Sunsynk inverter issues

ed110220

Hi all, is anyone else using a Sunsynk hybrid inverter and battery?

I replaced my Growatt inverter with a Sunsynk ECCO 8 kW model but I'm having problems with how it operates.

The Growatt could charge the battery to 100% from solar and then 'spill' the excess to the grid. The Sunsynk doesn't seem to be able to do that. It has two work modes: 'sell first' will discharge the battery to the grid (and load) down to a preset SOC, but then won't cover house load so you'll import from the grid. 'Zero export to CT' sends all the generation to the battery (or load) but once the battery is full, because there is no export your PV generation is limited to the home load. 

This just seems like a weird way of doing it and I'm wondering how others deal with it. I've been discharging my batts to grid early in the morning then charging them up from PV (but this risks not having enough on a bad day) and/or switching between work modes depending on SOC. Ie say SOC of up to 50% triggering 'zero export to CT' so the battery will charge from PV, then above this 'selling first' which will force discharge and bring the SOC back down to 50%. But this does constantly switch between the two on a sunny day which doesn't seem ideal.

Netexporter

I am proposing to use the same inverter, but at the moment am unable to say whether that is a feature or a bug. At the moment the only thing I can suggest is to check that any CT clamps are pointing the right way, as that seems to be a fairly common cause of export problems with any inverter.

ed110220

Netexporter said:

I am proposing to use the same inverter, but at the moment am unable to say whether that is a feature or a bug. At the moment the only thing I can suggest is to check that any CT clamps are pointing the right way, as that seems to be a fairly common cause of export problems with any inverter.

I'm pretty sure it's intentional, but I don't know why you'd design an inverter like that. Perhaps it is designed mainly for markets with different requirements. A lot of videos and discussion of Sunsynk is from South Africa where the main aim is to provide power during load shedding. It's also marketed as Deye in other markets.

CT clamp definitely works as in the zero export to CT work mode the nverter will send any generation above load to the battery and give a plausible figure for the house load. In selling first mode the CT clamp is disabled (Sunsynk have confirmed this is intentional) so you can't see the load 

QrizB

Is this your manual?

https://www.bimblesolar.com/docs/Sunsynk_Ecco_SG05LP1_UserManual_v10_English-min.pdf

And we're discussing pages 49 and following?

I'm on my phone right now which isn't great for reading inverter manuals, but this might help others?

ed110220

QrizB said:

Is this your manual?

https://www.bimblesolar.com/docs/Sunsynk_Ecco_SG05LP1_UserManual_v10_English-min.pdf

And we're discussing pages 49 and following?

I'm on my phone right now which isn't great for reading inverter manuals, but this might help others?

Thanks! Not sure how I managed to overlook this, maybe I was looking at a different manual? I'd watched quite a few videos and asked on more specialist forums and no one mentioned it, just how to set up automations ect to get around a problem that didn't really exist. I'd set it up to be in "zero export to CT" work mode if the SOC was <50% and "sell first" if >50%.

ed110220

Netexporter said:

I am proposing to use the same inverter, but at the moment am unable to say whether that is a feature or a bug. At the moment the only thing I can suggest is to check that any CT clamps are pointing the right way, as that seems to be a fairly common cause of export problems with any inverter.

It all seems to be working now. I'm using it with Solar Assistant (Raspberry Pi) to control and monitor it remotely. If you get a Solar Assistant, you need to get it with a special splitter to split the battery and SA cables, as confusingly the Sunsynk has separate RS485 and CAN ports but for some reason the SA needs to be plugged into the CAN port to work.