EastTexCowboy
Solar Wizard
That's what I used to install batteries in the rack. Apollolift but same thing. Works great. I highly recommend.
I Can't Afford So-Called "Tier 1" Equipment. What's Good at Tier 2?
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Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
I was worried the EG4 6500EX's and LV6548's would not be able to run the 3/4 hp well pump.
I intentionally left the well in the main panel for a few days before adding it to the loads panel. No problem running it with the washing machine, microwave and whatever high wattage item is run at the same time, even the dryer. We just don't run a large number of high wattage appliances at the same time as the well can kick on at any time.
These units are solid on output power. It was the light flicker with various inductive loads on the EG4 6500EX I had a problem with and the sine was not clean like the LV6548's. I can't see the dirty sine as good for circuit boards long term.
I would definitely add 2 more LV6548's if I needed more power. Stove and oven are gas as is water heater. I may add a water heater dump load some day. I will be adding another mini split next year but we already run a 1200W window air with the mini split with no problem.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
I'm really tempted to order 2 LV6548s or TP6548s instead of another TP6048 or XW Pro...
I had my first overload on my TP6048 yesterday and it ticked me off... Resetting clocks and being without power for under 5 minutes really aggravated me; the main reason I got into this venture was to not lose power and laugh when the stove clock went out while everything else in the house worked.
I could buy a lot more batteries if I went 6548 or 6048 or XW Pro...
Your success stories with the 6548 encourage me, @Zwy.
Do you know the minimum Mppt startup voltage on them off hand? (To lazy to search in the time I spent typing that ?)
I had my first overload on my TP6048 yesterday and it ticked me off... Resetting clocks and being without power for under 5 minutes really aggravated me; the main reason I got into this venture was to not lose power and laugh when the stove clock went out while everything else in the house worked.
I could buy a lot more batteries if I went 6548 or 6048 or XW Pro...
Your success stories with the 6548 encourage me, @Zwy.
Do you know the minimum Mppt startup voltage on them off hand? (To lazy to search in the time I spent typing that ?)
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
90V is wakey wakey.
I haven't checked the EG4 SCC yet but assume it probably is the same as was the 6500EX's. I had 90V on the remaining LV6548 with PV hooked to it at 6 am and MPPT was awake but it wasn't until 7:54 am that 1A of current was pulled. Array is directly on N-S azimuth as I staked it out at high noon when I installed it. It was cloudy this morning as we did get rain overnight and overcast most of the morning until 1 pm.
Yesterday was 6 am for the 90V wakeup and power of 1A was pulled at 7:45. It was pulling half PV power by 9 am, today half power at 1:15 pm.
I can update tomorrow if clear skies in the morning.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
Why did it overload would be my first question?
Bigger banks allow full load capacity. I think many have a smaller, marginal bank and when a surge hits or extended larger draws, the inverter can't handle the loads.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
Thank you, that helps a ton.
I can easily restring my current 9s strings to 3s3p, voc on my 315 amp q cells is 40.29v, lsc 9.89. I could put the S roof on mppt 1, W on 2.
I'll run a voltage drop calculator on under 50 ft of 10ga to make sure I'm not losing to much, I'm guessing under 1.5%. I'd be slightly over 27a under perfect conditions which give me zero concern.
The soon to be ground mount array of 305 LG neon could run 4s3p to the 2nd inverter.
It all seems like it work perfectly with my existing panels and may help with production splitting the currently paralleled S and W arrays.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
LVX/TP6048 v Roomba
Overloaded my TP6048 for the first time. I was going downstairs to fire up my 24v system and test some panels I picked up yesterday... Appliances running: Dishwasher on heated dry in drying cycle Pioneer 12k mini split (240v) set to 63f in dry mode 2 ceiling fans Upright HE washing machine...
diysolarforum.com
TLDR I was pushing it and I think the roomba emptying while the well pump was running along with everything else put it over the top. That damned roomba is 3 times louder my TP6048 screaming when it's putting 80 amps into the batteries and it pulls around 1.6kw in the process.
I currently have 2 banks of 230ah cells with 200a JBD's so I don't think it was that.
I sized that way to start so even if I were pulling 3x surge (18000w, which I doubt it would do) I wouldn't be pulling over 175a from each BMS / pack. Having a 3rd pack would be nice...
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
James is ignoring that post.
I have to wonder what the real continuous rating for the EG4 18Kpv is off battery without pv. I remember Gavin performing a load test and the system shut down in 2 minutes with the 14Kw loads of which 1500W was off PV. Adam mentioned it here.
Then we have this post.
