Thanks Dustin for keeping us up to date on Sol-Arks feature progress.
While you are upgrading your firmware: :)
So an essential feature for off-grid with a generator is to be able to
program various SOC levels for generator start AND shuf-off after
charge. 90% is way too high for many sunny climes and other
configurations. Often batteries need a boost in the wee morning hours -
when they drop below the preferred recharge point but that's only
perhaps a few hours before the sun comes up - So say you want to start a
gen to charge a Lead-acid battery at 50% or an LFP batter at 20% SOC but
you only want to bring it through to the next often or possibly sunny
morning. So you set it to run from 50% to 65% (or from 20%-40% for LFP)
- knowing that the morning sun will take it the rest of the way. 90%
would waste a ton of fuel in this scenario not too mention unwanted
noise and wear and tear on the genny. Depending on the clients use
profile, the climate, and relative size of the array and battery and
gen, these figures could vary anywhere from 20% to 100%. So it's
essential us off-grid installers have that flexibility.
Also I know that your TOU settings might cover this (though not in all
modes I believe) but another nice feature is to have 2 or 3 time periods
with different start and stop settings (Sunny Island does this nicely).
So if the minimum SOC is reached in the evening you might as well bring
it up to a higher SOC for gen shut down as it needs to get through the
entire night whereas if that minimum SOC start trigger is met after 3
AM it needs to only bring it to a lower SOC as described above.
I'm loving the Sol-Ark product so far but it is obvious the software is
a work in progress - the architecture and thought behind it is an
excellent foundation - thanks for your work and openness for input to
make it even better.
Best,
Jeff
~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Village Power Design
linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-clearwater-0622a312/>
www.villagepowerdesign.com <http://www.villagepowerdesign.com>
cell - 413-559-9763
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dustin Douglas <mailto:dus...@sol-ark.com>
November 12, 2020 at 11:46 AM
Hi All,
First and foremost thank you for sharing your experiences the the
Sol-Ark system. We try very hard to have different capabilities and
add new features that make it flexible for the customer. The two-wire
start is a feature however that we want to be seamless. In the
instance where the customer is seeing the system shutdown once the
generator shuts off has been addressed and fixed with a software
update. With this update we are able to handle larger generators that
tend to drift from 60hz. Please give our support team a call so that
we can update the customer accordingly. We are also looking at adding
more features including the ability exercise the generator in the near
feature.
Thank you and have a blessed day,
Dustin Douglas
Sol Ark Engineering Support
(972) 575-8875 x 108
www.sol-ark.com <http://www.sol-ark.com/>
---- On Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:08:51 -0600 *Jay <jay.pe...@gmail.com>*
wrote ----
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
Change listserver email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try
the other:
https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out or update participant bios:
http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
Jay <mailto:jay.pe...@gmail.com>
November 12, 2020 at 9:08 AM
Hi Bill
In the past I’ve had similar issues with generators/inverters. Usually
a relay on the output power wires that opens( disconnects) when the
stop signal is sent works as the frequency doesn’t slowly go down, it
drops to 0 instantly.
I don’t know if it will fix your issue.
Seems like solark needs to greatly improve their firmware.
Jay
Peltz power.
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
Change listserver email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try
the other:
https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out or update participant bios:
http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
Bill Hennessy <mailto:b...@berkssolar.com>
November 11, 2020 at 10:03 PM
Hi folks--We've also been disappointed with the Sol-Ark two-wire
generator start. The unit starts at the charge set point, but the
inverter will shut down for about a minute every time the generator
stops running. After the minute wait, the inverter restarts and
everything is fine. But it is aggravating for the homeowners to be
left wondering in the dark.
Sol-Ark says that when the generator shuts off, the frequency drops
out of the Sol-Ark range and causes the inverter shut down.
They suggested we find a way to increase the generator speed to avoid
the frequency drop at shutdown. This seems like a lame suggestion,
since the generator has no idea of when the batteries will be
satisfied--it only responds to the on/off signal from the Sol-Ark. I
would think that the unit could be programmed to ignore the frequency
drop when it sends the shut off signal to the generator. The system
has an an Ecogen 15kW.
Not having an exercise function is also a miss. As mentioned below,
the time of use can be used, but one has to go out and play with the
programming to check the generator.
regards, bill
Bill Hennessy
Berks Solar, LLC
371 Centennial Rd
Mertztown, PA 19539
o 610 682 4300
c 484 560 4666
NABCEP certified installer
PA contractor #44411
www.berkssolar.com
On Wednesday, November 11, 2020, 8:20:57 PM EST, Chris Sparadeo
<sparadeo.ch...@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion, Jay.
Yes, the Sol-Ark has a very basic and limited AGS for 2 wire
compatible gen sets. Gen start can be programmed with voltage or SOC,
however gen stop is not a function that can not be readily programmed.
Instead, the Sol-Ark is programmed to charge the battery bank to 90%
of the rated Ah capacity of the battery bank before turning off the
generator. You can ultimately adjust this gen stop parameter to be
based on a specific SOC or voltage, but I believe that doing so
requires a call into tech support. The tech I spoke with updated a
setting (having to do with a TOU parameter I believe) that was not
accessible via the system interface. AGS from Schnieder, Outback and
even Magnum are less clunky, but I am hoping that Sol-Ark will
eventually come out with new programming to remediate these minor but
nevertheless, important issues
-Chris
On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 3:58 PM Jay <jay.pe...@gmail.com
<mailto:jay.pe...@gmail.com>> wrote:
--
Chris Sparadeo
C_802-369-4458
H_802-728-3059
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
<mailto:RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org>
Change listserver email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try
the other:
https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out or update participant bios:
http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
Change listserver email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try
the other:
https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out or update participant bios:
http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
_______________________________________________
List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
List Address: RE-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org
Change listserver email address & settings:
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the other:
https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
List rules & etiquette:
http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
Check out or update participant bios:
http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
