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Sungrow SH5.0RS Hybrid Inverter

  • 14-11-2023 06:04PM
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38


    I recently had my Solar PV set up and wanted to pass on how my experiences so that others who might be considering this inverter know how it operates.

    I decided during the summer to go solar after we moved house and got a house with a large south facing roof. My main consideration when considering the options for inverters and panels was maximising production during the winter months so that meant alot of panels. All inverters I looked at only had a 150% oversize capacity, by chance I came across Solaredges SolarHub which has a 200% oversize capacity. When looking into it I came across a comparison between the SolarHub and Sungrows SH5.0RS on an Australian site. The SH5.0RS had a 240% oversize capacity and all the reviews I read on them were very positive, and when I read about DC coupled residential EV chargers and DC coupled Heat Pumps then I knew the SH5.0RS was the inverter I needed.

    My initial designed PV configuration was going to be 28 x 420W panels, SH5.0RS Hybrid Inverter and Sungrows SBR series of battery with a 6.4KW capacity (battery is modular and comes in 3.2KW blocks). My installer informed me that I would need to use Sungrows SP600 Smart Optimisers to control the volatge. The voltage limit is 600v per MPPT, and if the voltage limit is exceeded then the warranty is voided. The optimisers were suppose to be going on sale in October but the launch date got pushed back to Q1 2024 by Sungrow, so my installer recommended reducing the number of panels if I wanted to go ahead now without the Optimisers. We went ahead with a 20 panel setup but I added another battery module to bring my battery up to 9.6KW capacity. I ended up also adding a Zappi Mk2 as the crowd I had originally requested to do an EV Charger install failed to show up and failed to reschedule even though they received full payment 2 weeks before the install.

    The system went live the evening of Thursday the 9th of November with no generation and 1KW already in the battery. On Friday generation started at about 0810 and the battery was fully charged by 1140, base load for the house is roughly 250W an hour, so that battery charges rather quickly when theres a bit of sun and no one home. On Saturday I enabled the Force Charging which was very easy to do in the settings, I set it to charge to 70% SOC between 02-04AM as I'm on EI EV plan, I also set for there to be no Discharge from the Battery between those hours, also very easy to do in the Settings. I charge my EV from the grid between 02-04AM at the 12c rate and finish off the charge between 04-06AM with battery power I purchased at 12c per KW. I'm still tinkering around with the system so hopefully I'll become more knowledgable about the system as time goes on

    Since Friday morning till I'm typing this I've produced 93.2Kwh and purchased 86.4Kwh which the majority has been at the 12c rate. I've exported 28.1Kwh but I havent received confirmation from ESBN on receipt of NC6 so this is all wasted. The max production I've seen the system produce was 7.1Kw but this only lasted a few minutes as the clouds drifted back in. The Inverter has an UPS feature which is supposed to kick in within milliseconds during power cuts but this feature isn't enabled as of yet as my fuse box needs to be rewired.

    So far I'm extremely happy with the system, its very easy to use and change settings, and the user interfaces and user friendly. In relation to the installers, they were fantastic, very professional, very friendly and made sure the place was left spotless after them. There customer support is excellent, they have whatsapp for the different departments and the responses to queries is very quick.

    If anyone is contemplating Sungrow and has any queries hopefully I'll be able to answer them as long as there not to technical. I'd just like to thank the guys on here who took the time to answer questions I put up in other solar threads on here and give me a steer.



Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 134 ✭✭TerraSolis


    Thanks for sharing- the DC oversizing is unreal on the Sungrow, I have them on my radar for the future.

    What's this about the DC coupled EV charger ? Have a link with further info ?



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38 GReid2005



    Enteligent was the first one I came across, there suppose to be launching in Q1 of 2024 in the US market so not sure when they'll be launching here. SolarEdge are the other one launching one, it's pencilled in for launch in the second half of 2024. Enteligent have some good info on there site and a good demo video on YouTube. SolarEdge has much less info available on there's about there EV charger.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38 GReid2005



    Few pics of the set up in the utility room, theres a switch up in the eaves which I'll add to show. Got confirmation from ESBN that they've received my NC6. With that in mind I've upped the charging on the battery to 100% at the 12c rate.



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 59,758 ✭✭✭✭unkel


    That SolarEdge deserves its own thread in this forum. Bi-directional DC charging, so would work on pretty much all modern EVs as it uses CCS. V2H / V2G. It's the holy grail!



  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1 adrianjporter


    Hey Folks,

    Has anybody figured out how to allow the Sungrow battery discharge by day, but not charge ... so, send excess power to the grid rather than topping up the battery, and then charge the battery say between 2am amd 6am to 100%

    Thanks!



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  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 38 GReid2005


    I haven't looked at that due to the way my consumption works.

    I setup my battery to charge at night to supplement day consumption with the hit and miss nature of the weather, I set that in November when I got the system but haven't explored tweaking the settings as I'm away overseas for the next few months. What size battery and array do you have?

    I have a 8.4Kw array and on one day in November before I set the battery to overnight charge my system was producing 7.1kw for about 15 minutes before the sun hid back behind the clouds. The system pushed 5kw DC into the battery and converted the remainder to AC for the base load and export. If you've a big enough array and good weather, you could stop overnight charging and just let a good sunny morning charge the battery. That would be dependant on your consumption profile though. If I was home to monitor the system I would do that myself.



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