My 44kW vertical and bifacial set in Finland.

fromport · Mar 30, 2023

shadowmaker said:
-21C (-6F) in the morning and clear sky for the whole day. Both Deyes tripped once because of DC over voltage

Afaik you have no warranty when you configure your setup to allow over voltage.
I would certainly not wait "till later in year" to fix it.
Use calculator like https://www.aerl.com.au/pv-string-calculator/
Fill out the values from the datasheet of your panels,
minimum temp and how many panels you have in series.
If it even comes close to the MAX DC input voltage of your mppt input, i would not want to take the risk of frying your electronics (without warranty!)

shadowmaker · Mar 31, 2023

SamG340 said:
Really interesting set up. It has been installed for a few months now, how do you think it's handling the wind ?

Do you think it will stand the test of time

To date it has only experienced 25-28m/s (56-63mph) winds, so hard to say how much it can take before letting go. I just hope I never find that out.

Well, there are so many things that can go wrong here. The reason to do it this way was clear in my mind, the rest is problem solving and learning. I am stingy, but materials used here aren't cheap/fragile and they serve a purpose. I think windscreen glue is one of the most important component of this system. I hope it lasts 3-4 decades, but first full year will tell a lot.

shadowmaker · Mar 31, 2023

fromport said:
Afaik you have no warranty when you configure your setup to allow over voltage.
I would certainly not wait "till later in year" to fix it.
Use calculator like https://www.aerl.com.au/pv-string-calculator/
Fill out the values from the datasheet of your panels,
minimum temp and how many panels you have in series.
If it even comes close to the MAX DC input voltage of your mppt input, i would not want to take the risk of frying your electronics (without warranty!)

Used calculators and found out that my Deyes might not like 16S setup with these panels in cold weather. Mailed Deye and they told to go with 16S, so I did.

The problem occurred when Deyes don't momentarily do anything with PV power and PV voltage shoots up. If I ever get them working as they should, PV power will be used at all times and voltage run-out is much harder to accomplish. Before next winter arrives I will also take one panel from both Deyes and connect those to Bluesuns which are rated up to 1100V.

This morning there was -21C (-6F) and full sunshine again, but this time I disconnected batteries before sunrise so Deys could work as GT and there was no over voltage problems anymore.

SamDeleted · Mar 31, 2023

shadowmaker said:
To date it has only experienced 25-28m/s (56-63mph) winds, so hard to say how much it can take before letting go. I just hope I never find that out.

Well, there are so many things that can go wrong here. The reason to do it this way was clear in my mind, the rest is problem solving and learning. I am stingy, but materials used here aren't cheap/fragile and they serve a purpose. I think windscreen glue is one of the most important component of this system. I hope it lasts 3-4 decades, but first full year will tell a lot.

Here's hoping , I agree with you about the glue I think it will last year's and years .

I was wondering why you didn't put them up on an angle, is it snow problems? cause a triangle shaped frame would be a lot stronger

shadowmaker · Mar 31, 2023

Nice and sunny day again. Bluesuns made 161kWh, so with Deyes working properly total should have been over 320kWh. But they didn't. Noticed that I can make them work almost flawlessly if I disconnect battery from one Deye and use it as GT. This way the other will charge its battery and still provide excess PV to grid/loads as it should. After I get one battery full, I disconnect it and start to charge the other one. A bit of extra hassle, but eventually I get it sorted out. Meantime I just need to babysit my system to max it out.

This is from my friends 100kWp system from today. The sudden increase in the curve is after he climbed to the roof and used leaf blower to clean those panels. Still only 1000W...

shadowmaker · Mar 31, 2023

SamG340 said:
is it snow problems?

Just look post #145...

The point of my build is to use bifacials without ANY shading. And my panels aren't 90 degree vertical but more like 80-85 degree vertical. This is optimal for wintertime sun here and this way I can collect more noon sun at summer. It is also vertical enough for snow.

upnorthandpersonal · Mar 31, 2023

Yeah, today was the first day I could go 'waste' a ton of power and still have the battery at 100%. The weather these next few days should be awesome

shadowmaker · Apr 1, 2023

upnorthandpersonal said:
Yeah, today was the first day I could go 'waste' a ton of power and still have the battery at 100%. The weather these next few days should be awesome

Snow, cold and spring sunshine seems to work pretty well.

Now that I can get my Deyes working somewhat properly by switching between batteries, they seem to clip at 12kW for one and a half hour at noon time. These are indeed 12kW models, but the specs say max PV 15,6kW and max AC 13,6kW. Furthermore the other Deye was charging battery at that time, so I'd expect it to be capable of using more PV even AC output is maxed out.

What I have read from here, it seems to be a program issue and can be fixed with an update.

