Solar 3 phase system install

[Newcastle George]

That link won't let me in George.
Just shows zero output and 100% SOC.

It must be protecting my privacy Dave, works when I click on it.

George

[BernieQ2]

Same here George...wants user name and log in.
Bernie.

[Busman]

Battery on first night went down to 60%, made a few changes, battery last night went down to 75%, plenty in reserve !

[supersparky]

I wish I had access to enough real estate to install 20kw of solar, let alone a decent battery system.

[Busman]

David, we only have 10 Kw of solar, the battery is 20 Kw. Built the battery myself and I am very happy with how it is going, we started last night down a couple of volts due to a couple of boo boos and late afternoon rain and cloud but only lost another volt all night so pretty happy with that.We have a guy that does Indian food from a trailer, comes to the top pub occasionally, was there last night so Indian was for dinner, so no cooking. I really must spend time on finding a more enrgy efficient electric range but today is putting ridgecap on a small shed we have built over our bore, so can hang a few panels on the roof, even if were to only get fire fighting water out of it then would be a worthwhile exercise, but we should get much more than that. I have a young sparky (younger than me anyway) that has some brains, has worked all over the world, came around yesterdayand is working out how we can corrupt what has been installed to make some of it into a grid feed system to get the FIT to pay for our service fees, so should be independent of the grid totally.

[supersparky]

The ever increasing service fee is bit of a rip-off. About one quarter of our bill, if my memory is correct.
Shouldn't be too hard to connect back into the grid. Hopefully, the pitch angle of your inverters will match the grid and your phase rotations are the same.
How much 3 phase equipment does the winery use?

[Busman]

My current sparky who has been pretty spot on is predicting 70 cent per Kh in the future ! If he is wrong so be it, if he is right we are protected.
The service fee will keep rising as more and more people opt for a system like ours. We have been here for 5 years, looked up first bills, were arond 80 per month, now are 300 per month, or were. So if we can rid ourselves of the service fee that would be a bonus. If we limit grid feed to 5 Kw then it is called a basic connection and is virtually automatic, with no equipment from Ergon so they can turn on/off. Above that is a different story. They are now paying 13 cents per Kh and rising.So that should give us a trickle income as well as removing us from the billing cycle.

David, we have a couple of winery bits of gear that are 3 phase, a must pump and an elevating conveyor, as well as a guillotene and geared head drill. I suppose I could have stayed on the single phase system that was in place, and fitted drives to everything but the must pump already has one to control speed, the geared head drill has lots of speed selections and the 3 phase connection was not expensive, it was only after it was fitted that Ergon told us we would have to limit ourselves to 15 amps per phase ! Screw that, they have lost out in the long run.

[Busman]

[/quote]

One of the systems we installed had so much solar we had to find loads to apply as the battery approached the 98% SOC mark to stop it over shooting the upper voltage limit. We used the hot water system with a switching relay driven by the hot water thermostat, to power the air conditioning once the water was up to temperature, but this solar array was putting in around 300 amps @ 29v at the peak of the day Even if they drained the whole 1200 Ah over night, the battery was fully recharged well before mid day, even with 5 families all holidaying at the place .... all city mains power type people, so no idea about conserving battery storage when the sun wasn't out ....

T1 Terry
[/quote]

We have had exactly the same problem, if you work it out it was your system x 1/3 i.e. 100 amps going into 400 Ah of battery overshot the 56 volt cut off point and so mains power stopped being produced. Cut the solar feed in half (50 amps) and had no further problems, over time will creep it up to find the sweet spot just under where this occurs.

[Busman]

Finally happy with the solar install, there is a guy at Victron whos seems to know it all, bit more than the installers. The installer tried to blame my batteries, saying that I was not giving him enough info about voltages etc. He showed me a spreadsheet for some of the batteries they often use with Victron stuff, hundreds os set points that hey have to set up, but had no explanation as to why ??
Anyway all wroks good now so setting up a small system just to grid feed which will cover the service charge which I believe will keep rising. Should get payback in just over 2 years on this one.

[T1 Terry]

Do you need to be on the grid Bill?

T1 Terry