Sol-Ark 15k - Trophy Battery - 42 Solarever Panels 7s2p x 3

[NC_hydro]

Friends from church have had a Sol-Ark 15k new in the box for 2-3yrs along with 42 Solarever 445w panels. The installer that had started helping them with their system had moved several hours away so the stuff sat for a while. They got 3 x Trophy 300Ah batteries, with intentions of getting more later. Tying them together with two Victron Lynx Class-T Power in and a regular Lynx Power in for the inverter and any future MPPT expansion. Panels are on a barn 14 on the east side and 28 on the west side. 7s2p into each of the three MPPT inputs. Went with a Watts 24/7 6 to 3 combiner, really impressed with what I see so far especially for the price. Panels mounted with the 6" mini rails to the metal roof. A good sized mountain to the south that definately cuts the sun hours in the winter so they may need to add some ground mounts facing south. Will be tied in to the main house panel with generator interlock on 70amp breaker. No grid input in to the Sol-Ark.

 

[NC_hydro]

Think i'll use these to route the PV wire through the metal roof on the barn. https://www.currentconnected.com/product/solar-2-wire-cable-entry-roof-mount-weatherproof-white/

 

[NC_hydro]

I'm guessing it's safe to assume the Sol-Ark 15k does not have pre-charge resistor built in. What I'm reading online seems to support that.

 

[LydMekk]

Nope. It is usually only batteries that have a pre-charge resistor built in.
Not inverters.
It is the condensators IN the inverters that need some braking on the influx from the batteries.

 

[houseofancients]

I'm guessing it's safe to assume the Sol-Ark 15k does not have pre-charge resistor built in. What I'm reading online seems to support that.

They don't, no inverters do, however, if these are the first gen trophy batteries were running a seplos 10e (V2 ) BMS which does.

Sequence of startup is important here

 

[NC_hydro]

They don't, no inverters do, however, if these are the first gen trophy batteries were running a seplos 10e (V2 ) BMS which does.

Sequence of startup is important here

They’re the newer 300Ah model just purchased this fall. I will use my 48v forklift lightbulb precharge resistor that I used when powering my Victron system up with the same model batteries.

 

[Quattrohead]

Remember to update the firmware on that inverter so you're not running a beta version

 

[Solar Guppy]

They don't, no inverters do, however, if these are the first gen trophy batteries were running a seplos 10e (V2 ) BMS which does.

Sequence of startup is important here

Just an FYI, the Solis 5G/S6 HV inverters have a feature "Battery Wakeup", which the inverter pre-charges the battery connection to a specified voltage and for how long and can be manually activated using the mobile app or Solis Cloud.

This is a requirement for UL9540 Inverter/battery paired that either the inverter or battery have an automated pre-charge sequence, one of the benefits of using UL9540 listed equipment.

 

[houseofancients]

Just an FYI, the Solis 5G/S6 HV inverters have a feature "Battery Wakeup", which the inverter pre-charges the battery connection to a specified voltage and for how long and can be manually activated using the mobile app or Solis Cloud.

This is a requirement for UL9540 Inverter/battery paired that either the inverter or battery have an automated pre-charge sequence, one of the benefits of using UL9540 listed equipment.

View attachment 265438

Battery wake up is available in most high end aio's.
It works , in most , if not all, by slightly increasing the charge voltage to "wake up" the BMS, and has -0- to do with precharge resisting

 

[Solar Guppy]

Battery wake up is available in most high end aio's.
It works , in most , if not all, by slightly increasing the charge voltage to "wake up" the BMS, and has -0- to do with precharge resisting

This is a UL9540 requirement, and I have measured the battery lines, it does what I described, it is a USA/UL thing so not surprised its not in the EU

 

[NC_hydro]

Remember to update the firmware on that inverter so you're not running a beta version

For sure, it’s been boxed since 2021 lol

 

[houseofancients]

This is a UL9540 requirement, and I have measured the battery lines, it does what I described

As did I..
So I am sure the function of battery wake up works like I described in dyer/sol-ark and sunsynk.
The requirement in ul9540 in there, but for the battery

 

[NC_hydro]

I get a call from them yesterday and half their panel is out. Mind you we've not connected anything from the Sol-Ark solar system yet to the house panel so it's unmolested. Half the outlets in the house are working and nothing 240v is working. Sounded like one of the phases had dropped. I stop by and was going to check the lines coming into the panel from grid and the other phase came back before I had a chance to take the panel cover off. Later they called and said it was coming and going and the lights that were working are very dim. Told them call the power company and unplug their large appliances and put their fridge on their Ecoflow.

