[RE-wrenches] Sol-Ark/Fortress charging issue

[Ray Walters]

Talk to Thomas Honey.  He is the Fortress rep, nice guy, and 
knowledgeable wrench.   He has stepped in on my issue.

Ray

On 11/16/2022 10:58 PM, Howie Michaelson via RE-wrenches wrote:
> Good Evening,
>
> I have a frustrating charging issue involving 2 Fortress eVault Maxs 
> connected to a Sol-Ark 15k. Commissioned the system last week, 
> replacing a legacy off-grid Dual Stack SunnyIsland 5048s and 2-volt 
> Rolls battery system.  Initially, we connected one of the eVaults to 
> the Sol-Ark, programmed it to Fortress' and Sol-Ark's specs, setup 
> closed loop, and things seemed fine.  The battery charged at around 95 
> amps off the 20kW Kohler. The next day we connected the 2nd eVault, 
> went through the procedures as Fortress suggested, made the necessary 
> settings changes in the Sol-Ark, and that is when the issue started.
>
> Ever since we connected the 2nd eVault, we have not been able to get 
> the charge rate much above a combined total of 35 amps.  Fortress has 
> pretty much said that it can't be anything on their end (although the 
> communication with them has been very much limited and frustrating). 
> They say that nothing on their side would limit the charge rate to 
> that low, especially if the batteries were in a lower state of 
> charge.  We've talked to at least 3 different Sol-Ark technicians more 
> than once.  We have changed the setting between closed loop, % SOC, 
> and Battery Voltage multiple times.  We've tried dropping back to a 
> single battery, both the first one we had connected and the second one 
> (changing the battery setup and the Sol-Ark parameters, but have only 
> seen at times a moderate increase in maximum charge rate (up to about 
> 40 amps total).
>
> This small increase happened after a Fortress technician suggested 
> that we turn on both the generator and the grid charging toggles (the 
> generator is connected to the grid port on the Sol-Ark as per 
> Sol-Ark's recommendation.  Sol-Ark has run out of suggestions at the 
> moment, and are having us cycle the batteries tonight and they will 
> start another charge cycle in the morning to see if having a lower SOC 
> along with the firmware reload will change anyhing (I don't think it 
> will - it didn't the last several times.
>
> Has anybody seen this type of behavior before?  I don't think it is a 
> settings issue, as several technicians have gone through them, I have 
> gone over them many times using the Fortress/Sol-Ark integration white 
> papers. Hoping to get higher level  tech involved ASAP, since I don't 
> feel like the lower level techs know enough to provide useful ideas.
>
> Thanks,
> Howie
> *Howie Michaelson
> **Sun Catcher*
> *****/NABCEP Certified Solar PV Installer™
> /**
> **Solar Electric Systems Sales & Service
> 802-272-0004*
>
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