My Anker Solix Home Power Panel and F3800s setup

[dellmed]

How does the Solix HPP deal with overloading like when the HVAC starts . If it trips does it reset by itself ?

 

[mjrkong]

How does the Solix HPP deal with overloading like when the HVAC starts . If it trips does it reset by itself ?

In the grid-up situation that OP discusses, HPP will only output 6kW max and the rest will come from the grid. There should be no overload. I can confirm this for a 5ton AC.

For grid down, I found the following:

Anker SOLIX

support.ankersolix.com

Says that it needs to be restarted manually.

Also, amps and surge durations listed here should be enough to start a large AC. Haven’t tested this myself.

 

[aeroliteflyer]

Hello,
Sorry for this late reply. I just installed a 2xF3800+ with HPP. I too am running hot on the F3800 in the garage and was thinking about relocating to my crawlspace. It's not cooled, but definitely more temp controlled then garage. The most logical place to put it in there, is going to be about 70 feet or so from the main panel. Would like to to hear issues, especially revolving around rewiring the CT for that distance. I do use the backup panel, so another question I would like to ask, is, does anyone know, or have tried aluminum cable with the HPP vs. copper. At that distance, it would be a huge money saver.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[aeroliteflyer]

Hello,
Sorry for this late reply. I just installed a 2xF3800+ with HPP. I too am running hot on the F3800 in the garage and was thinking about relocating to my crawlspace. It's not cooled, but definitely more temp controlled then garage. The most logical place to put it in there, is going to be about 70 feet or so from the main panel. Would like to to hear issues, especially revolving around rewiring the CT for that distance. I do use the backup panel, so another question I would like to ask, is, does anyone know, or have tried aluminum cable with the HPP vs. copper. At that distance, it would be a huge money saver.

Thanks,
Chris

Actually, more like 55 feet

 

[wwu123]

Hello,
Sorry for this late reply. I just installed a 2xF3800+ with HPP. I too am running hot on the F3800 in the garage and was thinking about relocating to my crawlspace. It's not cooled, but definitely more temp controlled then garage. The most logical place to put it in there, is going to be about 70 feet or so from the main panel. Would like to to hear issues, especially revolving around rewiring the CT for that distance. I do use the backup panel, so another question I would like to ask, is, does anyone know, or have tried aluminum cable with the HPP vs. copper. At that distance, it would be a huge money saver.

Thanks,
Chris

As far as extending the CT's, no problem - someone in the FB owners group today just posted they extended theirs 100'. Just highly suggested to use same AWG and to use twisted wire (you can twist yourself with a drill even), like the original wire.

Regarding using aluminum wire, haven't seen anyone post yet using it, at the min would ensure using the right gauge for aluminum, the recommendations in the install manual are clearly for copper specifically, and appear to derate ampacity by 20% for continuous loads.

 

[mjrkong]

Actually, more like 55 feet

Here is a good thread on extending CTs: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/extending-cts.85135/

I'd highly recommend looking into running them via ethernet cable. Make sure each CT is running via a twisted pair in the cat-5/6 cable.

 

[aeroliteflyer]

Here is a good thread on extending CTs: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/extending-cts.85135/

I'd highly recommend looking into running them via ethernet cable. Make sure each CT is running via a twisted pair in the cat-5/6 cable.

Thanks.

 

[aeroliteflyer]

As far as extending the CT's, no problem - someone in the FB owners group today just posted they extended theirs 100'. Just highly suggested to use same AWG and to use twisted wire (you can twist yourself with a drill even), like the original wire.

Regarding using aluminum wire, haven't seen anyone post yet using it, at the min would ensure using the right gauge for aluminum, the recommendations in the install manual are clearly for copper specifically, and appear to derate ampacity by 20% for continuous loads.

Thanks. Got a response from the Anker support team about this. They said essentially there is no reason you can't but they recommend copper for all the reasons copper is typically better. but at 60 feet, it's like 4x the cost. So I don't see why a 1AWG SER for 100 amp and 4AWG SER for 50 amp wouldn't be stable enough.

-On another note, while think about relocating the HPP, I was wondering how is the HPP is complying with NEC for an ESS to have a readily accessible outside the home emergency shutdown switch?

 

[mjrkong]

-On another note, while think about relocating the HPP, I was wondering how is the HPP is complying with NEC for an ESS to have a readily accessible outside the home emergency shutdown switch?

Extend the e-stop button somehow ?

 

[chamilun]

As far as extending the CT's, no problem - someone in the FB owners group today just posted they extended theirs 100'. Just highly suggested to use same AWG and to use twisted wire (you can twist yourself with a drill even), like the original wire.

