Batteries not supplying house

[Mart]

Can I piggyback off this thread rather than start a new one, and ask if anyone has heard of this problem, and if it's nothing major:

So, set my Solaredge batts to charge during cheap rate on Sunday evening. I also had the car set to charge on the 7kW charger, so didn't want the batts to empty themselves 'helping'.

Monday morning, the batts hadn't charged, but they also hadn't been discharging (until 5.30 when the charge period ended). During the day I set a 30min window to charge to see if they would, and the same again, no grid charging, but they also stopped supplying the house.

Looked on the Solaredge monitoring site and saw a new alert:

The system is operating in restricted import mode due to G.100 max import limitations.

To resolve the issue set the G.100 control back to Normal operation mode. You can use SolarEdge Monitoring platform or your SetApp mobile App.

I've e-mailed the installers and asked them to look into it (no reply yet), but just wondering if anyone on here knows what this is, and if it's a trivial non-issue (once amended)?

I was thrown for a second by the G100 mention, but it does say for import (not export), and I assume this is a Solaredge issue, not anything to do with the DNO, after all, how would they be able to 'play' with my system.

Can't remember if this is the first time I've used the 7kW charger and battery charging, but probably is, so maybe that's relevant hitting a higher import figure? Or not? The inverter is 3.68kW, so including household demand (background leccy and A2A unit) perhaps 11kW to 11.5kW. House has an 80A fuse, so ~18kW?

[sharpener]

Not a Solaredge user but yes G100 limitation can apply to both import and export. You have evidently had an import limit configured which you have tripped. Presumably you don't have any limit imposed by the DNO or you would know - it would be in their Connection Offer Letter if you have authorisation for more than 3.68 kW (so you may not have one).

No doubt if you poke about in the settings you will find what has caused it and can set to something more appropriate. Unless it is locked down by the installers in which case you are reliant on them to do it.

[Mart]

Not a Solaredge user but yes G100 limitation can apply to both import and export. You have evidently had an import limit configured which you have tripped. Presumably you don't have any limit imposed by the DNO or you would know - it would be in their Connection Offer Letter if you have authorisation for more than 3.68 kW (so you may not have one).

No doubt if you poke about in the settings you will find what has caused it and can set to something more appropriate. Unless it is locked down by the installers in which case you are reliant on them to do it.

Many thanks, and yes you are right, about everything!

Installers have now come back, and traced it deep in the settings, but not in the initial set up wizard. They've now upped it to my fuse rating.

And yes, looks like I tripped it, so to speak, when I asked the inverter to charge (import more) when import was already high. In fact, it was also the very first night that I decided to run the second A2A unit, so all in probably pulling 8.5kW and asking for another 3.68kW on top hit the (settings) restriction.

Live and learn!

[Your gold star for super response is in the post.]

[sharpener]

Installers have now come back, and traced it deep in the settings, but not in the initial set up wizard. They've now upped it to my fuse rating.

And yes, looks like I tripped it, so to speak, when I asked the inverter to charge (import more) when import was already high. In fact, it was also the very first night that I decided to run the second A2A unit, so all in probably pulling 8.5kW and asking for another 3.68kW on top hit the (settings) restriction.

Live and learn!

[Your gold star for super response is in the post.]

Thank you. Glad you got it fixed so quickly. I am hypersensitive about this bc the DNO has let me have all the stuff below on an 80A fuse, and the input to the Victron inverter is via a 50A breaker. So I have to think carefully about what I am planning to do during off-peak hours.

[John_S]

Can I piggyback off this thread rather than start a new one, and ask if anyone has heard of this problem, and if it's nothing major:

So, set my Solaredge batts to charge during cheap rate on Sunday evening. I also had the car set to charge on the 7kW charger, so didn't want the batts to empty themselves 'helping'.

On a related note, it is common to prevent the batteries from helping the EV charger by routing the live cable to the EV charger thru the CT clamp on the on the incoming live. I could not do this as the clamp was not big enough to take the two cables.

I got round this by installing a single pole Henley block for the live cable, between the isolation switch and the main double pole Henley block.
The EV charger live feed now comes off the new block and the CT clamp for the inverter/battery charger now goes on the live cable between the two Henley blocks.

A neat solution which prevents the inverter/charger draining the battery into the EV.

