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MPP Solar, stop from utility charging?

Thorium

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Joined
Apr 8, 2021
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Is there a way to get MPP Solar (1012LV) to never charge from utility, but leave utility connected to it for bypass purposes?

My scenario:
- powering computer that needs to run 24x7
- I want MPP to power it with battery until X voltage, then switch to utility (setting 12)
- utility should only be used for transfer switch purposes to power the load until solar gets the battery back to Y voltage (setting 13).
- the idea is to power as much of its run time via solar
- I can’t figure out how to stop the MPP from also charging the battery with utility at night instead of just powering the load )bypassing battery) until solar charges it


My settings: (setting 16 even says solar only charging… but doesn’t seem to actually do that)


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If the battery reaches low dc voltage and says at night, your controller will shut off without the Utility kicking in.
If you really don't want the Until to charge the battery, you have the right setting in option #16.
 
I know what you mean but not sure it can work that way. I have a PIP 3048LV running off 1200w panels with the settings shown below - e.g. Max AC charging limited to 2a (the minimum offered in the dropdown). These settings allow the PV power to be the primary charging source for the battery since the grid is limited to (2a * 48v = 96w) aprox 100w charging. But I can't turn grid charging 100% off and still have grid connected - I have to just unplug the incoming grid. I'll be interested to follow this discussion - good luck!
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If you look at it a little differently, you can get the same result from using a variable power supply connected to your batteries and set to the lower voltage you want it to kick in at. Disable utility charging on your MPP and let the power supply provide power at your lower limit.
 
AC to DC variable power supply is a creative idea, I like your style.

However I don’t think it will work for my situation:
- my load is 450 watts so I’d need a power supply that can do 12V over 30 amps. Is there one that won’t end up more expensive than the whole $350 MPP 1012 itself?
- The system is also self contained in a toolbox and it’s packed full so it would be clunky and have to an external add on.

Meanwhile I’m already building a 48V, 12 kWh system with a Victron multiplus II, just waiting for cells from China. This 12V 280ah with the MPP is self contained portable unit with portable panels. Forms my 12V portable/48V home backup dynamic duo.
I’m guessing I’ll be able to make the Victron do what I want. So if the answer is “the MPP itself just can’t do what you want” I’ll just end up waiting and using that.
 
2nd option would work, $150.

First option requires the 48V system and wouldn’t make sense as I’d just plug it into the 48V Victron inverter which I confirmed has settings that can do what I want (senseless to have all the losses at multiple voltage conversion points).

But for me I’ll just wait since long term I intended to use the 48V system for this anyways, it just won’t be up and running for another couple months.
For others it’s a legit option.
 
Is there a way to get MPP Solar (1012LV) to never charge from utility, but leave utility connected to it for bypass purposes?

My scenario:
- powering computer that needs to run 24x7
- I want MPP to power it with battery until X voltage, then switch to utility (setting 12)
- utility should only be used for transfer switch purposes to power the load until solar gets the battery back to Y voltage (setting 13).
- the idea is to power as much of its run time via solar
- I can’t figure out how to stop the MPP from also charging the battery with utility at night instead of just powering the load )bypassing battery) until solar charges it


My settings: (setting 16 even says solar only charging… but doesn’t seem to actually do that)


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Perhaps set the max AC charge current to zero?
 
My LVX6048 does not charge with utility if I have it set to OSO. If the battery hits the minimum voltage setting overnight then it starts powering the loads with the grid and the battery doesn't start charging until the sun comes up.
 
Sounds like rhe LVX’s “OSO” setting does what I want.

Unfortunately when my $350 1012LV is set to OSO it still charges off utility (AC in) if there’s no solar and battery reaches low voltage.
So it goes into a bunch of mini cycles at night. Hits low voltage and powers loads from grid pass thru, while also charging battery from grid (even though it’s in OSO). Utility Charging stops when it hits “switch inverter back to battery” voltage, then powers off batteries and doesn’t continue to charge off utility past that point. Drains the minimal charge quickly, and cycle repeats.

The utility charging amps setting doesn’t let me choose zero, for my model it’s either 10 or 20. You’d think zero would be an option but nope.

All in all I don’t think you can beat the thing for $350 (alibaba directly from MPP in Taiwan)… so I really shouldn’t complain that it can’t directly accommodate my oddball scenario. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing some mix of settings to make it work. I’m pretty sure it just can’t do it at this point.
 