This morning they had the panel cover off to test the voltages on each phase. One was 111v the other 126v and when tested across both phases it showed 15volts. Power company somehow pushing both 120v phases on the phase and not offset? @timselectric

 

[NC_hydro]

Update: Power company discovered that two years ago when fiber optic lines were buried they cut into the buried power lines enough to compromise the insulation. Finally corroded enough to be a big problem. But explains the erratic power over the last two years and 2 appliances dying.

 

[NC_hydro]

Sanity check. Wiring the inverter to 70amp interlocked breaker on the main panel. L1 and L2 from the Sol-Ark go into the breaker, then I’ll run the neutral from Solark to the neutral/ground bus bar in the panel as well as the ground from solark into the neutral/ground bar on the panel.

 

[niktak11]

Sanity check. Wiring the inverter to 70amp interlocked breaker on the main panel. L1 and L2 from the Sol-Ark go into the breaker, then I’ll run the neutral from Solark to the neutral/ground bus bar in the panel as well as the ground from solark into the neutral/ground bar on the panel.

Are you running it off grid or will you have the grid input connected?

 

[NC_hydro]

Are you running it off grid or will you have the grid input connected?

Off grid,

 

[niktak11]

Off grid,

I think you need an 80A breaker then (possibly higher if using the generator input).

62.5 x 1.25 = 78.125 (round up to 80A)

 

[NC_hydro]

I think you need an 80A breaker then (possibly higher if using the generator input).

62.5 x 1.25 = 78.125 (round up to 80A)

No generator input.

 

[NC_hydro]

Good call on the 70 vs 80 amp breaker. 4 AWG THHN should still be good for 80amp breaker I believe. Copper THHN showing 95amp capacity.

 

[NC_hydro]

System has been working great for them for 3 weeks. 4th Trophy battery added this past weekend. Sometimes they will get an AC overload fault on the inverter when their large heat pump kicks on (5-6ton). So they’ve got an Easy Start coming. Yesterday however around 5:05pm power shut off. No errors or alarms on the Sol-Ark and it’s still running. They were running electric dryer at the time which they’ve done many times before. Loads were around 6,400watts. Behavior is similar to the AC overload after a while inverter clicks and power comes back. Restarted the dryer and 15min later it happens again.

Wired off grid, no grid or generator connection.

Has me thankful I went Victron with my system.

 

[NC_hydro]

The only thing that changed before the problem started happening was we connected a 4th Trophy battery to the last open slot on the Victron Class T Power In. No idea how that could effect it. Submitted a ticket with Sol-Ark lets see how their support is

 

[NC_hydro]

Still not a peep from Sol-Ark support nearly a week later. Yes I keep checking spam folder.

In any case, solved the issue. PICNIC in IT world means: problem in chair not in computer. When we connected the 4th battery with the others off and 100% we set the system up with a 100amp charge discharge limit to be nice to the battery. Got it to 100% and then turned them all on but I forgot to bumped the charge/discharge back to the max 275A the Sol-Ark will do. Part of what clued me in diagnosing it from 4hrs away was their PV output seemed to be maxing out around 4kw when it was hitting 14KW before. Their dryer would run if there was enough PV to handle it all but if it had to use mostly battery it was hitting that 100amp limit.

Just going to let the Sol-Ark ticket go to see how long before they finally respond for comical reasons.

 

[Brucey]

Still not a peep from Sol-Ark support nearly a week later. Yes I keep checking spam folder.

In any case, solved the issue. PICNIC in IT world means: problem in chair not in computer. When we connected the 4th battery with the others off and 100% we set the system up with a 100amp charge discharge limit to be nice to the battery. Got it to 100% and then turned them all on but I forgot to bumped the charge/discharge back to the max 275A the Sol-Ark will do. Part of what clued me in diagnosing it from 4hrs away was their PV output seemed to be maxing out around 4kw when it was hitting 14KW before. Their dryer would run if there was enough PV to handle it all but if it had to use mostly battery it was hitting that 100amp limit.

Just going to let the Sol-Ark ticket go to see how long before they finally respond for comical reasons.

From recent accounts wouldn't be surprised it its just closed out as resolved with no explanation then when you complain they ask you to open new ticket...

 

[NC_hydro]

From recent accounts wouldn't be surprised it its just closed out as resolved with no explanation then when you complain they ask you to open new ticket...

Ah, yeah not surprised. I’ve worked with tech in past jobs that just go through and close tickets after a day to get their support numbers up.