Sol-Ark TOU killing PV production

[Oldphile]

PV production is significantly reduced if I turn on TOU. All time slots are set to 100% SOC and 0 watts. Neither Charge or Sell are selected.
My system is wired whole house backup and Sol-Ark is set to Limited Power to Load.
I was trying to use Grid Peak Shaving, but that setting automatically engages TOU.
With TOU selected and Grid Peak Shaving not selected, I still get drastic PV reduction.

I've used Grid Peak Shaving in the past, but this was prior to the introduction of MySolArk.

Has anybody else experienced this?

 

[dreancestere]

I might be misunderstanding what you're describing, but turning on Limited Power to Load (without also having Grid Sell turned on):

"...will NOT produce more power than the load demand."

EDIT: Are you off-grid? Do you have a generator attached? I've never used Grid Shaving, so you should wait for someone else to specify how to work around this (since enabling Grid Sell with a generator on the Grid terminal will backfeed to the generator).

 

[Oldphile]

I'm on grid. I have grid sell on.

 

[Solar Guppy]

Setting to zero watts will do just that for energy that would normally be exported to the grid when the TOU time window is active. What are you trying to achieve with TOU?

 

[Oldphile]

Setting to zero watts will do just that for energy that would normally be exported to the grid when the TOU time window is active. What are you trying to achieve with TOU?

I just want to exercise my batteries. On a monthly basis I have 1:1 net metering. I got batteries solely for backup.

I turned Grid Peak Shaving on again last night after dark. So far it does not seem to be doing what it did yesterday.

 

[Tulex]

The only reason I use TOU is to limit battery drain.
My setting is limit to home, battery first, all my TOU are sell. You have to pick charge or sell for each TOU for it to use it.
I believe you have to use grid sell to export. (It's been so long since I've messed with it, can you have grid sell and limit to load both selected?)

 

[Solar Guppy]

I doubt there is an automated way for monthly exercise, most hybrid TOU schedules are for 24 hour periods.

I'm not a SolArk owner but for Hybrids in general they run in self-use mode and use a SOC target on the battery to prevent excess battery cycling. Since you have the SOC target of 100%, that means always keep the battery charged, so change that to a lower value and the battery will supply loads as long as the SOC is above that setting.

 

[Oldphile]

can you have grid sell and limit to load both selected?)

Yes.

 

[Oldphile]

I'm not a SolArk owner but for Hybrids in general they run in self-use mode and use a SOC target on the battery to prevent excess battery cycling. Since you have the SOC target of 100%, that means always keep the battery charged, so change that to a lower value and the battery will supply loads as long as the SOC is above that setting.

The problem was turning on TOU killed PV production. I don't want to discharge my batteries while killing PV production. Anyway the problem magically doesn't exist today.
Update: While the batteries were recharging this morning, no problem. Once batteries reached 100% SOC, PV production dropped. I changed TOU to 98% and 500 watts. PV production returned to normal.

 

[dreancestere]

Could you post a screenshot of your inverter's Limiter tab?

I don't have net metering or use Grid Peak Shaving. I'm set up to sell as much energy to the grid as possible to offset any grid import and allow my batteries to discharge down to 20%. That leaves me some backup battery capacity if the grid goes down. If it does go down long enough to drop my battery below 20%, the Charge box being checked will (I believe) recharge the battery to that point once the grid comes back. Once my batteries drop below 15%, if the grid's still not on, my generator will kick in to charge the batteries (I think). As a point of comparison to yours, here's what my Limiter tab looks like:

 

[Oldphile]

Problem has been solved. Nothing more to report.

 

[LydMekk]

Could be nice if you post the solution if someone else searches for the same issue ^^.

 

[robby]

. (It's been so long since I've messed with it, can you have grid sell and limit to load both selected?)

That is always a good sign with a product.
If you have to be messing around with an appliance for months and years after you have bough it then something is wrong.

 

[Oldphile]

Could be nice if you post the solution if someone else searches for the same issue ^^.

I edited post #9 to include:

While the batteries were recharging this morning, no problem. Once batteries reached 100% SOC, PV production dropped. I changed TOU to 98% and 500 watts. PV production returned to normal.

So, solution was to set % to something other than 100 and power to something other than 0.