Batteries not supplying house

[JohnW]

Hi Chaps
Over the last several weeks our batteries don't seem to be working as I'd expect as they don't always, from full charge, supply the house, instead the grid provides the power.

Yesterday for example the batteries were fully charged all night but from 05:30 the batteries did not kick in, the grid took priority. It was a bright sunny day so at sun rise the panels supplied the house but come the afternoon for a couple of dull houses the batteries worked. Then were fully charged again when the sun came out. At sunset the batteries didn't take over, the grid did, and all evening and night the batteries remained fully charged. This morning, the batteries remain fully charged, and the grid is supplying our electricity.

The only recent change I've made to the settings was to extend to 05:30 the time for overnight cheap electric. Previously, several months ago, the settings were changed to stop an issue with a high voltage alarm.

Any suggestions or advice appreciated.

Cheers
John

[richbee]

It sounds like a settings issue.
Has this happened as soon as you made the timing changes?
I know my sunsynk system is quite sensitive to what seems like pretty minor changes to settings

[JohnW]

Thanks for replying, richbee.
Actually, I don't know, I'm guilty of not paying much attention to it, but assumed the same, that it could be due to a settings change.
I'll try contacting Solis to see if they have any suggestions, I just wondered if anyone else on here have had a similar issue.
At the moment, the batteries are full, the wife's cooking lunch and there's just under 1kVh being generated from the panels and 1,75kW coming from the grid. Frustrating.

[AGT]

Can’t offer any advise apart from having a notebook next to the inverter, any changes record the info, we do this for building BMS systems to give the next person some insight should we have an issue in the future.
Hope it gets resolved soon!

[JohnW]

Thanks, AGT, I'll see if Solis can help and start recording inactivity.

[Moxi]

Hi John, is the inverter still set to self use ? I know when going in to set the battery charge times you skip past that screen and it’s easy to change it accidentally.

Moxi

[Moxi]

https://blog.jonsdocs.org.uk/2022/08/07 ... -the-grid/

A useful reference for the basics of setting the battery charge times and self use.

Moxi

[JohnW]

Thanks Moxi.
Yes the inverter is set for self use, and batteries do supply the house at times, they did so yesterday evening and night until 00:30. They are now fully charged, but currently the grid is powering the house, not the batteries, and as our range cooker is always on and used as a heat store there's always a demand once the batteries have changed overnight.
I'm puzzled at what makes the grid take priority over the batteries at times. I'll start keeping a log as AGT suggested.
Cheers

[JohnW]

Well yesterday the batteries were fully changed and dormant all day and in to the evening. So last night I went on to the Solis site, set up an end user account and submitted a 'ticket' setting out the issues.
This morning, just after 08:00, I had an email back from them saying they'd remotely updated the inverter firmware and settings to resolve the problem. I've been monitoring the batteries for the last few hours, and they are working as they should. So 10/10 for Solis customer support.
I've not yet looked to see what settings are different, but will later.

[Moxi]

That’s good to hear John, the UK Solis team have got better in the last few years.

Moxi