Inverter fault

[Ampster]

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

[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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

.....
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?

[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.

[Veger70]

FBB4B9D0-75E0-42D6-9A02-AA7186DF7ADE.jpeg
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 don't know enough about that screen shot to be able to interprete it. What time was it taken? Does it reflect both Inverters and batteries? Something does not look right for a 10 kW system, even one that faces east and west. It says it only generated 19 kWh. That is the same number as your first post. I thought that the inverter problem was fixed? Is every day the same number?

I have a 5.7 kW system and I generated 30 kWh on Feb 21 in Sonoma. It was a pretty clear day today here and you are not that far from me.
Does the battery percentage change from days to day or from the morning to the evening?

[Veger70]

I don't know enough about that screen shot to be able to interprete it. What time was it taken? Does it reflect both Inverters and batteries? Something does not look right for a 10 kW system, even one that faces east and west. It says it only generated 19 kWh. I have a 5.7 kW system and I generated 30 kWh on Feb 21 in Sonoma. It was a pretty clear day today here and you are not that far from me.
Does the battery percentage change from days to day or from the morning to the evening?

This was somewhere after 5:00PM after generations of the panels but before battery discharge the day ended up generating 26.53kWh for the day. Still 3.5kWh under your smaller system. So I don’t know. It’s conceivable that since one battery isn’t charging, it could be be caused by one inverter not communicating.

[Ampster]

Did the battery percentage change?
Does it report the same 19 kWh every day?
A screen shot for morning might provide some insight. It would be useful to know how Vivint gathers and consolidates data.

[Veger70]

Did the battery percentage change?
Does it report the same 19 kWh every day?
A screen shot for morning might provide some insight. It would be useful to know how Vivint gathers and consolidates data.

the battery charging stays pretty constant if there’s enough solar energy to charge it to full. At least this time of of year the total charging varies but I’ve not seen it charge more than 26 on a sunny day. I can’t show you the same info because that’s the current info window, but can show you a by hour consumption/production for the day EA93BA19-AED2-49FA-A3FC-B10D60AE1086.jpeg2F64E4FA-89CB-47D2-ABF8-F378E84384F6.jpeg

[oregon_phil]

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

If you look at the schematic, the AC backup power goes from the StorEdge to the backup load panel. The quad outlet for backup extension cord is wired into the backup load panel. The thing to check: do you have a backup load panel?

February 11th the tech came out and updated the software on one LG battery it wasn’t communicating with SolarEdge inverter. Now all is working.

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.

Here's what I don't get. They have virtually two identical systems sitting side by side. System #1 inverter and battery is commissioned correctly and works fine. System #2 inverter seems to be commissioned correctly, but LG chem battery is not commissioned correctly (wrong firmware). Installer leaves.

Leasee notices discrepancy. Notifies Vivent.

Vivent returns to install, downloads new battery firmware. Green light comes on battery. All must be well. (Can't they check firmware remotely?)

Leasee notices discrepancy. Notifies Vivent.

Vivent to send battery specialist.

System #1 that works is a known good system. System #2 has something wrong with it. A battery expert will focus on the battery, an inverter specialist will focus on the inverter, etc.. I believe a system level troubleshooter is required. In other words, somebody higher up on the food chain that is responsible and accountable for the install. They have to check every nut, bolt, wire connection, etc. Having a working system (control) right next to a troublesome system is a much better scenario than just working on a troublesome system.

[Veger70]

If only one inverter is communicating I believe it would be the one directly connected to the meter and the one per design plan to have 23 PV MODULES PER INVERTER = 7360 WATTS STC. The one that should be in slave mode and may not be communicating has 11PV MODULES PER INVERTER = 3520 WATTS STC
so if that inverter isn’t communicating we would generate about 2/3 of the power possible although 26 adding 1/3 power only is 34.7 kWh which is sill less than I would expect