Off grid cottage; sol-ark15k

[Asnarby]

Make "Equalize" voltage no higher than boost, so it does no harm.

1000A+ cranking capability, so no worry about peak amp draw (sustained, but I'm not sure lead-acid has any big problem with high current, just reduced capacity?)
5 hour 179 Ah indicates 36A draw is expected

Voltage you scribbled matches battery data sheet.

Battery capacity 460Ah? Data sheet says 460 minutes at 25A. 230Ah 20 hour rate. Do you have 2 strings? That would be 460 Ah.
"8x 230 amp 12V agm batteries" OK, so it is 460 Ah. That's correct too.

Neither battery data sheet or charger settings say how long to hold absorption voltage.
Try monitoring it, see what it does.
My SunXtender, the manual says hold absorption voltage until current drops to 0.005C, takes about 2 to 4 hours.

Thanks! Hopefully I can figure something out for how absorption is programmed.

I’ll do some more digging but thanks for confirming my scratch marks

 

[Asnarby]

@Asnarby you might want to bring it down half a volt , and then build up slowly while listening to your batteries

You don't want to boil your AGM


I have AGM batteries that state 15v bulk charge on the side, but can't do much more than 14.5 before they start venting gas. Everything battery is different it's a case of playing it by ear (literally lol)

Thanks for the tip, This is new to me so I’ll make sure to start a little low and listen.

 

[Asnarby]

I have the all-ark wired to the cottage breaker panel, generator, and batteries.

I’m trying to figure out the best set up for the generator which I’ll mainly use to charge batteries if they get low.

I have a Honda EM5000SX generator and have it wired to the grid in on sol-ark.

The generators rated for 37.5 amps, 18.8 amps at 240V. What would be the best settings to maximize power/fuel? 70-80% load is what I’m thinking. Where is the best place to program this? The battery max charge setting is in DC I think.

So if I set this at 80 amps, does this translate to 17.5 amps @220V? If so, I should limit grid charge at approximately 60 amps? Does that make sense?

Also, what is “zero export power” which is set at 20w?

Once I get this figured out, I’d like to add the auto start/stop function. My generator currently has a remote start. From my guess work, would I tie the two wires into the “blue white” and “green” cables?

I attached the wiring diagram from the manual, but the remote start switch has “red”, “black , “pink/red”, “green”, “white”. Is it possible to set it up how I’m hoping?

Thanks!

 

[Asnarby]

Charging this morning. Things are working well.

I’m looking for clarification on charging the batteries. On my 15k, I wired the two banks separately onto the two breakers for batteries instead of paralleling them before and wiring to one breaker.

I’m waiting for confirmation from Sol-ark, but when I spoke to them they said if I set max charge at (40amps for example), it will send 40 amps through both breakers, charging at an actual 80amps. So 20% of 230 amps (one bank) is 46 amps, which is where I have it set now, but I’m wondering if I need to be at 92amps to realize that 20% of 460amps total with both banks.

Thanks!

 

[JamesTheCrow]

Nice setup. Looking forward to read and see more.

Just as a heads up: as far as I know, we're not allowed to keep our batteries inside of dwellings in NS, anymore.

I figure this might be relevant in case you wanted to get (or retain) insurance coverage for your cabin. If so, I've been told you either put your batteries (and SCC and inverter) in an outbuilding. Or you circumvent regulations by housing your solar equipment in a non-permanent structure. I guess a shed on skids or on cinder blocks would qualify as such. And I'm pretty sure an old RV or camper would do, too.

Also: great dog. Standard poodles are the best (imho). Love 'em. Couldn't imagine getting another breed.

 

[Asnarby]

Nice setup. Looking forward to read and see more.

Just as a heads up: as far as I know, we're not allowed to keep our batteries inside of dwellings in NS, anymore.

I figure this might be relevant in case you wanted to get (or retain) insurance coverage for your cabin. If so, I've been told you either put your batteries (and SCC and inverter) in an outbuilding. Or you circumvent regulations by housing your solar equipment in a non-permanent structure. I guess a shed on skids or on cinder blocks would qualify as such. And I'm pretty sure an old RV or camper would do, too.

Also: great dog. Standard poodles are the best (imho). Love 'em. Couldn't imagine getting another breed.

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll have to fix that.

Do you think the inverter can stay under the cottage (stilts) and batteries can be moved out?

This seems strange to me because I thought NSP had a pilot program where they put batteries in utility rooms?

Thanks

 

[JamesTheCrow]

Thanks for the heads up! I’ll have to fix that.

Do you think the inverter can stay under the cottage (stilts) and batteries can be moved out?

This seems strange to me because I thought NSP had a pilot program where they put batteries in utility rooms?

Thanks

Regarding NSP's pilot program: I wouldn't know. Do you have a link for that? Mind you, as far as I know, the dwelling / battery regulation has only been in place since 2022. Every fiber in my body bristles against this (imho) overreaching overregulation, but I might bite the bullet and comply to retain house insurance coverage. I'm not against an audit / inspection per se: it's just that NSP retains a monopoly and it takes ages to finally get an inspection appointment. If we could hire any licensed electrician to do the inspection, I wouldn't be so annoyed. I know of folks who had to wait for months on end after they had installed everything for a NSP inspector to swing by.

Regarding where to put the inverter:

• if you're asking regulation-wise: as far as I understand the aforementioned regulation, it only applies to batteries (I would imagine they're concerned with thermal runaway in Lithium batteries and gassing with lead-acid ones - which doesn't reflect my own opinion)
• otherwise, I'm sure it could be done that way if your inverter is rated for outdoor deployment. But it would be kinda expensive considering how expensive thick copper wire is.