Sungoldpower TP6048 - WiFi & Idle Power Issues

[Over9000]

Hello Folks,

I'm running (9) Sungoldpower 415W Panels into a Sungoldpower TP6048 inverter which is connected to a large parallel array of batteries (4x 12V) 280Ah [Ecoworthy] + (6x 48V) 50Ah. Here are my issues:

1. Today was a cloudy day in Michigan and my panels were generating about 450W input, however, my battery level did not increase today and in fact has dropped from >80% to 72% within 4 hours. When I look at the load on it, it's just my AT&T 5G Home WiFi unit @ 43W. Using raw calculations, my raw battery capacity is 27,800 Wh. At 80%, I should have had 22,240 Wh and I was generating 450W x 4 hours (1800W, technically 1898 per the app). Running the math, (1800 - 43x4) = +1628 generated which should bring the energy capacity to 23,868 (85%) but somehow it went DOWN to 72% (20,016 Wh). For this to be true, I would have had to lose 2,224 Wh in 4 hours, or approximately 556 W per hour, of which only 43 is accounted for. Is this unit really burning 500W+ per hour itself in such a low load condition??? Not sure if it matters but my Main CPU version is 06330, Slave is 06118, and Wifi is 3.6.4.6.

Any ideas?

2. When using the app, my unit appears in the "Grey" offline status from 03:00am - 10:59am but turns Yellow (online) from 11:00 am - 02:59am. Any idea as to why? WiFi firmware version 3.6.4.6.

I appreciate the help!

 

[Crowz]

Let's start with the wifi first. It sucks. I never ran the thing personally as I just hooked solar assistant to it. I used an ethernet cable at first but moved onto solar assistant since the app that comes with it is buggy and lacked allot feature wise. That said there have been a good bit of post with people having problems with the wifi. Don't recommend using that.

Now to the power stuff.

The words "cloudy day" negates the amount of panels you have when it comes to calculating how much power you made.

You have to watch how many actual watts were generated since the only time you can come close to knowing how much power you made by counting up the watts worth of panels you have is on a clear sunny day in the middle of summer.

I have for instance 7000 watts worth of panels on one of my tp6048's and made a total of 1500 watt hours for the entire day when it was totally overcast from storms.

 

[Crowz]

As for idle consumption it isn't that bad on the tp6048. I think its about 150 watts.

How are you getting the 80% to 72% soc reading?

 

[Over9000]

Let's start with the wifi first. It sucks. I never ran the thing personally as I just hooked solar assistant to it. I used an ethernet cable at first but moved onto solar assistant since the app that comes with it is buggy and lacked allot feature wise. That said there have been a good bit of post with people having problems with the wifi. Don't recommend using that.

Now to the power stuff.

The words "cloudy day" negates the amount of panels you have when it comes to calculating how much power you made.

You have to watch how many actual watts were generated since the only time you can come close to knowing how much power you made by counting up the watts worth of panels you have is on a clear sunny day in the middle of summer.

I have for instance 7000 watts worth of panels on one of my tp6048's and made a total of 1500 watt hours for the entire day when it was totally overcast from storms.

I agree with everything you're saying. This isn't a question about my panel production. 450W/h seems reasonable on an array that in theory could generate 3735 W/h, although the max I've seen from them is 3.4kW/h.

My question is how my battery reserves went DOWN despite generating 450W/h and having a load consumption of 43W/h.

Not sure what solar assistant is but I'll do some research.

 

[Crowz]

The inverter doesn't actually measure state of charge so how are you measuring the battery reserves?

 

[Over9000]

See below. FYI - At full, it's around 53.7V.

 

[Crowz]

At 49.5v your somewhere around 11 to 13% state of charge. NOT 73% if your using lifepo4 batteries.

 

[42OhmsPA]

For reference on panel production on poor days, I harvested a whopping 2.6KWh today... I have 14.55KW worth of panels; 8.88KW of them are angled appropriately for this time of year. My best day in the past week I harvested 40.1KWh, it's been a downward slope all month and will only get worse. ...




When I was rubbing my TP6048 I clamped idle consumption ~135W multiple times; that's 3.24KWh a day just to be powered on....


You're going to need a lot more panels.

