Inverter provides so little power from battery bank to power the loads!

[TheVillagesGuy]

I have a Conext SW 4048 inverter/charger AC coupled to an Enphase micro inverter (AC output) solar system. They are coupled at a critical load panel. No matter how I adjust the settings, the fully charged battery bank only produces a tiny part of the load draw. If the load draw is say 1,500 watts, the inverter/charger will only take 13-87 watts from the batter bank and the rest is being pulled from the grid...EXACTLY WHAT I DON'T WANT. The point of this system is to charge the batteries during the daylight and them power as much as possible from the batteries at night....yet no matter how I adjust the settings, I barley get more than a trickle contribution from the batteries.

Please help.

[Mike90250]

Your installer should be able to set that correctly, if not, you may need to call Schneider and see if they can talk you through the set-up. I'm off grid and don't have that problem. You are looking for the Load Shaving settings

[Matrix]

I have a Conext SW 4048 inverter/charger AC coupled to an Enphase micro inverter (AC output) solar system. They are coupled at a critical load panel. No matter how I adjust the settings, the fully charged battery bank only produces a tiny part of the load draw. If the load draw is say 1,500 watts, the inverter/charger will only take 13-87 watts from the batter bank and the rest is being pulled from the grid...EXACTLY WHAT I DON'T WANT. The point of this system is to charge the batteries during the daylight and them power as much as possible from the batteries at night....yet no matter how I adjust the settings, I barley get more than a trickle contribution from the batteries.

Please help.

Do you mean in AC support And / Or Load Shaving Mode?

[Matrix]

TheVillagesGuy Did you ever get this sorted out?

[TheVillagesGuy]

TheVillagesGuy Did you ever get this sorted out?

Yes. As it turns out, you must try to match the loads between L1 & L2. The Conext SW 4048 only outputs the lowest draw of the two. Now I have them matched pretty well and it is working extremely well.

[Mike90250]

Yes. As it turns out, you must try to match the loads between L1 & L2. The Conext SW 4048 only outputs the lowest draw of the two. Now I have them matched pretty well and it is working extremely well.

Awesome, thanks for the update

[Matrix]

When you say "Extremely Well" can you give us some numbers? Like when your total load is say 300 Watts, what percent is battery and how much is grid

- and 800 Watts
- and 1500 Watts
- and 2500 Watts.

[TheVillagesGuy]

When you say "Extremely Well" can you give us some numbers? Like when your total load is say 300 Watts, what percent is battery and how much is grid

- and 800 Watts
- and 1500 Watts
- and 2500 Watts.

When the load is 3500 watts, it will provide 2500 watts. Basically it supplements 1/2 to 3/4 of the load.

[Sunking]

I have a Conext SW 4048 inverter/charger AC coupled to an Enphase micro inverter (AC output) solar system. They are coupled at a critical load panel. No matter how I adjust the settings, the fully charged battery bank only produces a tiny part of the load draw. If the load draw is say 1,500 watts, the inverter/charger will only take 13-87 watts from the batter bank and the rest is being pulled from the grid...EXACTLY WHAT I DON'T WANT. The point of this system is to charge the batteries during the daylight and them power as much as possible from the batteries at night....yet no matter how I adjust the settings, I barley get more than a trickle contribution from the batteries.

Last thing you want is to take power from the batteries. Only a fool would do that.

[Matrix]

Last thing you want is to take power from the batteries. Only a fool would do that.

Good to have you back

[TheVillagesGuy]

Last thing you want is to take power from the batteries.

Actually, it is exactly what I want to do. Our electric company pays us next to nothing for the excess energy we produce. It is much more beneficial to us to store the excess energy produced during the day and use it up at night, rather than pulling it all from the grid at a high price. It is working out beautifully now.

[Sunking]

Actually, it is exactly what I want to do. Our electric company pays us next to nothing for the excess energy we produce. It is much more beneficial to us to store the excess energy produced during the day and use it up at night, rather than pulling it all from the grid at a high price. It is working out beautifully now.

Wait until you realize battery power cost you 5 to 10 times more than the POCO charges you.

It is like this. Two gas stations side by side. One charges $2/gal, and the other $10/gal. Guess which gas station you pull into?

[Mike90250]

With batteries, you burn through $10 of battery life per day, cycling them, and you save $1.05 of electricity.
What did your battery bank cost you ? Assume 6 year lifetime before they get replaced......

[Matrix]

TheVillagesGuy I wonder, could you do an experiment for me? We have similar inverters, You the SW 4048, me the SW 4024.

Do you have the capability of switching on or off a larger load say in excess of around 1200 Watts or more? Like a water heater or well pump, etc , that is connected to your inverter system?

If yes, could you temporarily turn off your charging / grid sources (ie. Grid Breaker into inverter, Solar, Other) and run straight off the batteries. Now with a smallish load of say under 800 Watts running, could you switch on that larger load, like the water heater or well pump, etc. A load that will draw in excess of 1200 Watts additional to what you already have on taking you up to over 2000 Watts. Can you do this While looking at some lighting that you have on. Preferably LED, can you watch those lights and when the larger load comes on, do the lights flash once, or blink / dim for just a flash of a second at all indicating a temporary voltage drop?

Mine do. And I think it is just the inverter not being able to provide the start up load ... but I trying to determine if I have an inverter problem, as I would think a 3400 Watt inverter with a 5000 Watt burst available for 30 seconds should be handling the resistive load of an 1150 Watt element when there is already 800 Watts going, but my SW cannot with out a quick momentary flash of the lights.

I will be sending a log file of this behavior to Schneider, but want to confirm (if you can) that it is common ... of if I might actually have a problem.

Thanks for any help.

[Twotaps]

I don't think it's your inverter. It's your batteries. Your pulling too many amps out of a smallish battery bank bank.