Is the EG4 6500EX considered clean power?

[Konvett]

I have my entire house running off of two EG4 6500EX inverters with 4 EG4 LiFePower 4 batteries. I've started noticing some issues that may or may not be related to the inverter. I'm hoping someone here can help me identify the issue.

1. I started noticing my lights flicker every so often (only certain lights, not high-quality LEDs like Philips Hue). This didn't happen when I was on exclusively grid power. I finally isolated this issue to only taking place when my refrigerator comes on. The flickering persists the entire duration that the fridge is on. However, if I unplug the fridge and plug it back in, the fridge comes on right away but the lights don't flicker (and when I say the fridge is on, I mean the compressor is running, not simply that the fridge is plugged in and has power).
2. I have an APC UPS backing up my network equipment. It will notify me when it switches over to battery because of a power failure or power issue. It happens quite a bit, such as when the fridge or AC comes on. But in certain outlets in my house, it will happen repeatedly throughout the day, seemingly randomly. I have ran an extension cord away from the end of the house that the fridge is on and the further I get from it, the better it seems to perform (almost never switches to battery, even when the fridge is on).

I realize a lot of this points to my fridge being an old piece of junk, and believe me, I plan to replace it soon. But none of these issues took place before I switched to solar/batteries. So I'm curious if there's a way to check if the EG4 is really putting out clean power to my house. Or has anyone else seen or experienced these issues and knows what's going on? I'm eager to learn as much as possible about this system and to know if there is any risk to my devices such as computers, networking equipment, and other sensitive electronics.

 

[BentleyJ]

The flickering lights issue is something that comes up often on the forum. No inverter is perfect and even the higher priced low frequency products will cause the same issue although usually to a lesser degree. High Frequency inverters tend to be worse especially combined with low cost LED bulbs.
If you are lucky enough to have isolated the cause to a couple of appliances its worth trying some plug in line filters. Or better yet replace the LED's with a higher quality brand. I've found the better LED's put out a cleaner spectrum of light and are much less harsh on the eyes.

 

[Adam De Lay]

I have experienced some of the same issues. Certain devices in my home cause my lights to flicker. So far I’ve seen that one of my Mac mini’s and one of our heated blankets does this. When either of those devices turn on, any lights on that inverter start flickering.

I also have five different UPSes and I can only run one of them because they are constantly switching between line and battery. Even the one that does work, when solar ramps up hard or there’s a large load that kicks in in the house, the UPS will click and switch over to battery mode Until the voltage stabilizes, and then everything comes back.

 

[Konvett]

I have experienced some of the same issues. Certain devices in my home cause my lights to flicker. So far I’ve seen that one of my Mac mini’s and one of our heated blankets does this. When either of those devices turn on, any lights on that inverter start flickering.

I also have five different UPSes and I can only run one of them because they are constantly switching between line and battery. Even the one that does work, when solar ramps up hard or there’s a large load that kicks in in the house, the UPS will click and switch over to battery mode Until the voltage stabilizes, and then everything comes back.

I would be fine if the UPS did that only at those times, but I was seeing mine switch over ~250 times a day. Switching it from that outlet to the other brought that down to 3 or 4 times a day.

I'm going to try switching that outlet with a new one (outlet is close to 50-60 years old) and seeing if that fixes it first. Wondering if I may need to run a new line off my main panel instead of the sub panel just for this. It'd be worth it for me to do that even for this one device because of the importance of it.

 

[Konvett]

The flickering lights issue is something that comes up often on the forum. No inverter is perfect and even the higher priced low frequency products will cause the same issue although usually to a lesser degree. High Frequency inverters tend to be worse especially combined with low cost LED bulbs.
If you are lucky enough to have isolated the cause to a couple of appliances its worth trying some plug in line filters. Or better yet replace the LED's with a higher quality brand. I've found the better LED's put out a cleaner spectrum of light and are much less harsh on the eyes.

Any suggestions on a quality plug-in line filter?

 

[Adam De Lay]

I would be fine if the UPS did that only at those times, but I was seeing mine switch over ~250 times a day. Switching it from that outlet to the other brought that down to 3 or 4 times a day.

That's the reason I can only run 1 of the 5. I work from home and I was hearing clicking all day long...

 

[jmjack]

I have my entire house running off of two EG4 6500EX inverters with 4 EG4 LiFePower 4 batteries. I've started noticing some issues that may or may not be related to the inverter. I'm hoping someone here can help me identify the issue.

1. I started noticing my lights flicker every so often (only certain lights, not high-quality LEDs like Philips Hue). This didn't happen when I was on exclusively grid power. I finally isolated this issue to only taking place when my refrigerator comes on. The flickering persists the entire duration that the fridge is on. However, if I unplug the fridge and plug it back in, the fridge comes on right away but the lights don't flicker (and when I say the fridge is on, I mean the compressor is running, not simply that the fridge is plugged in and has power).

I had the same problem with one of my fridges where it would cause the LEDs to strobe on the same leg of power. I finally connected the fridge directly to my sub panel which is before the inverters to stop the light flicker. Solution worked great for a couple weeks but now my dish washer is causing flicker as well, and it is less than a year old, and never caused an issue since i had the inverters. So this is new.
I also had a TV that lost multiple rows of LEDS and the bottom 1/3 of the screen jitters all over the place. Again, never an issue before I installed the inverters. So I am very concerned the inverters and actually causing issues with various devices plugged into them. Very frustrating and SS doesn't have a fix after working with them hours on t-shooting.

