W028 Overload 6000XP idling with fully charged battery and loads of solar

[trad]

I have had a single 6000xp running my smallish loads that include a legacy AC that has a high starting load (approx 60amp at 240v). This single 6000xp has successfully started this 3 yr old AC and run it for 6 months here in South TX (running load for the legacy AC is about 2800W at 240V once the unit is started). I would notice that my Solar Assistant would show the 6000xp switching to the grid when the AC started. I figured that this was just an overload issue that happened randomly once or twice per day. The unit would always switch back to solar/battery in about 5 minutes without any drama. I figured that what I needed to do was get a second 6000xp to ensure no more W028 overloads.

Fast forward to today. A second 6000xp is installed in parallel with 300ah of shared LIFEP04 battery in lead acid mode. Not only do I get more W028 overloads, I get them continually once the batteries are fully charged to 56V and the solar goes into idling mode. This is happening with full sun and over 6000W of solar just waiting to be needed. If the battery is charging, the 2 - 6000xp are behaving as expected and share the solar between the battery charging and the AC running. I can fix this issue by turning off the solar and immediately, the AC is run off the full battery without any issues.

I know this is a known issue for the 6000xp and 12000xp ( @SomethingAppropriate @Barndo @EG4TechSolutionsTeam @Quattrohead @ChrisG @42OhmsPA ) especially with batteries integrated with communications cables and the fix has been suggested to move to lead acid mode. I want to report that the lead acid mode is not the answer in my situation. My inverters are set to have a 140A limit on discharge ADC. I will double this setting as I should be able to support 300A with the batteries. However this doesn't seem to prohibit the system when solar is turned off from fully utilizing the battery without switching to grid.

Both 6000xp are running latest firmware
Serial Numbers for inverters are 422374xxx and 3393741xxx

 

[SomethingAppropriate]

I have had a single 6000xp running my smallish loads that include a legacy AC that has a high starting load (approx 60amp at 240v). This single 6000xp has successfully started this 3 yr old AC and run it for 6 months here in South TX (running load for the legacy AC is about 2800W at 240V once the unit is started). I would notice that my Solar Assistant would show the 6000xp switching to the grid when the AC started. I figured that this was just an overload issue that happened randomly once or twice per day. The unit would always switch back to solar/battery in about 5 minutes without any drama. I figured that what I needed to do was get a second 6000xp to ensure no more W028 overloads.

Fast forward to today. A second 6000xp is installed in parallel with 300ah of shared LIFEP04 battery in lead acid mode. Not only do I get more W028 overloads, I get them continually once the batteries are fully charged to 56V and the solar goes into idling mode. This is happening with full sun and over 6000W of solar just waiting to be needed. If the battery is charging, the 2 - 6000xp are behaving as expected and share the solar between the battery charging and the AC running. I can fix this issue by turning off the solar and immediately, the AC is run off the full battery without any issues.

I know this is a known issue for the 6000xp and 12000xp ( @SomethingAppropriate @Barndo @EG4TechSolutionsTeam @Quattrohead @ChrisG @42OhmsPA ) especially with batteries integrated with communications cables and the fix has been suggested to move to lead acid mode. I want to report that the lead acid mode is not the answer in my situation. My inverters are set to have a 140A limit on discharge ADC. I will double this setting as I should be able to support 300A with the batteries. However this doesn't seem to prohibit the system when solar is turned off from fully utilizing the battery without switching to grid.

Both 6000xp are running latest firmware
Serial Numbers for inverters are 422374xxx and 3393741xxx

I think you have 2 problems.

yes, 60 amps is outside the limit of one 6000xp. That is most likely what is causing that.

Not only do I get more W028 overloads, I get them continually once the batteries are fully charged to 56V and the solar goes into idling mode. This is happening with full sun and over 6000W of solar just waiting to be needed. If the battery is charging, the 2 - 6000xp are behaving as expected and share the solar between the battery charging and the AC running. I can fix this issue by turning off the solar and immediately, the AC is run off the full battery without any issues.

Welcome to the club!
This is exactly what this thread is about.

I

Thread 'Eg4 6000xp eps overload with small loads'

Mar 6, 2025

Hello all ! I have 2x units eg4 6000 xp wired parallel.

Getting constant eps overload when in solar+batt off grid mode (sta CO) but only when the battery is topped off and the power from panels is being ramped down .

When battery is lower % and full power is flowing through the mppt no problem.

