Sol-Ark 15k Not registering any load power or grid power when no PV power.

[hpeyerl]

This is a new system that I've just finished putting together. I have a few minor things to do still (Gen hookup, Gen start, etc).

System config is:

* 27 x 505w panels.
* Tigo TS4-A-O optimizers/RSD
* Sol-Ark 15k
* 8 x 100AH Shoto telecom rackmount Lifepo4 batteries

Yesterday I reconfigured the work mode on the inverter so I could enable TOU. That caused the inverter to reboot and everything went dark for a "wtf have I done!?!?" really long 3 or 4 minutes. Then everything came back and was working fine; however after everything came back, Solar-Assistant (and PowerView) were showing 0 load, 0 grid, and 0 PV. As I was trying to understand what happened it suddenly started logging consumption. I wrote it off as an aberration.

This morning I woke up to look at Solar-Assistant and all night long, there was no Load or Grid data. Then all of a sudden it started working again.

I realized that when there's no PV generation, the inverter doesn't seem to show any consumption on the Load nor any Grid consumption. It's not just Solar-Assistant either, PowerView also shows the same; so I'm sure it's not my RS485 or anything like that.

Is this just a side effect of the system being in "Limited power to Load" work mode? I'm not sure I fully understand how to configure TOU so I could have done something wrong.

 

[EnergizerNate]

If there is no PV or battery power, the Sol-Ark will power off and just pass the grid through to save you the power it draws for itself when it's running. So I have the same thing, no data until the sun comes up each day. I am looking forward to adding batteries so I have data from overnight.

 

[hpeyerl]

If there is no PV or battery power, the Sol-Ark will power off and just pass the grid through to save you the power it draws for itself when it's running. So I have the same thing, no data until the sun comes up each day. I am looking forward to adding batteries so I have data from overnight.

Oh. I see. Except I have batteries and I think I configured TOU to draw from the batteries. Maybe I've done it wrong. According to Solar-Assistant, there's only been a few hundred mA going into the batteries.

 

[Tulex]

Did you turn battery on at the inverter? (Activate Battery)

 

[Tulex]

Also, under TOU, if you don't have Sell selected for the time you want battery, I don't think it uses batteries.
I have all mine set to sell. It will use battery until it gets to the limit. If it goes below the limit, say from multiple cloudy days and trickle loss, it will use solar for battery only until it gets the batteries back up to the minimum, then solar for load first, then batteries after load is satisfied.

 

[hpeyerl]

Did you turn battery on at the inverter? (Activate Battery)

Yes. The inverter has been using batteries during outages and then recharging them after the outages are over. Though they're not closed-loop because these batteries don't speak any of the protocols that the Sol-Ark does. Pierre is working on mods to SA to fully support the batteries.

 

[hpeyerl]

Also, under TOU, if you don't have Sell selected for the time you want battery, I don't think it uses batteries.
I have all mine set to sell. It will use battery until it gets to the limit. If it goes below the limit, say from multiple cloudy days and trickle loss, it will use solar for battery only until it gets the batteries back up to the minimum, then solar for load first, then batteries after load is satisfied.

oh! So I inadvertently turned 'Solar sell' on yesterday and discovered that I was pushing power out to the grid in the afternoon and since I'm not supposed to be doing that I disabled that.

But I assume that's not the same as these "Sell" buttons:

 

[Tulex]

No, the sell buttons under TOU don't sell to the grid, they sell to the inverter. So yes, if you don't want to sell to grid, turn that off, but use sell under TOU for battery use. And, make sure only sell or charge are selected, not both.

 

[hpeyerl]

No, the sell buttons under TOU don't sell to the grid, they sell to the inverter. So yes, if you don't want to sell to grid, turn that off, but use sell under TOU for battery use. And, make only sell or charge are selected, not both.

Oh ok, the various contexts of 'Sell' are confusing me.

