EG4 18kPV Q+A general thread

[FurryAlpaca]

Hello! Got the 18k powered on today and have been playing with some settings. I'm coming from a pair of 6500EXs as I'm sure at least a few here have. I don't have an interconnect agreement (planning on tackling this over the summer) so at this point looking to see if I can replicate the standard 6500EX flow:

1. Run in Off-Grid Mode from batteries until they reach a specified SOC
2. At that specified SOC (usually sometime at night) switch to grid to power the loads
3. When solar charges the batteries to a certain SOC the next day switch back to Off-Grid Mode

Right now I'm currently in Off-Grid Mode and batteries are happily powering the loads. From what I understand I can set the Off-Grid Cut-Off SOC(%) in the Discharge Setting which will switch back over to grid to power the loads (#2 above). The question I have is how (or if?) I can configure it to switch BACK to Off-Grid Mode at a specified SOC?

Something like off grid until 30% SOC, then switch to grid, then switch BACK to off grid at 50% SOC.

I skimmed the newest manual I could find and tried to make sense out of the options in the menus on the screen and the website but am coming up empty. I'm assuming it uses a different set of values? Appreciate if someone could point me in the right direction. Apologize if I missed this somewhere, it's been a week! Thanks in advance!

In case anyone else was wondering/searching, it appears it will automatically switch from grid back to EPS backup mode when the SOC is 5% higher than the On-Grid Cut-Off SOC(%) is set to. Does not appear to be configurable.

 

[Shinzul]

@Markus_EG4 There seems to be a state that happens where the data coming out of the inverter drops everything to 0. It seems that when in self consumption mode, when the battery SOC drops to the lowest configured percent (plus the 5% unconfigurable buffer per the last post!) that the measured data drops to 0. The EG4 monitoring app and solar assistant both agree.

It's been a SUPER cloudy couple of days, so my batteries dropped to 10% and the inverter flipped over to grid pass-through for most of the last 24 hours. Here's the data from the EG4 monitoring app:



And here's solar assistant:


Why is this showing all 0s?! The heat was definitely on all night, because it was really cold, but the inverters just stopped measuring anything.

 

[Markus_EG4]

@Markus_EG4 There seems to be a state that happens where the data coming out of the inverter drops everything to 0. It seems that when in self consumption mode, when the battery SOC drops to the lowest configured percent (plus the 5% unconfigurable buffer per the last post!) that the measured data drops to 0. The EG4 monitoring app and solar assistant both agree.

It's been a SUPER cloudy couple of days, so my batteries dropped to 10% and the inverter flipped over to grid pass-through for most of the last 24 hours. Here's the data from the EG4 monitoring app:

View attachment 207036

And here's solar assistant:
View attachment 207038

Why is this showing all 0s?! The heat was definitely on all night, because it was really cold, but the inverters just stopped measuring anything.

Checking on this

 

[tivilla]

hi there, i have an 18kpv setup with rack of eg4 batteries, a generator back up and grid tie. What do i need to do to have the grid support the load after my batteries are charged from the grid to 100% at night ? And when the grid is cut off that's when the batteries take care of the load. Please understand that we only get a few hours of grid at night.

 

[nathandeb]

hi there, i have an 18kpv setup with rack of eg4 batteries, a generator back up and grid tie. What do i need to do to have the grid support the load after my batteries are charged from the grid to 100% at night ? And when the grid is cut off that's when the batteries take care of the load. Please understand that we only get a few hours of grid at night.