[Mart]

Thanks guys.

Has made me think ponder though about what happens if I add a small leccy boiler and HW tank. Even at 4kW and 1kW respectively, that would be tight, or perhaps I can ask the DNO to up my fuse to 100A.

The silly thing is (well, maybe not silly, just regs) the DNO upgraded me from a 60A fuse when I got the EV charger installed. They explained that they'd changed the 'box' to a 100A unit, but could only justify me having an 80A fuse. But it could be increased at a later date if needed. Probably gonna need that extra ~4.5kW if I want to pre-charge my wet system on cheap rate.

Can also dial down the amps for the Tesla, or use the granny charger, but that's more of a temp fix, than a proper solution. Or set the car charge limit so charging ends after 3(ish) hrs, and the boiler kicks in for the last 2hrs ...... or ........

So many ideas, thoughts and options. Fun times.

[John_S]

Thanks guys.

Has made me think ponder though about what happens if I add a small leccy boiler and HW tank. Even at 4kW and 1kW respectively, that would be tight, or perhaps I can ask the DNO to up my fuse to 100A.

The silly thing is (well, maybe not silly, just regs) the DNO upgraded me from a 60A fuse when I got the EV charger installed. They explained that they'd changed the 'box' to a 100A unit, but could only justify me having an 80A fuse. But it could be increased at a later date if needed. Probably gonna need that extra ~4.5kW if I want to pre-charge my wet system on cheap rate.

Can also dial down the amps for the Tesla, or use the granny charger, but that's more of a temp fix, than a proper solution. Or set the car charge limit so charging ends after 3(ish) hrs, and the boiler kicks in for the last 2hrs ...... or ........

So many ideas, thoughts and options. Fun times.

Just tell them you need the car charged overnight as you sometimes need to drive 200 miles on successive days. And you need to heat the hot water overnight as your wife sometimes uses all the water in the evening and you need a hot shower in the morning.

Also, on a more serious note, did you see the you tube from Efixx saying that if the PV is taken off the consumer unit, as opposed to a Henley box and mini consumer unit, the DNO fuse should/must be down rated to 80 amps as the bus bar is only rated at 100 amps and thus a supply of 100 plus PV could overload it.

[Yuff]

Thanks guys.

Has made me think ponder though about what happens if I add a small leccy boiler and HW tank. Even at 4kW and 1kW respectively, that would be tight, or perhaps I can ask the DNO to up my fuse to 100A.

The silly thing is (well, maybe not silly, just regs) the DNO upgraded me from a 60A fuse when I got the EV charger installed. They explained that they'd changed the 'box' to a 100A unit, but could only justify me having an 80A fuse. But it could be increased at a later date if needed. Probably gonna need that extra ~4.5kW if I want to pre-charge my wet system on cheap rate.

Can also dial down the amps for the Tesla, or use the granny charger, but that's more of a temp fix, than a proper solution. Or set the car charge limit so charging ends after 3(ish) hrs, and the boiler kicks in for the last 2hrs ...... or ........

So many ideas, thoughts and options. Fun times.

Speaking as someone who has blown a 60amp fuse pulling 21kw from the grid, it is quite important to get a higher fuse. National grid put us on a temporary generator because they couldn’t initially find the supply into our house and we thought we had 80amp but in a soil vent pipe there was a 60 amp connection. National grid by passed the old wiring to the main fuse board, installed a new meter and I asked for a 100 amp fuse which they agreed to.
In some respects it’s lucky it blew as it was a dangerous connection, that was hidden in boxing, and getting hot.
I’d been pulling 50% over the 60 amp fuse limit for 50 mins before it blew

[JohnW]

Hi Chaps

Well as per my post last week, everything is working as it should but have another query please.
Do any of you know the optimal rate that Pylontech batteries can be charged safely from the grid?
Since Solis upgraded the firmware and settings the batteries are charging at around 1.25kWh, is the normal or can it be increased without damage to the batteries? I'd like to take advantage of off-peak rates during the winter if possible. The batteries charge at over twice this at times from the panels so assumed the grid charge could be increased, am I wrong?

Cheers

[Thebeeman]

My Pylontechs charge at the inverter output, Luxpower, at 3.6 Kw. No problems so far and great to use the 'free power hours' currently.