Try adding a load to the inverter while the lights are flickering to see if the lights smooth out.

If I do this everything seems to stabilize. It appears to be an issue where the inverters can't provide clean steady current at low loads, say under 1000 watts. Hoping someday SS will release FW that might help.

@SignatureSolarPeyton ; @SignatureSolarTech ;

 

[PreppenWolf]

On the UPS issue, you need to ensure your 6500's are controlling the charge state of your batteries and NOT the BMS. The constant toggle is probably being caused by a cell overvolting and the BMS toggling out the battery, cell come back down quickly, BMS turns back on. Your charge max voltage on the EG4 should be lower than the BMS

Make sure your cells are top balanced (not bottom), your voltage range for charging is reasonable and if you're using multiple batteries together they are all at the same state of charge (same length cables and same size batteries).

 

[PreppenWolf]

Duplicate post

 

[Konvett]

On the UPS issue, you need to ensure your 6500's are controlling the charge state of your batteries and NOT the BMS. The constant toggle is probably being caused by a cell overvolting and the BMS toggling out the battery, cell come back down quickly, BMS turns back on. Your charge max voltage on the EG4 should be lower than the BMS

Make sure your cells are top balanced (not bottom), your voltage range for charging is reasonable and if you're using multiple batteries together they are all at the same state of charge (same length cables and same size batteries).

Are you able to advise which settings to check for this?

I can confirm that the batteries are all at the same state of charge and the cables are the same length and size.

 

[PreppenWolf]

Depends on your settings, but look at setting 26 & 27 for bulk and float charging. 54.4V is resting 100% for 48v LiFePO4.

I have my BMS set to 58.4V max pack with 3.67 per cell max. The BMS is only protecting the cells in case something goes wrong. In normal operation the BMS never cuts power. I stop charging before that would happen.

My 6500 is set to 56.4V for both 26. I have equalization setting 31 at 58.4V so it never activates.

My grid charge settings 12 & 13 are triggered at 48.0V (10%) and it charges to 52.0V. (30%).

My 6500 low battery cutoff setting 29 is 44.0V. My BMS is set to 40V pack and 2.5V cell cutoff. Again the BMS should never cutoff the battery.

 

[Konvett]

Depends on your settings, but look at setting 26 & 27 for bulk and float charging. 54.4V is resting 100% for 48v LiFePO4.

I have my BMS set to 58.4V max pack with 3.67 per cell max. The BMS is only protecting the cells in case something goes wrong. In normal operation the BMS never cuts power. I stop charging before that would happen.

My 6500 is set to 56.4V for both 26. I have equalization setting 31 at 58.4V so it never activates.

My grid charge settings 12 & 13 are triggered at 48.0V (10%) and it charges to 52.0V. (30%).

My 6500 low battery cutoff setting 29 is 44.0V. My BMS is set to 40V pack and 2.5V cell cutoff. Again the BMS should never cutoff the battery.

I'm actually using the BMS (using SoC instead of voltage).

Any chance you'd be willing or available to chat on Discord or something at some point? Some of this stuff is hard to follow in text. No worries if not!

 

[PreppenWolf]

If you control the Batts using the BMS your units will constantly toggle because your BMS will be turning the Batts off and on constantly even if you use SoC. Set the BMS to max limits you are comfortable with and then adjust settings 12,13,26,27,29, and 31 below those values to control the batteries.

I might be available tomorrow night. If I am I'll PM you with my Discord.

 

[RV10flyer]

I had the same problem with one of my fridges where it would cause the LEDs to strobe on the same leg of power. I finally connected the fridge directly to my sub panel which is before the inverters to stop the light flicker. Solution worked great for a couple weeks but now my dish washer is causing flicker as well, and it is less than a year old, and never caused an issue since i had the inverters. So this is new.
I also had a TV that lost multiple rows of LEDS and the bottom 1/3 of the screen jitters all over the place. Again, never an issue before I installed the inverters. So I am very concerned the inverters and actually causing issues with various devices plugged into them. Very frustrating and SS doesn't have a fix after working with them hours on t-shooting.

Try adding a load to the inverter while the lights are flickering to see if the lights smooth out.

If I do this everything seems to stabilize. It appears to be an issue where the inverters can't provide clean steady current at low loads, say under 1000 watts. Hoping someday SS will release FW that might help.

@SignatureSolarPeyton ; @SignatureSolarTech ;

My two 6500’s (Received 8/2022 and started up last month are pulsing the power, flickering lights the worst during 2 ton soft start equipped hp start up from about 10:30 to noon….basically when PV is ramping up until batteries are charged. It’s causing my small office refrigerator compressor to start pulsing too. This usually goes on for 6-8 sec after contactor energizes, once today for 30-45 sec. It causes my garage door opener spd to trigger. Yes, this damages electrical equipment. My two Sol-Arks occassionally cause a slight flicker on some LED’s but never this bad to where the hp compressor is quivering back and forth 3/16” on its rubber shock mounts.

So, to answer your question…NO!

9/26/23 Edit: Signature Solar provided great customer service, tech support and we arrived at a fair resolution today. I highly recommend them now and what a stress relief! Thank you!