SOLIS INVERTER, OFF PEAK CHARGING.

[Chrisofle]

Hi,

Newbie here, hoping for some help and advice.

I am looking at having a new PV and battery system to our home.

The system I have been offered is a 4.9kw system consisting of the following:

11nr 450 watt Znshinesolar panels

Solis 5G RHI Hybrid Inverter- RHI-5K-48ES-5G

3.3kwh Growatt Battery ML33RTA.

 

Could anyone confirm if the Solis Inverter can be set up to charge the batteries using off peak rates?

I was thinking this may be an option in the winter months when the PV is not performing as well.

My current usage is: 

 

	DAY	NIGHT	COMBINED
Month	USAGE	USAGE	USAGE
MAR/APRIL	505	245	750
FEB/MAR	519	274	793
JAN/FEB	616	352	968
DEC/JAN	573	153	726
NOV/DEC	490	250	740
OCT/NOV	491	292	783
SEPT/OCT	421	184	605
AUG/SEPT	452	240	692
JULY/AUG	412	230	642
JUNE/JULY	469	265	734
MAY/JUNE	511	228	739
APRIL/MAY	499	278	777
ANNUAL	5958	2991	8949

                  
Even though I do have electrical back ground I’m finding this a bit of a mind field.

 

Many thanks in advance any advice.

 

 

[Radian]

Your combined usage figures are the total of day and night, but what periods do those relate to? Assuming those figures are average power in Watts for 15h/day time 9h/night time then in Jan/Feb you consume 9kWh in the day and 3kWh during the night. I don't know where in the world you are but in the Northern Hemisphere a 4.9kW system might deliver 5 or 6kWh on a good day. A 3.3kWh battery might have to be charged exclusively on off-peak and you would have to self consume all 6kWh while the Sun was shining - and you're still coming up short. Off peak you can cover your night time baseload as well as charging but the tricky time will be evening when all 3.3kWh might go in a couple of hours or less. I think you need at least 10kWh battery.

[ToughButterCup]

Thanks for that explanation @Radian

[ToughButterCup]

10 hours ago, Chrisofle said:

...

Could anyone confirm if the Solis Inverter can be set up to charge the batteries using off peak rates?

....

 

Does this question mean can the inverter divert power to the battery during the day IF the battery is ORIGINALLY set up to take night-time electricity ?

[Chrisofle]

Many Thanks for the replies.

Due to budget and the fact we will only be in this house in the short/medium term we are quite happy just to subsidize our electricity bills. I believe we will be about 40% self sufficient with this set up.

My question regarding off peak charging, was whether this inverter has the option to charge the batteries at night whilst we are on off peak cheaper electricity rates. 

 

Thanks

 

Chris

[RichardL]

Yes - you can charge off peak - I'm doing exactly that since the solar only generates a couple of kW hours over the winter.

Check out the timed charge functionality 

Advanced settings (default password is 00010)
Storage energy set,
Storage mode (is probably self use - just click through)
Time of use...

Mine looks like this (pictured) for Octopus go 00:30-04:30 off peak.
The charging amps is only relevant IF  a. your BMS does not control charge rate and b. your inverter is sized so it can't overload its grid cable.

This is a solis hybrid 5k -  might look slightly different,  + if theres no batteries you might need to find its 'keep awake' option to stop it shutting off when there's no solar overnight.

Does that answer the question?

Edited December 21, 2022 by RichardL

[athlonoc]

Hope you don't mind me jumping in on this thread.

My installation has a Solis inverter and Pure Drive battery.

The Solis Cloud Monitoring App shows that all PV generated power always goes to the battery both day and night. This indicates that there is no self use energy being generated albeit the solar charging of the battery in effect is doing that but it suggests that the battery is constantly being charged as first priority to provide solar generated energy.

 

Does that make sense?

 

I thought the order of generated solar power was; 

Self Use, then Battery charging ( when self use needs were met at any given time ), then back to the grid (if self use met and battery was full)

 

I'm unable to get any assistance at this moment in time from the installer.

 

I've attached an image to show the predicament.

 

Thank you

[PhilT]

You should be able to access settings and disable the "charge priority" function, can you check to see if you can do that?

[athlonoc]

Thanks for the solution. I'll have a look when I get home. I know that he set it up to charge battery between 00:30 and 04:30 to take advantage of the cheaper tariff but I thought that condition would only apply to that time.

When I have a look will there be an option to only charge battery during the night but set priority during daylight to be Self Use / Battery / Back to Grid?

 

Thank you

[PhilT]

8 minutes ago, athlonoc said:

When I have a look will there be an option to only charge battery during the night but set priority during daylight to be Self Use / Battery / Back to Grid?

There should be, something like this, which at the moment is in the default self-use state but as you can see almost any combination of Default, AC Priority or System (Panels/battery) Priority, together with time selections, should be possible

[athlonoc]

Thank you for this.

 

I've been up into the loft and looked at the settings but want to tread carefully with the settings.

Under the advanced settings, how do you get to this page setting. I guess it's under a different sub heading.

 

At this stage I don't want to change anything but instead see what its set to. 

 

Thanks

[PhilT]

20 minutes ago, athlonoc said:

Under the advanced settings, how do you get to this page setting. I guess it's under a different sub heading.

I never touch the inverter, everything is done via an app. Can you not get at the settings via the app from which you took the screenshot in your earlier post?

[athlonoc]

On 05/02/2023 at 14:59, PhilT said:

I never touch the inverter, everything is done via an app. Can you not get at the settings via the app from which you took the screenshot in your earlier post?

 

Hi PhilT

 

No, the app is very limited. The only way I could change any of those settings is using the control panel on the inverter.

 

I've been told the Solis Cloud App is somewhat limited and not the most accurate and that I shouldn't read too much into it. Seems strange that an app is provided to show what's happening but you can't take too much notice of it!!!!

Solis need to up their game with app development. So many app developers out there you would think it's quite easy to get one working efficiently.