New Installation

[malcyorks]

Hi There

I'm a newbie to this forum and have just had a 5.67 KWH system installed on my roof with a 5.12 KWH Battery and am using Solarman software.

My roof apex runs south to north and i have 7 panels on each face close to the top of the roof with no shadows for the vast majority of the day.

Whilst the software seem to be giving me information most of it im either not understanding or very confusing and perhaps someone out there could clarify a few thing.

1. The software tells me im using 65% of the power generated so do i assume that the rest is used charging up the battery?

2. Every time I see other peoples production graph its in the form of a curve for the period but mine is nothing like that so is there something wrong with the installed system?

 

[binky]

A split array will give a flatter topped curve because you will have 2 power peaks not one.

Can't answer your software question, it's not one I've ever used.

 

[malcyorks]

A split array will give a flatter topped curve because you will have 2 power peaks not one.

Can't answer your software question, it's not one I've ever used.

Hi Binky

Thanks for the reply

most of the daily graphs loo like this even when its sunny all day. Is this normal?

Cheers

Malc.

 

[bladerunnerpv]

Hi, not heard of solarman before, but most monitoring software should enable you to access data for PV generation, battery SoC, grid import & export, house consumption etc. It would be helpful to see the other data from the same day to help appreciate the whole situation.

What inverter type and model do you have? Often there's something available from the inverter manufacturer providing data.

 

[malcyorks]

Hi there

I decided to download the Windows version of the sofware to see if it was any different and it certainly was.



This screen in the Iphone app does not have the Today and This Month option which clearly shows where my power is being when This Month is selected whereas the today option shows nothing but totals.

The inverter is is a Metz Invt 3.6KWH Hybrid Inverter and the battery a Metz 5.12 KWH

I guess my only concern now is that I dont seem to get the production curve as the panels seem not as productive ?

There is a series of temperatures shown one of which is the battery at 26C then INV1 at 42C and INV2 at 73C and I'm not sure what INV1 and INV2 are?


Thanks in advance

Malc

 

[bladerunnerpv]

Can you get other 24h plots like the 1st one?

 

[malcyorks]

Can you get other 24h plots like the 1st one?

Hi there

Yes i can look at historical data but they all look similar



Hi there

 

[bladerunnerpv]

sorry I wasn't clear. 24h plots of grid use, battery use, etc, the whole shebang

 

[binky]

Ok, so what size inveter do you have?

It looks like it starts up well, hits a decnet level of output whilst charging the battery up, then drops off once the battery is full, and you aren't using much in the house

 

[malcyorks]

Hi All

I'v put all parameters on which is considerable!!

Still no clues why the big drop off at around 1200?

Seems to suggest to a novice like me that either the one of the two arrays isn't performing like it should or the system is programmed to do this?

Cheers

Malc

 

[bladerunnerpv]

Not sure if this is right, but here's how another novice reads the graphs...

import from grid 02:00 - 08:00 and blip at 21.00, less from 06:00 when PV starts (orange line)
house consumption around 500W all day except 21-21.30pm (red line)
battery charging up from solar 08:00 - 12.00, then it's 100% SoC to about 20:00 (red line)
draw from battery mostly 20:00 onwards and overnight
I don't understand what the purple line is doing 19:00 - 21:00, the names are not intuitive to me, what's the difference between purchasing power and grid power?
there ought to be a little export 12:00 - 20:00 because battery SoC is 100% and PV is > house load, which I can't see, perhaps the graph scale hides it?

options:
a) one array (west) is not producing? There was a post a while ago where the installers had forgotten to plug half the PV into the inverter, might be worth a look in the loft at the cable runs
b) your house consumption doesn't need the power in the afternoon, battery is full, PV is > house consumption, so the MPPT is throttled back, so you don't see another peak?? (not convinced of this one)
c) it was cloudy all afternoon so very little was generated

if you have a cloudy morning & sunny afternoon day, do they look any different?

happy to learn where & how I've got it wrong

 

[binky]

options:
a) one array (west) is not producing? There was a post a while ago where the installers had forgotten to plug half the PV into the inverter, might be worth a look in the loft at the cable runs

th array seems to be peaking at around 2.8 kw ish, ie half the installed capacity of the panels, which would suggest the west array is not kicking in

 

[malcyorks]

Hi All

Given all the advice I've had from you guys prompted me to get the engineers back to check out the system.

They agreed that the system is not producing as it should and got onto the manufacturers of the inverter.

The engineer said the inverter was set to on demand production which is why the 24 hour curve was so patchy. He has reset the parameters which should fix the issue.

Thanks all.

You've been a great help to this novice!