Very new to solar but started purchasing items, not sure of the final specs of the whole system.
- Thread starter kromc5
- Start date
Not necessarily,…
I’ve seen some get riV, some get 177v etc… without the balancing conductor, it depends on what is running and connected.
Turn on a toaster, and a fridge could get 208V, or 60… it depends on what is balancing the conductor, the grounding earth continuity, etc… it’s a crapshoot, not a formula.
I got lucky when I tested this and the breaker was on the lower leg. I read 89v one and 149v on the other. Inverter two had a board/nuetral issued when I first installed and it sent 220v down one leg.
Now 2 1/2 months in of Homedepot trying to order a replacement, called again saying Rheem is canceling orders. I have no idea what is going on, Rheem direct support is saying they are not cancelling. Rheem support even knows both managers at homedepot by name.
Back on 2/23 the inverter went through 4 very fast restarts while I was cooking. Got down on the 3rd restart and there were no errors. We have run it very hard yesterday and today with cooking 24 meals for clients, 5 loads of laundry. It has not restarted once since 2/23, tried to look through the logs but it really did not catch any odd issues.
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Fully back on solar after the yearlong issues with getting a replacement. They were unable to replace it for the same model due to production issues. The replaced it with a lower model and I used some of the left over to install two units in parallel. Due to having to take the solar off and on I almost paid for 1/2 of a second hybrid water heater. They also did not want the old one back which was suprising. I also got a tracking number for the auto transformer.
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WindWizard
Solar Enthusiast
It looks like an impressive system. I don't know of any other system that is as large as your system. A few troublesome issues seem to persist which I am sure you find annoying if they are indeed happening. I read through all 39 pages or at least some of it.
It seems like the SCCs and maybe the Inverters are going offline for some reason. And then the other the issue was something to do with charging the batteries using grid power with the Inverters. I found that puzzling.
I never use the grid to charge my batteries because it seems like a waste of energy. The Inverter loses a bit of power and probably the wiring so If I used the grid to charge my batteries so I could use my Inverter it would just not make sense to me sense it would burn more power from the grid.
Maybe I just read it wrong. My system does not need resetting and when the batteries are not able to run the house due to low battery voltage then it automatically switches to the Grid. I would be frustrated to have a sunny day go by and have my system offline because I was gone and did not reset it.
Another thing that you may consider is solar hot water panels. They work wonderful for me. With the sun I can get 150 f on a 80 gallon tank. The tank has to be indirect due to the antifreeze running in the solar system.
Maybe I just read it wrong and if I did then I apologize.
It seems like the SCCs and maybe the Inverters are going offline for some reason. And then the other the issue was something to do with charging the batteries using grid power with the Inverters. I found that puzzling.
I never use the grid to charge my batteries because it seems like a waste of energy. The Inverter loses a bit of power and probably the wiring so If I used the grid to charge my batteries so I could use my Inverter it would just not make sense to me sense it would burn more power from the grid.
Maybe I just read it wrong. My system does not need resetting and when the batteries are not able to run the house due to low battery voltage then it automatically switches to the Grid. I would be frustrated to have a sunny day go by and have my system offline because I was gone and did not reset it.
Another thing that you may consider is solar hot water panels. They work wonderful for me. With the sun I can get 150 f on a 80 gallon tank. The tank has to be indirect due to the antifreeze running in the solar system.
Maybe I just read it wrong and if I did then I apologize.
Appreciate the thoughts on improvements.
It seems like the SCCs and maybe the Inverters are going offline for some reason. And then the other the issue was something to do with charging the batteries using grid power with the Inverters. I found that puzzling.
Just one of the inverters is doing a quick reset, I have looked for a pattern based on what is being used but not seen one.
I never use the grid to charge my batteries because it seems like a waste of energy. The Inverter loses a bit of power and probably the wiring so If I used the grid to charge my batteries so I could use my Inverter it would just not make sense to me sense it would burn more power from the grid.
This winter late December through January, we had weeks of just clouds, it was impossible to keep charged. Never seen just week after week of cloudy days that I can remember.
Maybe I just read it wrong. My system does not need resetting and when the batteries are not able to run the house due to low battery voltage then it automatically switches to the Grid. I would be frustrated to have a sunny day go by and have my system offline because I was gone and did not reset it.
My inverters will not switch to grid, but can use grid to charge. I’m adding more panels and scc but even then if next December/feb is the same it will marginally help.
Another thing that you may consider is solar hot water panels. They work wonderful for me. With the sun I can get 150 f on a 80 gallon tank. The tank has to be indirect due to the antifreeze running in the solar system.
I had looked into those but was just unsure about them. We use a lot of hot water due to our job. After the terrible time with the one Rheem I put two in parallel just in case one goes down. Love to do a diy pool and use solar or solar water heater.
It seems like the SCCs and maybe the Inverters are going offline for some reason. And then the other the issue was something to do with charging the batteries using grid power with the Inverters. I found that puzzling.
