EG4 6500 excessive idle consumption

[Robkh]

I have a single EG4 6500 EX48 with one EG4 Lifepower 48V battery to run LED lights on my gazebo, internet, chargers and occasionally use it to power shop vacs, etc.
I have 6 solar panels in series 240W each and every night I get sufficient solar to bring the battery capacity up to 100%.
By morning the battery is down by 30% to 70%.
Signature Solar recommended deep cycling the battery capacity down to 20% and then charge it back up many times.
I did this but I still see a drop of 30% every night despite a low wattage draw overnight of a few watts.
Has anyone else experienced this?

I have a 4000W Giandel inverter in my garage which has a much higher draw with minimal drop in battery capacity overnight.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

The idle draw of the EG4 is pretty high as are all cheap Chinese inverters of the EG4, Growatt, MPP Solar, etc., variety. Expect a minimum of 80W, possibly as high as 100W.

on a 24 hour basis that's 80*24 = 1920Wh/5120Wh = 37.5% of your battery capacity just going to feed the inverter, so a minimum 25-30% overnight drop is absolutely expected even if you have no loads. If you have loads, it's going to drop even more.

Did you consider the idle draw of the inverter as a load in your energy audit when you designed your system?

Pretty sure if you check the manual, it recommends 200Ah minimum battery capacity.

 

[Adam De Lay]

And an 80W idle draw is the minimum. I've been told by SS it could be as high as 130W on some units (never really got much clarification on how you could have that higher number though).

If whatever you're running overnight doesn't have to be running while you're sleeping, I would just shut the inverter down and power it back up in the morning. The other option would be to get more batteries.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Pretty sure if you check the manual, it recommends 200Ah minimum battery capacity.

I think I actually see 300Ah

 

[sunshine_eggo]

I think I actually see 300Ah

Going off memory, which is getting worse every day.

 

[Adam De Lay]

I would add, it would be nice to be able to programmatically turn off the inverter at a specific time and have it come back on at another time. Especially for those locations where you only need it running during the daytime.

 

[Robkh]

Thank you..this helps me understand better to expect the 30+% drop in battery and I will get another battery. I don’t see such a large a drop with the Giandel inverter in my garage or with my Progressive Dynamic inverter in my RV or with Victron.

 

[Adam De Lay]

The Giandel inverter I have also had a low consumption, mostly due to the fact that all it did was act as an inverter, not at all in one. Also it’s active cooling only turned on if the temp passed a set threshold or power output was over a set wattage.

It would be nice if the fans in the 6500s dynamically came on instead of running all the time.

Victon has spent an aweful lot of time perfecting their firmware to optimize their inverters to have the smallest idle consumption possible.

 

[Zapper77]

I know you already have an accurate answer...

Plan on 1.2-1.5 kWh idle consumption from dusk to dawn plus or minus 1 hour. Or 2 kWh during entire day of clouds. 30% of a 5 kwh battery is 1.5 kWh. Consumption goes up 50 watts when the mppt turns on.

 

[solar8484]

Would it cost less to get a similar sized Victron or Schneider with low idle consumption and lower capacity battery vs EG4 with higher capacity battery to offset the higher idle consumption?

 

[Zapper77]

Would it cost less to get a similar sized Victron or Schneider with low idle consumption and lower capacity battery vs EG4 with higher capacity battery to offset the higher idle consumption?

My 12v 1000w renogy uses 6 watts idle.

 

[solar8484]

My 12v 1000w renogy uses 6 watts idle.

Yep. Even most cheap 4000W HF off-grid inverters have significantly lower idle consumption. It's hard to understand why the Voltronic AIO's designed for off-grid usage would have obvious design flaws (e.g. fans running all the time) that waste energy.

 

[shaggy745]

My 12v 1000w renogy uses 6 watts idle.

What would a comparably efficient approach be when higher output is required? I'm running a 6500ex but as others have mentioned, the idle consumption is quite high.

 

[sunshine_eggo]

What would a comparably efficient approach be when higher output is required? I'm running a 6500ex but as others have mentioned, the idle consumption is quite high.

Pony up for Tier-1 hardware (my 2X Victron 5kW in parallel split phase use 54W total).