Inverter fault

[Veger70]

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I see maximum discharge on the LG battery is recommended to 3.3kW so the combined 1.21to the house + 3.79kW to grid is bad right? I know Vivint is responsible for the batteries until the 30 year contract is over but if their response time to replace a bad battery is anything like their service time on faults.....

[Ampster]

I probably wasn’t saying that right. Basically they said that we only could use the batteries by plugging into four outlets that were connected to the batteries. Originally the batteries were not going to be connected to the house. So they could only be discharged to the grid or be used to power devices plugged in by extension cords. If you look at the plans I attached to the thread, I don’t believe they show any connection to the house, only battery to inverter to meter panel to grid. I believe we can do 4 circuit per battery so we had to choose what parts of the house to power we choose the kitchen and living rooms and the downstairs bedroom

Okay we are back on track in terms of possibly understanding what they did. Good luck with the battery specialist. You may want to ask them for an "as built" diagram or schematic. Some building inspectors sometimes insist on those.

[Ampster]

.....
Maybe Vivint isn’t aware of these profile configurations because they don’t design them that way. The batteries in their systems are only attached to the grid. Lol if that’s the case we sure threw them for a loop!

The more I dig into this, the more I am convinced that Vivint designed this system to only provide backup via extension cords. You may not have thrown them for a loop, they may have leased you a system that was only designed by them to be configured for back up mode. How is the system described in your contractual documents? Is there any discussion of the system capability to do load shifting?

[Veger70]

It does sound like you have become more knowledgeable than Vivint.
According to Figure 1 on the first page of Chapter 1 the LG Chem battery is connected to the inverter on the DC side of the inverter not to the breaker panel. What the electrician said does not make any sense. Only the AC side of the inverter should be connected to the breaker panels. It is a good thing you are getting a battery expert to come and get this straightened out. Maybe you can talk him into giving you guest access to the Solaredge monitoring site.

I probably wasn’t saying that right. Basically they said that we only could use the batteries by plugging into four outlets that were connected to the batteries. Originally the batteries were not going to be connected to the house. So they could only be discharged to the grid or be used to power devices plugged in by extension cords. If you look at the plans I attached to the thread, I don’t believe they show any connection to the house, only battery to inverter to meter panel to grid. I believe we can do 4 circuit per battery so we had to choose what parts of the house to power we choose the kitchen and living rooms and the downstairs bedroom

[Ampster]

That section of the manual is titled “Creating a Charge/Discharge Profile” I’ll include that title when speaking further with them. I’m using the exact modes that I think we need. During peak hours I believe the profile should be in “Maximize self-consumption” mode

It does sound like you may have become more knowledgeable than Vivint.

When the electrician installer for Vivint came to install our system he informed us that we could only utilize the battery power by extension cord because the batteries weren’t being wired to the houses breaker panels. We asked them if he could wire them to the breakers and he agreed.

According to Figure 1 on the first page of Chapter 1 the LG Chem battery is connected to the inverter on the DC side of the inverter not to the breaker panel. What the electrician said does not make any sense. Only the AC side of the inverter should be connected to the breaker panels. It is a good thing you are getting a battery expert to come and get this straightened out. Maybe you can talk him into giving you guest access to the Solaredge monitoring site.
NOTE: Subsequent to posting the above, I was able to open and view the schematic prepared by Vivint which clearly showed the batteries connected to the inverter on the DC side. What that diagram shows is a 125 Amp back up loads panel with the description, "Back up load connected via extension cords to outlets". Since the system is leased that may be how they do it but it is not very functional in terms of being able to use self consumption mode to offset peak loads. Now the mystery is what loads are connected to that backup loads panel? Do you still have the outlets shown in that schematic and have you tried to connect loads to them? It does make the above statement that the backup power could only be used by extension cord more consistent with the wiring diagram.

[Veger70]

Now that you have the manual, there should be no reason that they are not able to change the TOU times and the Modes available in the Storedge. My only advice to you is to be clear about what you want them to do. Using a term like "charging profile" when I think you mean "discharging" could end up with a different result than what you intend. I believe we have been talking about Modes that primarily discharge the batteries during peak times to cover your loads during peak times. When and how the batteries charge is secondary. Charging profiles should be taken care of automatically by the communication between the Storedge and the battery.

