diy solar

diy solar

Sol-Ark TOU and Overcurrent Fault

So just curious...if you were to do it over again, what equipment would you have chosen/installed?
I'm not sure what I would change as far as inverters but for batteries, I would have been looking at a DIY build or either an SOK or EG4LL battery bank. I think the SOK's would win because of their ability to be repaired. I'm still strongly considering taking a huge loss on the batteries to correct my storage issue. It's even affecting me overnight this week. I'm having to watch my usage like a hawk even with huge daily PV production lately.
 
I'm not sure what I would change as far as inverters but for batteries, I would have been looking at a DIY build or either an SOK or EG4LL battery bank. I think the SOK's would win because of their ability to be repaired. I'm still strongly considering taking a huge loss on the batteries to correct my storage issue. It's even affecting me overnight this week. I'm having to watch my usage like a hawk even with huge daily PV production lately.
What baseline consumption are you seeing with those batteries? You have 10 5.3kWh modules, yes? Has Fortress confirmed that what you're seeing is within normal/expected range? If so, I wonder how it compares with similarly-sized modules from SOK, EG4, etc.
 
Fortress told me consumption was 30 watts per hour. They repeated that number to me and others on this forum several times. There's a whole thread about it. Idle with no loads, batteries turned on but not even a Sol-Ark drawing power was over 12 watts an hour. They'd run some tests themselves after I made such a stink about it and they saw numbers from 12 watts to 18 depending on what the battery was doing. If you're actively using your batteries, I think 30 is a pretty consistent number.

I know Simpli-Phi quoted the same 30 watt figure but Discover refused to answer (if I remember correctly). EG4 and SOK are less power hungry because they use a MOSFET not a contactor. (I hope I got that part correct). Fortress had a rep on here, John Cromer, who has since moved on to work for Sol-Ark. He kept saying "You can build a hot rod" (meaning with MOSFET but indicated it would not be safe. Most on this forum wholeheartedly disagreed with his portrayal of the batteries most seem to use in this forum.

I do have 10 of the eFlex and I see losses of produced power that corresponds pretty closely to the 30 watts each from the batteries and 60 watts idle plus 5% of consumption for the Sol-Arks. It's not a loss I can actually live with in the winter.
 
Fortress told me consumption was 30 watts per hour. They repeated that number to me and others on this forum several times. There's a whole thread about it. Idle with no loads, batteries turned on but not even a Sol-Ark drawing power was over 12 watts an hour. They'd run some tests themselves after I made such a stink about it and they saw numbers from 12 watts to 18 depending on what the battery was doing. If you're actively using your batteries, I think 30 is a pretty consistent number.
Jk bms is about 30 watts too. But you can build a 14kWh pack with one bms. I am building one, and it is costing about $3,000 for everything.

Have you tried manual battery settings for the f18 errors?
 
Jk bms is about 30 watts too. But you can build a 14kWh pack with one bms. I am building one, and it is costing about $3,000 for everything.

Have you tried manual battery settings for the f18 errors?
The errors appear to be caused by a mismatch of inverters. One was an older version so they sent me a new board. No problems since installing it. Can I ask where you are sourcing cells, etc? I need to make a decision and swap things out sooner than later.
 
Well, it has been a week since they installed the update. We've had a nice mix of weather -- full sun, partial clouds, overcast, and even some thunderstorms. Not a single fault. Maybe they actually did fix it.
I forgot to follow up on this. Since they installed that software update, we have not had any overcurrent faults. So it really did fix it. The system works great now, doing exactly what we have it set up to do (draw from batteries if cloudy or overnight, recharge during the day, sell any excess back to the grid). Our electric company charges an "availability charge" just for having the meter hooked up, but aside from that, this setup has eliminated our power bill, and they owe us a few bucks each month.
 
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