Or battery only mode no problem can run anything anytime with multiple high draw resistive or inductive loads. Even together.

I dont think bms is an issue cause i ran in lead acid mode and problem did not resolve.
Ran as single inverter with more panels , did not resolve.

Ran batteries in a...

• ironman83
• Replies: 93
• Forum: DIY Solar General Discussion

• 

Sorry for your frustration.

Lead acid mode didnt help me either,

If you have 2 6000xps you should have the discharge setting to 200+ 280 would be max.
That may be your problem, or half of it.
The settings page discharge setting is for all inverters summed.

This idea applies to all settings on that page EXCEPT the AC charge current. If you set that to 100, it will send 100 amps of DC current for every inverter you have so be careful with this unintuitive and dangerous oversight by EG4.

 

[SomethingAppropriate]

I have had a single 6000xp running my smallish loads that include a legacy AC that has a high starting load (approx 60amp at 240v). This single 6000xp has successfully started this 3 yr old AC and run it for 6 months here in South TX (running load for the legacy AC is about 2800W at 240V once the unit is started). I would notice that my Solar Assistant would show the 6000xp switching to the grid when the AC started. I figured that this was just an overload issue that happened randomly once or twice per day. The unit would always switch back to solar/battery in about 5 minutes without any drama. I figured that what I needed to do was get a second 6000xp to ensure no more W028 overloads.

Fast forward to today. A second 6000xp is installed in parallel with 300ah of shared LIFEP04 battery in lead acid mode. Not only do I get more W028 overloads, I get them continually once the batteries are fully charged to 56V and the solar goes into idling mode. This is happening with full sun and over 6000W of solar just waiting to be needed. If the battery is charging, the 2 - 6000xp are behaving as expected and share the solar between the battery charging and the AC running. I can fix this issue by turning off the solar and immediately, the AC is run off the full battery without any issues.

I know this is a known issue for the 6000xp and 12000xp ( @SomethingAppropriate @Barndo @EG4TechSolutionsTeam @Quattrohead @ChrisG @42OhmsPA ) especially with batteries integrated with communications cables and the fix has been suggested to move to lead acid mode. I want to report that the lead acid mode is not the answer in my situation. My inverters are set to have a 140A limit on discharge ADC. I will double this setting as I should be able to support 300A with the batteries. However this doesn't seem to prohibit the system when solar is turned off from fully utilizing the battery without switching to grid.

Both 6000xp are running latest firmware
Serial Numbers for inverters are 422374xxx and 3393741xxx

You can join the rest of us bitching about this on this thread.

I

Thread 'Eg4 6000xp eps overload with small loads'

Mar 6, 2025

Hello all ! I have 2x units eg4 6000 xp wired parallel.

Getting constant eps overload when in solar+batt off grid mode (sta CO) but only when the battery is topped off and the power from panels is being ramped down .

When battery is lower % and full power is flowing through the mppt no problem.

Or battery only mode no problem can run anything anytime with multiple high draw resistive or inductive loads. Even together.

I dont think bms is an issue cause i ran in lead acid mode and problem did not resolve.
Ran as single inverter with more panels , did not resolve.

Ran batteries in a...

• ironman83
• Replies: 93
• Forum: DIY Solar General Discussion

• 

 

[EPicTony]

You may need another battery or 2. You doubled your inverter power but left the battery at only a lowly 300aHr.

 

[trad]

You may need another battery or 2. You doubled your inverter power but left the battery at only a lowly 300aHr.

Yeah, I have another 100ah just waiting to be installed. But here in S TX the sun shines almost every day, and even if it doesn't shine, I just charge my batteries from the grid after 8pm when the rates are low and by morning I am fully charged again.

If fully off-grid I totally agree, more batteries and a generator too.

 

[trad]

You can join the rest of us bitching about this on this thread.

I

Thread 'Eg4 6000xp eps overload with small loads'

Mar 6, 2025

Hello all ! I have 2x units eg4 6000 xp wired parallel.

Getting constant eps overload when in solar+batt off grid mode (sta CO) but only when the battery is topped off and the power from panels is being ramped down .

When battery is lower % and full power is flowing through the mppt no problem.

Or battery only mode no problem can run anything anytime with multiple high draw resistive or inductive loads. Even together.

I dont think bms is an issue cause i ran in lead acid mode and problem did not resolve.
Ran as single inverter with more panels , did not resolve.

Ran batteries in a...

• ironman83
• Replies: 93
• Forum: DIY Solar General Discussion

• 

Will do. Thx.....