Welcome to the forum.

 

[Over9000]

At 49.5v your somewhere around 11 to 13% state of charge. NOT 73% if your using lifepo4 batteries.

I'm not sure how that's possible to be at 11-13%. The batteries I'm using are LFP.

 

[koppted]

As for idle consumption it isn't that bad on the tp6048. I think its about 150 watts.

How are you getting the 80% to 72% soc reading?

150watts is actually really bad, compared to the competition. One of the many reasons I couldn't wait to rid of my LVX6048WP(which is the MPP variant of this voltronic inverter). That's approx. 3.6kwh of you battery just on idle. That's freaking insane.
The EG4-6000XP for example uses <50w on idle.

 

[42OhmsPA]

See below. FYI - At full, it's around 53.7V.

View attachment 259374

49.5V is damn near dead. You need a shunt, you can't rely on inverter SOC estimates for anything but a laugh.

Were your 12V fully charged before putting them in series?

 

[Over9000]

For reference on panel production on poor days, I harvested a whopping 2.6KWh today... I have 14.55KW worth of panels; 8.88KW of them are angled appropriately for this time of year. My best day in the past week I harvested 40.1KWh, it's been a downward slope all month and will only get worse. ...

View attachment 259375
View attachment 259378

When I was rubbing my TP6048 I clamped idle consumption ~135W multiple times; that's 3.24KWh a day just to be powered on....


You're going to need a lot more panels.

Welcome to the forum.

I have regularly pulled 7kWh in a day, just two days ago in fact. The battery got up to 100% @ 53.7V.

see below

 

[Crowz]

I'm not sure how that's possible to be at 11-13%. The batteries I'm using are LFP.

 

[seneysolar]

Yeah your "%" state of charge seems way off.

Im guessing your large number of parallel batteries are out of balance.

 

[Over9000]

49.5V is damn near dead. You need a shunt, you can't rely on inverter SOC estimates for anything but a laugh.

Were your 12V fully charged before putting them in series?

I have a Renogy Shunt + Renogy One Core but just haven't installed them. All of the batteries were charged to 100% before hooking up.

 

[Over9000]

Yeah your "%" state of charge seems way off.

Im guessing your large number of parallel batteries are out of balance.

How can I fix that? I am not using a separate BMS unit.

 

[42OhmsPA]

I'm not sure how that's possible to be at 11-13%. The batteries I'm using are LFP.

LiFePO4 curve. Notice how quickly it drops off around 3V...

 

[42OhmsPA]

How can I fix that?

Shunt

 

[Crowz]

I would try shutting it down and breaking the batteries apart connection wise and checking the voltage on each battery. You may have a really low battery in the mix.

 

[Over9000]

I would try shutting it down and breaking the batteries apart connection wise and checking the voltage on each battery. You may have a really low battery in the mix.

I can do that. Regarding the shunt, how should I hook it up? Does anyone have experience with these Renogy shunts ?

 

[42OhmsPA]

I have regularly pulled 7kWh in a day, just two days ago in fact. The battery got up to 100% @ 53.7V.

see below

What voltage are you charging to?
53.7V isn't even close to 100% in a 16S configuration.
Bulk to 56V, float 54V for safe numbers.

 

[Over9000]

What voltage are you charging to?
53.7V isn't even close to 100% in a 16S configuration.
Bulk to 56V, float 54V for safe numbers.

I'm running (4) 12V in series and parallelling them with (6) 48V. As far as I know, 54V is good.

 

[seneysolar]

At this point all of your batteries need a good long top charge. In a perfect world, separated while doing this. At least separate the 12v batteries from the mix.

 

[Crowz]

I used a pi computer running solar assistant.

Batteries > victron smart shunt (best there is and totally accurate. Renogy (I have some of these) isnt as accurate and isn't compatible with solar assistant) > tp6048

So its :

Batteries > victron smart shunt > solar assistant > tp6048

Its the only way to reliably know whats going on. Never has let me or others on the site here down.

 

[42OhmsPA]

I'm running (4) 12V in series and parallelling them with (6) 48V.

I got that from your first post. That's why I asked if you fully charged the 12V before putting them in series.

As far as I know, 54V is good.

Not really, see above charts and graphs.