Solis RAI 3K AC - no discharge, shows as operational but no contribution to household load?

[SeaGal]

...I set the minimum SOC to 20% initially. I have found that while it stops there, it continues to drain slightly overnight, and then has a sudden burst of grid sourced charging in the early hours. I assume this is a forced charge.

What is your force charge SOC value set to? If 10% (default) then that sounds a lot of consumption just to power the Solis.. how many hours are you talking here? Ours only reduces about 1% over 5 hours, but that is also powering an ESP32 system as well as the Solis, though that is 14kWh+ of battery.

...I was surprised yesterday to have charged the battery to 70% on a clear autumn/winters day. I think I will be needed another battery in the summer because I am also increasing the array size and inverters - I'm getting 2x3kw (currently 1x1.5kw and 1x2kw) with export limitation).

Sounds good - yesterday was quite sunny - we generated over 6kWh from PV. Def more pylons needed!

... I would have liked to be able to restrict the rate at which it charges and discharges (I know we have 3kw to play with, but I'd rather trickle it out at 1kw than dump it at 3kw).

Why less? Is it because you want to optimise longevity of the pylon by reducing discharge rate? If you limit discharge to 1kW then it won't be able to power your oven / diswasher etc.?

 

[Umski]

I'm in the UK... I'm not sure why there is this variation of models! I wonder, if those with meters have issues, if it is worth trying the direct CT method and setting the clamp location appropriately. I am not able to use the clamp on the inverter anyway, because I have 2 inverters located far apart. I would be happy to use a meter - I looked to buy one but only found results in China.

I genuinely think the issues with the inverter + lead acid is all related to the ability accurately measure the SOC.

So far, so good-ish with my lifepo4. I have found:

1. When configuring it (as a PYLON) you can only set the minimum SOC. I would have liked to be able to restrict the rate at which it charges and discharges (I know we have 3kw to play with, but I'd rather trickle it out at 1kw than dump it at 3kw). I have been trying to find a setting that would allow me to de-rate the inverter. I found "power parameter" and "power rate limit" but can't find what they mean. Does anyone know?
2. I set the minimum SOC to 20% initially. I have found that while it stops there, it continues to drain slightly overnight, and then has a sudden burst of grid sourced charging in the early hours. I assume this is a forced charge. I understand the inverter itself runs on DC (this may be why @thegrazingcow sees the pretty graphs - powering the inverter itself and floating the battery likely causes some constant in/out). I have now set it to 25% minimum SOC to see what happens.
3. I seem to be maintaining a grid import of 200w, based on my real-time smart meter, while the solis is reading zero import/export at the CT. I had to extend my CT which I did with speaker wire (just what I had available). I believe the reading error could be to do with that, so I will be changing to a shielded twister pair CAT6 cable. I also measured the AC voltage at the inverter with a multimeter and compared it to what the inverter sees (real time). I found it needed a correction of -0.6v which improved the reading error by about 50w.

I was surprised yesterday to have charged the battery to 70% on a clear autumn/winters day. I think I will be needed another battery in the summer because I am also increasing the array size and inverters - I'm getting 2x3kw (currently 1x1.5kw and 1x2kw) with export limitation).

I'm really interested to hear your results with the new pylon @Umski .

That is very odd having a UK unit but it not having the Acrel

1. I think this can be done via the Advanced Settings>STD Mode settings>Power Rate Set - this links with the discharge current if setting the battery manually, so mine had automatically set itself to 16% based on the fact that my discharge current limit was set to 7.5A though this is a rather crude conversion it seem - use with caution I'd say, but I may do this with the Pylon to limit to 2kW

2. Worth trying the user defined setting for the battery - though according to the manual

"The OverDischg SOC can be set from 10% to 40%"
"The ForceCharge SOC can be set from 5% to OverDischg SOC" (where this appears I don't know yet)

Without playing with the Pylon, I don't know if the ForceCharge SOC appears when selected as default or if the user defined settings need to be in action, or if it is crudely related to the 'Protection' settings which are in Volts rather than SoC

I don't want any grid charging (even overnight, it should ever get to such a low SoC and I've not seen this happen with the LAs since I changed all the time of use settings to off and 00.00) - the lower voltage threshold is never reached

3. I think this is where the Acrel comes into its own as it seems to have a far more accurate reading of volts, amps and phase meaning that point where power is being imported/exported seems to be spot on.