Don't know if it's the right way but for mine any time period that has AC charge set will use grid after batteries are charged until the end of that period. When not within an AC charge period it's using batteries unless they get to low SOC, then grid takes over. Charging resumes when at the next charge time period

 

[btrocke]

I've seemed to get most of my Ruixu battery woes figured out thankfully. However, there seems to be one remaining issue and I don't think it's from the Ruixu batteries. Every now and then, appears randomly, when the solar isn't making enough power to power the loads the inverter only outputs around 650 watts from the battery and supplements with grid. It's currently happening now and the inverter says the BMS has a max discharge rate of 150a so the inverter knows it can pull more. The kicker is, when this issue is present, if I disconnect the solar, the batteries will power the entire load without issue, as soon as I turn solar back on the batteries go back to discharging at around 650w and the inverter supplements power from the grid. This current issue that battery is below 20% SOC, but this issue has cropped up no matter the SOC. Any help is greatly appreciated! Firmware FAAB - 1818

Things I have tried differently:
- Different types of comm cable pinouts
- Different Lithium Types
- Changing to lead acid and bypassing comms all together
- No scheduling or automations set
- No Discharge limit set
- Weather Optimize is off
- Current Inverter mode: Self Consumption

Picture Descriptions
1 - Issue present with normal load, starts at 10:11am
2 - Issue present with large load
3 - Live stats from today, battery operates normally from 9am to 10:11 when 650w issue starts. Peak at 11:08 is when I turned off solar
4 - EG4 Monitor page showing BMS
5 - Battery discharging correctly when solar is disconnected
6 - Another instance of this happening on March 30th

EDIT: Updated to firmware FAAB - 1919 and LCD 14. Issue is still happening

 

[Tech707]

RTFM and get back to us, in a different thread, explaining specifically what you are trying to accomplish and what you tried that did not work, with a bit more specifics on the meaning and relevance of 'we only get...'

wow

 

[Tech707]

hi there, i have an 18kpv setup with rack of eg4 batteries, a generator back up and grid tie. What do i need to do to have the grid support the load after my batteries are charged from the grid to 100% at night ? And when the grid is cut off that's when the batteries take care of the load. Please understand that we only get a few hours of grid at night.

Don't know if it's the right way but for mine any time period that has AC charge set will use grid after batteries are charged until the end of that period. When not within an AC charge period it's using batteries unless they get to low SOC, then grid takes over. Charging resumes when at the next charge time period

I agree, (also not sure if its the best way to do it) but I do the same thing for off peak charging and the system automatically goes into self consumption when its outside of the charging window. If you lost the grid during the window my guess is it would roll back to power from your rack so you could overshoot your window if need be, provided you have Power Backup enabled.

 

[ksmithaz1]

wow

Man, if you get on here want to ask a question, start a thread and ask it, we will bend over backwards to get you going. If you want to say "my inverter is not working when I connect the batteries, what is wrong?" That could bloody be anything, and gives us no clue as to what you might need to figure it out. Stuffing the question in the middle of a general purpose thread gets twisty. Start a "What am I doing wrong with my 18KPV install"

Start with the wiring, show pictures, then walk your settings, then give your expectation based on the settings. Meter readings are helpful at the inputs and outputs. Then if there is a mis-understanding of the meaning of something, one can be advised sanely, without going thru: Did you plug it in? Did you turn it on? If one cannot do these things, perhaps trying it DIY is a sub-optimal way for you to accomplish your goal. These systems can be fairly complex to configure, impossible to fix unless we know the desired outcome.

1/2 the time if you just do that first, you find your own problems, at which point post it here, we like "I wuz stoopid" stories! This thread has 125 pages, but the question was "General" only by virtue of the fact that it had no specific information to help resolve an issue. I was not trying to be coarse.

 

[Ubby]

I just plugged in my 3rd array to MPPT 3, changed the settings to 'MPPT 1, 2, 3 independently', and now no voltage is showing up in MPPT 1 even though I'm showing 430 volts in the terminal. Any ideas?

 

[millsan1]

I just plugged in my 3rd array to MPPT 3, changed the settings to 'MPPT 1, 2, 3 independently', and now no voltage is showing up in MPPT 1 even though I'm showing 430 volts in the terminal. Any ideas?

