Turning off the Sunny Island battery charger, using an external charger?

[Fingers]

Hi all, I need a little information regarding a SMA Sunny Island 4.4 inverter, that I have just bought (still in it's box).

I intend using it along side my mains electricity as we only have room for 2kw of solar panels. When the batteries run down I want the mains to power our house, but I do not want it to charge the batteries.

As it will not charge Lifepo4 batteries (only lead acid & lithium iron), I will have to use an external battery charger and or MPPT controller (Epever). I have seen on this forum folks talking about the sunny island charge controller SIC50-MPT; so it looks like it can be done.

If we could turn off the sunny islands battery charger facility, that would be the best option, but I'm guessing their not going to let us do that. ?


I have read the manual but it is very confusing, it was translated badly, and has a lot of information that does not pertain to my needs; three phase and coupling multiple inverters etc.

Any help you can give will be appreciated.

[Ampster]

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As it will not charge Lifepo4 batteries (only lead acid & lithium iron), I will have to use an external battery charger and or MPPT controller (Epever). I have seen on this forum folks talking about the sunny island charge controller SIC50-MPT; so it looks like it can be done.

If we could turn off the sunny islands battery charger facility, that would be the best option, but I'm guessing their not going to let us do that. ?

it might be worthwhile to test that assumption. Charging any. battery is a matter of setting current and voltage. The terms each inverter manufacturer uses can be confusing. Disabling charging could be a simple matter of setting voltage to a low setting if possible/ That way it would never turn on charging.

If you don't get the information from someone here there are other forums where I know the issue has been addressed.

[checkthisout]

Hi all, I need a little information regarding a SMA Sunny Island 4.4 inverter, that I have just bought (still in it's box).

I intend using it along side my mains electricity as we only have room for 2kw of solar panels. When the batteries run down I want the mains to power our house, but I do not want it to charge the batteries.

As it will not charge Lifepo4 batteries (only lead acid & lithium iron), I will have to use an external battery charger and or MPPT controller (Epever). I have seen on this forum folks talking about the sunny island charge controller SIC50-MPT; so it looks like it can be done.

If we could turn off the sunny islands battery charger facility, that would be the best option, but I'm guessing their not going to let us do that. ?


I have read the manual but it is very confusing, it was translated badly, and has a lot of information that does not pertain to my needs; three phase and coupling multiple inverters etc.

Any help you can give will be appreciated.

Is that the only reason you don't want it to charge the batteries?

You can use a seperate battery monitor like a victron smart shunt and switch to control battery use and charging. Your inverter/can charge lifepo4, it just doesn't know when the batteries are approaching full.

[Fingers]

Yes the reason I want to turn the charger off is to protect the batteries from a charger that shouldn't be used with lifepo4. They cost so much why take a chance.

This shunt, is it just a monitor, or is it programmable for different charging rates? I have seen the video and read up but I'm still in the dark.
I would much prefer to switch off the charging altogether, and use a mppt charger; it would be so much more simpler.

[checkthisout]

Yes the reason I want to turn the charger off is to protect the batteries from a charger that shouldn't be used with lifepo4. They cost so much why take a chance.

This shunt, is it just a monitor, or is it programmable for different charging rates? I have seen the video and read up but I'm still in the dark.
I would much prefer to switch off the charging altogether, and use a mppt charger; it would be so much more simpler.

Ok. Then just buy an automatic transfer switch and treat your inverter as the grid and the grid as the backup.

when your inverter goes into low voltage shutdown, the transfer switch will change back to grid power and vice versa.

You're going to have to actively manage the system because you don't want your inverter reconnecting to a battery and trying to power loads before there is enough battery and solar energy to maintain whatever loads you're running at the time.

You'll need to look at your solar charge controller to check battery voltage and how many kwh have been put into the battery before you reactivate the inverter to power the loads.

[checkthisout]

Yes the reason I want to turn the charger off is to protect the batteries from a charger that shouldn't be used with lifepo4. They cost so much why take a chance.

This shunt, is it just a monitor, or is it programmable for different charging rates? I have seen the video and read up but I'm still in the dark.
I would much prefer to switch off the charging altogether, and use a mppt charger; it would be so much more simpler.

Look at page 174 of the manual. There is a PID called "GdStrChargMod" labled as (Charge start when connecting to grid.)

It has 4 positions: Off, Full, Equal and Both.

Toggle to off.

[SunEagle]

Hi all, I need a little information regarding a SMA Sunny Island 4.4 inverter, that I have just bought (still in it's box).

I intend using it along side my mains electricity as we only have room for 2kw of solar panels. When the batteries run down I want the mains to power our house, but I do not want it to charge the batteries.

As it will not charge Lifepo4 batteries (only lead acid & lithium iron), I will have to use an external battery charger and or MPPT controller (Epever). I have seen on this forum folks talking about the sunny island charge controller SIC50-MPT; so it looks like it can be done.

If we could turn off the sunny islands battery charger facility, that would be the best option, but I'm guessing their not going to let us do that. ?


I have read the manual but it is very confusing, it was translated badly, and has a lot of information that does not pertain to my needs; three phase and coupling multiple inverters etc.

Any help you can give will be appreciated.

I don't believe someone makes a very smart charger that can do what you want to do. IMO you will probably need to do the controlling manually or purchase some type of computer/PLC to control charging.

[Fingers]

Look at page 174 of the manual.

Toggle to off.

The three manuals that came with the inverter was written in German. So I have downloaded a pdf manual from the net.
It looks like we don't have the same manual, mine stops at page 160.
Do you have a link?

[Ampster]

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It looks like we don't have the same manual, mine stops at page 160.
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Perhaps it is on a different page? Have you looked at the table of contents? Is there a section about settings? Are there settings for charging current or voltage?

[Fingers]

Ah, there seems to be a few on line, with different updates. What version have you, something like "SI44M-80H-12-BE-en-10 |Version 1.0"

[checkthisout]

Ah, there seems to be a few on line, with different updates. What version have you, something like "SI44M-80H-12-BE-en-10 |Version 1.0"

Provide us with links to your model # or a very detailed description of the model #s and such or if you have links to the proper manuals otherwise we are just left guessing.

Just telling us the KW and manufacturer is akin to telling us you have a GMC Suburban without telling us the year, engine and features. Makes it hard to give useful assistance.

[Fingers]

Look at page 174 of the manual. There is a PID called "GdStrChargMod" labled as (Charge start when connecting to grid.)

It has 4 positions: Off, Full, Equal and Both.

Toggle to off.

Ah ha! I have it, thank you.

I'll take a good look at this new manual, and go crazy all over again ha ha ha lol

[checkthisout]

Just to re-emphasize, I would steer away from that inverter charger if all you want to do is run off solar sometimes.

You're going to be stuck with a big honking feature-rich inverter/charger that is only an inverter and then having to add extra components because you can't use the available features and then you're having to operate the system manually.

This means walking over in the evening to switch the inverter charger on after your batteries are full from being charged up by the sun and then programming the unit at low voltage shutdown that isn't too low that will turn off the inverter and allow the transfer to grid and then waking up in the morning to manually deactivate the inverter before sunrise so the inverter isn't reconnecting to the batteries when the voltage begins to climb as the sun comes up.

[checkthisout]

Ah ha! I have it, thank you.

I'll take a good look at this new manual, and go crazy all over again ha ha ha lol

Don't be afraid to experiment to test the settings.

Your charger won't charge lipo4 properly simply because it's voltage settings are too low. It will still charge, just not fully.

You can help us verify this by giving us some charging info on the batteries such as fully charged voltage etc.

[Fingers]

I have one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/392485191184