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This is a bit niche but I programmed an Arduino to poll the serial port of my easun inverter. The Arduino can obtain all the operating voltages/currents etc since 1 second ago. The program monitors the PV array voltage to ensure it is high enough. Then it gently loads the inverter to test if...

I used blocking diodes to separate my east and west PV strings. (Not to be confused with bypass diodes) The technical term is polystring and the AIO single MPPT doesn't care. Cheaper at the cost of a few percentage points in efficiency compared to a dual MPPT setup.

The code I wrote is specific to Easun and uses their own serial communication protocols. I realized how dangerous it can be to try and read voltages from the PV array, the AC from the inverter and the battery voltage while maintaining isolation between the three. So I ripped the readings from...

Similar to your situation I get very little usable solar energy from November to February. The inverter gets switched to UPS mode for these four months. Let's just say blackouts are no longer a worry ?

would you consider an east-west array? I'm at 53 degrees north and get 12 hours of PV power from May-Sept with a SE/NW array

That's good you found a system that works. I can see the benefits of seperate SCC units. With AIO systems the user is kinda stuffed if one section of the unit fails but read on... 2s5p polystring arrays work for me as my 4kw AIO inverter is eight times (eight!) oversized for the average load...

I have an issue with a 5kva AIO inverter waking up when the morning sky gets bright. It flicks between trying to run on hopelessly low PV energy and draining the battery bank. Then in the evening as the sun goes down the same problem happens. So I wrote a program that senses the PV voltage...

The circuit I designed and programmed is working well. The inverter remains in bypass mode until the circuit detects a PV OC voltage rise above 117v. Then the SSR is activated and the inverter swaps to powering the load in PV mode As long as PV voltage-under-load remains above 85v the...

This blasé attitude to life is sickening. I'm not a lawyer so I'll let the legal world speak to this. https://www.circeolawfirm.com/blog/preventing-electrical-injuries-and-electrocution/ When electrical accidents occur due to someone else’s negligence, you have the right to pursue legal...

Sorry to ressurect on old thread but I have devised a circuit that turns on a solid state relay (SSR) when PV voltage exceeds 100v. The SSR turns off when PV voltage is ~85v.. The SSR is rated for 200vdc @ 25A A pic microchip continuously samples the PV array voltage via a simple resistor...

Do the neon light indicators on your switched fused spurs remain illuminated when the switch is in the off position? This is a classic phase reversal behaviour and can verify your diagnosis of the problem. Not safe and it's your head on the block if someone gets injured/killed now that you...

That's an interesting approach and thanks for the idea. I need to weigh up burning unwanted power vs not drawing unwanted power. Edit: Perhaps I can design a shunt voltage regulator to act as an emergency crowbar and limit Max Voc to < 150v The buck converter can do the donkey work

Ha ha tools and parts can get mixed into a huge pile in the midst of a project. I call it my security system. If I can't find anything no one else can ?

I have the easun ISolar SML 5kva with RS232. I used an TCPIP to rs232 adapter on the easun so I can connect my laptop across my LAN and control it. (Cool because it can handle eight tcpip clients connecting at the same time) .baud rate is 2400. Attached is the Easun communication protocol...

You are better off monitoring PV voltage and battery current as well as battery voltage in order to decide whether to divert energy to the heater. Also look at how to gradually ramp up the amount of energy diverted to the hot tank. Slamming a relay on and off based on battery voltage does...

try zeolite. Dry it out (stores heat in the zeolite) Store zeolite for 20 years in a watertight container. After 20 years open the container and splash water on the zeolite. The water will release its heat.

The two 1125w strings face southeast & the other four panels face northwest. Output today was 2551 KVA @ 89 Volts about 2pm. The power factor of 0.96 means that actual power draw was 2143W (+ 210W charging the battery bank) The MPPT is integrated into an AIO easun 5kva unit.

Yes ditch the DC setup and install an AC element. Use a 4000va inverter. Then use a 240Vac SSR to switch the element. No moving parts, zero crossing switching, no arcing. Also cable power losses will much smaller. You seem comfortable draining down the tank so it shouldn't take long.

It doesn't matter if panels are somewhat mismatched regarding Voc. The important thing is that they are grouped in array(s) facing 90 to 180 degrees away from the original array. And blocking diodes are vital. For example my east facing array has Voc of 80v, the west facing array has a Voc of...

My AIO is dumb and assumes that a high PV OC voltage means that there are plenty of amps available. For example it tries to run a 450 va load from PV at 6am when the sun hasn't even risen above the horizon. All because at 6am the PV OC voltage is 118v. So I created this solution to assist the...

I have a project like this in the pipeline. One site has 3s1p with Vmp of 93v. Would like to have it closer to 115V So plan to add one 400w panel with a Vmp of 31v in series with the string (3.5s1P if you like) by feeding a through DC boost coverter. The boost converter's ouput is locked to...

The site has 3s3p. Two of the strings are identical, 1125W @ 103.5 Vmp. The third string is 1200W @ 93 Vmp & mismatched by ~10v @ Vmp. As you can imagine the inverter MPPT is tracking wildly. So I added a forth panel in series with the 1200w string. Except that this single extra panel is wired...