Sunsynk Invertor 5.5kw house. (2 Viewers)

[seesaw]

As above. We have one which we are generally very happy with.
We have mastered topping up the battery using Octopus Flux.
We are stuck on force discharging the battery at certain times and also limiting the charging %age.
Have looked at Youtube and the forums and not sure what I am doing wrong.
Can anybody help please?
Cheers
Sid

 

[daventess]

Hi - we have the sunsynk 5.5k hybrid inverter as well, and what you want is perfectly doable, though to me at least it was a little counter intuitive.

You should be set up so the solar powers the house first, then any extra will charge the battery, then if the battery is full it will send back to the grid (if you have that option). The battery will subsidise the solar in powering the house if needed. If both the solar and battery are not enough to power the house, then the grid will make up the difference.

You need to get to "System Mode" which is under the inverter setting in the app (either mobile or web).

There you get 6 timer settings, with checkboxes, times and battery values. The Power is the max. to draw from the grid. I usuall set this to the max. my system will provide, which is about 5000w.

So, taking "Timer 1" as an example -

• if you set the checkbox to checked, set the time to 02:00 and set the SOC to 25, this will charge the battery from 2am from the grid if the battery SOC is below 25%.
• If you were NOT to check the checkbox (as is the case above), then at 2am the grid would, instead of charging the batter, it would power the house if the battery was below 25% and the house needed power.

The time is a threshold, so when it reached said time it will take the action you set, until it reached the next time and a new set of actions. That's important to know.

So the trick is to make sure you have the correct sequence of tiome thresholds for your day, set to either divert the grid to the battery or the house if the batteries are below a certain SOC.

I have also read - but not tested myself - that the sunsynk inverter works best if the times are in order from midnight.

Does that help in any way?

 

[Bolti]

I think MisterB has this inverter.

 

[seesaw]

Hi - we have the sunsynk 5.5k hybrid inverter as well, and what you want is perfectly doable, though to me at least it was a little counter intuitive.

You should be set up so the solar powers the house first, then any extra will charge the battery, then if the battery is full it will send back to the grid (if you have that option). The battery will subsidise the solar in powering the house if needed. If both the solar and battery are not enough to power the house, then the grid will make up the difference.

You need to get to "System Mode" which is under the inverter setting in the app (either mobile or web).

There you get 6 timer settings, with checkboxes, times and battery values.

So, taking "Timer 1" as an example -

• if you set the checkbox to checked, set the time to 02:00 and set the value to 50, this will charge the battery from 2am from the grid if the battery SOC is below 50%.
• If you were NOT to check the checkbox, then at 2am the grid would, instead of charging the batter, it would power the house if the battery was below 50%.

The time is a threshold, so when it reached said time it will take the action you set, until it reached the next time and a new set of actions. That's important to know.

So the trick is to make sure you have the correct sequence of tiome thresholds for your day, set to either divert the grid to the battery or the house if the batteries are below a certain SOC.

I have also read - but not tested myself - that the sunsynk inverter works best if the times are in order from midnight.

Does that help in any way?

Thanks very much. We are already doing this from grid to battery. What I maybe forgot to write was trying to limit the battery charge from solar i.e. only charging up the battery from solar to say 50%. and then exporting the rest to the grid.
Currently solar is charging the battery up to 99%, however, when we go holiday we won't need that amount to run the house.
Cheers
Sid

 

[daventess]

Thanks very much. We are already doing this from grid to battery. What I maybe forgot to write was trying to limit the battery charge from solar i.e. only charging up the battery from solar to say 50%. and then exporting the rest to the grid.
Currently solar is charging the battery up to 99%, however, when we go holiday we won't need that amount to run the house.
Cheers
Sid

Ah, ok. That I don't know, sorry.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[seesaw]

Thanks anyway.
Cheers
Sid

 

[Two on Tour]

Thanks very much. We are already doing this from grid to battery. What I maybe forgot to write was trying to limit the battery charge from solar i.e. only charging up the battery from solar to say 50%. and then exporting the rest to the grid.
Currently solar is charging the battery up to 99%, however, when we go holiday we won't need that amount to run the house.
Cheers
Sid

Surely while you are away once your battery has for the first time has reached full, then the smaller amount that's taken out of the battery by your house when there is no solar (over night) will be topped again to full and the remained exported for the rest of the day as does or solar/battery system, and so on for the following days or are you exporting all of your battery at night?

 

[seesaw]

Surely while you are away once your battery has for the first time has reached full, then the smaller amount that's taken out of the battery by your house when there is no solar (over night) will be topped again to full and the remained exported for the rest of the day as does or solar/battery system, and so on for the following days or are you exporting all of your battery at night?

I was lead to believe that only having 50% SOC was better for the battery if it was not going to be doing much whilst we were on holiday.
The other thing we wanted to do was force charge between 16.00 and 19.00 for a better export rate if that was possible.
Cheers
Sid

 

[Two on Tour]

I thought with Octopus Flux that you were tied into the times for import and export set by Octopus.

