Most reacted posts

To start a charge cycle, you only need to do one write to the XW-pro to tell it "Bulk Mode". It will start charging no matter what the setting are for the recharge volts and at any battery voltage. SO the easiest is to just send that command when you know there is sun on the solar panels in the...

Even if the BMS can tell an inverter and/or charger to shut off with data, I would still want the backup of an actual contactor or solid state relay to be able to disconnect the battery if something is going wrong. Software can fail. Everyone has had to reboot a device at some point. IF the BMS...

At "solar noon" with the sun directly over the panels, your 1,000 watt array will likely be able to make about 800 watts depending on panel angle, weather, and panel temperature. On a 12 volt system, that would be about 56 amps to the batteries, 28 amps at 24 volts, and just 14 amps on 48 volts...

Here is an update... My system is back up and running with the current back going through the JK BMS. I used the leads for cells 23 and 24 to replace the poor connection leads that were in the cell 3 and 4 positions. I tested the wire harness at about 2 amps of current and saw between 60 and 66...

I really don't think short cycles and charging and stopping, then charging more, at reduced current etc. due to clouds or whatever, is not that much of an issue. If you charged just 5%, then stopped, and it discharged 5%, then you charged it 5% back again, that is not going to do the wear of 2...

Okay, I finally found how to get the temp data. I just grabbed one of the module from my upper roof and puled it up. OUCH!!!! That module hit 140F the last two days. Overnight, they do cool down to the low 60's. I think the iQ7 might be going into a bit of power limiting on those crazy hot...

I actually got a reply back from Schneider. The first tech said their department is not trained in Modbus, so they escalated it to a level 3 tech. Then today, I got a reply from the higher tech. All Modbus registers are held in RAM while the system is running, so there is not limit to the...

The problem on some MPPT controllers is the way the MPP search algorithm works. On many of the cheaper units, they slowly increase current draw then monitor the voltage and calculate the power. If the power went up, it increase the current again then checks the voltage etc. At some point, the...

The weather across the USA has been a mess. Even here in "Sunny So Cal" we are getting horrible solar production. Even with my control system on the XW-Pro I am having to manually start charge cycles to get enough energy in the battery bank to cover the 4 pm to 9 pm On Peak rate time. I just...

It has been a good week here. Even with another storm moving through, we had enough sun that I net exported every day. There was only one day where the battery did not get fully topped back up. I am finding that the DC coupled panels are really showing their worth when there is clouds and weak...

Here are two more pics fitting the cabinet around the batteries. its a tight fit, but it does "fit".

I guess it is some good news that I have not updated here in a while. The reason is that my work is picking back up as the Covid-19 situation is improving a bit. So my new battery modules have been sitting a lot, and they are still over 90% charged. I checked them again, and all of the cells...

I bought the new Bouge RV 40 amp MPPT Solar Charge controller with Blue Tooth and the phone app. The build quality seems rock solid, it has a lot of heat sink area cast into the aluminum enclosure and the front plate is glass with a magnetic held cover over the terminal screws. It feels solid...

And the numbers are in for the first full day. My 4,800 watts of Sil Fab / Enphase produced a total of 20.7 Kilowatt hours today. That works out to 4.3125 sun hours. The 1,000 watts of NewPowa / Bouge RV produced a total of 3.940 kilowatt hours in the same time. 3.94 sun hours. So between the...

When everything is working correctly, the BMS is just along for the ride. If the cell balance goes out, it will try to pull it back in. IF the cells are well matched, it does not have much to do. A few milliamps for a few hours will keep god batteries in balance. The Charger will stop charging...

CONFIRMED! The problem is in the wire harness, seems to be the crimp in the 15 pin JST connector. It is intermittent. I was measuring cell volts with a 100 ohm load resistor. That was pulling the voltage down to just 2 volts on the bad cell lead, so it is not open, but very resistive. About 100...

I welded up a new exhaust for my son's car tonight. Ran the welder off the XW-Pro inverter. Watched the power readout running near 4,000 watts with no issues at all. Hit over 67 amps on my battery bank at about 55 volts and the BMS stayed cool. The XW was in grid support mode, so I used no grid...

Back on topic for this thread... It looks like there is a proposal being pushed in California to lower the per kilowatt hour electric rate by 8% to 10%. But then they will charge a $24 per month fixed fee. This proposal give people who use a lot of power a discount, but people who use little...

With Lead Acid batteries, going from 50% DoD to only 25% DoD with twice the battery can actually MORE than double the number of cycles so it can end up being a little cheaper in the long run. Lithium batteries will also improve on the number of cycles, but it is less likely to end up reducing...

As a general rule, when using a generic Chinese BMS, we basically figure it will work well at half of it's rated current. Larger ones keep coming out, but the common ones are rated to 200, so 100 amps per BMS was about where we figured was good design. The new Daly line going to 250 and 300 may...

Of course! That is looking almost directly at the sun. I can't tell for sure as more light is coming from well away from the sun. I was putting away some tools and such while watching the XW charge current and the Bouge charge current. The Enphase system is also powering the house, and only...

I just got the DC solar wired back in an powered up at 10:40 am today. I tried to do it in the dark last night, but it was just too cold to try and hold a light and do delicate work. So I left it with the wires safely taped over. This morning, I disconnected the fuses on the roof, ran all the...

Nissan Leaf Cells are a cobalt chemistry, so the cell voltage is about 3.6 volts nominal. But they are in series pairs for 7.2 volts per module. If you use 3 modules, you get just 21.6 volts, full charge will hit 4.15 per cell or 24.9 for the pack. This is on the low side for most 24 volt...

Well, that was NOT fun. I went back up on my garage as the sun was setting and I managed to get the second DC array all on the proper mounts. The bad part was I did it alone. With the aid of a jack stand and two old scissor style car jacks, I was able to position the panels so I could drill the...

It is now 5 pm and I was fully expecting it to be all done, but the Victron is STILL pulling 13 watts from the DC array. The Enphase inverters have been shut down for 45 minutes. The grand total for today ended up at 5.39 KWHs from the DC panels. That is WAY better than the BougeRV was doing...

My 2,000 watt DC system with the Victron 150-35 has not quite topped 10 KWHs in a day yet, but it should have several times now, but the batteries are topping out and I am going into float for 2-3 hours. Once it gets warm enough to need the A/C I won't be going into float and the production...

Yup, you have nearly 4.5 times as much PV Solar panel than I did. I added 1 KW of DC panels, and may add another 1 KW soon. But even then, I will only have 6.8 KW of raw STC panel rating. That is just under 1/3 of your system still. So my annual true up was still a charge. It was about $1,000...

You probably have heard about the new Enphase Ensemble system. There is a write up of one on here. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/an-enphase-ensemble-installation.3603/ The Ensemble looks like a great system, and I had looked into it, but they kept delaying the announcements. I finally gave...

From this document, https://enphase.com/sites/default/files/downloads/support/TechBrief-Export-Limiting-HEI-Self-Supply-EN-US.pdf the zero export is controlled by the Envoy sending commands to the micros. And it appears to just give them all a percentage factor. It sounds like they are normally...

I got into a bit of an argument with the tech at Schneider back when I first got the XW installed and could not make it stat a charge cycle. I even copied part of their own web page to show him where it said the system could do "time of use", "self consumption", and "AC coupling". But the...