Solar exporting instead of charging battery

[Dave79]

Hi guys. I am really getting very frustrated with the growatt system we have installed. It seems impossible to understand what the inverter is doing and there is very little in the way of any helpful guidance on how to change settings. Right now we have a lot of sun and solar being produced (not had this for months) and instead of prioriting charging the battery, we are exporting most of the solar being produced. Why? The system was on "Load First" so tried changing that in settings to "Battery First" but more solar is still being mainly exported rather than going to charge our 5 kW battery! I have added a screen shot below. The system status says "On-Grid mode" - I have tried googling that to see what that means and if thats the problem. If it is I have no idea how to change that. I have tried asking our installer many many times but get nowhere with them. Can anyone advise what the problem is and how we can make the solar prioritise the battery and not export?
Thanks for any help.

 

[SeaGal]

Can anyone advise what the problem is and how we can make the solar prioritise the battery and not export?

LOL.. just made a suggestion for someone else on exactly that issue... temperature?

Issue with Solis inverter diverting power to grid.

I have an issue with my Solis Hybrid inverter as follows: (my system is 2 x 2.5 batteries and can generate 4kw max.). Instead of sending all power being generated to the batteries, and then sending surplus to the grid when the batteries reach 100%, my inverter is randomly sending about 50% of...

diysolarforum.com

 

[chrisski]

Can you disconnect the critical loads from the grid for an hour a day in the late morning? I have a different company's inverter, but this is the only way I've found what works.

I am struggling with something similar on my Outback Radian. In fact when I do an internet search for getting the batteries to charge off solar instead of selling back I see no conclusion.

To get the battery to charge instead of selling to the grid, I put the outback in a "Drop" mode from 10 am to 11 am. This way when my solar can provide 6 kW of power, most of this goes to the battery.

This "Drop" mode disconnects the critical loads from the grid, having critical loads run off the battery. Because the critical loads are only pulling a few hundred watts, the other thousands of watts my panels are producing go into the the battery.

The disconnecting from grid worked for me. The other two things I thought about trying but have not.

1) Turning up the sell back to grid voltage.
-Even overnight, the battery does not deplete to the factory recommended setting. Turning that up might stop selling back to the grid when

2) Adjusting the Float Refloat and Rebulk voltage a little higher

 

[Dave79]

LOL.. just made a suggestion for someone else on exactly that issue... temperature?

Issue with Solis inverter diverting power to grid.

I have an issue with my Solis Hybrid inverter as follows: (my system is 2 x 2.5 batteries and can generate 4kw max.). Instead of sending all power being generated to the batteries, and then sending surplus to the grid when the batteries reach 100%, my inverter is randomly sending about 50% of...

diysolarforum.com

Oh I have never heard of this but I guess this might make sense. Yes it is a very cold bright sunny day today. The battery and inverter are in the loft so will be colder I guess than the house. I have measure temperature in loft at 10C, outside its 4C.

 

[SeaGal]

Lots of threads on this (quite a few from me last year too). What batteries do you have? FoxESS restrict from 15C, most others from 10C

 

[SeaGal]

That's hot! Was -4 here this am in my garage, but the cells inside my heated, insulated case were 21C

 

[Dave79]

Thanks for r

Can you disconnect the critical loads from the grid for an hour a day in the late morning? I have a different company's inverter, but this is the only way I've found what works.

I am struggling with something similar on my Outback Radian. In fact when I do an internet search for getting the batteries to charge off solar instead of selling back I see no conclusion.

To get the battery to charge instead of selling to the grid, I put the outback in a "Drop" mode from 10 am to 11 am. This way when my solar can provide 6 kW of power, most of this goes to the battery.

This "Drop" mode disconnects the critical loads from the grid, having critical loads run off the battery. Because the critical loads are only pulling a few hundred watts, the other thousands of watts my panels are producing go into the the battery.

The disconnecting from grid worked for me. The other two things I thought about trying but have not.

1) Turning up the sell back to grid voltage.
-Even overnight, the battery does not deplete to the factory recommended setting. Turning that up might stop selling back to the grid when

2) Adjusting the Float Refloat and Rebulk voltage a little higher

Thanks for reply. I am not sure about any of that. I am still hunting around for info on how the inverter works to see if it might be a temp issue, in which case lagging the battery might help I guess.

 

[Dave79]

Lots of threads on this (quite a few from me last year too). What batteries do you have? FoxESS restrict from 15C, most others from 10C

Its a growatt AXE 5.0L C1 5kW. Sorry didnt find your other posts. So then this might be the issue because its a cold day today.

 

[Dave79]

That's hot! Was -4 here this am in my garage, but the cells inside my heated, insulated case were 21C

Its all relative I guess ;-)! Might have to look at insulating it in the loft somehow

 

[SeaGal]

Sorry didnt find your other posts.

Just found one of my other postings, which also points to some links of lagging / insulation in other's lofts - those threads may be of interest..

New Install - Erratic Overnight Charging

Evening all. First time contributor, long time lurker :) I had a new solar system installed at the beginning of September (details below). Thus far, really happy. I'm already seeing savings in excess of my expectations. However, over the last few nights I've noticed a very erratic charge rate...

diysolarforum.com

So then this might be the issue because its a cold day today.

I'd put some money on it if I were a betting woman

 

[Dave79]

Just found one of my other postings, which also points to some links of lagging / insulation in other's lofts - those threads may be of interest..

New Install - Erratic Overnight Charging

Evening all. First time contributor, long time lurker :) I had a new solar system installed at the beginning of September (details below). Thus far, really happy. I'm already seeing savings in excess of my expectations. However, over the last few nights I've noticed a very erratic charge rate...

diysolarforum.com

I'd put some money on it if I were a betting woman

Thanks for links, very helpful. I wish the installer had mentioned something about this when they suggested putting battery and inverter in loft. It looks like I might need to rig something up to surround battery so can put some lagging around it.

 

[SeaGal]

Sadly most seem to be 2 GCSE's short of an A level If MCS approved they should be knowledgeable about the products they install and according to MCS regulations... should be "housed where Appropriate temperature control can be maintained."

See some postings from here, where, IIRC one member got the installers back to relocate...

Solis RHI 6K 48ES 5G Inverter Fox ESS LV5200 Battery - Charging limit ? and export to grid ...

IEE have this - cant get access as I am not a member ... https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9093224/metrics#metrics

diysolarforum.com

 

[Dave79]

Sadly most seem to be 2 GCSE's short of an A level If MCS approved they should be knowledgeable about the products they install and according to MCS regulations... should be "housed where Appropriate temperature control can be maintained."

See some postings from here, where, IIRC one member got the installers back to relocate...

Solis RHI 6K 48ES 5G Inverter Fox ESS LV5200 Battery - Charging limit ? and export to grid ...

IEE have this - cant get access as I am not a member ... https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9093224/metrics#metrics

diysolarforum.com

Unfortunately we had a terrible experience with out installers and jave been next to useless in terms of them responding to telephone calls and e-mails. I might consider getting them back anyway as where they have put the battery is in a very awkward place to access it and add a second one if I wanted to.