Commissioning HYD-3600ES

[dangermouse]

Yet more questions!

1 - What does "Make sure there's no power generation in the HYD-ES inverter's phase" mean?

2 - Turn on the inverter's DC switch before applying power? This seems backwards but I assume it's correct as no one else seems to have mentioned it.

So turn on procedure is basically:

DC switch on.
Battery on.
Grid on.

Is that right? (I don't have anything connected to "load" port).

[nowty]

Yes

[Oldgreybeard]

I think the HYD3600ES may have the same feature as the ME3000Sp when it comes to setting the CT direction, so this may be a potential gotcha to watch out for. The inverter detects the direction of the CT (import versus export) when first powered up by the DC from the batteries, hence the reason that the PV output needs to be zero when first connected (the line "Make sure there’s no power generation in HYD-ES inverter’s phase." in the manual). From then on it knows which way around the CT is fitted, so knows export from import. If the DC is ever turned off it will forget this, and go through the direction setting thing again, so unless the PV is also not generating when this happens it can change this setting.

There is an easy fix for this, but it's not very obvious from the manual. The manual refers to the menu option to "freeze" and "unfreeze" the CT direction. This website refers to the ME3000SP, but I'm sure the procedure is applicable to the HYD3600ES as well, as the wording in the manual looks to be much the same: https://www.setfirelabs.com/building-au ... -inverters

Once the CT direction is "frozen", then it doesn't matter if the PV is generating or not next time the battery is turned off, the inverter will remember the initial setup CT direction and use that. Worth noting that if the menu option "CT Direction" is displaying "freeze" then that means the CT direction is not frozen, and selecting "freeze" will lock it and so it can't automatically change on power up in future. Not that intuitive IMHO, although there is another menu option under system information that does correctly report whether the CT direction is frozen or not.

[dangermouse]

Thanks, I was just confused by the strange (Chinese-English) phrasing of that first step.

I don't have any PV at the moment, so that simplifies matters. Pretty sure the CT is correct, because the display on the inverter shows a sensible power flow direction. That is to say, from the grid, unless I enable battery use (using "timing mode") in which case the import falls to zero and I can cook my dinner from the batteries!

I'll go and "freeze" the CT now so I don't have to worry about it in the future.

This was just an initial test, I've yet to get an E7 meter and tariff so there's little point running from the batteries at the moment. I let it charge the batteries to 80%, and everything looks good!

It seems to me that "Timing mode" allows you to set up the inverter as a purely battery storage system (ie no PV) - even though the manual says this mode is "for testing purposes only". You can set a period during which the batteries charge, and another period during which they discharge, and any excess usage of course comes from the grid. Although "time-of-use" mode allows the same thing anyway ...

And I can't really work out the difference between "Auto" mode and "Self use" mode. I can worry about that when I get my panels.

[nowty]

Do not use "Timing mode" as this does not use the CT clamp at all and all it does is import or export a fixed amount of power without any regard with what's coming in or out of the grid.

Saying that, I use it in Timing mode as a supplementary battery charger and I know someone on here who uses it to force export to the grid on Octopus Agile.

You want either "Automatic" or "Time of Use" mode assuming its the same way of working as the Sofar ME3000SP battery inverter.

EDIT - "Self use" mode ?, I don't even know what that is, I'll have to look it up and get back to you.

[dangermouse]

As I am not currently in a position to export power (no pv) I think I could use timing mode to charge the batteries as long as the export window was set to allow 0W out. I've enabled the "anti reflux" setting as well, because while I'm using this inverter as a battery storage system without any PV, there's no reason to give any power back to the grid!

I'm mainly just playing with the settings to see what's possible at the moment. Next step is to connect the WiFi dongle and send all my data to China

[nowty]

I don't think the "Anti Reflux" (I guess this is zero export) will work in "Timed" mode as its just a test facility. As I have stated the CT does nothing in that mode (at least for the ME3000SP battery inverter) so I don't see how "Anti Reflux" would work in that mode.

Yes you could use it to charge the batteries in that mode but why not use "Time of Use" mode ?, as that's far more useful. Out of the time period you set it just goes back into auto mode running the house loads off the batteries and maintaining zero export.

In Timed mode its just going to sit there and do nothing outside of the battery charging period.

[nowty]

I've skimmed through your inverter manual, almost identical to the ME3000SP except "Auto" mode is now called "Self Use" mode.

So "Self Use" mode is the same as "Auto" mode in an ME3000SP and its for use with solar panels so you charge from the solar if there is excess and you discharge from the batteries if the solar is not enough to run your house loads. As you have no solar panels (yet), that's mode is not for you. It will run the house loads for you until the batteries are exhausted but the batteries will never charge.

You want "Time of Use" mode as you set the time period for the cheapslot to charge your batteries from the grid and you can give it a max power and SOC % target. As you have no solar panels the target is going to be 100%. Out of the time period you set, the unit will run in "Self Use" mode and therefore run your house loads.

"Timed" mode, as I said is a dumb test mode. If you set it to this and export to zero it will charge the batteries but never discharge them to run your house loads. If you set it to export, that is not necessarily export to the grid but export from your batteries to your house loads and for a fixed power setting. It will not necessarily match your house loads as its in dumb mode.

"Passive" mode is a special mode where you can programme a third party device to control the inverter how you want it to work. Very advanced so not your mode either.


The "Anti Reflux" control is an export control which is variable, its not an on / off export or zero export control unless you set it to zero. This would only be useful if required in conjunction with solar panels if you did not want the unit to export when the batteries are full. As you have no solar panels it is of little use to you as the unit with batteries is effectively a zero export device unless you use it in "timed" mode which is for test purposes.

[dangermouse]

Thanks Nowty, I had worked most of this out but it's good to have confirmation.

I've skimmed through your inverter manual, almost identical to the ME3000SP except "Auto" mode is now called "Self Use" mode.

So "Self Use" mode is the same as "Auto" mode in an ME3000SP and its for use with solar panels so you charge from the solar if there is excess and you discharge from the batteries if the solar is not enough to run your house loads. As you have no solar panels (yet), that's mode is not for you. It will run the house loads for you until the batteries are exhausted but the batteries will never charge.

I suspect that someone had the job of updating the ME3000SP manual for the HYD range, and they failed to replace "Auto" with "self use" in some places! Hence the manual refers to both but they are actually the same thing.

"Timed" mode, as I said is a dumb test mode. If you set it to this and export to zero it will charge the batteries but never discharge them to run your house loads. If you set it to export, that is not necessarily export to the grid but export from your batteries to your house loads and for a fixed power setting. It will not necessarily match your house loads as its in dumb mode.

Indeed - I used this mode to test battery charging, but I now realise it's hardly useful for normal operation. As you say, when the export window is active, the inverter will push out a fixed amount of power, and if the house isn't using this much, the excess will get exported. I tried this as well, and made my mechanical electricity meter run backwards