Even still it seems Deyes are outperforming my Bluesuns by 10-15kWh today, but have to wait little more for the final results.

shadowmaker · Apr 1, 2023

Results are in. 334kwh today. Bluesuns did 160kWh and Deyes 174kWh. Maybe 1-3kWh is missing because of clipping and maybe fresh snow would boost production by some 10kWh, but that's it. Deyes outperforming Bluesuns is weird because Blues are always in their MPPT voltage range (200-950V), but Deyes (200-650V) are usually over it.

Now that I know my setup working even better than I expected in winter conditions, I can't wait to see how it does with the midnight sun in June.

jelly · Apr 3, 2023

shadowmaker said:
New to the forum, new to the solar energy.

Have 63 Bluesun bifacial 700W N-type shingled panels, 22 old electric poles, shit load of underground cable, 51 x 6m 40x40x3mm marine grade aluminium, 2 Bluesun 15kW on-grid inverters, 2 Deye 15/12kW hybrid inverters, 30kW lead acid battery and 4 x 5kW LiFePo4 batteries. Have also 2kW wind turbine for the fun of it. Almost everything is around 50% off compared to shop prices around here and one of the main objectives is trying to keep costs down.

Maybe a set like this is nothing new to the forum, but I doubt no one has installed panels this way (and maybe never will...). Main focus will be avoiding any shadows on either side of the panel - on contrary to my nickname "shadowmaker".

Got first set of three panels ready for glueing tomorrow. Now I only need to build 20 sets more of these...

Have been working 85-110 hours/week since last late February, so this isn't going to be ready within next week. Actually, after 8 hours playing with first set, I need to go to work now.

View attachment 123069 View attachment 123071 View attachment 123072 View attachment 123073very special.

shadowmaker · Apr 3, 2023

Consistently over 330kWh every day. 333kWh today.

They are going to update Deye firmwares tomorrow. Let's see how that goes. Hopefully I get rid of clipping at 12kW although production wise it is marginal.

upnorthandpersonal · Apr 3, 2023

Makes me want to put up more panels

LydMekk · Apr 3, 2023

I got another 7 lining up to go ^^
Certain things in life you can't have too much of...like panels and batteries

shadowmaker · Apr 4, 2023

No update today. Don't know why. And I didn't ask any, they just announced to make one in my Solarman app. Currently everything is working like 90% (I need working CTs to make it ~100%) as it is, so no need for update just now.

shadowmaker · Apr 5, 2023

Full moon and 3W of production from 1/4 array. Maybe nothing new for you guys, but for me it is.

shadowmaker · Apr 9, 2023

No snow anymore and it has been +10C (50F) for few days now. The field is all dark and muddy, so albedo effect is as low as it can be. Maybe these last few days haven't been as sunny as possible, but if I account that in, the yield has still dropped to around 250kWh/day. As the sun gets higher in the sky, the array angle gets worse. But then albedo should get higher as the field gets green and dries up and around mid summer the daylight is some six hours longer than now. Really can't predict which way it will go.

shadowmaker · Apr 27, 2023

Finally got CT readings for both Deyes using two Eastron SMD630 Modbus V2 meters. Still can't get my system working "automatically", don't know why. I need to adjust settings many times every day to avoid Deyes going "off-grid" mode all the time. Just can't focus on that atm. Have to catch up with my work first.

April total yield seems to go just over 6MWh, while PVWatts predicted 4,6MWh. I'm pretty sure there's still some 5% missing because all the unnecessary off-gridding.

houseofancients · Apr 27, 2023

shadowmaker said:
Finally got CT readings for both Deyes using two Eastron SMD630 Modbus V2 meters. Still can't get my system working "automatically", don't know why. I need to adjust settings many times every day to avoid Deyes going "off-grid" mode all the time. Just can't focus on that atm. Have to catch up with my work first.

April total yield seems to go just over 6MWh, while PVWatts predicted 4,6MWh. I'm pretty sure there's still some 5% missing because all the unnecessary off-gridding.

if this is the case, check your grid settings ( freq, max and min voltages)..
if out in the boonies sometimes the grid has quite a lot of variation

shadowmaker · Apr 28, 2023

houseofancients said:
if this is the case, check your grid settings ( freq, max and min voltages)..
if out in the boonies sometimes the grid has quite a lot of variation

Grid should be 230V/400V, but as utility transformer is only 200m away from my main panel, typical voltage is 238-242V/~412V. I have suspected overvoltage being the problem, but choosing 240V/420V from Deye's grid menu might be bad for my neighbour's electric appliances?

houseofancients · Apr 28, 2023

shadowmaker said:
Grid should be 230V/400V, but as utility transformer is only 200m away from my main panel, typical voltage is 238-242V/~412V. I have suspected overvoltage being the problem, but choosing 240V/420V from Deye's grid menu might be bad for my neighbour's electric appliances?

correct , you dont want to do that..
however you should be able to adjust the grid voltages and frequency under grid settings.

in my app it looks like this

My 44kW vertical and bifacial set in Finland.

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