the pv voltage can drop 20-30% and will start discharging the battery to carry the load this happens in SOL Mode as well as SBU Mode if you switch to SUB Mode, the unit seems to behave better, with only a few watts from the grid, I have been in contact with the factory for the last 4 years and still no solution to the unit not performing to spec.

Welcome to Growatt support, what a joke they are... I spent almost 4 years and 3 failures with similar issues with Growatt lack of response and support.. finally after the last failure with SPF and being OFF Grid, since there is no grid and 2 months with no Growatt, and having to use Generator and Battery.. I gave up Growatt and moved on to a much better product / support.
Summary - Growatt has good products, but if your looking for support from Growatt Directly, forget it.. yes they are China, but I can tell you I
do a lot of China trade of products.. Growatt is very very poor as to support.. I believe because they grew so fast , became so
large that the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.. After owning Three Growatt Off Grid AiO's, I can Not
recommend Growatt after 4 years of dealing with the Lack of Support from Growatt.. Just keep that in mind..

 

[skylink]

The unit behaved pretty well today; I just kept the loads around 4000w max, so with no volt drop I can say it is at least a 4kw unit

 

[doityourself2021]

Good to hear, my Growatt's did well overall,
and there is always a but when a failure occurred, I am Not speaking of a Fault..but Failed, stop working either totally or limped. And when your totally Off Grid, because there is No Grid... it means No Power, it's Generator time.. and when your spending $4 or more per hour to run generator, even when you limit that, limiting your home to operate..

Support is a big deal..when Off Grid - word to the wise, make sure you have a replacement AiO if your Off Grid, or Hybrid to offset the failed unit. And more importantly, purchase from whomever, that can provide support in a reasonable amount of time.

 

[tabascoz]

Hi there, I own 4 of these devices, one in my camp house, three in parallel where i live. I started here with only one - big house, lots of ACs, EV to charge, ceramic plate, 3cv wheel pump and i started with one device. Will tell you it sustains 5Kw in a great manner for no matter the time. I have been floating around 5KW the entire last winter and sometimes i overloaded it and it has disconnected to protect but with loads of 6Kw+. This is at night - no solar production - totally off grid, just powered by the Lifepo04 banks ( 2x 280ah). For the continuous times it has overloaded i have been worried to push it to it's limit and decided to purchase two more. But the original device who ran alone is up and running, no single scratches.

So it's pretty strong device, if yours not holding the load power, something must be out of order.

This is a sample data from last year only one device powered- you'll see great peaks going to even 8Kw.

 

[tabascoz]

Ah btw, i learned some crazy issues with old firmware, similar to what you were describing of losing power. But i cannot see it anymore. Pehaps it was the newer version of fw who fixed it or pehaps is because now I have full datalogging with Growatt and Grafana and i can be sure about what's going on.

I have a total loss of around 20% of my solar production, but in this bucket i put the batteries, BMS, wiring and loss of inverter themselves. Not a huge thing for an unexpensive device.

 

[skylink]

Ah btw, i learned some crazy issues with old firmware, similar to what you were describing of losing power. But i cannot see it anymore. Pehaps it was the newer version of fw who fixed it or pehaps is because now I have full datalogging with Growatt and Grafana and i can be sure about what's going on.

I have a total loss of around 20% of my solar production, but in this bucket i put the batteries, BMS, wiring and loss of inverter themselves. Not a huge thing for an unexpensive device.

I have had every firmware they ever put together, that was with the 40/41 control board. I have replaced the control board with the 067/068, but I can't say it's any better now.. as I said I will swap it out and see if the problem goes away

 

[skylink]

Well, here we go again I replaced the inverter and gave it a run, and at one point, I thought it was better to give 4300w AC output. However, that didn't last long before we had the same problem.

These toys can only do around 4kw solar to AC, but they can do 5kw with the help of the battery, they can even do 6kw if the load is below 4kw and the battery is charging at 2kw, It's still a nice little unit but has some shortfalls.

I guess it is what it is.

Here it is doing the 5kw+ but load reduced

 

[timselectric]

Well, here we go again I replaced the inverter and gave it a run, and at one point, I thought it was better to give 4300w AC output. However, that didn't last long before we had the same problem.

These toys can only do around 4kw solar to AC, but they can do 5kw with the help of the battery, they can even do 6kw if the load is below 4kw and the battery is charging at 2kw, It's still a nice little unit but has some shortfalls.

I guess it is what it is.

Here it is doing the 5kw+ but load reduced
View attachment 275780

That really is weird.
I have no idea what is causing your issue.
I can only guess that it must be something in the wiring.
But I can't think of what wiring issue would make it act that way.

 

[tabascoz]

Totally agree - weird. I am suspecting also something with power monitoring. Would advise to rely on local collection / processing of Growatt data instead of relying on their cloud. May give you a better insight of what is happening.

The way the hw works for the appliance, although is an All-in-one inverter, it has a common DC bus ( works around 400v) where all boards are connected, including the inverter.

I can confirm my inverter is able to output 5kw+ solid whenever i request it and in every inverter mode - being hybrid(solar+grid) or solar (PV + batteries)

If you set an environment with Grafana/Influxdb/Grott you're be able to generate reliable realtime information like below and might be better to understand what's going on.



Please note the graph is for tree devices in parallel. But i am able to replicate the same if I let one operating alone. But It will be capped to 5Kw.

 

[tabascoz]

So may i ask you when you say you cannot go over 4k solid, what does it happen? let's say you have 5Kw consumption power draw from your output in a bright day, what does it happen? Does the device shuts down? May i ask you to send a snapshot real example of what happens when you drawn 5kw?

 

[AshleyL]

Well, here we go again I replaced the inverter and gave it a run, and at one point, I thought it was better to give 4300w AC output. However, that didn't last long before we had the same problem.

These toys can only do around 4kw solar to AC, but they can do 5kw with the help of the battery, they can even do 6kw if the load is below 4kw and the battery is charging at 2kw, It's still a nice little unit but has some shortfalls.

I guess it is what it is.

Here it is doing the 5kw+ but load reduced
View attachment 275780

Hmm.....can you give out* the data on the total charge current in graph form?
I suspect the limitation is caused by the 100A DC to AC inverting capability.