Settings and Data

Introduction

Setting up the inverter correctly is they key to success. You also need to use the data generated by the system to inform you on any adjustments that should be made to the setup of the system. This part of the site will deal with both the setup of the system and the data generated and how we have used the data to fine tune our system.

Initial Setup

The initial setup deals with configuring the system to reflect the decisions made about what should be prioritised, what the various battery levels that the system will react to should be and how the system should operate depending on the time of day.

Battery Settings

The battery can discharge down to 5% SOC (95% DoD). We want to ensure that we always have one load shedding window in hand, so we set the battery to discharge to 15% if the grid is available and to only drop right down to 5% if the grid is not available. Our basic battery settings are that the system will generate a low battery warning at 8% and then shut down at 5%. If it does shutdown, the battery needs to recover to 12% before it will switch to using battery again.

System Settings

Operationally we have 3 different battery SOC settings over a 24 hour period. From 01h00 to 15h00 the battery can drop down to 15% before switching to grid. As mentioned above, if at 15% the grid is not available, then the battery can discharge down to 5%. From 15h00 to 19h00 if the battery has not reached 60% SOC from being recharged with solar during the day, it will be charged from grid up to the 60% level and then stay connected to the grid until 19h00. From 19h00 to 22h00 the battery can drop down to 50% before switching to grid. From 22h00 to 01h00 the battery can drop down to 30% before switching to grid. This combination of time periods allows us to keep enough power available irrespective of what time period load shedding falls into.

The battery settings for the charge and discharge currents as well as the shutdown, restart and and low battery levels.

System Settings. Take note that during time periods 4 and 5, the system will charge from the Grid if the battery is below the set SOC.

System Settings for time periods 1 to 3.

System Settings for time periods 4 to 6.

Logged Data

The SunSynk inverter generates a large amount of data that is available in two main ways. The one is via .csv file downloads from the Operation Data section of the website. This is very detailed and you would need to set up some graphing to properly make sense of it.

Far easier is to use the graphical information available from your "Plant" from the Plant List section.

Energy Generation

You can view the energy generation in 4 categories: "Day" which is hourly over a selected day, "Month" which is daily over a selected month, "Year" which is monthly over a selected year, and "Total" which gives a yearly view.

Day Graphs

We have used the Day graphs to help us fine tune our settings. The key things to look for are your periods of greatest usage, how your SOC decays over time and when the system might switch to grid.

Example of a normal day with (almost) no clouds - you can see as the solar starts generating there is some cloud causing the ripples. Then it is cloud free until a big cloud dip at around 12h00. The jump in load at 11h00 is when the timer switches the geyser on. Then load blips as the geyser cycles until the timer switches it off at 16h00. From 17h00 to 18h00 the battery is discharged quite quickly as it power the oven and 2 microwaves. After 18h00 we settle down for the night.

Example of a rainy day. Virtually no solar available and by 15h00 the battery SOC is about 30%. The system then, as per the configured settings, charges the battery to 60% SOC and then maintains it at that level until the end of that set time period at 19h00. See the top of this page under "System Settings" for an explanation of those settings. Note that due to the low solar, we overrode the geyser timer and did not switch the geyser on for that day. Lukewarm showers the next day, but we lived to tell the tale.

Example of a very cloudy day. This can be seen by the peak and valley nature of the solar generation and the battery recharge. We were still able to fully recharge the battery and heat the geyser.

Example of cloud in the afternoon and a high load during the day - probably baking. By the time supper preparation had started at 17h00, SOC was already down to 80%. After cooking it hit 60% and the system settings used the grid to keep the batteries at 60%. We then had higher than usual evening use and the grid, as per the settings, was used to keep the battery SOC at 50%.

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