View attachment 209163

View attachment 209164

Um, it doesn't look like anything is plugged into mppt1

 

[ksmithaz1]

Um, it doesn't look like anything is plugged into mppt1

I think I see something hiding behind the green wire. Hard to tell MPPT1 has 2x2 inputs. That being said the wire looks dark

 

[ksmithaz1]

OTOH, None of this looks correct based on the manual. Then again maybe red is (-) who knows? This should probably be in it's own thread as well. "General" 18KPV should be stuff like firmware updates, strange behaviors in edge cases, limits/manual errata and questions. At a glance this looks to be generally wired wrong, and the picture does not show the wires in MPPT1.

 

[ksmithaz1]

I'm old and feeble minded. Went out and checked *mine*, it matches the sketch from the manual:

I'm going with: @Ubby Needs to turn off some PV and fix some of the wiring. If the polarity is right then the wiring is wrong. Start a new specific thread if you are still having issues, We'll walk you thru sanely, but lets get red+ and black-, make sure everything is disconnected from the panels before you start jacking wires around.

 

[Brucey]

Looks like a small price cut:

 

[mciholas]

Looks like a small price cut:

I started out thinking the EG4 18KPV was the unit to get, but then I started seeing these other units in the 10KW AC class like the NHX, Growatt, and Sungold for near $2K and that's very compelling if they work.

They are cheap enough that one could buy two and keep one as a spare, and still be cheaper than the EG4 18KPV.

What makes the EG4 18KPV worth twice as much?

Mike C.

 

[ksmithaz1]

It'll probably be fall, but I will be buying a 3rd, when my outbuilding is ready. Id be happier with $3999.00 ! We'll see what the $$$$ look like after the summer.

 

[Hedges]

I started out thinking the EG4 18KPV was the unit to get, but then I started seeing these other units in the 10KW AC class like the NHX, Growatt, and Sungold for near $2K and that's very compelling if they work.

They are cheap enough that one could buy two and keep one as a spare, and still be cheaper than the EG4 18KPV.

What makes the EG4 18KPV worth twice as much?

Mike C.

UL Listed ESS (together with battery)?
On the California CEC list, allowed for interconnection with the utility?

How many of the others you name are even UL listed as an inverter? Which would be required for interconnection ...

The other to compare it to is SolArk. EG4 18kpv costs less. Is it as good?

 

[ksmithaz1]

I started out thinking the EG4 18KPV was the unit to get, but then I started seeing these other units in the 10KW AC class like the NHX, Growatt, and Sungold for near $2K and that's very compelling if they work.

They are cheap enough that one could buy two and keep one as a spare, and still be cheaper than the EG4 18KPV.

What makes the EG4 18KPV worth twice as much?

Mike C.

Off-grid or on? My guess is much of the cost in these units is the expense to get all the UL listings and stuff. The 18KPV can be grid tied as well, which seems to carry a big premium. It's generally somewhat less expensive than the SolArk15KPV, both of which are 50A (12KW) units. which is generally a saner increment, 10KW = 41.666A@240v. I find it a really odd number, basically means for sanity you are probably de-rating to 240v@40A which is 9600W.

Most service entrances these days run 100,150 or 200A, so I suppose you could get 3 units to take you to 120A, but I'm looking to match my 150A panel, (I have 2 EV's...) so 12KW increments make more sense. I might note the 18KPV will push upwards of 55A before it shuts down, I think they had it around 60 in the demo I saw. So around 20% more output, and Grid Tie, for a little over twice the money. I suspect over time the cost will likely settle at my $3999 number above, once they've amortized off the engineering and listing pain, and more competition kicks in. SolArk dropped it's prices dramatically since EG4 came to town, so margins are going to get thinner without a doubt.

 

[koppted]

I just plugged in my 3rd array to MPPT 3, changed the settings to 'MPPT 1, 2, 3 independently', and now no voltage is showing up in MPPT 1 even though I'm showing 430 volts in the terminal. Any ideas?

View attachment 209163

View attachment 209164

As Ksmithaz has pointed out, you almost certainly have your polarities transposed. Don't know if the unit has reverse polarity protection.