Just to clarify a few points:
- First, when you say "line side tap," to me, that implies you have the main breaker panel (off the inverter's Grid terminal) AND a critical loads panel (off the inverter's Load terminal -- diagram 2 in the (my) manual). Is that what you have? Or, is the Sol-ark powering the whole home through just the main breaker panel (off the Load terminal -- diagram 1 in the manual)?
- Second, do you have an operating agreement where you can sell power back to the utility?
- Third, does the utility charge/pay different amounts at different times of day?
The way your Limiter tab is currently set, without Grid Sell checked, you're not selling anything back to the grid and the inverter will limit how much PV you generate to cover only what you've told it to power with the "Limited Power to ..." options. With Limited Power to Load checked, you're limiting the PV you generate to cover only what's in your critical loads panel (whatever's hanging off your Load terminal). If you want to cover everything (i.e., you have both a critical loads panel and a main breaker panel), you'll need to check the Limited Power to Home box, instead.
Your current TOU settings (without the Charge box checked anywhere) won't charge the batteries from anything but PV and will limit how low you can deplete your battery (down to 50% most of the time and won't let the battery discharge at all between 1PM and 5PM). I don't know what time your photo of the inverter's main screen was taken, but if it was between 1pm and 5pm, then that's probably why you're getting power from the grid -- the inverter's charging the battery up to 100% with PV and pulling whatever it needs for the loads from the grid). That Battery First setting is probably contributing to that (assuming what you show from the manual is what you've set yours to). As
@Oldphile said, changing to Load First should help. But, for whatever reason, I don't see any difference in behavior between the two options.
I'm trying to figure out why I'm not seeing any change in behavior when I change from "Load First" to "Batt First."
According to my Sol-Ark 15K's manual, at Settings > Limiter > Other:
"Batt First: Default and recommended option. Sets the solar power priority of the system to charge batteries first. Do NOT change
unless instructed by Sol-Ark technical support.
Load First: Sets the solar power priority of the system to cover loads demand first and deliver remaining power to batteries. Only
recommended for very specific situations."
About a year ago, I decided I wanted to make...
What I'd recommend doing is:
- If you can sell energy back, turn on Grid Sell.
- Choose the correct "Limit Power to ..." option (which you might already have set).
- Check the "Charge" button for every time slot of TOU. That will change the Batt % number to a ceiling instead of a floor (i.e., instead of allowing the battery to be drawn down to only that number, it will charge the battery from the grid up to that number if it ever falls below it).
- Change the Batt % numbers for all TOU slots to match what you've set for the Start % on the inverter's Batt Setup > Charge tab.
- If you do want to go into the night with a full battery (or as close to it as possible), then leave that 1pm to 5pm TOU block (or the latest time slot you want) set at 100% and keep that particular Charge button unchecked. I used to have mine set that way, but decided it wasn't worth it. Now, all the TOU time slots are set to Charge up to 20%.
I'd also recommend changing your Battery Charge and Discharge tab numbers to use as much of the battery as possible. I used to keep my battery lower level at 40% just to leave me some leeway in case of the zombie apocalypse. Then I changed it to 20%. Now, I'm down to 10%:
I watched Will's recent 0-100% LiFePO4 battery videos and thought I'd set that up (I've got no issue with the 100% advice (I'm already doing that) -- I've got some misgivings about not keeping any spare capacity in my HomeGrid Stack'd 19.2 kWh (4 module) battery, but that's a different issue). I need help in figuring out where to make changes to implement that 0% level on my Sol-Ark 15k inverter.
There are 3 places in the settings where I think I'd have to change things to go with that 0-100% battery range. The first is the Batt Setup > Discharge tab:
EDIT: And, in case you haven't seen it, Sol-Ark has a TOU Application Guide on their site that explains more about TOU:
Use the Sol-Ark® Knowledge Hub to download product data sheets, certifications, installation guides, wiring diagrams, and more.
www.sol-ark.com
