Why is my solark 12k drawing power only from one battery while the other is in idle mode??

[Lukas225]

Hi there!
Im new to a solar systems and I bought complete setup for my off grid tiny house.
As I mentioned my inverter draw power only from one battery while the other is in idle mode (until the 1st one is drained) than it starts drawing power from the 2nd battery.
However they both charging at the same time.
Do you know what could cause this?
Is it a solark setting or wiring issue?
Im putting some pictures here.
I’d appreciate if someone can help.
Thanks

 

[Balrog006]

Seems like it’s a setting issue or preset feature of the batteries rather than an inverter issue.

One thing I would try is moving the battery leads so they’re the same distance and across each other on the busses from each other and close to the larger cables. If how the leads are arranged is an issue it could be drawing them in series vs parallel.

 

[Lukas225]

Seems like it’s a setting issue or preset feature of the batteries rather than an inverter issue.

One thing I would try is moving the battery leads so they’re the same distance and across each other on the busses from each other and close to the larger cables. If how the leads are arranged is an issue it could be drawing them in series vs parallel.

Ok so do you mean doing this as I marked on the picture? Thanks

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Batteries can have variances in chemistry, wiring etc that could cause them to discharge at different rates even when connected in parallel.

If all your conductors are the same length then perhaps you have some balancing issues between the batteries.

Charge the batteries to 100% and make sure they continue to charge until they both report nearly the same voltage. If you have a closed loop the batteries should tell the inverter to charge/wait charge/wait over and over until they’re both at the same voltage.

If you don’t have closed loop, then you’ll need to configure the sol-ark to float the batteries at the top charge voltage for the batteries for a little bit until they no longer accept charge since they’re peaked at what looks like 58.8v according to your document.

I might have some language or descriptions that are slightly off, but the concept of balancing your batteries is essential what you need to achieve so they discharge at similar rates.

 

[Balrog006]

Ok so do you mean doing this as I marked on the picture? Thanks
View attachment 177093

If I’m understanding your markup correctly, yes. Perhaps you could retake the picture once you’ve relocated them and post to confirm.

As I said though, this is just good practice to balance the draw, much like having all battery cables equal length.

It still seems to me like that the batteries themselves are preset to be drawn in series vs in parallel. Have you investigated if there are some settings for this with them?

 

[Lukas225]

If I’m understanding your markup correctly, yes. Perhaps you could retake the picture once you’ve relocated them and post to confirm.

As I said though, this is just good practice to balance the draw, much like having all battery cables equal length.

It still seems to me like that the batteries themselves are preset to be drawn in series vs in parallel. Have you investigated if there are some settings for this with them?

As far as I know I did “put the battery to sleep mode” in settings so it didn’t go under 20% of capacity which I have set up on my sol-ark (when it go under 20% it should shot down so it doesn’t damage the battery but it went to 19% (that’s when I manually switched to sleep mode)
I’ll relocate these wires and charge the batteries 100% and see what happens.

 

[Lukas225]

Batteries can have variances in chemistry, wiring etc that could cause them to discharge at different rates even when connected in parallel.

If all your conductors are the same length then perhaps you have some balancing issues between the batteries.

Charge the batteries to 100% and make sure they continue to charge until they both report nearly the same voltage. If you have a closed loop the batteries should tell the inverter to charge/wait charge/wait over and over until they’re both at the same voltage.

If you don’t have closed loop, then you’ll need to configure the sol-ark to float the batteries at the top charge voltage for the batteries for a little bit until they no longer accept charge since they’re peaked at what looks like 58.8v according to your document.

I might have some language or descriptions that are slightly off, but the concept of balancing your batteries is essential what you need to achieve so they discharge at similar rates.

Hm i kind of get it but also dont haha.
I’ll charge the batteries 100% and see what happens.
Aldo I remember that at some point they were discharging both at the same time so im confused.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Hm i kind of get it but also dont haha.
I’ll charge the batteries 100% and see what happens.
Aldo I remember that at some point they were discharging both at the same time so im confused.

An 80% variance in discharge, battery A at 100% and battery B at 20% is most likely not that result of unbalanced batteries. While what I said is still important to balance the batteries by making sure all the cells inside are at the same(ish) voltage, it appears you have some other settings or configuration at play.

 

[Balrog006]

An 80% variance in discharge, battery A at 100% and battery B at 20% is most likely not that result of unbalanced batteries. While what I said is still important to balance the batteries by making sure all the cells inside are at the same(ish) voltage, it appears you have some other settings or configuration at play.

This was my thought as well, either in the batteries themselves or somehow perhaps in the inverter or how it’s wired between them is causing it.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Wiring would be hard to do wrong to create the type of behavior you’re experiencing, it’s as if the batteries themselves have some sort of communication between them waiting for the primary to reach some discharge level then the secondary kicks in.

 

[Lukas225]

Update:
So I switched the wiring on the busses so they’re against each other (same distance) but it didn’t help.
I watched the batteries closely and I’ve noticed when there’s a draw I see both batteries discharging BUT only for not even a second and then it draws the power from only one battery…

I’ve contacted sol-ark and the people I got the whole system from and they told me to unplug the battery and charge it with regular charger to 100% then read the Voltage..let it sit for 2 hours and read it again to find out if the voltage dropped.
Im not sure what does this supposed to do and how Im I gonna fix the problem but..

And even if I see the both batteries discharging they both have different current readings..

What else should I do?

 

[LydMekk]

The problem are your wiring.
Battery 1: Red cable from the busbar to the main red pole. Another red cable from batt 1 to battery 2s red pole etc. and so on to the final battery. The last battery should not have another red cable going to the red busbar.
Black cables: only the LAST battery should be connected to the black busbar. Short black cables goes up the stack to each black pole on each battery. Again, the FIRST battery should not have a black cable directly to the black busbar.

If you search a little in here there are a ton of pictures showing what I wrote.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Update:
So I switched the wiring on the busses so they’re against each other (same distance) but it didn’t help.
I watched the batteries closely and I’ve noticed when there’s a draw I see both batteries discharging BUT only for not even a second and then it draws the power from only one battery…

I’ve contacted sol-ark and the people I got the whole system from and they told me to unplug the battery and charge it with regular charger to 100% then read the Voltage..let it sit for 2 hours and read it again to find out if the voltage dropped.
Im not sure what does this supposed to do and how Im I gonna fix the problem but..

And even if I see the both batteries discharging they both have different current readings..

What else should I do?

The reason they're asking you to do this is so they can see what the resting voltage is of the battery. Basically, voltage is like pressure so whichever battery has the higher voltage will most likely push current while potentially the other battery sits until the voltages are similar and then the batteries discharge together.

 

[MaikaiLifeDIY]

Help us clarify your wiring. Is this correct, you have these batteries connected in parrael to the positive and negative bus bars, then a breaker between this panel and the Sol-Ark?



Are both the battery "RED" cables the same length or at least within an inch of each other, and the same for the "BLACK" wires?