That section of the manual is titled “Creating a Charge/Discharge Profile” I’ll include that title when speaking further with them. I’m using the exact modes that I think we need. During peak hours I believe the profile should be in “Maximize self-consumption” mode

When the electrician installer for Vivint came to install our system he informed us that we could only utilize the battery power by extension cord because the batteries weren’t being wired to the houses breaker panels. We asked them if he could wire them to the breakers and he agreed.

Maybe Vivint isn’t aware of these profile configurations because they don’t design them that way. The batteries in their systems are only attached to the grid. Lol if that’s the case we sure threw them for a loop!

[Ampster]

Now that you have the manual, there should be no reason that they are not able to change the TOU times and the Modes available in the Storedge. My only advice to you is to be clear about what you want them to do. Using a term like "charging profile" when I think you mean "discharging" could end up with a different result than what you intend. I believe we have been talking about Modes that primarily discharge the batteries during peak times to cover your loads during peak times. When and how the batteries charge is secondary. Charging profiles should be taken care of automatically by the communication between the Storedge and the battery.

[Veger70]

How did your conversation with their tech person go? Did they set up your system for you?

Their sending out a specialist in batteries on March 5th. So maybe will find out in three weeks lol if I can get both batteries working. Still waiting for a response from their “performance” team on whether they can change the charging profile for peak hours.

[Ampster]

How did your conversation with their tech person go? Did they set up your system for you?

[Veger70]

Apparently, from reading the manual there are three modes described on the following pages.;
Smart Energy Management with Back Up Power on page 8
Back Up Power only on page 20
Smart Energy Management Only on page 31

Earlier @soby indicated the he was using something that sounded like Smart Energy Management with Back Up Power. Since you don't have access to the program presumably Vivint will have to enter the correct TOU periods and the reserve that you want to maintain for backup. That would be a good place to start to see if you can reduce your consumption during the peak TOU periods.

Clip solar power is a phenomena when the inverter capacity is less than the output of solar panels. It is not a setting that you have any control over. My inverter clips often briefly during the middle of the day. Since you are leasing the system I am not sure how clipping would affect your economics since you are only paying for what is produced.

I’m assuming they have it in smart energy management with backup power mode
and the inverter would switch automatically to backup power only when a power outage happens. I think the charge/discharge modes on page 40 is how you configure your battery functions for different times of TOU. Because that I can see “profiles” is the only area where you can specify times and dates. I’m assuming ”maximize self consumption” mode during Peak hours would be the way to go to utilize battery power during peak times, but wanted confirmation from someone like @Soby who knew.

[Ampster]

Ok I've looked at the SolarEdge storage profiles and if I wanted to run off batteries from 4-9 PM peak times, what mode would I set for that time? Maximize self-consumption?
Also could someone explain what clip solar power is?

Apparently, from reading the manual there are three modes described on the following pages.;
Smart Energy Management with Back Up Power on page 8
Back Up Power only on page 20
Smart Energy Management Only on page 31

Earlier @soby indicated the he was using something that sounded like Smart Energy Management with Back Up Power. Since you don't have access to the program presumably Vivint will have to enter the correct TOU periods and the reserve that you want to maintain for backup. That would be a good place to start to see if you can reduce your consumption during the peak TOU periods.

Clip solar power is a phenomena when the inverter capacity is less than the output of solar panels. It is not a setting that you have any control over. My inverter clips often briefly during the middle of the day. Since you are leasing the system I am not sure how clipping would affect your economics since you are only paying for what is produced.

[Veger70]

Ok I've looked at the SolarEdge storage profiles and if I wanted to run off batteries from 4-9 PM peak times, what mode would I set for that time? Maximize self-consumption?
Also could someone explain what clip solar power is?

[Veger70]

The west facing panels may generate more dollars in the summer because of their afternoon production.

That’s why I counted the panels on each side and did a separate calc per the number of panels for each azimuth

[Ampster]

I figured the size on pvwatts had to break it up into 2 calculations because it’s on two sides of a 23deg roof one facing west and one east. It came out to 16,116kWh per year

The west facing panels may generate more dollars in the summer because of their afternoon production.

[Veger70]

I figured the size on pvwatts had to break it up into 2 calculations because it’s on two sides of a 23deg roof one facing west and one east. It came out to 16,116kWh per year