Regarding using aluminum wire, haven't seen anyone post yet using it, at the min would ensure using the right gauge for aluminum, the recommendations in the install manual are clearly for copper specifically, and appear to derate ampacity by 20% for continuous loads.

theres a video by *someone* who extended his CT distance and goes into great detail and testing to see if affects setup. is for an EG4 inverter, not Anker, but you way way to check it out. I dont think its ray childress.

 

[mkgriesinger]

The way the busbars are in my panels, I doubt any CT will fit. There probably less that 1/2" space behind them. However, flexible Rogowski coils work fine. Emporia based setup has been working fine for a week now. PoCo data shows near 0 usage in peak hours, and I've been looking at the meter during peak hours and it shows either 0 or very low inbound wattage. Home and Grid usage in Anker app are definitely wrong though.

For my next project, I found a Chinese company selling various Rogowski coils and integrators on eBay. They are providing one that supposed to match Anker's CT spec exactly. $140 shipped, from China. Will report how that works.

@mjrkong What did you find with your CT testing? My panel has bus bars too. Also, did you have to extend yours at all using cat6?

 

[mkgriesinger]

If you read through the inverter sub-forums here, you'll see that inverter overhead or idle consumption is a concern for all inverters, particularly a 6000W one as in the F3800. There are better and worse ones, but F3800 is about typical it seems. I was concerned in the beginning when I only expected to cycle just a single F3800 daily, as 70 watts takes a toll with only 3.8kwh daily TOU capacity - my plan then was to run as many loads in DC as possible, and any small AC loads to be powered via a smaller power station that was refilled by the F3800 via DC as well. That way the F3800 inverter would almost never be on except for emergencies.

Fast forward a year, I also have a BP3800 expansion battery, plus three server rack batteries for about 23 kwh of total capacity, and will be typically cycling about 10-20 kwh daily. At that level, up to 1.5 kwh of daily losses is tolerable - in fact, reading these forums, it seems "idle consumption" only refers to losses when not powering loads, the same overhead when powering high loads is just factored into the overall system roundtrip efficiency.

But it doesn't have to be 1.5kwh daily - if for TOU, the inverter fortunately only appears to be on when power loads during TOU periods, and when AC recharging (which you can structure to go as quickly as possible) - so if only peak shifting, you can have the inverter off for half to 2/3 of the 24-hour daily cycle., so no inverter overhead or idle concumption much of the time. I only recharge the F3800 via off-grid solar now, so I could have the inverter on for only my 5-hour TOU peak and off the rest of the day.

But yeah, if you worry about inverter overhead, running one F3800 with expansion is half the overhead of running two F3800's, which is why I do it that way. But most folks will recommend two F3800's, because who doesn't want 12,000W of power available on-demand, all the time? Yeah, most folks are not about efficiency (even though it correlates to cost-savings)...

@wwu123 How did you integrate the F3800, HPP, and the server rack batteries? I am looking to do something like this...

 

[mjrkong]

@mjrkong What did you find with your CT testing? My panel has bus bars too. Also, did you have to extend yours at all using cat6?

Custom eBay coils/integrator worked great. Anker app reports same exact usage as the main meter now. Has been running like this for months. In this particular case I did not extend with cat6, but I have in another install.

 

[mkgriesinger]

Custom eBay coils/integrator worked great. Anker app reports same exact usage as the main meter now. Has been running like this for months. In this particular case I did not extend with cat6, but I have in another install.

@mjrkong by chance you don't have a link / information on the coils/integrator you used?

 

[mjrkong]

@mjrkong by chance you don't have a link / information on the coils/integrator you used?

It was a custom job. I gave them Anker CT spec, with wire lengths and coil diameter. Main integrator spec is 200A / 66.6mA I just checked and seller is gone from eBay. I’m guess whole tariff thing didn’t work out well for them.

If all you care about is making HPP back feed main panel with 0 export, then emporia coils work.

 

[wwu123]

@mjrkong by chance you don't have a link / information on the coils/integrator you used?

Shelly CT's (they come in 120A and 50A versions) are exactly 3000:1 winding ratio like the Anker ones, and also current output (vs voltage output). They usually only sell them with the Shelly energy monitor, but you can find them standalone here or there, I bought these on Walmart.com:

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Current-Transformer-120A/16330912568

The wire leads are pretty short, but you can clip off the Shelly plug, and extend each of the two wires with any sort of electrical wire connector.

 

[wwu123]

@wwu123 How did you integrate the F3800, HPP, and the server rack batteries? I am looking to do something like this...

Presently I have the 51.2V server rack batteries in parallel with each other so 15 kwh (300Ah), feeding into one of the two XT-60 DC inputs. I have 6.2kw of off-grid rigid panels feeding into a 7000W Growatt charge controller, which charges the server rack batteries. I have another 1200-1600W of solar panels in parallel feeding directly into the other XT-60 inputs.

That's all on my one F3800 + BP3800, which plugs right into the HPP.