So if I do this instead:



Does that mean it will only charge the batteries from PV and not Grid?

 

[Tulex]

There is a separate place to set whether or not grid will charge battery.

 

[Oldphile]

Your TOU should include an SOC setting for charging. Somethings not right.

 

[Tulex]

And I also find both the use of "Sell" and "Generator" confusing with Sol-Ark, as they use both for different things.

 

[Tulex]

Your TOU should include an SOC setting for charging. Somethings not right.

View attachment 213285

Oh, I missed that, and someone else on here had the same issue.

 

[hpeyerl]

Your TOU should include an SOC setting for charging. Somethings not right.

I wondered that too. In other threads I noticed that others show the SOC% and mine doesn't. I told myself that was probably people who had closed-loop batteries. I don't know why it's not showing up.

Though I just a few minutes ago discovered that PowerView showed my battery was disabled, even though it was enabled yesterday. I just re-enabled it and suffered another 'blackout' (and my wife was in the shower so I've lost some popularity).

Anyway, still no SOC% in the TOU settings.

Edit: When I re-enabled the battery a few minutes ago, I also set 'Batt Type' to 'Lithium Batt'. I just went back to the Battery Setting menu and see that 'Lithium Batt' is unchecked again. I have to wait til my wife leaves before I mess with this anymore.

 

[Tulex]

@mgdean, did you find the answer to not having SOC on your friends inverter for TOU?

 

[Tulex]

A couple things. Sol-Ark inverter is very slow to react, so give it time. Also, I found that it's finicky. I think I had to go through the full shut down and startup procedure to get settings to take for one of the issues I was dealing with. This may not be the case for your situation.

 

[Tulex]

@Carlos_Sol-Ark might be able to help.

 

[hpeyerl]

So I've spent a bit of time playing with it and I've convinced myself I don't understand this.

1) ok. I now have SOC in my system work mode screen. The reason it kept blanking out "lithium battery" is because that is apparently only if the battery is closed loop. Instead, I've selected "Batt-%".





2) I tried switching back to 'Grid Selling' which is what I had when I first turned the inverter on and because it showed me my load/grid consumption regardless of whether there was PV or not. But when I switched back to 'Grid Selling', I started pushing excess back into the grid which I do not want. I assumed that meant "Sell the grid to the inverter" but apparently it means "Sell PV to the grid"?

Anyway, maybe if I itemize what I'd like to do, someone can hold my hand through this. I've tried reading the manual and reading forum posts but the terminology and context for 'sell' is confusing me and I don't know the difference between "Limited power to Load" and "Limited to Home" because my "Home" is connected to my "Load" terminals.

So here's what I think I want:

* I can't send any power to the grid. Period.
* I would like to run on battery as much as possible until some SOC%.
* I would like to charge my batteries with PV and then once charged, power my loads on PV.
* If there's no PV and my batteries are not charged, I want to charge from the grid and run my loads from the grid.

It's possible that some of what I want is dumb and someone can convince me that I don't want it.
Maybe that's what I have now?

 

[Oldphile]

I agree this stuff is confusing. I can clarify Limited Power to home. That's if your main service panel is before the Sol-Ark grid terminals. The Sol-Ark can backfeed towards the grid, but using external CTs after the utility meter, not backfeed the grid. What you have is Limited Power to loads.

 

[hpeyerl]

I can clarify Limited Power to home. That's if your main service panel is before the Sol-Ark grid terminals. The Sol-Ark can backfeed towards the grid, but using external CTs after the utility meter, not backfeed the grid. What you have is Limited Power to loads.

Oh interesting! I didn't realize that was a possibility.

It appears that with the settings from my previous message, the system is doing what I would like. It ran off battery last night until it reached 50% this morning around 5:30AM. My resistance water heater is consuming a bunch of power periodically which is a future project to replace.

The brief grid-sell was while playing around with settings yesterday but had lots of good sun.

Thanks for the help everyone!