 

[42OhmsPA]

I have had a single 6000xp running my smallish loads that include a legacy AC that has a high starting load (approx 60amp at 240v). This single 6000xp has successfully started this 3 yr old AC and run it for 6 months here in South TX (running load for the legacy AC is about 2800W at 240V once the unit is started). I would notice that my Solar Assistant would show the 6000xp switching to the grid when the AC started. I figured that this was just an overload issue that happened randomly once or twice per day. The unit would always switch back to solar/battery in about 5 minutes without any drama. I figured that what I needed to do was get a second 6000xp to ensure no more W028 overloads.

Fast forward to today. A second 6000xp is installed in parallel with 300ah of shared LIFEP04 battery in lead acid mode. Not only do I get more W028 overloads, I get them continually once the batteries are fully charged to 56V and the solar goes into idling mode. This is happening with full sun and over 6000W of solar just waiting to be needed. If the battery is charging, the 2 - 6000xp are behaving as expected and share the solar between the battery charging and the AC running. I can fix this issue by turning off the solar and immediately, the AC is run off the full battery without any issues.

I know this is a known issue for the 6000xp and 12000xp ( @SomethingAppropriate @Barndo @EG4TechSolutionsTeam @Quattrohead @ChrisG @42OhmsPA ) especially with batteries integrated with communications cables and the fix has been suggested to move to lead acid mode. I want to report that the lead acid mode is not the answer in my situation. My inverters are set to have a 140A limit on discharge ADC. I will double this setting as I should be able to support 300A with the batteries. However this doesn't seem to prohibit the system when solar is turned off from fully utilizing the battery without switching to grid.

Both 6000xp are running latest firmware
Serial Numbers for inverters are 422374xxx and 3393741xxx

Sorry you're having issues.
Unfortunately I can't do much to help besides bump posts and try basic troubleshooting.

I went with a different OEM, fortunately, I've been running open loop for many MWh on the out of the box firmware with 0 issues.

The more posts I read it sounds like it's ignoring the batteries when they are full / at full voltage. Makes me wonder if you could create an automation in Solar Assistant to throttle charge current as voltage rises so they never actually reach full voltage but still get to 99+%... (Haven't had coffee yet so I hope that makes sense.

 

[TM48]

What batteries do you have? Do you have any pictures of your installation? Pictures of the inverters with the lower covers off would be helpful. Also screen shots of your settings may be useful. You indicated both inverters are on the latest firmware, what firmware is that? Sorry for all the questions but it safes time.

 

[TM48]

Will do. Thx.....

That thread is not applicable to your issue. If your A/C unit runs at 2800 watts you ARE overloading the two inverters. Your A/c unit at least a 5 ton which has a locked rotor amperage of something greater than a hundred amps. Two 6000's can provide 50 amps of inverter power when supplied with 280 peak amps . Your 300 amp hr battery most likely cannot provide that much instantaneous power. As @EPicTony pointed out you need more battery. You also need a soft start for your A/C unit to reduce your peak startup current to something less than 50 amps.

 

[SomethingAppropriate]

That thread is not applicable to your issue. If your A/C unit runs at 2800 watts you ARE overloading the two inverters. Your A/c unit at least a 5 ton which has a locked rotor amperage of something greater than a hundred amps. Two 6000's can provide 50 amps of inverter power when supplied with 280 peak amps . Your 300 amp hr battery most likely cannot provide that much instantaneous power. As @EPicTony pointed out you need more battery. You also need a soft start for your A/C unit to reduce your peak startup current to something less than 50 amps.

Yes, to the hammer, everything looks like a nail. But sometimes it is a nail.

In this case its a nail and an overload problem.

 

[trad]

What batteries do you have? Do you have any pictures of your installation? Pictures of the inverters with the lower covers off would be helpful. Also screen shots of your settings may be useful. You indicated both inverters are on the latest firmware, what firmware is that? Sorry for all the questions but it safes time.

Firmware ccaa-190D0E
Batteries are 12.8 V 100ah attached in series 4 per bank total 12 batteries right now. Communication is not possible. This makes running in lead acid mode mandatory anyway. Battery balancing is handled by a Watts247 battery balancer keeping each pack of 4 12v balanced.

The single 6000xp with only 200ah ran the 3 ton AC for 5 months with only a few overloads. Some days I would get no switches to grid, and some days randomly I would get more than one. The unit always returned to powering the loads within 4-5 minutes. Adding a second 6000xp and some additional battery to provide for surge should have eliminated any real overload issues.

