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I made a pcb that measures MPPT and outputs a 0-5v or PWM signal, it controls a VFD drive to use excess solar to run my AC. Works good, but currently runs thru the charge controller and inverter. In the process of making it send HV DC directly from the panels to the VFD, skipping the steps of...

You need to set them both to primary. Secondary will only start charging after a while of the primary not keeping up. I have a 60v power supply plugged into the grid, its feeding a 60-150mppt set to secondary, it only charges after the solar cant keep up, its not instant.

I figured the potting would be a pain, but never thought about the solenoids being run off of ac. That combined with the ease of being able to run any appliance without half a day of monkeying makes your way quite attractive.

There is no way to do what you want and save money. If you were grid tied and got credits you could save money, but thats the only way.

Thats pretty clever to use the panels to power the inverter HVDC directly, its a little less efficient than powering the HVDC of the washer itself, but much more convenient and less risky to the washer. Its also better suited to adding a battery as you did. Why not run the water heating...

There is no way to tell if the solar can support your load, even if there was are you going to switch back and forth for each and every cloud that goes by? What diyrich and I mentioned is the only way: Server powered off of inverter and battery bank battery bank charged by solar, and when...

Use as much smt components as you can, its much easier to put them in place and cook them in a toaster oven than to hand solder. that being said dont get any parts smaller than a 0805 or you are going to need a microscope to see them. I use altium, its a pain to learn, but works good once its...

Are you powering the Dc bus of an inverter dishwasher and clothes washer directly off of panel voltage ? Or are you just talking about heating the water for them? Once my big buck converter is fully tuned up I will have a 350vdc system that is hooked to my heat pump, washer dryer, inverter...

2x tristar 60a pwm charge controllers, installed, but never had any power going into them. 2x battery temperature sensors 1 screen for them 900 canadian wattnode, hooked up for a few days until I figured out the xw pro only talks to a very specific model of wattnode. (not this one...

All of the above except the part about batteries is true, I already have the oversized inverter and while not the perfect 99% efficiency the other option is to not use the power at all for a zero percent efficiency. (or turn on my in floor heating in the summer) My setup will not divert any...

Probably not the most efficient option, but its simple and minimal monkeying to make it work well. I run offgrid with a twist. all schneider equipment, Im sure other brands have the option to prioritize which power to use first. 2x 100-600 mppt hooked to panels, charging mode set to primary...

Eventually thats the plan, but being a one man operation running a separate business that pays the bills I can only work on this in my spare time. I dont really want to sell it unless its 100 percent, If I am going to build a brand I want to earn the reputation of being rock solid.

voltage and panel temperature, like anything electrical, more load = voltage sag.

Looks like my idea isnt too unique... I like the way you silkscreened the capacitors negative, I might start doing it that way if running the load on the AC side its nice to know battery voltage so if the mppt is off and array volts are high it dosent drain the batteries

My contraption monitors the panels directly, it dosent talk to the mppt, it doesn't matter where you take the load from. I have tested it by: taking the load from the panels directly. taking the load from the 48vdc (its not drawing from the battery, just the charge controller). taking the load...

I am in the final testing stage of exactly what you are asking about. It can power the load from any of the solar power, dc from the panels, dc from the charge controller, or even ac from the inverter (cueerntly using it this way to power my air conditioning)...

Is there current sensors on the charge controllers ? I cant understand how it can figure out how much excess solar is available just off of measuring current alone when off grid. No, when buying Chinese electronics I divide ratings by 2, that usually gets you more realistic results.

Interesting, I havent heard of those. Does it work off grid, or only with grid tied based off of current flow direction? Does it talk to the sol ark or MPPT, or work only off of current sensors? I am hoping I have something unique, since it only needs the panels and a load controller. Here are...

The arduino is connected to the vfd 0-5v in The big wires on the left power the unit (it has 2 isolated power supplies on board to not share any grounds with the high voltages) They are big because im not interested in having a tiny wire spliced into a 550v 30+ amp Dc directly off the panels, I...

How often are you planning on having outages? How important is it that you have full power during these outages? if the answers arent very often and very important then you are spending well over 200k to harness 100$ a year of electricity. Nothing I do is so important that I cant stop what I'm...

Thanks, that was exactly what I wanted to know. I already knew about the imbalance issue, but could never get the info you just gave me from schneider for some reason ?

I built mini frames for my panels with downward hooks that latch on to a piece of 1/4' x 6" aluminum flatbar. Each panel can wiggle quite a bit since its hanging off of a single point and not put any stress on the panel. Also can crawl up on the roof of my trailer and unplug them and simply...

Grundfoss scala2 is expensive, but its a regular 120v plug, is variable speed to match load, super soft start, pumps tons of water, it can also be turned down to use less power and less noise. Its tankless, but I added a small tank to keep it from cycling when I only use a tiny bit of water to...

Grundfoss scala2 is expensive, but its a regular 120v plug, is variable speed to match load, super soft start, pumps tons of water, it can also be turned down to use less power and less noise. Its tankless, but I added a small tank to keep it from cycling when I only use a tiny bit of water to...

Sounds like you could use one of these. https://diysolarforum.com/threads/any-interest-in-something-like-this.66395/

It figures out how much excess solar power you have and will "talk" to anything that will accept a 0-5v signal, or a PWM signal. SSR, VFD, ect. It will throttle your load to use as much power as possible, but back off instantly once something wants the power, turn on the kettle, charge...

Thanks I have my CTs setup so the dashboard shows the correct flow direction. (the other one is backwards now) When consuming power the wattnode LEDs are red. Under the smart energy manager tab should the export limit be positive or negative if I dont want to send any power to the grid? Its...

If wiring to each string is a big deal then find a power factor corrected way to make DC from your main panel. I suggest using the front end of a big VFD drive Feed that DC into a large grid tie inverter, AC side of GTI hooked to factory 2 Throttle the grid tie inverter to eliminate export to...

youre way overthinking this. run a ac line from factory 2 to factory 1 have separate grid tie inverters that tap into factory 1 solar, but feed into the factory 2 ac line no ac systems are connected together this way, power lines are cheap, so are grid tie inverters other option is to run...

@n2aws if you watch my video you can clearly see the problem is the programming is trash, no matter which way you hook up the current transformers it reads backwards because the 2 screens that display flow direction are opposite each other. The real problem I have is I dont know which one is...

If anyone has a XW pro working with a wattnode I could use a hand figuring out how to set it to zero export. There is a bug in the software where the dashboard screen says the opposite flow direction to the wattnode screen. What I would like to know is: Which way is current flowing? What color...