Possible to use Sol Ark Gen terminals with a 3 Phase Generator ? Sol Ark techs said NO !
- Thread starter res242
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Correct. That's my whole point. Fix the gen port issues. Use gen port for the gen. Add logic to shut down the gen when grid comes back on, on the grid port.
Maybe you didn't catch the whole conversation around gen limit not working. It's literally "no longer supported" since the last firmware update. And that is pretty Sol-Ark tech support, not just me making something up....
Apparently you didn't read what I wrote about why using s transfer switch on the grid side, to pick gen or grid, doesn't work well..... I've only been involved on a few hundred Sol-Ark setups now, by the way.
That is correct! And I think this option would be 10x better than what we have now! That "old" way at least allowed gen shave to happen, if grid shave wasn't needed. The "new" way today, pretty well all gen functionality of the gen port is out the door.
It's not Gen Peak Shaving, but according to the manual:
Gen Limit Power: Sets the Sol-Ark limit to keep the power drawn from the “GEN” terminal below the
threshold. The inverter will reduce the charge power rate to the batteries if this value is reached.
You are right. I phrased that wrong. But gen limit goes a long way! And works a lot better than no limit option!
I was frustrated that Gen Peak Shaving is no longer supported, but then realized what I was planning to do probably isn't practical, that is charge batteries on 3 separate Sol-Arks at the same time. Instead I'll just use TOU to stagger charging of each battery bank. Gen Peak Shaving would be a bonus, but not critical. I have a single 17KW Generac that will be wired to the Gen Input on the 3 Sol-Arks. The existing generator feeds are on 40 A breakers limiting each to 32 A.
DIYrich
Solar Wizard
One chargeverter for each bank, and charge all 3 at the same time. I have a socket that is hooked up to the generator wire, and a 240v on/off switch from the generator wire into the sol-ark. I can turn off the generator power to the sol-ark, and plug in the CV to charge the battery directly.
I need an automatic setup. This is a 2 unit condo with a separate common building (garage). The well pump is on the common building. My neighbor is not technical and has no idea how any of this works. It has to work without manual intervention when I'm travelling. Also, I don't want to leave my condo during a storm to setup a battery charger at the other locations. Within an hour or 2 of losing power I also lose internet, so I won't know the status of the batteries at the other 2 locations.
Using TOU, I can ensure that each Sol-Ark will have access to the generator every 8 hours. Each Sol-Ark will have a 20 KWH battery bank.
Using TOU, I can ensure that each Sol-Ark will have access to the generator every 8 hours. Each Sol-Ark will have a 20 KWH battery bank.
Hedges
I See Electromagnetic Fields!
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Right, most inverters don't have a transfer switch, just a relay to let grid feed in or not. Only one input, so they can sync to it before closing relay.
External transfer switch, SMA says allow 5 seconds to ensure disconnect before feeding in out of phase source.
Which means this fast 100 ms transfer could blow up an inverter operating in parallel.
Carlos_Sol-Ark
New Member
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Yeah Haha I'm here, I just get off at 6 pm Central time. Also monitoring the forums is more like a third priority to my other duties so I may be a bit slow to respond sometimes, but I will get back to you. I certainly hear the point you are making.
The Sol-Ark checks every AC connection it makes on the GRID terminals to determine GEN or GRID status.
The grid monitoring and reaction are magnitudes faster than this. I can't give you the exact response time, but I was told anyone is welcome to use an oscilloscope on their units. Once the Sol-Ark disconnects it will initiate a default 300S delay before reconnecting to any new AC source, you can lower it if you like but I wouldn't recommend anything lower than 60S. This should answer the question of a possible mis-phase connection.
I have recently been assigned to a group of app engineers who can do testing specifically for our residential systems so I think I can get some testing done to solve the battery charging problem you brought up here. In the past, the options available would be either the customer would have to adjust or monitor their loads during generator to battery charging, or they would charge the batteries slowly and use Time of Use to set an AC charging cap and have the generator stop charging the battery at a certain point. This would allow the generator to run for a shorter time, but keep the batteries going until solar power returns. Most people do the latter if they are strictly off the grid.
If they are on the grid most of the time and they want to use the batteries while grid-tied to offset loads, but they also want to have the generator kick on during a long-term outage to charge the batteries back up when they get low, but their generator isn't big enough to cover loads and fast battery charging, and they are not able to manage loads or are not on sight, they can still use Time of Use to make sure the generator doesn't stay on too long. However, there will be compromise as to how high the generator charging cap while off-grid would be and how low the batteries can get when off-setting the loads when grid-tied.
Note: I am not the head honcho, but I am here to listen to use-case issues exactly like this. This is gold to me, and I am on forums like this to find out what we can do to make the Sol-Ark easy to use in as many applications as possible. Well that and answer questions
Summary so far:
- Generator Terminals Can not do 3-phase connections, but the Grid terminals can due to hardware differences between Gen and Grid terminals on the Sol-Ark.
- Sol-Ark will be able to break the connection from the 3-phase transfer switch from the generator to the grid fast enough to prevent a connection to a mismatched phase. ---- STILL USE BREAK BEFORE MAKE ATS.
- Sol-Ark Generator relay staying closed after grid connection status is re-made.
- GEN Peak Shaving equivalent????? I need to confirm why we stopped supporting it in the first place. It certainly wasn't due to a hardware change.
Just curious how the Sol Ark knows who is on the grid input gen or grid?
@Carlos_Sol-Ark you are very helpful, and I greatly appreciate that! I might try to DM you tomorrow sometime with some specific things we are running into to see if you have any ideas on solutions for me.
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