I'd be leery as the test show even though the spec sheet states a load at X number of minutes, it can't even make that. Something is not right.....
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
I can say that my biggest in-rush item is a 6 Hp vertical air compressor, I don't have the right tools to actually measure this thing's in-rush but I can tell you it is big, like that sound just before the Death Star vapourized a planet kinda big. The lights would flicker in the shop when the compressor cycles, until my battery bank was over 40 kwh then the death-star dimming ended. Now at 53kWh pack and all is well. I do watch the solar assistant and if I see my spouse running the 5500 W dryer, I may avoid the air compressor or switch it to run direct from grid while the dryer is in use. When my third MPP 6048 arrives, I suspect the higher output (19.5kW) will lead to not worrying about the dryer, or the double oven either!.LVX/TP6048 v Roomba
Overloaded my TP6048 for the first time. I was going downstairs to fire up my 24v system and test some panels I picked up yesterday... Appliances running: Dishwasher on heated dry in drying cycle Pioneer 12k mini split (240v) set to 63f in dry mode 2 ceiling fans Upright HE washing machine...
TLDR I was pushing it and I think the roomba emptying while the well pump was running along with everything else put it over the top. That damned roomba is 3 times louder my TP6048 screaming when it's putting 80 amps into the batteries and it pulls around 1.6kw in the process.
I currently have 2 banks of 230ah cells with 200a JBD's so I don't think it was that.
I sized that way to start so even if I were pulling 3x surge (18000w, which I doubt it would do) I wouldn't be pulling over 175a from each BMS / pack. Having a 3rd pack would be nice...
One note for those unfamilair with the MPP 6048, these units output 120/240 with just one Inverter, and although the "6048" name makes people assume it is 6kW output, it is in fact 6500W (27.3A @240Volt = 6552W) the downside is the 6048 has slightly higher standby consumption compared to the 6548. The upside, you can put three 6048's in parallel (19.5kW) and all will share equal L1 L2 loads.
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Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
I didn't feel like running more wire as it is a 420 foot pull and I'd have to pull out what is in there already and add more. The Official Loads Tester gave me a funny look when I mentioned pulling more wire. She is also the Official Wire Puller as she can't handle feeding wire.
I wanted to experiment anyway. So add the SCC's and see what I get. With the 6500EX's, it would max out at 3.9Kw on the MPPT. The EG4 SCC's max out higher, up to 5Kw and I have seen over 4Kw. What is interesting is I have 8S with 530W panels on the EG4 SCC and 4S of the 530W panels on the LV6548 and the difference at full sun has only been 2% if you figure it should be more than double. For example, I saw 4.0Kw on the SCC that has 8 panels, yet the 4 panels put out over 1.9Kw, usually about 80 to 100W difference if you doubled the 4S yield compared to the 8S and that is at full sun; the percentage difference is less without full sun. I've thought about doing a parallel string with the remaining 4S and that would put me at around 18A which is max. I'm interested to see how much power loss the system would see with double the amps from combining a pair of 4S strings vs the single 8S string. It's all about wire size. The reason I went higher voltage was the ability to run 10AWG vs 8AWG. I'm now thinking I could have just ran four 4S strings and forgot about the higher VOC rated SCC's and only lost less than 2% of yield.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
I'd actually up the bank before thinking of switching inverters.LVX/TP6048 v Roomba
Overloaded my TP6048 for the first time. I was going downstairs to fire up my 24v system and test some panels I picked up yesterday... Appliances running: Dishwasher on heated dry in drying cycle Pioneer 12k mini split (240v) set to 63f in dry mode 2 ceiling fans Upright HE washing machine...
TLDR I was pushing it and I think the roomba emptying while the well pump was running along with everything else put it over the top. That damned roomba is 3 times louder my TP6048 screaming when it's putting 80 amps into the batteries and it pulls around 1.6kw in the process.
I currently have 2 banks of 230ah cells with 200a JBD's so I don't think it was that.
I sized that way to start so even if I were pulling 3x surge (18000w, which I doubt it would do) I wouldn't be pulling over 175a from each BMS / pack. Having a 3rd pack would be nice...
Doubling size allows that 175A to be halved. All circuits have resistance and that affects voltage under heavy load.
I was only starting with two 280Ah batteries but had all that extra room in the cabinet and decided to go with 3 batteries, then there was this deal on 304Ah cells so I might as well fill it up. Was I think in hindsight the best move I made.
Zwy
Emperor Of Solar
I'll have to plug my work trailer into the house tomorrow and see how it handles the 5 HP 120V compressor in it. I popped a breaker today at a jobsite when the compressor kicked in. If I need more compressor I usually start the 18 HP Kaeser scroll but the AGM starting battery died today.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
And I thought my 1hp 240v was big compressor ?