The 6000xp is a real trooper hardware wise, but there is something in the software that is still not quite right.

 

[trad]

That thread is not applicable to your issue. If your A/C unit runs at 2800 watts you ARE overloading the two inverters. Your A/c unit at least a 5 ton which has a locked rotor amperage of something greater than a hundred amps. Two 6000's can provide 50 amps of inverter power when supplied with 280 peak amps . Your 300 amp hr battery most likely cannot provide that much instantaneous power. As @EPicTony pointed out you need more battery. You also need a soft start for your A/C unit to reduce your peak startup current to something less than 50 amps.

Huh, my AC is a 3yr old 3 ton. Yeah it has a high starting load, but 2800 watts is well below 6000 watts (provided the missus doesn't turn on the kettle and the microwave and the toaster) I have many examples of running the 1500w microwave while the AC is running with no issues at all on only a single 6000xp. Leg 1 will be at 1300w and leg 2 will be at 2950w and the 6000xp happily delivers power from solar and batteries.

 

[trad]

Sorry you're having issues.
Unfortunately I can't do much to help besides bump posts and try basic troubleshooting.

I went with a different OEM, fortunately, I've been running open loop for many MWh on the out of the box firmware with 0 issues.

The more posts I read it sounds like it's ignoring the batteries when they are full / at full voltage. Makes me wonder if you could create an automation in Solar Assistant to throttle charge current as voltage rises so they never actually reach full voltage but still get to 99+%... (Haven't had coffee yet so I hope that makes sense.

I've updated my units Discharge Current Limit (Adc) to delivering 280 A where it was set to 140 A yesterday. We will see if this helps.

 

[TM48]

Yes, to the hammer, everything looks like a nail. But sometimes it is a nail.

In this case its a nail and an overload problem.

Huh, my AC is a 3yr old 3 ton. Yeah it has a high starting load, but 2800 watts is well below 6000 watts (provided the missus doesn't turn on the kettle and the microwave and the toaster) I have many examples of running the 1500w microwave while the AC is running with no issues at all on only a single 6000xp. Leg 1 will be at 1300w and leg 2 will be at 2950w and the 6000xp happily delivers power from solar and batteries.

Your three ton should not draw that much power. My three ton runs at 1820 watts max when in 100% mode and as low as 1480 in low (two stage). If you look at your label it should list the RLA which when multiplied by 120v will give you a close estimate. Yes I know it's a 240 v unit but for some reason they list both legs together as the RLA. My LRA was 81 amps before a soft start was installed which was verified with a clamp meter.

 

[trad]

Your three ton should not draw that much power. My three ton runs at 1820 watts max when in 100% mode and as low as 1480 in low (two stage). If you look at your label it should list the RLA which when multiplied by 120v will give you a close estimate. Yes I know it's a 240 v unit but for some reason they list both legs together as the RLA. My LRA was 81 amps before a soft start was installed which was verified with a clamp meter.

You couldn't start yours without the soft start with a 6000xp?
When I replaced the AC unit 3 years ago I didn't replace the air handling unit. It takes about 700w all by itself. Maybe that was a mistake.

 

[trad]

Ok, the discharge current is now set to 280A. The batteries just fully charged, the unit went into solar idling mode. When the AC started up it immediately went to grid. I went outside and turned the solar off, and next time the AC clicked on, it handled it from battery as it should.

With only one 6000xp I was getting less problems switching to grid when the AC would start up.

This is very perplexing.,

 

[SomethingAppropriate]

Ok, the discharge current is now set to 280A. The batteries just fully charged, the unit went into solar idling mode. When the AC started up it immediately went to grid. I went outside and turned the solar off, and next time the AC clicked on, it handled it from battery as it should.

With only one 6000xp I was getting less problems switching to grid when the AC would start up.

This is very perplexing.,

TEST:

Keep your batteries floating and topped off.
When the sun starts going away and you are using right around the assumed usable solar power that's left coming in, turn on a space heater.
Make sure this device, whatever it may be, is guaranteed to use more power that solar available and force the system into battery discharge. If it overloads on 1500 watts you know its not your battery.

This is a test to see if you have the affliction that I mentioned to you before in the other thread.
This test only is valid if you are topped off, in float and your battery current is around +/- 50 watts.

I can see you having that problem and also not enough battery. As I mentioned in my first post, I think you have 2 issues.