 

[silverlexg]

Presently I have the 51.2V server rack batteries in parallel with each other so 15 kwh (300Ah), feeding into one of the two XT-60 DC inputs. I have 6.2kw of off-grid rigid panels feeding into a 7000W Growatt charge controller, which charges the server rack batteries. I have another 1200-1600W of solar panels in parallel feeding directly into the other XT-60 inputs.

That's all on my one F3800 + BP3800, which plugs right into the HPP.

Did you look at having the batteries directly connected to the F3800? benefit would be they would charge up from AC and your solar charge controller vs only solar.

 

[wwu123]

Did you look at having the batteries directly connected to the F3800? benefit would be they would charge up from AC and your solar charge controller vs only solar.

I may try it soon, a friend is workng on getting his 3D printer working to print the connector.

Though I never AC charge the F3800, the roundtrip efficiency is below 75% when I tested a year ago, which my TOU rates don't make it worthwhile. So I only charge from off-grid solar Rather the two benefits would be:
-charging the EV for longer each time - basically the EV charger can do 24A, which will deplete the F3800+BP3800 in an hour, while the server rack batteries can only replenish at 1150W, so can only charge a bit each day, or at lower amps which prolongs have the car awake and self-consuming 400W.
-avoiding the DC roundtrip loss of cycing power through the server rack batteries. The solar charge controller currently peaks out around 3kw each day, only 1150W goes directly to the F3800, the rest gets buffered in the server rack batteries but eventually is used to charge the F3800's. Having 10-15kwh cycling through the server rack batteries each day loses about 10%, whereas a direct connection would yield 10% more kwh by avoiding this added DC roundtrip.

 

[ffhamm]

It was a custom job. I gave them Anker CT spec, with wire lengths and coil diameter. Main integrator spec is 200A / 66.6mA I just checked and seller is gone from eBay. I’m guess whole tariff thing didn’t work out well for them.

If all you care about is making HPP back feed main panel with 0 export, then emporia coils work.

DId you go with a custom CT clamp or did you have a custom coil built? I am trying to source one now from China. I purchased a larger CT clamp from the same company that makes Ankers, but it is too wide to fit in the gap so I am thinking about the coil route if I can get the specs right.

 

[mjrkong]

DId you go with a custom CT clamp or did you have a custom coil built? I am trying to source one now from China. I purchased a larger CT clamp from the same company that makes Ankers, but it is too wide to fit in the gap so I am thinking about the coil route if I can get the specs right.

It was a custom flexible coil / integrator combo. They matched exact Anker CT spec. Seller appears to be gone from eBay though.

If you don’t care about HPP measuring exact consumption data, you could just get Emporia’s coils with attached integrators. Their CT ratio is about 30% off from Anker’s, but still good enough for HPP to do TOU and excess solar charging.

 

[evanli44]

I was wondering if any of you can help with this. I have the same setup except I do not have it hooked up to solar panels. For the first few days the system seems to work fine. The batteries supply power to the home as intended. However today I noticed that all the batteries do is charge from the grid. It does not want to run any of the circuits that I have it set up to run. It does work in off-grid mode however, but as soon as I connect the grid back up to the system, all it wants to do is charge. Once it reaches 100% charge, it does nothing. I even tried discharging the battery to 90% and it still does not want to do anything but charge from the grid. I get the following messages on the app that Self Consumption is "Not Inserted" and "In the current home cycle state, the device's self-charging and discharging function is not available". I have the most up to date firmware and app version. I even tried setting to factory reset several times, as well as disconnect from the HPP and turned them off for a few minutes. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[mjrkong]

I was wondering if any of you can help with this. I have the same setup except I do not have it hooked up to solar panels. For the first few days the system seems to work fine. The batteries supply power to the home as intended. However today I noticed that all the batteries do is charge from the grid. It does not want to run any of the circuits that I have it set up to run. It does work in off-grid mode however, but as soon as I connect the grid back up to the system, all it wants to do is charge. Once it reaches 100% charge, it does nothing. I even tried discharging the battery to 90% and it still does not want to do anything but charge from the grid. I get the following messages on the app that Self Consumption is "Not Inserted" and "In the current home cycle state, the device's self-charging and discharging function is not available". I have the most up to date firmware and app version. I even tried setting to factory reset several times, as well as disconnect from the HPP and turned them off for a few minutes. Any help would be appreciated.

Do you have consumption CTs installed ? Seems like maybe you do not.

If you do, can you show us your Home and Grid import graphs for the day ?

 

[evanli44]

I think I have it installed. It looks like it was an error with the app. I unplugged it for a couple of hours and everything reverted back to normal.

 

[mjrkong]

I think I have it installed. It looks like it was an error with the app. I unplugged it for a couple of hours and everything reverted back to normal.

Cool, cool. Another thing I noticed, how do you run self consumption without any solar ?