Thank you @OffGridForGood and @Zwy for the info.
Now I'm looking up all the specs on the 6048...
Thank you @OffGridForGood and @Zwy for the info.
Now I'm looking up all the specs on the 6048...
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
The key to running motors is be sure they are running on 240v (some motors can be changed from 120 to 240 inside the terminal case on the motor by moving a jumper cable) going with 240 will ensure you have equal load on each leg (L1 L2) for your inverter and it will be half the amperage of running on 120.
EastTexCowboy
Solar Wizard
The max amps on the LV6548 is 18a. Mine clip at a little over 17 and it goes downhill from there once it gets hot outside. I think 27a would be pushing it and certainly wasting a lot of potential production.
By the way, I've been very happy with the reliability of the LV6548s myself and I hit almost 2mw for the month of June. I know @Zwy is a fan and Will has mentioned more than once in his videos that these are still his favorite inverters. I'm looking at upgrading to something like the 18kpv but not for any reliability issues. And I'm still waffling on that plan.
I've run nearly a megawatt of solar through my lil 3kw Growatt SPF3000TL LVM-ES over the last 6 months almost exclusively charging my Nissan Leaf without a hiccup. Took a few emails with SigSol to get the wifi dongle setup properly but the EG4 LL communication worked out of the box. It's actually so boring and easy that my wife knows how to use it. She enjoys telling people it took her 15 minutes to learn what I obcessed over for months.....
If I had it to do over again, I would have probably gotten the lil EG4 3k unit since it's cheaper and came with free battery cables and seems to be just as reliable but the Growatt is pretty easy to setup and use. The EG4 LL battery works like a champ and I discharge it almost daily.
I'll probably pick up a Growatt 5000 ES just for 240v EV charging and repurpose the 3000 ES for something else.
If I had it to do over again, I would have probably gotten the lil EG4 3k unit since it's cheaper and came with free battery cables and seems to be just as reliable but the Growatt is pretty easy to setup and use. The EG4 LL battery works like a champ and I discharge it almost daily.
I'll probably pick up a Growatt 5000 ES just for 240v EV charging and repurpose the 3000 ES for something else.
EastTexCowboy
Solar Wizard
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
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- Mar 28, 2020
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I'm same age as you and do everything (technical) solo. My wife around 90 something pounds would only be in danger.
Engine hoist works. You may be able to use it as-is, but I added an extension pipe to get 18" beyond the front wheels, and put ballast on the back.
How does a 140 pound weakling hang a 140 pound inverter?
When I hung my original 2.5 kW SWR-2500U inverters 17 years ago, I was probably stronger and they were only 75 lbs. I was able to carry them up a stepladder and hang them head high. Taking them down to upgrade was doable, but difficult When I hung 75 lb transformerless 10000TLUS under the deck...
diysolarforum.com
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
Thanks for some reason I thought it was 27a, that must be the TP6048, there goes that master plan. Good thing I'm also looking at the SRNE ASF48100U200-H
Edit - wording.
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OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
Does your wife know you refer to her as the 'ballast' on the forum?
(just kidding around)
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
I don't know anything about the SRNE, - can two of these units be set up with comms and run together for future expansion?
Curious.
42OhmsPA
What's in a title?
Nope but for the $950 plus shipping, I'm waiting on a final quote, I'll rewire AC panels and order a 3rd for a spare ?
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
10kW is a big inverter for less than a grand, very nice!
I find with solar, the next stage is always some type of expansion, and being able to parallel/connect multiple inverters can keep the load side simpler.
I find with solar, the next stage is always some type of expansion, and being able to parallel/connect multiple inverters can keep the load side simpler.
Don’t spend as much money on unneeded everyday life stuff …SAVE UP….stick to Victron/ Schneider/ BB/ MS/ Blue Seas .……and other top tier stuff ..
It just works.
Let discount buyers fuss and fight with China and /or consult forums for resolution on operation and fixes.
in 50 years of buying different gear of many types , I have had two top tier products not work right…TWO… they were promptly replaced and life moved on…
but , maybe that’s just luck on my part.
OffGridForGood
Catch, make or grow everything you can.
and those are just the 100Ah rack batteries - try lifting the 280Ah racks ! (about 225 lbs each)
(yeah we have a forklift in the shop for those, so glad we decided early on to put all the solar stuff in there, concrete floors, 11000 lb fork lift 12 foot ceilings, who cares if the inverter fans make any noise - what noise? can't hear it over the air compressor! lol.)