Sunsynk (DEYE) Hybrid Inverters

unkel

Not running CAT5/6 cable. Just 2 core out of a 4 core, I think 1.5mm2 roll straight cable, no twisted pairs. And yes a very long run (the guts of a 100m reel - just rolled the whole reel to make sure it was working before tidying up / crimping). Working fine into my ESB meterbox though. So interference can't be that much of an issue caused by the cable itself?

Used both the CT of my old inverter and now the CT that came with the Sunsynk. Same problem.

SD_DRACULA

Pretty sure you want a decent quality and either twisted pair and/or shielded cat6 cable for that exact reason, this is what the installed put in on my sols.

Also distance is massive if 100m

Not sure which cable they mean there, did you get one in the box?

I'd phone them up and ask, apparently there is something they can send you if this run is over 30m

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119925678#Comment_119925678

Was the meter box run unrolled more?

It feels like interference from somewhere.

Cat 5/6 is normally used because the twisted pair helps with interference

unkel

@graememk - "Was the meter box run unrolled more?"

No, same.

@graememk - "Cat 5/6 is normally used because the twisted pair helps with interference"

Indeed, but no problem with interference on the same length cable into the ESB meter box

@graememk - "It feels like interference from somewhere."

It must be, what else can it be?

Brings up the pertinent question though. Is the signal from the massive incomer in the ESB meter box stronger than the one in the consumer unit? I guess it must be?

From another electrician pal, he reckons splitting the cable coming into a CT is not a good idea, so I won't bother. Might be able to replace the main length of cable (or most of it) with CAT5 twisted pairs, will try that tomorrow

SD_DRACULA

I have 2 CTs beside each other on my mains ESB cable in the CU, one for inverter one for shelly EM and not getting anything strange.

Is your 4 core cable beside the AC or other cables?

Do you have a long piece of cat5 you can just run to do a quick test?

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119925959#Comment_119925959

Real head scratcher....

Will see if cat5 sorts it.

unkel

Will try a few more things tomorrow if I have time. CAT5 / twisted cable maybe, but the only possible part of the route it can have an effect on is the couple of meters stretch from CU via my ducting on my inside wall through the hole onto the outside wall. And that's a pain to get out / in as it is comfy in there.

Thanks for the suggestions though. One lesson we learnt is that interference might be a thing inside a busy CU, but it ain't an issue outdoors or even in the ESB meter box. Even if the wrong type of cable to minimise interference is used and a cable that is many times longer than the max recommended either. Every day is a school day. I reckon even for some very experienced heads like some of the people reading this 😁

graememk

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119926255#Comment_119926255

Always like a puzzle.

Fall back plan, get some outdoor rated cat cable, and take it from the meter box?

Is it a constant 300w? Is there any offset in the sunsync settings?

unkel

No offset in the Sunsynk settings, no button anywhere to recalibrate. And yes seems a fairly constant 300W over read.

Fall back plan, exactly like you say. I don't suffer from OCD, neither does the missus. I can connect in the meter box, bring the cable up vertically to meet with the two outside cables already there for Sky dish and incoming fiber. And bring it along to the back of the house. This ain't a big deal for me. Plan B solution is already there. Just wondering what the hell caused it.

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119926302#Comment_119926302

Any joy sorting this @unkel Having issues with the one I have set up also. The sunsynk is reading differing values from CT compared to other monitor and at times importing from grid when battery is full and capable of running the house.

CT coil is fitted in correct direction and on main esb feed in generator switch before consumer unit

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934006#Comment_119934006

Worth asking in https://www.sunsynk.org/forum, see if other folk are seeing the same

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934006#Comment_119934006

Thought I had it sorted by putting the CT in the ESB meter box. But when I tidied the cable, the problem came back, now exporting 200W to the grid. This is most likely because of interference because:

1. When I tidied, I had the CT cable right beside the fiber and sky satellite cables coming into the house over about 5m
2. I did not use twisted pair (CAT5/6) cable, just straight 4 core cable (used 2 cores)

Will probably replace at least the part of the cable that follows the existing cables with CAT5/6 and see how that goes

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119934483#Comment_119934483

Cheers @unkel appreciate if you could pay back here how it goes as sourced a sunsynk for myself but holding off on getting it until I see how this pans out

allinthehead

Mine seems to read about 100watts higher than my shelly em so I've the Sunsynk set to trickle feed 80 watts from the grid to stop the export. At higher wattages it reads the same as the shelly. I used 2 twisted pairs of cat 6 to extend the cable.

I removed the clamp from the mains incomer and it was reading 60 watts when disconnected so I either have interference, the clamp is inaccurate at low power or the inverter justs reads high. Would like to try a high quality clamp meter to test.

