diy solar

diy solar

Schneider Conext XW

My first HUGE email I sent back to them to (system@sent-via.netsuite.com) just bounced.
I did not get an email with a case number in the address.
The first email from them had the subject
Case # 53826 Created: Self consumption

And it said " Your request for assistance has been received. Case #53826 - "Self consumption" has been created for you. A member of our customer care team will respond to your case as soon as possible. "

I have not heard from them yet.
I wrote them a novel once I do get in touch with a human there.
 
How long has the wait been since you were assigned a case number?

You might get better results if you start with a simple question. You may get a quicker response. Then dig in with the longer questions. But, it seems like they deal with the questions better if they are one at a time. At least in my experience

If you don't get a response in a week or so, I would try: Solar.support.nam@schneider-electric.com
 
Just 2 days so far. I will give them a chance. I may also send an e-mail to "Real Goods" where I purchased the inverter. Have them try and get an answer from Schneider.

I'll try that other address if I don't hear back by Tuesday.
 
I think my first request for help to Schneider ended up in the garbage. I have now made a new request, and got the automated e-mail yesterday that I have been assigned a case number, but still no contact for a human at Schneider. I did send a message to Real Goods, with no reply yet. I have registered the XW-Pro and Gateway with Schneider for extended warranty support.

I have not had a breaker blow again, or any more voltage errors. Other than having to manually force it to switch modes, it is working great.
 
I finally got a nice reply, but it was just about the registration, and a survey how they did and a closed ticket notice. Still no tech reply on my questions.

Does anyone on these forums know the password to get into the "Grid Code" menu?
 
Hello All, I have two XW Pro inverters AC coupled to 12 Chilicon micros and this system is off grid. We have installed AC coupling before with XW but not with Chilicon micros. I got the system up and running and what I’m seeing is the XWs raising frequency to curtail the micros prior to reaching anywhere near bulk voltage and in fact going up high enough to kick the micros off line. Here is the rub, if the micros are producing less then 2200 watts the XW will keep Hertz at 60, as soon as the watts goes above this it Shakes off the micros. Any ideas?
 
Are the Chilcons UL 1741 or 1741 SA compliant? If the former, they cannot modulate and are either full on (depending on solar production) or full off. What size is your battery?
 
Ampster said:
Are the Chilcons UL 1741 or 1741 SA compliant? If the former, they cannot modulate and are either full on (depending on solar production) or full off. What size is your battery?
Click to expand...
The Chilicons have Freq-watt settings and are made to modulate. The battery bank is 1140 AH @ 48VDC
 
Thanks, that dispenses with that hypothesis. I don't know the Schneider equipment like @GXMnow or others do so i am grasping at straws here. Is the battery capacity set up in the XW Pro?
 
What I think is happening is that the power coming in from the micros is higher than the maximum charge current setting.

Even though the batteries are not full, the charge current is going too high so it is shifting the frequency to reduce the charge current. It continues to shift because the current is still too high. I am betting you have the charge current limit set close to 2200 watts. 2200 watts at about 50 volts is only 44 amps. Is your "Maximum Charge Rate" set about 32% ?? This number in the advanced charge settings configuration page is the percentage of 140 amps. So 80% of 140 would mean a max rate of 112 amps. 32% is 44 amps etc.

ChargeRate.PNG

If you have some load on the output side, that will take some of the power and as long as the remaining power going in to the XW-Pro is less than the maximum charge rate, it should all be happy, and it will hold frequency down.

It does sound like the Chilicon micros are either not lowering output, lowering it too little, or lowering too slow, for how much the XW is trying to reduce the charge current.

While on grid, I run my maximum charge rate at just 22% to slow charge while the sun is shining. But off grid I will turn that up to 80% so it will take any extra sun and charge the battery faster without curtailing. I know my battery bank can safely take that 112 amp setting. My 16 Enphase iQ7 inverters can only output up to 3850 watts total. At 50 volts, that would only be 77 amps of charge current. So any percentage above about 54% on my system should not curtail the solar until the batteries are full.
 
GXMnow said:
What I think is happening is that the power coming in from the micros is higher than the maximum charge current setting.

Even though the batteries are not full, the charge current is going too high so it is shifting the frequency to reduce the charge current. It continues to shift because the current is still too high. I am betting you have the charge current limit set close to 2200 watts. 2200 watts at about 50 volts is only 44 amps. Is your "Maximum Charge Rate" set about 32% ?? This number in the advanced charge settings configuration page is the percentage of 140 amps. So 80% of 140 would mean a max rate of 112 amps. 32% is 44 amps etc.

View attachment 22521

If you have some load on the output side, that will take some of the power and as long as the remaining power going in to the XW-Pro is less than the maximum charge rate, it should all be happy, and it will hold frequency down.

It does sound like the Chilicon micros are either not lowering output, lowering it too little, or lowering too slow, for how much the XW is trying to reduce the charge current.

