All torqued up. This was just a temporary setup to verify functional use. I have yet to put a DC breaker in-line, but may do this before the weekend is out. I have a second battery to install tomorrow.
Hi, thanks for sharing your experiences, they are very useful to us other DIYers. How quickly does your inverter charge the battery from 90% discharged? I am trying to find out how to calculate charge times so I can select the right inverter to fill a battery in the 7 hour cheap rate overnight window, but the formulas I find on the internet all seem to have their own idiosyncrasies which is confusing.
Good question. The answer is: It depends. There are lots of variables, but assuming it’s LiFePO4 chemistry you’re using, you need to know the useable capacity. Let’s say it’s a 15kWh pack and you set it to 13kWh useable (around 85%). With a 7 hour window, using a 2000W (2kW) inverter, you can fully charge the pack. A 5kW Solis would charge it fully in a little more than 2.5 hours. Obviously temperature, pack balance and available load matters, so I’m assuming normal conditions.
@@GaryMeatsLife Thanks for the info. Yes, it would be LiFePO4 batteries, probably a Seplos kit. I've just watched your video in which you connect another Seplos battery and it looks like you are still using the same inverter. From what you have said above, can I assume that you are able to charge these batteries fully overnight with your 5kw inverter? Or are there other factors to take into account. Thanks again.
@@markdressel3311 My cheap night rate is 4 hours. I can draw 20kWh during that period. My total useable storage is 26kWh. I will soon add a separate charger to the loop between the inverter and battery packs to enable more kW to flow during the cheap rate, as I will be adding another battery, bringing my useable capacity to 40kWh. I will probably upgrade my inverter in a year or two to 8 or 12kW.
@@GaryMeatsLife That's interesting, I had never considered combining a charger with an inverter to provide sufficient charging capacity. I will follow your channel with interest to see how you get on. Thanks.
@@joemarsh3136I call BS on that if it is a Solis inverter. I’d be surprised if any hybrid inverter was sold without the comms cable. Maybe some come without battery cables because they might need a different termination point.
Good day dear, I need to know please if i can link my 12 panels 700watt each with a total panels voc of 585 and my solis max is 600 volt. Is it safe especially that i heard in winter when the temperature is 5c the voc of the panels will exceed the 600 v of the inverter. Can i link them in my solis in 1 MPPT for better efficiency or it might be not good ? Many thanks
This is outside of the scope of the video. I only speak in general here, but if the VOC is lower than the inverter limit, I would think it is fine. During colder temperatures, the panels could theoretically produce higher voltage, but I would suspect this would be during winter months when light levels are lower anyway. In any event, this should be asked of the manufacturer, or installer, or a specialised solar channel. It’s not my area of expertise, so I cannot properly advise.
Hi Gary, I have the same inverter as you, and I'm using it with 16 EVE 304 cells and a JK inverter BMS with an active balancer. I've been running this setup for the past five months. The JK BMS communicates the state of charge (SOC) to the inverter, but the SOC keeps drifting over time. Here's the issue: even when the BMS indicates a 100% SOC, the voltages drift slightly lower with each cycle. Over the weeks, the SOC gradually drifts, so while it shows 100%, each cell and the overall pack voltage are slightly lower than the previous cycle. If I adjust the battery capacity settings, the BMS resets to 70% SOC, and the inverter charges another 3 or 4 kWh. This SOC drift is frustrating because on cloudy days, my 16 kWh battery effectively only charges to 11 or 12 kWh. The remaining 4 kWh stays uncharged because the BMS incorrectly reports 100% SOC to the inverter. To fully charge the battery, I have to keep changing the capacity settings in the BMS back and forth. Is there a way to use this inverter without CAN communication or by setting it as a generic battery? If anyone else has the same issue or knows a solution, please comment and suggest how to fix this problem. Thanks!
I'm only somewhat familiar with my setup, so can't comment much on the JK BMS. I don't know what active balancer you have, or what triggers it. I intend to hit the balance button on my battery pack at least one per month to help keep the voltages more closely aligned. With your 16kWh capacity, you'll only have 13-13.5kWh really available if you have set the max charge and discharge voltages to 10 and 90%. My discharge is set to 85% with forced charging at 90% depleted. As far as I know, you need to use the CAN between the battery and the inverter. The generic battery setting on the Solis is "user defined". This is actually what I am using and I have an updated video on the settings I will be releasing in the next 48 hours. You can check out the first settings video I already have uploaded and that might help you out. You might also check you are using the correct settings on the BMS for whatever battery chemistry/type you are using. Again, i'm not familiar with JK, so you would have to look more into that yourself.
Make sure your Torque thoes battery connections (see installation manual for correct settings). Great video, thanks.
All torqued up. This was just a temporary setup to verify functional use. I have yet to put a DC breaker in-line, but may do this before the weekend is out. I have a second battery to install tomorrow.