I use the Agile import tariff as I prefer the flexibility for me to chose when I import if I need too and at the lowest wholesale rates during the day or night.

 

[daventess]

force charge between 16.00 and 19.00 for a better export rate

Assume you meant force export, as that's the expensive time on Octopus Flux?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[seesaw]

I thought with Octopus Flux that you were tied into the times for import and export set by Octopus.

I use the Agile import tariff as I prefer the flexibility for me to chose when I import if I need too and at the lowest wholesale rates during the day or night.

Not sure i thought that it was flexible will check cheers.

Assume you meant force export, as that's the expensive time on Octopus Flux?

Yes you are correct. Cheers Sid

 

[Two on Tour]

Not sure i thought that it was flexible will check cheers.

 

[MisterB]

I think MisterB has this inverter.

He does indeeed LOL

Thanks very much. We are already doing this from grid to battery. What I maybe forgot to write was trying to limit the battery charge from solar i.e. only charging up the battery from solar to say 50%. and then exporting the rest to the grid.
Currently solar is charging the battery up to 99%, however, when we go holiday we won't need that amount to run the house.
Cheers
Sid

you should be able set the SOC on the battery to 50% - you can do it easily enough via the app from anywhere .... anything not used by the inverter to charge the battery should default to the grid anyway unless you have it set to heat the water or anything else before the grid gobbles it up !

in terms of exporting to the grid, if youre on a good rate of charging from the grid, have you considered selling everything back to the grid and topping the battery up using cheap electricity ...

 

[seesaw]

TWO on Tour
That's exactly what we are trying to do - it isn't automatic that it will export at peak period you have to set that.
At the moment when the battery fills to 99% then solar is exported to the grid.
I was wanting to export when it was most beneficial to me and for that you have to set the times - up to now all attempts have failed. If we can find out how to force discharge then problem solved.
Cheers
Sid

 

[seesaw]

He does indeeed LOL



you can just set the SOC on the battery to 50% - you can do it easily enough via the app from anywhere .... if you cant sort it out, let me know and i will try to 'talk' you through it! - you can then change the setting to charge at 100% the night before you get home ....

Thanks that's what we have done. We are awaiting the app extra permissions from our installer. We can only view the app not set anything with it - have we done something wrong?
Setting the state of charge do you tick the box or not and which one - Grid or Gen ?
Cheers
Sid

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[MisterB]

i tick the grid charge box but you probably need to set the charge times also via the app and set the SOC % for your specific times. dont forget to also click the save button at the top of the page otherwise it will just default to the settings it had prior.

you can change the settings on the inverter itself - you should have those permissions. though obv you need to be in front of the inverter to do that.

i would be pretty annoyed with your installer for setting it up in such a way as you, the owner. cant alter!!

 

[seesaw]

Do we need to untick the zero export box on the system 2 screen - remember we are doing this on the invertor screen not the app.
Cheers
Sid

 

[MisterB]

i have mine ticked as i dont export to the grid from the Sunsynk inverter, i export to the grid from an inverter installed under the FiT scheme. in your situation, im not sure - but practically, when the battery has reached its SOC then what happens to the excess solar at the moment? i assume that your inverter just diverts it to the grid, which is what you are trying to do but at a lower SOC?

 

[seesaw]

You are correct. At the moment excess is sent to the grid. We have found out that if you untick the zero export box then it does force export but after that not a clue. More fiddling required.
Cheers
Sid

 

[MisterB]

You are correct. At the moment excess is sent to the grid. We have found out that if you untick the zero export box then it does force export but after that not a clue. More fiddling required.
Cheers
Sid

do you need to force export? have you seen the following video?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[seesaw]

Thanks for that will watch later.
We are just seeing what can be done with the invertor.

 

[MisterB]

Thanks for that will watch later.
We are just seeing what can be done with the invertor.

It's not a bad inverter to be honest, it seems to be able to do most things, though it's a bit clunky at times, especially when setting it up/programming it.
Keith, who designed it, does a lot of you tube videos and gets very excited at times!! A plus point is that he has put a lot of videos on the net, so most of the settings have been explained. I had trouble initially as I have a FIT PV system and separate inverter, but resolved it very easily in the end when I understood what was happening, with help from other owners.
The Sunsynk's are sold under licence and other badges/names in different continents .. so you might find what you need in 'other' videos.

 

[daventess]

It's not a bad inverter to be honest, it seems to be able to do most things, though it's a bit clunky at times, especially when setting it up/programming it.
Keith, who designed it, does a lot of you tube videos and gets very excited at times!! A plus point is that he has put a lot of videos on the net, so most of the settings have been explained. I had trouble initially as I have a FIT PV system and separate inverter, but resolved it very easily in the end when I understood what was happening, with help from other owners.
The Sunsynk's are sold under licence and other badges/names in different continents .. so you might find what you need in 'other' videos.

The web interface was designed by a techie with no idea on useability, but it's actually a pretty good bit of kit.

 

[seesaw]

do you need to force export? have you seen the following video?

Very interesting video. I didn't realise that it had those settings. Thank you.

Cheers
Sid