While on grid, I run my maximum charge rate at just 22% to slow charge while the sun is shining. But off grid I will turn that up to 80% so it will take any extra sun and charge the battery faster without curtailing. I know my battery bank can safely take that 112 amp setting. My 16 Enphase iQ7 inverters can only output up to 3850 watts total. At 50 volts, that would only be 77 amps of charge current. So any percentage above about 54% on my system should not curtail the solar until the batteries are full.
Click to expand...
Good suggestion, with two XWpro inverters(master, slave) I believe you need to set each for the combined max charge. In this case with a 14Kw generator and a 7Kw array I have each inverter set to 60% charge rate so that should equal 168A on the DC side and 34A on the AC side.
 
Is the generator running and connected? If the generator is online, it will be what set's the frequency of the power. Most recommend disconnecting grid tie solar when a generator is running as the back feed can damage things. Maybe the solar is driving the generator like a motor and making it spin too fast?
 
GXMnow said:
Is the generator running and connected? If the generator is online, it will be what set's the frequency of the power. Most recommend disconnecting grid tie solar when a generator is running as the back feed can damage things. Maybe the solar is driving the generator like a motor and making it spin too fast?
Click to expand...
The generator is setup but not running. The Chilicon inverters have a cool feature that looks at voltage and will reduce power if it sees voltage rise from a connected generator pushing watts.
 
With your charge rate at 60% you should not be hitting that. Are the outputs of the two XW's going to the same panel in parallel? Is it a common battery bank tied between both XW's? Is there anything else charging the batteries? Any DC coupled solar etc.? Are you running a Schneider Battery Monitor?
 
GXMnow said:
With your charge rate at 60% you should not be hitting that. Are the outputs of the two XW's going to the same panel in parallel? Is it a common battery bank tied between both XW's? Is there anything else charging the batteries? Any DC coupled solar etc.? Are you running a Schneider Battery Monitor?
Click to expand...
It has the XW master slave panel to a common bus, a single battery bank tied to both inverters, and no other charge sources.
 
That should certainly have no problem handling the full power of the array. What panels and inverters are you using? 7KW / 12 is 583 watts each. They do have a model rated to 720 watts, but what panel can put that out, or is that 2 panels on each micro?

If all of the inverters are at full output, pushing 7,000 watts, split across the 2 XW's, that is only 3,500 watts into each one. At even a very low 49 volts, that would be 73 amps of charge current from each XW-Pro. That is just over the 50% mark. When it is starting to frequency shift, how long do you have before the Chilicon inverters shut down? Can you grab a few scren shots of the inverter status page. Here is mine right now.
XWstat.PNG
At this point I have just 857 watts coming in from my solar array, and the battery is in Absorption mode pulling just 1 amp at 57.7 volts. I am on grid and it is allowing the power from the Enphase micros to back feed out the grid input at 3.9 amps. My grid frequency is right on 60.0 hz. I have noticed that the Grid AC1 input and the Load Output amp meters are a little off calibration so it sometimes looks like I am getting more power out than is going in. But now it is charging a little and I have a small fan running on L1 Output causing the 0.3 amp imbalance there.
 
Apex said:
It has the XW master slave panel to a common bus, a single battery bank tied to both inverters, and no other charge sources.
Click to expand...
Oh yea, and no battery monitor, though if we did I could ask it to charge to an SOC.
 
GXMnow said:
That should certainly have no problem handling the full power of the array. What panels and inverters are you using? 7KW / 12 is 583 watts each. They do have a model rated to 720 watts, but what panel can put that out, or is that 2 panels on each micro?

If all of the inverters are at full output, pushing 7,000 watts, split across the 2 XW's, that is only 3,500 watts into each one. At even a very low 49 volts, that would be 73 amps of charge current from each XW-Pro. That is just over the 50% mark. When it is starting to frequency shift, how long do you have before the Chilicon inverters shut down? Can you grab a few scren shots of the inverter status page. Here is mine right now.
View attachment 22544
At this point I have just 857 watts coming in from my solar array, and the battery is in Absorption mode pulling just 1 amp at 57.7 volts. I am on grid and it is allowing the power from the Enphase micros to back feed out the grid input at 3.9 amps. My grid frequency is right on 60.0 hz. I have noticed that the Grid AC1 input and the Load Output amp meters are a little off calibration so it sometimes looks like I am getting more power out than is going in. But now it is charging a little and I have a small fan running on L1 Output causing the 0.3 amp imbalance there.
Click to expand...
Ok a few more tidbits, first these micros have two panels per inverter. Since I’m not on site I’m just looking through insitecloud and I wish they let you see more instantaneously, so I can’t get to the status Page. I just see snapshots. I changed the float setting to 56V and the micros followed, so this means that the XW will not let the bulk And absorption stage happen. I have set 3 hours of absorption at 58 VDC. It seems to just want to let it go to float???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Consumerbot3418
Conext XW Modbus registers to control sell to grid/charge from grid
Replies
1
Views
281
400bird
4
J
Schneider XW Pro 6848 Stuck in AC Passthrough
2
Replies
34
Views
2K
400bird
4
N
Schneider Conext SW 4048
Replies
11
Views
397
Gttnsun
G
H
XW+ AC Coupling
Replies
4
Views
131
hogback
H
H
Xw+ Shutdown
Replies
4
Views
122
hogback
H
Back
Top