Why are we pulling electricity from the grid when we have plenty of battery capacity (SolaX)?

[risky_boy]

Hey all. I’ve recently discovered this forum and there are some brilliant people and solutions on here, so I’m hoping someone can help me… my solar installer was useless and didn’t really know what he was doing, so I’m learning all this as I try and figure out the system!

My question is “why are we pulling electricity from the grid when we have plenty of battery capacity”?

From the images below (all taken from the SolaX web interface) you can see that in image 1 we are pulling electricity from the grid overnight, as there is no solar and the batteries are configured to keep 30% SOC in case of a power cut in our area (and we have the EPS module fitted for that - so this is as I would expect.




In image 2, it’s a similar story. It’s later in the day when we start to pull a lot from the grid, and I can only assume that ever if there was 3-6kW of solar being produced, clearly the draw from the house was more and hence needing some from the grid - so again, I think this is what I would expect.





But in image 3, we have over 80% battery capacity, yet still pulling from the grid. Is it because of the low draw/power requirement perhaps and the inverter need more of a pull before the batteries kick in???





If it helps, the bits that will probably be relevant to this question are:

• SolaX X3-Hybrid-G4 (10 kW) inverter (set to “self-use” mode, and with minimum SOC for the batteries set to be 30% in case of power cuts)
• 4 x SolaX batteries (1 x SolaX MC0600 HV10230 V2 (3.1kWh) and 3 x SolaX HV10230 V2 (3.1kWh) = total 12.4kWh
• There is a MyEnergi Eddi in the mix also (for hot water diversion)
• 3-phase power to the house (not sure if it makes a difference)

Thank you for any help!

 

[Ampster]

I don't know much about Solax but a high level obvious answer is that is is presumably about the settings. I know when I migrated from an an Outback Skybox to a SolArk the interface was different and it took several readings of the manual, a call to tech support and some helpful answers from members on this forum for me to dial it in.

 

[efficientPV]

Looks like you have two things trying to be smart with different interests. I can't imagine both being used together without disabling most of what they are supposed to do.

 

[Cuemaker]

I agree with Ampster, it's 99% sure it's in the settings.
You need to study your manuals & figure it out or post your equipment with a link to the manuals.
Someone on here will probably help you out, they did for me!

 

[risky_boy]

Thanks all. I'll give SolaX a call and see if there is a setting we can tweak/change to get this working optimally and will report back in case it helps other users.

 

[risky_boy]

I had a great, and very helpful call with Solax support earlier (I was very impressed). In short...

When the house power draw is low (like 200W), by default the inverter will take power from the grid first. There is a setting you can change which might help, but my inverter needed a firmware upgrade first (which she then carried out remotely for me). She didn't say which setting it was, but it's under the “Advanced settings” in the inverter (she said the installer should normally do it, but she did it remotely).

So I'm going to monitor it now, but she did say that if the load is very low (like 50W), then inverter might be powered from the grid itself, so there might still be a draw from the grid. I'll continue to monitor now the setting has been changed and the firmware upgraded.

 

[Ampster]

When the house power draw is low (like 200W), by default the inverter will take power from the grid first.

My SolArk also has a minimum power from the grid. Must be something in the algorithm.

 

[Annamal]

Thanks all. I'll give SolaX a call and see if there is a setting we can tweak/change to get this working optimally and will report back in case it helps other users.

How did you get a number for Solax? I’ve only found an email and unsurprisingly am not getting a response! Thanks!

 

[MisterB1959]

i think the concept is called power shaving, there is a video on youtube from Keith from Sunsynk, explaining how it works and how to set it up on a sunsynk inverter, it might clarify a few questions ..??

 

[Supervstech]

OP hasnt been online since August 7th... Did they get satisfaction from this? It looks like after 1am, the batteries disconnect. I bet it is a time setting.