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diy solar

SolArk Install Plan

can't they do any sort of remote diagnostics on the inverter? can't they have you gather and send logs? (does it have any?)
They can only do so much remotely. Solark support sees the faults. But there are many possibilities as to the cause.
I could try different things if I was home. One possibility is that my battery is too small. I have 100Ah of AGM connected to it.
I'd like to connect my 1120AH of LFP batteries to see if that stops the faults.
 
1120ah @ 48v? *drools*

Why are they "resting" so to speak?
I really don't need the batteries unless there is a power outage.
And I am not comfortable connecting the LFP and leaving town.

The only thing I am losing is uninterruptible power.
My electric bill is less than zero. When we settle up even the connection fees will be paid for.

I will have uninterruptible power soon enough. Probably before the grid goes down.
Now if the grid goes down I have to go out to the transfer switch and flip a few switches and I have power.
 
I really don't need the batteries unless there is a power outage.
And I am not comfortable connecting the LFP and leaving town.

The only thing I am losing is uninterruptible power.
My electric bill is less than zero. When we settle up even the connection fees will be paid for.

I will have uninterruptible power soon enough. Probably before the grid goes down.
Now if the grid goes down I have to go out to the transfer switch and flip a few switches and I have power.
ahhh. I can relate. I've completed a partial install of my LFP and am super anxious about leaving it alone under load. I havent done it yet. I Let the batteries run the A/C for over an hour yesterday while I was doing other work. it went well. Terminal temperatures never went over 85F. I didnt record temperatures before i started the test, but there will be plenty more opportunities for that. A/C, lights, and charging a couple electronics pulled about 45a. coulomb-meter said i had ~11hrs at start and ~10hrs when I switched back to grid. I'm pretty stoked.

Next milestone will be getting the solar panels installed and wired. I expect to have that done by mid-week.
 
You should be able to set up an automatic transfer switch.

I have same concern with mine; inverter control board has to be functional to close the NO relay sending grid to protected loads.
I have manual bypass, but not automatic.
My first thought is a simple relay with 120V coil held by AC on protected side, but something more robust should be used to separate grid from inverter output.
How about connecting the 50A essential loads panel through an auto transfer switch (ATS) to the grid? The steady state condition is that all house loads are supplied by the grid. The SA, to the extent that it is producing excess power, is dumping that excess power to the grid for net-zeroing or net-metering through the AC In/Out CB. In this steady state is does not matter whether the SA goes dark or not, the essential loads are still grid connected through the ATS.

In the event of grid failure, the ATS transfers the essential loads over to the SA Load Out CB. Therefore, only in a grid failure situation is this SA Load Output CB supplying current.
 
One suggestions for the AC Disconnect - Engineeer775 puts in a Double Throw Disconnect instead of the simple disconnect. In the Down position it bypasses the Sol-ark and feeds the Critical Loads panel from the Main breaker panel. In the Center position it cuts off all power past the Main Breaker panel. In the Up position (normal running position) it feeds the Sol-Ark from the Main breaker panel. With the double throw switch, if you have to take the Sol-Ark or down-stream systems down for maintenance, the critical loads still gets fed with a simple switch lever. Something similar to this double throw one - https://www.homedepot.com/p/GE-60-A...-Double-Throw-Safety-Switch- worktime -TC35322/202978651

Also, you may need to show the low voltage wiring for the actual RSD switch/button & TIGO Transmitter. Right now it just shows the TIGO transmitter hanging out there. There is an output on the Sol-Ark that feeds the low voltage power to the transmitter and then also has a circuit for the RSD button/switch that emergency personnel would use to shutdown the panels. I think there's a schematic in the SA manual showing the RSD wiring.
hmm .. I have something that does not open your link, apparently there is no such address anymore, since they wrote a message about a year ago. But the rest was helpful, thanks, I hope this helps me sort out my details ..
 
can't they do any sort of remote diagnostics on the inverter? can't they have you gather and send logs? (does it have any?)
Solark contacted me about the F18 errors I've been getting.
I told them that I was running all of my loads from the grid because every time I got the F18 error, my inverter would reset and I would lose power to my loads that were coming from the inverter.
They must have done the firmware update that everyone is talking about because the F18 errors went away.
Since I have net metering I still was getting full advantage of the energy I generated. But if the grid went down, I would have to switch all of my loads to the inverter.
Now that it is fixed, I keep my critical loads connected and I have uninterruptable power like it should be. :love:
 
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