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Sol-Ark 12K battery settings

Ldc_NH

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Feb 11, 2021
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Hello All

These are the battery settings on my Sol-Ark 12K. I feel like I am not using the batteries near there capacity. At this time I have two 48 volt 280 AMP Lifopo4 home made setup, with 100 amp overkill BMS and battery balancers. They never go lower then 3.2 volts and only get to 3.45 volts.
These are settings on the Sol-Ark.
1644703266500.png
 
55.6/16= 3.475v to batt if they are balanced you can still get to pretty much full but it would lake a long time, i personally charge at 58v, my barium default recommendation i think was 58.8v, on the discharge i do not know since i use SOC values instead of voltages
 
I assume the packs are each using 100 Amp BMS systems and they are in parallel yet you are only charging at 100 Amps max? Maybe I am not understanding the setup.

Things that I can see straight away are:
Your Battery Empty is set way to low. Set it to 49V
Set the float to 54.5
Absorption to 55V
You can do an Equalization every 14 day for 1 hour using 55V. This helps the Sol-Ark to recalibrate it's percentages.

Keep in mind that Bat-% mode charging takes at least 3 days of cycling to be calibrate. If you change any of settings or the charging mode the whole process starts back over. That one drove me crazy at first because my battery voltages where not inline with the percentages and I kept fiddling and getting no where. Then I talked to Sol-Ark and they said don't mess with the settings for three days and if by the forth day it is not calibrated then go in and fine tune the settings again and let it go another 3 days. Every battery has a slightly different chemistry but the settings I gave you work with my eFlex batteries and my EG4 battery.
 
I assume the packs are each using 100 Amp BMS systems and they are in parallel yet you are only charging at 100 Amps max? Maybe I am not understanding the setup.

Things that I can see straight away are:
Your Battery Empty is set way to low. Set it to 49V
Set the float to 54.5
Absorption to 55V
You can do an Equalization every 14 day for 1 hour using 55V. This helps the Sol-Ark to recalibrate it's percentages.

Keep in mind that Bat-% mode charging takes at least 3 days of cycling to be calibrate. If you change any of settings or the charging mode the whole process starts back over. That one drove me crazy at first because my battery voltages where not inline with the percentages and I kept fiddling and getting no where. Then I talked to Sol-Ark and they said don't mess with the settings for three days and if by the forth day it is not calibrated then go in and fine tune the settings again and let it go another 3 days. Every battery has a slightly different chemistry but the settings I gave you work with my eFlex batteries and my EG4 battery.
There are two 48 volt battery packs, made up each of 16 EVE 280 amp hour batteries. Both battery packs have Over-Kill 100 AMP BMS. In the last day I have changed wiring around so that I can run 200 AMPS between inverter and Bus bars. Doing so allowed me to change the following setting to 185, max for Sol-Ark
1645276435108.png
Since posting the original request for information I made a few adjustments, these are the current setting for battery.
1645276735000.png
The adjustments have gotten me more use out of the batteries. At this point the solar has not been enough to charge them back to 100 % from the inverters point of view. It is charging them enough so I get use out of them each evening, some night longer then other depending on the prior days sun. Today is the first day with the new charge/discharge setting in place. FYI, I am working with 12K of potential solar input, but living in NH I have limited Sun this time of year, days are getting longer so better solar each day.
 
Update on the battery charging. Well as stated I was not getting the batteries charged. A friend and my brother looked at the charts provided, they both came to the conclusion that I was only using 1/2 of my charging power. In a Sol-ark 12K there are two MPPT controllers. With some wire removals and restarts what I found out was that one MPPT controller was wired wrong. A swap of 4 wires brought the 2nd MPPT controller on line. When the sun is actually out, I now have charged the batteries to full a few time. When the Batteries are full they can carry the house all night and into the next Sunny day. Now I just need 5 hours of strong sun a day, all the time:). Still am taking thoughts on settings, so let me know if you see anything else that I might want to adjust. Thank you all.
 
There are two 48 volt battery packs, made up each of 16 EVE 280 amp hour batteries. Both battery packs have Over-Kill 100 AMP BMS. In the last day I have changed wiring around so that I can run 200 AMPS between inverter and Bus bars. Doing so allowed me to change the following setting to 185, max for Sol-Ark
View attachment 84393
Since posting the original request for information I made a few adjustments, these are the current setting for battery.
View attachment 84394
The adjustments have gotten me more use out of the batteries. At this point the solar has not been enough to charge them back to 100 % from the inverters point of view. It is charging them enough so I get use out of them each evening, some night longer then other depending on the prior days sun. Today is the first day with the new charge/discharge setting in place. FYI, I am working with 12K of potential solar input, but living in NH I have limited Sun this time of year, days are getting longer so better solar each day.
The only thing I would change is the Absorption to 55V. I think 58V is high, but I do know some people like it for the faster charging at the start using 56.8V but 58V seems high.
 
58 is what my battery is requesting, through bms communication.
you should be able to change that setting. 58 (3.625/cell) is too high imo for these cells given the 'knees' at the upper end (same is true for the lower end). no need to push the cells so hard to eek out a couple AHs. there are a few videos out there where they have done tests on the charging curve that illustrate the knee. i personally run my pack at 54.4 absorb., 54.2 for float and 49.2 for batt low and 49.4 for restart. My goal is to not obtain the max storage but max longevity aka more battery cycles. For reference I also have a solark 12k.

Some more info on the subject

 
I'm assuming that the battery manufacturer, has set it for longevity. They want what they make to get good reviews.
 
I'm assuming that the battery manufacturer, has set it for longevity. They want what they make to get good reviews.
No, I have tried those high settings and all it does is give you something like 2 minutes of extra power and then the voltage drops right back down. Look at the Graphs and you can see that your pumping in power trying to climb the Knee's and the Knee's have about less than 1% of the available power.
 
I'll stick with manufacturers recommendations.
But, thanks for the information.
 
EG4 and Growatt
I take it you closed loop connected the EG4 to Growatt? If so does it not allow you to select the charging voltages in the Growatt?

We all know that Signature Solars Documentation is a mess, so is this the on you have: EG4 Manual
It Says 56 Volt Recommended charging.
 
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Settings are not adjustable, with communications option.

Edit: it doesn't float at all. It just charges to 100% every morning. And then rests until needed.
 
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Seems to work just fine. I have no issues with my system. For the first week, the battery gained usable power (i assumed that the bms was balancing the cells). And has been very predictable since.
 
Hello All

These are the battery settings on my Sol-Ark 12K. I feel like I am not using the batteries near there capacity. At this time I have two 48 volt 280 AMP Lifopo4 home made setup, with 100 amp overkill BMS and battery balancers. They never go lower then 3.2 volts and only get to 3.45 volts.
These are settings on the Sol-Ark.
View attachment 83532

Based on comments provided from forum users and the fact that I added another 48 volt, 280 amp hour pack for a total of 3, I am providing the latest Sol-Ark battery settings for review/discussion.
1647188219467.png

As always let me know your thoughts.
 
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