SD_DRACULA

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935129#Comment_119935129

Can you hook it up to the shelly CT and see if any better?

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935347#Comment_119935347

Tried it, didn't work. Different ct ratio, adjusted ratio on the inverter and was giving a crazy reading.

slave1

@unkel try the CT clamp "backwards" on the neutral cable too see does it replicate this 300w mystery

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119935129#Comment_119935129

Super tip. Tricking the inverter to think it is importing, but in reality just fixing the overreading of the grid current 😂

Experimenting with that now, currently have it set to 60W trickle feed from the grid, it seems sorted for the moment. Will keep an eye on it.

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119936804#Comment_119936804

One more thing to try, if you know your base load let's say it's 300 watts. Put on a higher load like an immersion at 3kw, you know now your inverter should read around 3.3kw. If it's reading higher you could adjust the ct ratio down until it reads roughly correctly.

The reason I say to do this with a decent load is because I tried to adjust mine at my base load and when I put a decent load on like my 5kw shower it was reading about 200 watts too low. It's a balancing act but it works to get it a little closer.

I'm assuming of course that my shelly em is accurate.

unkel

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119937167#Comment_119937167

Easy to measure the incomer current with a multimeter in your ESB box. I did the same and found my zappi was reporting correctly (same amp reading as my multimeter), so I knew the SunSynk was wrong. Have to wait for low load during day light hours tomorrow to see how I'm getting on with this trickle feed trick

Where do you adjust the CT ratio, I couldn't find anything like that in the menu

unkel

On another note, I added a second battery to the SunSynk hybrid with a marine DC battery 1 / battery 2 / both / off switch

Working great, but I need to switch off the AC to the inverter for a few seconds between switching, otherwise I'm getting an AC overcurrent fault and need to do a full reboot, which takes about 5 minutes. Strange one!

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119937339#Comment_119937339

In the manual it states you must kill the supply to the inverter before shutting down the battery. Happened to me too, same fault.

Ct ratio is in the advanced settings menu.

unkel

I've a few remaining issues, rang Sunsynk customer service, prompt reply, they won't let you upgrade the firmware yourself, you have to send them an email with your details, screenshots of firmware, data logger serial, etc. Which is fair enough

Main remaining issues I have are that the power in the schedule (in "system 1" menu) doesn't seem to work. If I limit power to say 2000W, it still uses max inverter power of 5500W. Also I have an 18S LiFePO4 battery which I'd like to charge to 60V (the max of the inverter per the spec), but above 58V it really only charges at about 200W max, so it would never reach 60V even overnight

Sent the email just now, will follow up with the response here

The trickle charge (80W in my case) seems to work for me for the issue of the CT overreading the load. Obviously not really trickle charging the battery from the grid, just tricking the inverter into using the right responses

SD_DRACULA

Interested to see how the 80w trickle (trick) works, doesn't sound like much but that's 2kwh per day which might not mean much in summer if you have the battery capacity (and I know you do 😁) but you're paying for it in the bad months when grid charging.

How does it work, do you just have it set to constantly pull 80w from battery/grid?

unkel

No you don't understand, the trick it to not really draw 80W from the grid, but to tell the inverter to do so, to fix the miscalibration it has on the CT. The outcome is that you do not draw anything from the grid, nor export anything to the grid. It seems to work for me (and for @allinthehead and others)

I'm all for pragmatic solutions. If this means that the inverter otherwise works as it should and I don't have to run a new length of (shielded twisted pair) cable for the CT, I'm all in 😁

SD_DRACULA

Got it, so you're lying to yourself by drawing 80w when all that does is cancel out the 80w it doesn't draw 🤣

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119940266#Comment_119940266

Did you figure out anything with the limiting of power to 2k but inverter still doing the full 5.5k in schedule?

Same issue here with my parents inverter. Still couple issues also. Inverter still not reading house consumption correctly, battery at times sitting in standby even when grid is supplying some power to house.

The biggest gripe I have is that you cant set up export to grid with excess PV as just empties battery to grid as well as pv.

unkel

Yes my main 2 issues remain. Power not being limited as specified and CT reading incorrectly. I've logged it with SunSynk last week, in order to get a firmware update loaded by them, haven't heard back. Had to up my trickle from grid setting to 300W to zero out exporting today. It seems variable, which is not great

That issue with the power limiting should be a simple enough software fix, I'd have thought

allinthehead

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119955874#Comment_119955874

Have you got solar export enabled on the app?

I think you should have zero export and priority to load enabled too.

irishchris

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119956265#Comment_119956265

Cheers, will try those settings now and see how it fairs tomorrow. Seems a counterintuitive idea for sunsynk to have you set solar export but then select zero export. Be good if works though 👍