Solar in a blackout

mswomex · 02-10-2022 5:03pm

@jkforde come 5pm & a blackout there will be hardly no charge in the battery as solis is set up to draw from panels, battery & grid in that order.

mswomex · 02-10-2022 5:10pm

@Jonathan I cant see that setting on screens available to me.

mswomex · 06-10-2022 7:57pm

Two blackouts in two weeks. Today's lasted two hours. I plugged a lamp into the backup outlet. Not a flicker! When power was restored there was 43% charge on the battery. Really frustrating I could not use it during outage. 😡😕

Ubbquittious · 06-10-2022 8:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119627089#Comment_119627089

It would be interesting to see how well this would work but I'd imagine not very well. When the sun shines the solar inverter will keep increasing its output voltage till it reaches whatever cut off point and then it will stop inverting for a while. Or else you'll have something heavy running and the sun will duck behind a cloud leaving the small battery inverter to carry all the load which it won't.

graememk · 06-10-2022 8:12pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119710392#Comment_119710392

Is the backup outlet turned on? (Enabled in the inverter)

con747 · 06-10-2022 8:21pm

I have had 6 power cuts since install in February and have the batteries, 2 PureDrive set to keep 23% in reserve and it's invaluable for me where I live. No mobile signal and a dodgy copper wire fed landline that goes in a small breeze, but they won't upgrade it because of the fibre rollout in 2026 for me 🙄. I have used a kettle and toaster no problem with my small essential base load I situated all together in advance of install.

I just plug the extension lead in and 12ft away from my eps socket I have 2 plugs to switch over with router, cctv, and a few other low loads all work perfectly. I would have been lost without it. I will be upping the reserve to about 30% for the bad months because luckily I have built up a good amount of backward spinning meter units on my old meter so I need to catch back up a bit.

mswomex · 06-10-2022 8:46pm

@graememk It looks like that configuration is not available to me. Is that possible that some configuration options are only available to installers?

Ha Long Bay · 06-10-2022 9:01pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119710624#Comment_119710624

This video shows how to enable it. Password for advanced settings is 0010

Go to advanced settings -> Storage Energy Set -> Parameters then set backup supply to enabled.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CHrrOVllpSM

mswomex · 07-10-2022 5:29pm

Thanks @Ha Long Bay its now enabled under 'Control Parameters'. I bumped up Discharge SOC to 40% so that there will always be sufficient charge for backup. I'll test tomorrow.

Appreciate all the inputs @All. 👍

mswomex · 08-10-2022 3:58pm

Tested today and it worked. I was surprised that I did not need to cut mains power for it to kick in!

con747 · 08-10-2022 4:53pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119717700#Comment_119717700

Just remember in a power cut you will need to lower the Discharge SOC so you can use it below your present setting of 40% afaik. Mine is in a hall beside my kitchen so is easily changed if I need that extra power in a power cut.

mswomex · 08-10-2022 5:11pm

Cheers @con747. Inverter stays on during an outage right? I thought I read in a previous post that the inverter shuts off but thats not correct.

con747 · 08-10-2022 5:42pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119717977#Comment_119717977

Once you have a battery it will stay on. You won't know yourself having eggs on toast in a power cut!

slave1 · 08-10-2022 11:39pm

if you had an egg (elder melons will get it)

JayBee66 · 07-04-2023 7:25am

My KStar inverter (and probably others too) has two outputs "grid" and "back-up". Under normal operation the grid (hybrid inverter plus grid import when needed) circuit feeds the house. When the inverter detects grid loss it switches (<20mS) to the back-up circuit. Due to whatever the regulations are there is a transfer switch that is either set to grid or back-up so when there is a power cut the house will go dark. As soon as you are aware of the power cut, you switch over to the back-up circuit and the whole house is once again under power.

Due to old firmware, which made the inverter import from the grid rather than use the battery overnight, I spent a good few months, last year, in back-up mode with no ill effects to the system. Now that the firmware has been upgraded the inverter is now back on the grid circuit 24/7 but it's good to have the option to power the whole house, rather than just a socket or two, if there is a power cut.

10-10-20 · 07-04-2023 11:29am

Is anybody using micro-inverters with the blackout/isolation features to allow the inverters (such as Enphase IQ8) to create a grid in the absence of an incoming supply? How is that achieved at the CU, is there an isolation switch still required? Has it worked out ok in those situations?

Hurrache · 30-07-2024 3:19pm

'tis grand, nevermind what was posted…

Solar in a blackout

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