Solis RAI-3K 5G

[Umski]

Its a UK requirement but no one seems to know why ?

Mine is labelled as the DRM switch in the panel house just in case anyone inspecting in later years needs to know what the "piddly" little switch does, it does look odd in there next to the big DC cables and the mains breaker!

Moxi

[Oldgreybeard]

The other end connects to a switch,

switch open - inverter operates

switch closed - inverter stops within 5sec.

Its a UK requirement but no one seems to know why ?

Mine is labelled as the DRM switch in the panel house just in case anyone inspecting in later years needs to know what the "piddly" little switch does, it does look odd in there next to the big DC cables and the mains breaker!

Moxi

It's a requirement under G100, so that an export limitation switch can turn the inverter off within 5s if the G100 limit is hit. Not many people are bothering to use G100 export limitation devices, though, most rely on the inverter internal limitation settings. I believe that the DNO can insist that a G100 export limitation device be fitted, though, and this connection makes it pretty simple to implement.

Our DNO muttered about this during our application under G59, so I spoke with these people, who make a range of limitation devices: https://g59projects.co.uk/g100-export-l ... solutions/ In the end we didn't need it as they set an export limit that was a fair bit higher than the system can ever deliver.

[Umski]

Umski,

If you don't want the faff of crimping your own RJ45 just buy an RJ45 patch lead and fix the switch to one end, you may even have a spare ethernet cable laying around the house?

Moxi

Thanks, yep I am a cable hoarder much to my wife's displeasure - in fact I have a row of coat hooks specifically for this purpose just in case I need a null-modem cable with 25-9 pin for some bizarre reason or a rarely used LAN crossover that was used for something back in the day

[Umski]

The other end connects to a switch,

switch open - inverter operates

switch closed - inverter stops within 5sec.

Its a UK requirement but no one seems to know why ?

Mine is labelled as the DRM switch in the panel house just in case anyone inspecting in later years needs to know what the "piddly" little switch does, it does look odd in there next to the big DC cables and the mains breaker!

Moxi

It's a requirement under G100, so that an export limitation switch can turn the inverter off within 5s if the G100 limit is hit. Not many people are bothering to use G100 export limitation devices, though, most rely on the inverter internal limitation settings. I believe that the DNO can insist that a G100 export limitation device be fitted, though, and this connection makes it pretty simple to implement.

Our DNO muttered about this during our application under G59, so I spoke with these people, who make a range of limitation devices: https://g59projects.co.uk/g100-export-l ... solutions/ In the end we didn't need it as they set an export limit that was a fair bit higher than the system can ever deliver.

I kind of get that too but this is a on/off switch so it's not limiting to say x kW - it just kills it completely, and the fact it's literally a toggle switch - this is what I didn't get - there needs to be some kind of external logic to determine this rather than a manual switch?

[Moxi]

Umski,

Yes I agree we thought about the function of this a lot, I did wonder for some time if the "switch" was associated with the smart meter but terminals 5 and 6 of the meter are specified as the CT clamp connections and the manual only ever speaks of terminals 5 and 6 so I eliminated those based on that and the fact that if the meter loses the grid healthy signal from the CT clamp then the inverter shuts down and anti islands anyway so there was no point feeding the same signal to the DRM from the meter point ?

Moxi

[Moxi]

On earlier models of solis inverter you had to buy the DRM separately but on the RAI and other 5G models its now integral and thats why I think the instructions are a little muddled as the meter / CT connection to the inverter sits just behind the DRM port suggesting both inputs terminate to the same PCB and do the same job, trouble is I cannot find an internal circuit diagram to trace this assumption to confirm or otherwise.

Moxi

[Umski]

On earlier models of solis inverter you had to buy the DRM separately but on the RAI and other 5G models its now integral and thats why I think the instructions are a little muddled

Moxi

Yes this is also what I ascertained from digging a bit and as you say the instructions often don't match reality - though this is not the worst translated manual I've seen by far! Pretty much every piece of 'low volume' consumer electronics seems to be plagued by poor associated documentation these days - unless they have specific regional folks doing so explicitly or they keep it up-to-date as things change online in my experience!

[Oldgreybeard]

I kind of get that too but this is a on/off switch so it's not limiting to say x kW - it just kills it completely, and the fact it's literally a toggle switch - this is what I didn't get - there needs to be some kind of external logic to determine this rather than a manual switch?

The requirement in G100 is to turn off the exporting device within 5s in the event that the export limit is exceeded. It's a belt and braces requirement to absolutely prevent the export limit being exceeded in the event of a fault, something like a CT clamp falling off, being accidentally removed, etc. According to the people I spoke with about this a while ago they reckon that more and more DNOs were now insisting that there be a solid G100 export limit device fitted where they had concerns about the capacity of the network. I can understand this, as these Chinese inverters don't always work as they are supposed to and some aren't strictly compliant with the regulations.

One example that was mentioned was that many of these inverters allow consumers to change the key safety settings, thing like changing the country can result in the UK specific regulatory bits not functioning, for example. Might just have been a sales pitch from the guy, but he sounded genuine to me, and I know that I can change all the settings in my Sofar inverter and very easily make it illegal if I wish.

[Umski]

Thanks folks, I think that's clear with the DRM.

Next step is DNO - UKPN who have a very helpful portal for applying. Weirdly however, they seem to have the Solis listed under PV not battery storage so if I click on 'battery' then 'not listed' and add the details, it then wants all the G99 compliance documents Anyone have any experience specifically with UKPN and the Solis? Thanks!

[smegal]

Thanks folks, I think that's clear with the DRM.

Next step is DNO - UKPN who have a very helpful portal for applying. Weirdly however, they seem to have the Solis listed under PV not battery storage so if I click on 'battery' then 'not listed' and add the details, it then wants all the G99 compliance documents Anyone have any experience specifically with UKPN and the Solis? Thanks!

Check to see if there is an option for "Ginlong" instead of Solis.