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spicedreams asked

add RS 48/6000 to EasySolar II GX 48/3000/35-32?

I have an EasySolar II GX 48/3000/35-32 with 12x 320W nominal solar panels, 8x 12V sealed Lead Acid Deep Cycle batteries and a BMV-700. We are 100% off grid in northern New Zealand.

The inverter component struggles when using power tools (we are building a home off grid) despite a soft start device. I also wonder why a soft start capability is not built in to every solar system?

The system also struggles when the sun is shining and I use excess power to charge my electric vehicle (standard mains charging unit, draws ~1800W continuous). It raises high temperature alarms which (if I don't disconnect the EV charger in time) result in a shutdown. I don't understand why this should be given that the load seems well within the advertised parameters.

So my thought is to add a more powerful 'compatible' inverter to the system that gives us much more reliable power draw- short term for electric motor loads, and also sustained to charge the EV when the sun is shining. As I understand it the RS 48/6000 would be DC coupled (connected to the batteries in parallel with the EasySolar) in this circumstance but would need a data connection back to the GX component of the EasySolar.

I am keen to hear

* whether I am trying to solve the wrong problem, or

* what would make the RS 48/6000 not a great fit to the situation?

Thanks

Graham

EasySolar All-in-Onemultiple invertersinverter rs
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Alexandra answered ·

@spicedreams

Sounds like you are having an aweful time with derating due to temparature.

This means in part that either:

1. your room cooling is not great,

2. or your inverter is not big enough for the job, especially factoring in derating

3. Batteries are not able to do the job.

Or a combination of all three.


If you add the rs 6000 you would ideally want more battery. The 6000 (plus the 3 -on one bank is not an officially supported setup btw). But a ve direct cable to the gx on the other inverter is possible.

I doubt your lead acid bank can let the amps out needed to run the loads. And if they do they will be dead soon. If you look at their C rating that is where the limitation is.

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spicedreams avatar image spicedreams commented ·
Thanks Alexandra

We have 8x SLA cells, each of which has a 100h C=2.6A. Therefore across the set, 100h C=20.80 A. We are drawing less than 10 A across all loads. So I don't think that is the problem.

I think heat certainly has a part to play. The EasySolar is in a shipping container and the only time we try to draw more than maybe 3 A is when the sun is bright, the battery is near full, the container door is open and we have excess power to charge a Nissan Leaf (8 A @ 230 V). The EasySolar does seem unable to get rid of heat within the case- the fan runs but doesn't stop it getting hot.

We seem to have no way to see the internal temperature in VRM, yet by discussion here that would seem to be a vital piece of information. Ideally we would be able to drive a relay that turns off the car charger if too hot. Is there any chance of a firmware tweak for that?

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Related Resources

EasySolar 1600 product page

EasySolar-II GX 3000 & 5000 product page


Inverter RS Product page.

Inverter RS Online Manual.

Inverter RS Datasheet.

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Additional resources still need to be added for this topic