Sounds like rhe LVX’s “OSO” setting does what I want.

Unfortunately when my $350 1012LV is set to OSO it still charges off utility (AC in) if there’s no solar and battery reaches low voltage.
So it goes into a bunch of mini cycles at night. Hits low voltage and powers loads from grid pass thru, while also charging battery from grid (even though it’s in OSO). Utility Charging stops when it hits “switch inverter back to battery” voltage, then powers off batteries and doesn’t continue to charge off utility past that point. Drains the minimal charge quickly, and cycle repeats.

The utility charging amps setting doesn’t let me choose zero, for my model it’s either 10 or 20. You’d think zero would be an option but nope.

All in all I don’t think you can beat the thing for $350 (alibaba directly from MPP in Taiwan)… so I really shouldn’t complain that it can’t directly accommodate my oddball scenario. I just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing some mix of settings to make it work. I’m pretty sure it just can’t do it at this point.
It might be worth reporting that issue to MPP Solar. My lvx6048 doesn't do that.
 
If the oso setting is there, it should work. Please report the bug so they can fix it.
 
Your "problem" is Setting 12 - Voltage 12V This is the nominal voltage for the battery.

It have to be lower eg. 10.5V then It will charge with untiltiy until you hit the voltage of step 13

This is my understanding of this settings.
 
Your "problem" is Setting 12 - Voltage 12V This is the nominal voltage for the battery.

It have to be lower eg. 10.5V then It will charge with untiltiy until you hit the voltage of step 13

This is my understanding of this settings.

I appreciate the input.

The nominal voltage of lifepo4 12v pack is actually 12.8v right?
I have #12 setting = 12V because that is ~10% capacity left.

When it gets that low I WANT the loads to be powered by grid/utility.

But I DO NOT want grid/utility to be used to charge the batteries, only pass thru grid to loads until the batteries get recharged from solar. Once solar gets batteries recharged to #13 setting voltage of 12.5V then stop the utility pass thru and power loads from batteries again.

Please let me know if I’m misinterpreting or missing something.
 
Well check wiki:

12V LiFePO4 Battery w/ BMS:
  • Absorption: 14.5V
  • Float: 13.6V
  • Inverter Cut-off: 10.7V-12V (depending on size of load and voltage drop etc)
Nominal voltage is 3.2*4 = 12,8V

Sure if you like not to stress your battery you can set the cut-off higher.

If you set
1 - SBU
12 - e.g. 12 -> Voltage to switch to Untility
13 - e.g. 12.5 -> Voltage back to Battery (if 1 SBU)
! 16 - OSO

I had the same problem in the beginning, it was charging with untility and solar. but step 16 did the trick for me.
 
Yeah, my issue is Seting 16 is set to OSO and it still charges from utility at night if setting 12 voltage is reached.

Where it should just pass thru utility power when setting 12 voltage is reached, and keep passing thru without utility charging until solar becomes available to charge battery.

I think my only recourse is to report issue to MPP Solar and I haven’t had time to do that.

I had time to gather ALL settings yesterday for submitting to them, here they are.

My best guess at this point is
1) bug in their SW/HW.
2) undocumented limitations of being in UPS mode (setting 3).



ALL settings

1) sbu
2) 60A
3) UPS
4) SdS
5) USE
6) Ltd
7) ttd
8) 120v
9) 60hz
11) 10A
12) 12.0v
13) 12.5v
16) OSO
18) 60F
19) ESP
20) LON
22) AOF
23) bYE
25) FEN
26) 14.2v
27) 13.5v
29) 11.9v
33) EdS
34) 14.6v
35) 5
36) 120
37) 30d
37) NEC dI S
39) AdS

(Any skipped number are settings not present in 1012LV model)
 
Hi. As I have the same problem with a pair of powland 5kw units, and it’s very frustrating spending hours trying out combinations in the not so clear menus, I wondered if you found a solution? It’s mad to pay to charge batteries from the utility, defeats the whole plan. I got pathetic after sales service from powland, I wish I had bought better, but I’m stuck with these now,
if anyone can recommend a brand that actually works, and has decent aftersales, please let me know, we don’t get a lot of sunlight here in Donegal, so we want to use as much as we can! Regards to all.
 
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