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Old 12-19-20, 11:30 AM   #4
Acuario
Apprentice EcoRenovator
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Tortosa, Spain
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Wow, a BIG solar system, my solar isn't quite as big, I have 2K of panels, 10K lithium batteries (Pylontech) and a 4.4K Studer inverter that's now about 14 years old so not much chance of getting much data from that. I'm planning to build a DC current monitor (using a hall effect sensor, not a shunt as I gather Lithium batteries don't work well with shunts) so I will have an idea of the DC current being taken by the inverter as the battery data only tells me the charge/discharge of the batteries, not the whole system. I can calculate this from the charge controller power - the battery charge power but it will be interesting to know.

I've now managed to get a data feed from the batteries so I can monitor the state of charge, charge/discharge current, battery voltage etc. that will let me better control the switching in of loads to take up the excess generated power. I also have the feed from the Midnight charge controller so I know what's coming in from the panels.

Have you automated your system to optimize usage in any way or is it just that it's big so you can load it up? What about cloudy days, even with 34K of batteries there is only so much you can use and if there is no control then it could get used up pretty quickly.

I'm fortunate in having both grid power and the solar, my idea being to optimize the use of the solar running the heatpump when I know I have the batteries fully charged. For times when I don't have excess solar I can fall back to the grid.

Acuario
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