Just one of the inverters is doing a quick reset, I have looked for a pattern based on what is being used but not seen one.
I never use the grid to charge my batteries because it seems like a waste of energy. The Inverter loses a bit of power and probably the wiring so If I used the grid to charge my batteries so I could use my Inverter it would just not make sense to me sense it would burn more power from the grid.
This winter late December through January, we had weeks of just clouds, it was impossible to keep charged. Never seen just week after week of cloudy days that I can remember.
Maybe I just read it wrong. My system does not need resetting and when the batteries are not able to run the house due to low battery voltage then it automatically switches to the Grid. I would be frustrated to have a sunny day go by and have my system offline because I was gone and did not reset it.
My inverters will not switch to grid, but can use grid to charge. I’m adding more panels and scc but even then if next December/feb is the same it will marginally help.
Another thing that you may consider is solar hot water panels. They work wonderful for me. With the sun I can get 150 f on a 80 gallon tank. The tank has to be indirect due to the antifreeze running in the solar system.
I had looked into those but was just unsure about them. We use a lot of hot water due to our job. After the terrible time with the one Rheem I put two in parallel just in case one goes down. Love to do a diy pool and use solar or solar water heater.
WindWizard
Solar Enthusiast
My wife wanted to heat our 17000 gallon pool free. She tried propane, heat pump and they were too expensive. So I took on the project and last summer the pool was 92 f with no cost. Well we did run the pool pump but that was it. This summer the solar panels and Inverter should easily cover the pool pump.
The system is totally automated. When it gets hot on the SE side of the roof then the pump turns on and pumps water through 3000 feet of black 1/2" tubing that is next to the hot metal roof and back to the pool. When the SW side get warm then a valve switches and the water is pumped through an additional 3000 feet of tubing back to the pool.
Last summer I added an additional 10 4' x 8' hot water panels to the setup. We also installed a wood boiler to help. We burn wood to heat the house. I am busy cutting and splitting most of the summer to get the 9 cord necessary.
The wood also supplies 100% of the hot water demands when the solar is not adequate.
There seems to be an abundance of hot water panels around. People will put them on the roof and then take them down to have the roof reshingled.
My system is not anywhere as big as yours. I am running 24 panels and 2 Charge controllers, a 4400 watt inverter and 32 Lifepo4 cells configured into 16S-2P with 2 BMS.
My wife wanted to cut our CMP bill and provide some security when the Grid is down. This time of year we are doing about 30Kw per day or less once the cells get charged then the power tapers off. The Cells last the night but if we do not get sun the next day then it switches to the Grid.
Most sunny days the batteries will up around noonish.
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I bookmarked your reply, I will have to research this some more. I have cut out so much with upgrades but we can still hit 70kw during the winter months when its hardest to make it back. I will probally stop with one more bank after the next set of panels are up.
My rheem cpu/gpu cooler is working well, need to get some longer duct pipe to get it closer. I moved a few things out of the tv room. The dual units makes a noticeable difference and was curious about testing. 59.5f was the gpu backplate before testing. 1080ti ran very stable 1908/36 for an hour, fans were only 40%. Working on the transformer, got on the scales and it weighs roughly 36 pounds.
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Been cooking, laundry etc, nothing gets warm at all. Appears the autotransformer will not work as expected for me but waiting to hear back. I will keep trying different settings to get the camera to focus better. Only really warm spots in the whole system are the small boards at the bottom of the SCCs. I use a ferris z2 standup due to steep hills, really amazing what I can go up. Found greenworks makes an electric. standup. Torro just came out with theirs for 36k totally insane. I plan to call and ask questions about the battery and winter conditions; our garage is very small.
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We are in a massive lighting storm with tornado watch. I do not believe that the panels have been hit yet but the driveway sensors are going off from all the close strikes. It has caused some flickering in the house so far. I'm on the upstairs on pc where I'm able to watch the panels. It has been many close strikes in the fields. I will post tomorrow if there is any damage as everything is still up and running fine. Banks are all around 50% due to clouds the past two days.
Lost two panels to wind damage, does not appear that anywhere hit by lighting. Took a chance on panels from signature, at least I do not see dents all over the frames from the shipper. Price was excellent for what I was wanting. Only 80 hours on the tractor and the inboard controller failed. Tech is 3 states away so I volunteered to replace it to get back up and running.
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Bought 13 of these if you call santan they will deduct the 10% this will allow me to finish the other hill. Spoke with Austin at santan and was very helpful if you decide to call them.
We were down to 38.5%, normal the max charge rate may hit just barely over 100amps. If have to monitor it but lets say you have bulk charge at 54.3, I change it to 55.3 and it's a decent bump in charging amps.
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We were down to 38.5%, normal the max charge rate may hit just barely over 100amps. If have to monitor it but lets say you have bulk charge at 54.3, I change it to 55.3 and it's a decent bump in charging amps.