Will indeed report back once I have lugged the Pylon into place and reset everything (there is an Initial Settings menu but appears to be menu-linked, so for resetting the working mode, power rate limit etc all individually rather than a 'factory reset')

 

[parody]

@SeaGal

What is your force charge SOC value set to? If 10% (default) then that sounds a lot of consumption just to power the Solis.. how many hours are you talking here? Ours only reduces about 1% over 5 hours, but that is also powering an ESP32 system as well as the Solis, though that is 14kWh+ of battery.

The only setting you can change is the minimum SOC. The inverter and BMS then take a decision on the rest. Here you can see on 8th 20% was hit mid afternoon, then it continues to drop 1% every ~1hr20min. Green is charge or discharge, orange is SOC.

Sounds good - yesterday was quite sunny - we generated over 6kWh from PV. Def more pylons needed!

Similar, our total was 5.6kw. I'm impressed with my sub-optimal array (I say that because of some shading and no optimisers yet)

Why less? Is it because you want to optimise longevity of the pylon by reducing discharge rate? If you limit discharge to 1kW then it won't be able to power your oven / diswasher etc.?

Partly cycle life and be gentle on the battery yes - I know it is the same after all is said and done. If the oven or car don't zap it, the overnight background load will anyway. Also partly because at the moment I have a max 20amp capability in the location where both a 2kw inverter and the 3kw inverter/battery reside. If the house (the other side of the 20amp) wants to draw 5+kw (oven/hob) then I'm nudging the limits.

@Umski

so mine had automatically set itself to 16% based on the fact that my discharge current limit was set to 7.5A

I read in one of the manuals that 16% is the default for this setting. Mine is also 16% but I have had no issue discharging at 2kw+.

I've raised a solis ticket for remote firmware upgrade but not heard back yet.

 

[SeaGal]

... The only setting you can change is the minimum SOC.

If yours is the same as mine, then that's the only configurable parameter within the Pylon battery type, but when you 'save' any battery type you should then get a screen allowing the Force SOC % to be set.

 

[SeaGal]

duplicate post

 

[parody]

If yours is the same as mine, then that's the only configurable parameter within the Pylon battery type, but when you 'save' any battery type you should then get a screen allowing the Force SOC % to be set.

Save takes me back a screen, where I see the Protection options (voltages). Maybe a firmware difference? Mine is 2yrs old.

 

[Umski]

Save takes me back a screen, where I see the Protection options (voltages). Maybe a firmware difference? Mine is 2yrs old.

That may explain why you have no Acrel input maybe? The V1 of the user manual seems to reflect this (here), V1.1 (here)has the reference to the Acrel and the updated diagrams for parts and connections?

 

[SeaGal]

maybe difference between selecting user-define and pylon-lv... but I thought that option appeared on either. If not, seems odd that you can't specify what SOC the pylon gets a force charge?

 

[Umski]

@SeaGal

I've raised a solis ticket for remote firmware upgrade but not heard back yet.

From what I've heard and my experience, they seem to ignore tickets until you call them - that might expedite things

 

[parody]

maybe difference between selecting user-define and pylon-lv... but I thought that option appeared on either. If not, seems odd that you can't specify what SOC the pylon gets a force charge?

Yes, the user-defined options has a lot more. But, I wouldn't have a clue what to set it all to for the lifepo4. How does the comms side work if you are using user defined? If I could use that, I think it would also be a way to limit the discharge?

 

[Umski]

I read in one of the manuals that 16% is the default for this setting. Mine is also 16% but I have had no issue discharging at 2kw+.

I had a quick look again and changed my discharge to 10A to see if the value would change and it didn't so now I'm puzzled, I know someone else has changed their output rate to 120% elsewhere and I'm sure I've seen the setting somewhere, but now can't find it.