 

[TM48]

You couldn't start yours without the soft start with a 6000xp?
When I replaced the AC unit 3 years ago I didn't replace the air handling unit. It takes about 700w all by itself. Maybe that was a mistake.

I never tried since I metered it at 81 amps and knew it would overload my two 6000's so I ordered a Hyper Engineering soft start. I tested it again at 28 amps with the SS. I've been running since Sept. with no issues. My unit is about three years old too but I did change the air handler. It's variable speed and draws 200 to 400 watts depending on speed.

Does your A/C label give you a LRA value? I'm surprised one 6000 would start your A/C without going to grid. Even two should go to grid with your load. For longevity I would get a soft start.

 

[trad]

I never tried since I metered it at 81 amps and knew it would overload my two 6000's so I ordered a Hyper Engineering soft start. I tested it again at 28 amps with the SS. I've been running since Sept. with no issues. My unit is about three years old too but I did change the air handler. It's variable speed and draws 200 to 400 watts depending on speed.

Does your A/C label give you a LRA value? I'm surprised one 6000 would start your A/C without going to grid. Even two should go to grid with your load. For longevity I would get a soft start.

The 6000xp is a beast when it wants to be, and a prissy little kitten when it wants to be.

 

[TM48]

As I mentioned in my first post, I think you have 2 issues.

I suspect you're right.

 

[EPicTony]

Soft start is the way to go. Get it and forget it. My lights don't even flicker now when my 4Ton ac starts up. Before it was a definite thud and flicker.

 

[trad]

I suspect you're right.

@SomethingAppropriate @EPicTony

I have left the units to run and see what happens. Almost without fail with 2 6000xp in parallel, I will fail to grid when the AC starts after the battery has reached 100% and the Solar goes into idling mode. Sometimes this is only happens once, and the next time the AC starts, it is serviced by Solar and battery. Since this is not what I remember with only 1 6000xp, I shut down one of the units and now I have 2 days of history with only 1 running the same loads. With 1 6000xp running, and the Solar shutting down because the battery is full, I am not getting consistent failure to grid like I do with 2 units running.

I understand how a soft start could help, but since 1 unit has run the AC for 6 months, I felt that a second 6000xp was a better investment allowing redundancy and additional capacity.

How can I get worse performance with 2 units than I get with one??

Do I understand that you think that even with 2 units I am overloaded at startup?? If that is the case, why does one unit handle the AC start better than 2 in parallel?

 

[TM48]

How can I get worse performance with 2 units than I get with one??

May be because it takes 30 ms to switch to grid with two but only 15 with one? Don't really know but it may play a role. However they calculate the load must be affected by the slightly less battery voltage of the 15 cell configuration. Unless something changed @SomethingAppropriate reports the issue fixed by something EG4 did.

 

[SomethingAppropriate]

@SomethingAppropriate @EPicTony

I have left the units to run and see what happens. Almost without fail with 2 6000xp in parallel, I will fail to grid when the AC starts after the battery has reached 100% and the Solar goes into idling mode. Sometimes this is only happens once, and the next time the AC starts, it is serviced by Solar and battery. Since this is not what I remember with only 1 6000xp, I shut down one of the units and now I have 2 days of history with only 1 running the same loads. With 1 6000xp running, and the Solar shutting down because the battery is full, I am not getting consistent failure to grid like I do with 2 units running.

I understand how a soft start could help, but since 1 unit has run the AC for 6 months, I felt that a second 6000xp was a better investment allowing redundancy and additional capacity.

How can I get worse performance with 2 units than I get with one??

Do I understand that you think that even with 2 units I am overloaded at startup?? If that is the case, why does one unit handle the AC start better than 2 in parallel?

This is interesting.

I think one of your XPs has "the bug" and one doesnt.

 

[trad]

This is interesting.

I think one of your XPs has "the bug" and one doesnt.

The first one I got was a brand new one last July. It definitely has different battery connections bolt configurations than the refurb I just got. The refurb uses a small bolt going into a threaded hole in the unit. The new one purchased last July has a stud sticking out of the unit that you put the battery cable onto and use a nut to tighten it down in place. There has been updates to the hardware obviously

Serial Number for the inverter purchased last July was 422374xxx and the newly purchased refurb is 3393741xxx
This refurb had a RMA sheet in the box from the previous owner and it is dated 12/28/2023.

In a few days I will switch to the newly purchased refurb inverter as the only one running the loads. This should prove your point.