SenileOldGit
Solar Enthusiast
- Joined
- Oct 15, 2022
- Messages
- 320
I am still having problems with my two 4.8kWh Pylontech US5000 batteries not charging more than halfway, after allegedly receiving 12kWh of power from my two MPP Solar inverters. In September, when I first set my solar system up, I was getting 25kWh per day from the solar panels, and the batteries were charging fully, and lasting through the night with no problems, with two LEDs still lit in the morning almost every day. Now (in November) my daily total of solar power ranges from 12kWh on a really bad, rainy day, to 18kWh.
I have been using both Solar Assistant, and recently MultiSIBControl, to monitor my batteries and inverters. MultiSIBControl shows three batteries, even though I only have two. If I restart it, it initially shows two batteries, and then after a minute or so it creates a third, random battery. I have attached a few screenshots from MultiSIBControl, showing 12.29kWh had gone into the batteries that day, but only four out of six LEDs were lit on the batteries. Bear in mind that the inverters switch to grid when the batteries' SOC gets down to 20%, so it's not as if they are starting from 5% SOC in the morning.
On the Solar Assistant screenshots, you can see the battery is allegedly giving OUT 23.742kW. Sometimes, very rarely, it shows a green bar and I believe it was around 900W, even though the Solar PV was around 4,000-5,000W at that point (about an hour ago). It looks like the batteries are not actually accepting charge for much of the time, even though the MPPT controller in the inverter is pulling as much as it can get from my 12kW solar panel array.
I was originally using the MPP Solar supplied Pylontech battery cable, to connect the master battery to the inverter, and I was using Solar Assistant. I don't understand what the Battery 'curve' on the Dashboard is actually showing me - I presume that if it's green (it almost never is) then it's showing how much charge is going into the battery, and if it's red, it's showing how much power is coming out of the battery, but it always shows ridiculous amounts coming out. Or is it the other way round? The manual doesn't tell me anything (unless I missed it.)
Then I discovered MultiSIBControl and started using that, with one USB cable from each inverter, and two Ethernet cables coming from the Console and RS485 ports on the master battery, into RS232 to USB and RS485 to USB adaptors in my PC. MultiSIBControl shows me incorrect data from the batteries too.
For example, '29-10-2022 23kWh into battery but still not fully charged.PNG' shows a huge amount of energy going into the batteries, but both the Battery SOC and the Pylon SOC (I don't understand why they are different) are far off 100%.
Is it possible that my electrician has wired up the batteries incorrectly, and somehow much of the electricity from the inverters is not reaching the batteries, but going elsewhere? I have contacted the developer of MultiSIBControl about the three batteries showing in it, but I realise he is doing all this for free and I haven't heard back from him for several days, so I thought I would ask here. I wonder if we could maybe have a MultiSIBControl section in the forums, and a Solar Assistant one, so users of these two pieces of software could help each other.
I have been using both Solar Assistant, and recently MultiSIBControl, to monitor my batteries and inverters. MultiSIBControl shows three batteries, even though I only have two. If I restart it, it initially shows two batteries, and then after a minute or so it creates a third, random battery. I have attached a few screenshots from MultiSIBControl, showing 12.29kWh had gone into the batteries that day, but only four out of six LEDs were lit on the batteries. Bear in mind that the inverters switch to grid when the batteries' SOC gets down to 20%, so it's not as if they are starting from 5% SOC in the morning.
On the Solar Assistant screenshots, you can see the battery is allegedly giving OUT 23.742kW. Sometimes, very rarely, it shows a green bar and I believe it was around 900W, even though the Solar PV was around 4,000-5,000W at that point (about an hour ago). It looks like the batteries are not actually accepting charge for much of the time, even though the MPPT controller in the inverter is pulling as much as it can get from my 12kW solar panel array.
I was originally using the MPP Solar supplied Pylontech battery cable, to connect the master battery to the inverter, and I was using Solar Assistant. I don't understand what the Battery 'curve' on the Dashboard is actually showing me - I presume that if it's green (it almost never is) then it's showing how much charge is going into the battery, and if it's red, it's showing how much power is coming out of the battery, but it always shows ridiculous amounts coming out. Or is it the other way round? The manual doesn't tell me anything (unless I missed it.)
Then I discovered MultiSIBControl and started using that, with one USB cable from each inverter, and two Ethernet cables coming from the Console and RS485 ports on the master battery, into RS232 to USB and RS485 to USB adaptors in my PC. MultiSIBControl shows me incorrect data from the batteries too.
For example, '29-10-2022 23kWh into battery but still not fully charged.PNG' shows a huge amount of energy going into the batteries, but both the Battery SOC and the Pylon SOC (I don't understand why they are different) are far off 100%.
Is it possible that my electrician has wired up the batteries incorrectly, and somehow much of the electricity from the inverters is not reaching the batteries, but going elsewhere? I have contacted the developer of MultiSIBControl about the three batteries showing in it, but I realise he is doing all this for free and I haven't heard back from him for several days, so I thought I would ask here. I wonder if we could maybe have a MultiSIBControl section in the forums, and a Solar Assistant one, so users of these two pieces of software could help each other.
