Let's talk Luxpower

[New]

You are very lucky. Mine still does the cycling thing, started to just live with it.

Something that happened twice now, was that the AC Mains to the inverter tripped during the night. Not a major issue, as when the batteries reach 15%, they will cut supply to the house, I will wake up and go switch the CB on and the inverters will start charging the batteries. But on these occasions the batteries are indicating a charge level of only 1%. They charge fine, and are now only 14 months old.

Should be theoretically impossible. Does your graph show it going all the way down to 1% "systematically" or is there a "really steep drop" somewhere?

[DrifX]

Should be theoretically impossible. Does your graph show it going all the way down to 1% "systematically" or is there a "really steep drop" somewhere?

It shows a gradual, although consistent drop from the prescribed cut-off of 15% to 1%. I am not sure whether it could be that the inverter and app maybe "misread" the information from the battery BMS.

[New]

It shows a gradual, although consistent drop from the prescribed cut-off of 15% to 1%. I am not sure whether it could be that the inverter and app maybe "misread" the information from the battery BMS.

Sjo.... Confusing. Looks like it started charging the batts and using grid when it hit 15% soc, but the charging of the bats did not make any difference to Soc until a little bit later. It was actually reducing SOC whole it was apparently charging from grid....

[spicydave]

It shows a gradual, although consistent drop from the prescribed cut-off of 15% to 1%. I am not sure whether it could be that the inverter and app maybe "misread" the information from the battery BMS.

What battery ?

[New]

I have two SNA 5000 inverters with two CFE5100s batteries.

What battery ?

Not sure if this is still the case, but think so....

The dreaded CFE's! Which bats have been treating me very well. Especially recently!

[spicydave]

Old trich of CFE - BMS Drift ......

Look this oke's response on the CFE Support Group

But soon after it was deleted

[DrifX]

Not sure if this is still the case, but think so....

The dreaded CFE's! Which bats have been treating me very well. Especially recently!

Indeed, it is the CFE's.

Something I have been pondering. Would it help if I where to switch them off for a period of time, in the hope of "resetting" them?

[spicydave]

Indeed, it is the CFE's.

Something I have been pondering. Would it help if I where to switch them off for a period of time, in the hope of "resetting" them?

Set to Lead-Acid

Charge full and drain to 15% , charge full and drain again

Charge full again then switch back to Lithium to check if BMS calibrated

[Fluffy]

Set to Lead-Acid

Charge full and drain to 15% , charge full and drain again

Charge full again then switch back to Lithium to check if BMS calibrated

Actually, even if the BMS isn't calibrated after that, it should/will recalibrate itself once running for a while. (Unless it is a real cheap POC)

And quite frankly, BMS calibration is a bit of a red herring.

So what if it reports 80% instead of 70 or 90.

Calibrated or not, internally the BMS protects the cells from Over or Under VOLTAGE, not SOC.

[Fluffy]

Set to Lead-Acid

Charge full and drain to 15% , charge full and drain again

Charge full again then switch back to Lithium to check if BMS calibrated

Just keep in mind that LEAD ACID bulk charge Voltages can be way lower than Lithium and it may never charge the Lithium to 100%

[spicydave]

Actually, even if the BMS isn't calibrated after that, it should/will recalibrate itself once running for a while. (Unless it is a real cheap POC)

And quite frankly, BMS calibration is a bit of a red herring.

So what if it reports 80% instead of 70 or 90.

Calibrated or not, internally the BMS protects the cells from Over or Under VOLTAGE, not SOC.

Any Lithium set on Lead-Acid will not show correct reading lime you say

[geoff norton]

Please can the well informed help me understand my Luxpower system.

I am having the following issue.
I am still using about 200 units of city power a month and would like to reduce it.

Currently I have
16 X 550 Watt panels
2 X Luxpower LXP Inverters
4 X 5,1 KWA Hinaess Batteries.

The system works, I just need to try reduce city electricity. I have a average size house with a swimming pool and a single 250 liter geyser. The swimming pool pump runs for about 5 hours a day. We have no servants at home so most of the day the home is idle besides the pool pump and freezers.
Every day from 18:00 to 21:00 I run on Eskom if available and the rest of the day we run only on the batteries. We do this as the geyser has a 4kw element in and draws a lot of power.

Options are to add more panels and another 2 batteries or to install smaller geysers closed to the point of use. Often in the mornings after we have showered the batteries are on 40 % and then we go back onto Eskom until there is sufficient PV. Gas geysers are not an option for me.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Grey Nomad]

I think we need to more info on how you are running your system. What is your average daily consumption in KWh? Is your geyser on a controller like GeyserWise? What is your average PV production in KWh?
Is you attach a couple of daily data profiles from the Lux app it would help.
I have a similar size system and use minimal utility power month to month on daily consumption of around 30KWh.

[geoff norton]

Average household consumption is 25KWA.

We shower twice a day in the evenings and in the mornings. When we wake up the batteries are on about 70% After showering and hair straightener thing they often go to 40% and then Eskom kicks in. It seems most of our consumbtion is from the 250L geyser.

Geyser is not on any timer.

[geoff norton]

Here is a screen shot of today.

[Grey Nomad]

Here is a screen shot of today.

OK, hard to make a call on one incomplete day. Specially that 1800 to 2100 period when you may also cook?
Your peak PV KW also looks low for 8,8KW installed, but don’t know where you live or your panel configuration. You should easily generate 25KWh from your panels most days - but does your consumption figure include the 1800 to 2100 consumption from Escom?
I suspect a geyser timer/manager should be your first investment. I only run my geyser from 1200 to 1500. Enough time to get it really hot, over 70 deg using only solar. Two evening and morning showers of reasonable length should not let the temperature go below 40 deg overnight- still comfortable for showering. With GeyserWise you could still set it to heat to a much lower temperature in the morning, if that makes you comfortable, without using too much Escom.

[ekkekan]

As per previous post if your panels are at around 25° and North facing no shade I think the production of PV can be more. This based on my own peak today in Gauteng. But this is a variable from system to system.

[New]

Here is a screen shot of today.

I may be wrong here but it looks like your inverter is set to take Grid from when the batteries get to around 40% soc.

That is quite high, but could be a safety thing to ensure you still have reserve power during bad weather and loadshedding. (Not everyone want to be tinkering with their settings and that "privilege" unfortunately means wasted PV production and using more grid than necessary)

Theoretically (and subject to the aspects listed by Ekkekan) you should yield much more from PV if you allow the batteries to discharge down to 20% soc as you should have more than enough PV to replenish.

But running it that way will mean keeping tabs on bad weather days to engage grid.

[New]

Also... The LXP can feed back to non essentials. Not sure if it is set up like that, from your screenshot it seems you running those inverters rather like off grid inverters. You could configure the system and put things like the geyser and pool on non essentials and let the inverters do their thing with the available PV during the day, and you would need timers. This could lead to a cold shower in very selected circumstances with the possible return of loadshedding and having had a bad sun day.

[Chingy]

Hi Guy's
I need some assistance with settings on my parallel Luxpower app,
Anyone who can help or send me contact please.
2 x SNA5000
2 x Volta Stage 1
16 x 550w Canadian
Regards, Craig