Small fail on my part with the Pylons - I didn't realise I needed a long pair of DC leads to connect to my DC isolator - the short ones are supplied for the parallel links and I might be able to get away with chopping one connector off OR use the leads that came with the Solis which would need the Amphenol connectors - I had hoped I could pick a set up from midsummer energy in Cambridge as I was right near the warehouse today but alas that's not possible - it seems a lot of companies have become a bit distant from their customers as demand has soared over the last few months!

 

[parody]

The easiest way to get DC cable locally, immediately, I've found is to buy jump leads from an auto parts store and cut the clamps off...

 

[parody]

If 10% (default) then that sounds a lot of consumption just to power the Solis.. how many hours are you talking here? Ours only reduces about 1% over 5 hours, but that is also powering an ESP32 system as well as the Solis, though that is 14kWh+ of battery.

@SeaGal I did some calcs. For you, 1% is 140w over 5 hours, or about 28w/hour (maybe more if it's more than 14kw of battery).

For me, yesterday 16:00 through to 09:00 today was 11% drop (25>14%), or ~500w over 17hrs. That's 29w/hr. So, it seems this is pretty much the same. I read specs of various inverters that will draw up to 50w in some cases, with no load.

It's a real shame it can't draw from the AC to save affecting the battery hitting a low SOC. With solar inverters, it's less of an issue since the inverter is not on when there is no sunlight (for mine at least).

 

[SeaGal]

14.5kWh for me = exactly the 29W you measured. Why did you have no house draw between 16:00 and 09:00? Surely better to use the battery to power your house?

 

[parody]

14.5kWh for me = exactly the 29W you measured. Why did you have no house draw between 16:00 and 09:00? Surely better to use the battery to power your house?

The charge the battery had during the day was already used by that time (down to 25 SOC anyway). Not much sun that day.

 

[parody]

So, what I have done now which seems to be working well, is set time charging for 1amp in the early morning hours. This is enough to

• Give plenty of hours of evening usage to get the battery used down to the SOC cut off I set (25 or 30, haven't settled on one yet)
• Offset the inverter draw, and top it up a little
• Avoid that 14% SOC force charge which seems to be hardcoded for the PYLON battery option (I still can't see any option to change it unless using User-Def options).

I may experiment with the User-Def option but from what I can tell, it then uses the voltages to work out SOC which is going to be unreliable compared to comms with the built in BMS.

@Umski how did you get on with your pylon?

I received my tile brackets on Saturday. 3kw inverters come today, and the order for more panels is made. Hoping to have my first bump up to 5kw with 2 weeks.

 

[SeaGal]

So, what I have done now which seems to be working well, is set time charging for 1amp in the early morning hours. This is enough to

• Give plenty of hours of evening usage to get the battery used down to the SOC cut off I set (25 or 30, haven't settled on one yet)
• Offset the inverter draw, and top it up a little
• Avoid that 14% SOC force charge which seems to be hardcoded for the PYLON battery option (I still can't see any option to change it unless using User-Def options).

Sounds like a bit of a workaround, but at least it gives you what you want for now. Maybe the 14% forced charge is the pylons initiating it, if it is not configurable within your Solis firmware? Though that sounds unlikely as Pylon proclaim 95% DoD capability, which doesn't fit them doing a force charge at 14%. Don't have pylons though, sorry can't help more.

I may experiment with the User-Def option but from what I can tell, it then uses the voltages to work out SOC which is going to be unreliable compared to comms with the built in BMS.

No, just LA setting is based on voltage. User-defined setting uses (and requires) SOC ? info to come in via CANBus from the batteries.

@Umski how did you get on with your pylon?

I received my tile brackets on Saturday. 3kw inverters come today, and the order for more panels is made. Hoping to have my first bump up to 5kw with 2 weeks.

?️?

 

[parody]

Don't have pylons though, sorry can't help more.

My battery isn't a pylon, but I use the pylon option for compatible comms...

User-defined setting uses (and requires) SOC info to come in via CANBus from the batteries.

Ah, then I definitely need to look at this.

 

[SeaGal]

What battery is it?

 

[parody]

What battery is it?

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