Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

Coran said:
Can you provide any more info on how two inverters work together? I’ve been struggling to find any info on this.

If I don’t have enough solar being produced to meet my demand, how does one battery/inverter take precedence over the other, rather than both trying to jump in? Same at the point of excess solar production, how do they decide which to charge? Can you somehow divide this so they’re split evenly?
Click to expand...
I'm running two hybrid inverters each has its own battery. I have 9 panels to each and they both are set up as independent systems ( not looped through each other) and each one has its own EM115 meter.
 
94JDH said:
each one has its own EM115 meter.
Click to expand...
But what stops a race condition between the two inverters? Both meters will measure current draw from the grid, both inverters could start discharging their respective batteries to meet the demand, net result is power is exported. Another scenario, one inverter is drawing power to charge its battery, the other starts discharging to meet the demand.
 
Ron-ski said:
But what stops a race condition between the two inverters? Both meters will measure current draw from the grid, both inverters could start discharging their respective batteries to meet the demand, net result is power is exported. Another scenario, one inverter is drawing power to charge its battery, the other starts discharging to meet the demand.
Click to expand...
I've actually haven't come across those problems myself but had heard of cross charging from AC inverters due to the looping and only having the one EM115 - I did ask some questions about this on the Givenergy forums and used that advice of keeping them completely separate to avoid such issues.
No cross charging from any of my records but mine are each set to use fully utilise the Go window so wouldn't discharge in that period anyway.
 
We have 3 inverters.
Our original system has a normal inverter that sends the current to the CU (Consumer Unit). This is 4kw.
Our Eastern Array has a 5kw normal inverter which also sends the current to the CU. This has 4.8kw of panels
Our newer southern array of 5.6kw has a 6kw Hybrid inverter. This allows us to charge discharge up to 6kw.
All 3 cables to the CU are 32 amps.
The 4 batteries are all linked and individually they are capable of charging/discharging 3kw. When I am producing in excess of 6kw and the surplus is greater than I am using in the house, the extra is given away to the grid. The clamp measuring the current is linked to the Hybrid. This works fine. The batteries all get charged/discharged together.

The only odd thing is that the Hybrid does measure the current up to 9999 Watts. We have (in the summer) had figures in excess of 11.5kw so this gets recorded as 1.5kw. At this time of year we are grateful for anything we can get. Whatever I am producing from the solar panels will go to the batteries.

I could post a picture if someone tells me how to do this.
 
94JDH said:
I've actually haven't come across those problems myself but had heard of cross charging from AC inverters due to the looping and only having the one EM115 - I did ask some questions about this on the Givenergy forums and used that advice of keeping them completely separate to avoid such issues.
No cross charging from any of my records but mine are each set to use fully utilise the Go window so wouldn't discharge in that period anyway.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it's because you have both setup identically, but that still leaves them both discharging to cover a load, perhaps you've just been lucky, or they just sort themselves out pretty quickly and it doesn't show up.

Peteronthesouthcoast said:
I could post a picture if someone tells me how to do this.
Click to expand...

The sort of problems I'm referring would only really happen when you have two inverters both with batteries, which don't communicate between each other. I use Post Image to host pictures, once uploaded there click share, copy the direct link, click the picture button on here and paste the link in. You don't even need an account at Post Image, but if you do it means you can manage uploaded pictures (features are restricted on free accounts).

Once my Victron system is set up I will have two inverters, I've added an energy meter to the SolarEdge inverter so that the Victron system knows what that is producing, the Victron will also measure the power coming in or going out to the grid.
 
Bit of good news from Project Solar, after I chased them, they are coming back to look at the tigos.
Slowly getting there! Should have a working system by spring lol.

But for how long.....tigo time bomb....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom