Has the charging rate been capped to 3kw?

[HomerJay]

We've just had our Huawei PV system installed finally, today and the installer tells me as a footnote that the charge rate for the inverter / batteries from the grid has been set to 3kw on our system and so has everyone else's.

I'm very disappointed in this as our 15kwh batteries will now only be charged to 12kwh during the night-time tariff from Octopus go.

Is this true or is this Huawei changing the spec of the inverter after our installer has quoted a higher spec?

This is the inverter:

https://midsummerwholesale.co.uk/buy/huawei-storage/huawei-6kw-hv-sun-hybrid
This is the data sheet. It’s the model on the extreme right of the table.

 

[binky]

We've just had our Huawei PV system installed finally, today and the installer tells me as a footnote that the charge rate for the inverter / batteries from the grid has been set to 3kw on our system and so has everyone else's.

I'm very disappointed in this as our 15kwh batteries will now only be charged to 12kwh during the night-time tariff from Octopus go.

Is this true or is this Huawei changing the spec of the inverter after our installer has quoted a higher spec?

Got the data sheet

 

[HomerJay]

Sorry Binky, what data sheet?
Found it and attached to the post!

 

[binky]

Sorry Binky, what data sheet?
Found it and attached to the post!

According to that max charge power is 3.5kw / 5kw depending on the battery you have.

 

[HomerJay]

We have 3 X 5kwh of Huawei batteries - the ones that go with this specific inverter!
Spec below

 

[karlboldy0]

Where is the battery and inverter installed?
If garage / loft / outside, It’s possible the colder weather is reducing the throughput. Our battery chargers slower in the colder weather, and as it warms up a little speeds up.

 

[HomerJay]

Its installed outside on a sheltered wall but as I can't login to the back end yet (some authentication error), I have no idea what's its actual charge rate is from the grid!
The installer mentioned it in passing that the rate had been reduced to 3kw but none of the spec seems to say that. Mind you, he also mentioned that it was also something to do with National Power reducing the charge rate nationally, which sounded like BS to me!
UPDATE:
Finally got into the admin section and after some digging around - looks like it's not BS. I found this. Surely this is going to affect every one of us?

 

[johnb2713]

The installer mentioned it in passing that the rate had been reduced to 3kw but none of the spec seems to say that. Mind you, he also mentioned that it was also something to do with National Power reducing the charge rate nationally, which sounded like BS to me!

And to me too

UPDATE:
Finally got into the admin section and after some digging around - looks like it's not BS. I found this. Surely this is going to affect every one of us?

Nope, that's a setting your installer has done and limited it to 3kW. The Victron I'm just commissioning I have just set to 5 kW. Adjust it to 3,500w and charge you batteries unless theres a tech reason with your batteries not to charge at that rate.
.

 

[HomerJay]

That’s strange. The batteries state that they charge at 5kw in the spec but he says that National Grid limit supply to this rate and Huawei comply with the request. I really need to get to the bottom of this as it affects what we hope to save over the years very badly!

I can’t set the rate at all. The figure is just there, at least from a user point of view.

 

[binky]

That’s strange. The batteries state that they charge at 5kw in the spec but he says that National Grid limit supply to this rate and Huawei comply with the request. I really need to get to the bottom of this as it affects what we hope to save over the years very badly!

I can’t set the rate at all. The figure is just there, at least from a user point of view.

The DNO limitation would be 16Amps, but you can ask if you can set things for a higher limit.

 

[HomerJay]

Sorry, I don’t get that - struggling newbie here. What does 16A have to do with the 5kw charge rate?
It says on our documentation from Nation Grid that our ‘maximum import capacity‘ is 15kVa. Is that 5kw?
Sorry for all these questions - having a hard time understanding all this.

 

[binky]

It's your grid connection. In short when they design the electrical systems to provide leccy to your house they work on the principal that not all the houses will be using lots of power at the same time, so whilst you may have say an 80 Amp main fuse, they have probably only allowed something like 40Amps. They also don't like backfeeding more than 30% of the local transformer's capacity. They have to allow 16A by law, and treat batteries as capable of backfeeding the grid as well as charging from it. However 16A is 3.62kw, so your installer is not correct, and as I said earlier you can apply for a higher ampage. Sometimes the local network can cope with a higher load, sometimes it can't.

 

[Scruffy D]

We had our Huawei 10KW batteries plus solar installed in the summer and our charging is capped at 2kw! Not a problem in the summer obviously, but we are definitely limiting our savings in the winter.