Hi, thanks for sharing your experiences, they are very useful to us other DIYers. How quickly does your inverter charge the battery from 90% discharged? I am trying to find out how to calculate charge times so I can select the right inverter to fill a battery in the 7 hour cheap rate overnight window, but the formulas I find on the internet all seem to have their own idiosyncrasies which is confusing.
Good question. The answer is: It depends.
There are lots of variables, but assuming it’s LiFePO4 chemistry you’re using, you need to know the useable capacity. Let’s say it’s a 15kWh pack and you set it to 13kWh useable (around 85%). With a 7 hour window, using a 2000W (2kW) inverter, you can fully charge the pack. A 5kW Solis would charge it fully in a little more than 2.5 hours.
Obviously temperature, pack balance and available load matters, so I’m assuming normal conditions.
@@GaryMeatsLife Thanks for the info. Yes, it would be LiFePO4 batteries, probably a Seplos kit. I've just watched your video in which you connect another Seplos battery and it looks like you are still using the same inverter. From what you have said above, can I assume that you are able to charge these batteries fully overnight with your 5kw inverter? Or are there other factors to take into account. Thanks again.
@@markdressel3311 My cheap night rate is 4 hours. I can draw 20kWh during that period. My total useable storage is 26kWh.
I will soon add a separate charger to the loop between the inverter and battery packs to enable more kW to flow during the cheap rate, as I will be adding another battery, bringing my useable capacity to 40kWh. I will probably upgrade my inverter in a year or two to 8 or 12kW.
@@GaryMeatsLife That's interesting, I had never considered combining a charger with an inverter to provide sufficient charging capacity. I will follow your channel with interest to see how you get on. Thanks.
Hi Gary, did the battery cables and the CAN cables come with the inverter?
Yes, they did and they do. It seems that a lot of installers don’t leave these with the customer unless a battery is being installed.
@@GaryMeatsLife Thanks. I asked them to leave me the cables but they said that it didn't come with any :(
@@joemarsh3136I call BS on that if it is a Solis inverter. I’d be surprised if any hybrid inverter was sold without the comms cable. Maybe some come without battery cables because they might need a different termination point.
@@GaryMeatsLife I thought so too, which is why I asked them during the install. I'll try ask them again.
Good day dear,
I need to know please if i can link my 12 panels 700watt each with a total panels voc of 585 and my solis max is 600 volt.
Is it safe especially that i heard in winter when the temperature is 5c the voc of the panels will exceed the 600 v of the inverter.
Can i link them in my solis in 1 MPPT for better efficiency or it might be not good ?
Many thanks
This is outside of the scope of the video. I only speak in general here, but if the VOC is lower than the inverter limit, I would think it is fine. During colder temperatures, the panels could theoretically produce higher voltage, but I would suspect this would be during winter months when light levels are lower anyway.
In any event, this should be asked of the manufacturer, or installer, or a specialised solar channel. It’s not my area of expertise, so I cannot properly advise.
Hi Gary,
I have the same inverter as you, and I'm using it with 16 EVE 304 cells and a JK inverter BMS with an active balancer. I've been running this setup for the past five months. The JK BMS communicates the state of charge (SOC) to the inverter, but the SOC keeps drifting over time.
Here's the issue: even when the BMS indicates a 100% SOC, the voltages drift slightly lower with each cycle. Over the weeks, the SOC gradually drifts, so while it shows 100%, each cell and the overall pack voltage are slightly lower than the previous cycle. If I adjust the battery capacity settings, the BMS resets to 70% SOC, and the inverter charges another 3 or 4 kWh. This SOC drift is frustrating because on cloudy days, my 16 kWh battery effectively only charges to 11 or 12 kWh. The remaining 4 kWh stays uncharged because the BMS incorrectly reports 100% SOC to the inverter. To fully charge the battery, I have to keep changing the capacity settings in the BMS back and forth.
Is there a way to use this inverter without CAN communication or by setting it as a generic battery? If anyone else has the same issue or knows a solution, please comment and suggest how to fix this problem.
Thanks!
I'm only somewhat familiar with my setup, so can't comment much on the JK BMS. I don't know what active balancer you have, or what triggers it. I intend to hit the balance button on my battery pack at least one per month to help keep the voltages more closely aligned. With your 16kWh capacity, you'll only have 13-13.5kWh really available if you have set the max charge and discharge voltages to 10 and 90%. My discharge is set to 85% with forced charging at 90% depleted.
As far as I know, you need to use the CAN between the battery and the inverter. The generic battery setting on the Solis is "user defined". This is actually what I am using and I have an updated video on the settings I will be releasing in the next 48 hours. You can check out the first settings video I already have uploaded and that might help you out. You might also check you are using the correct settings on the BMS for whatever battery chemistry/type you are using. Again, i'm not familiar with JK, so you would have to look more into that yourself.