[RE-wrenches] AGS quiet time

[Jason Szumlanski]

Absolutely. This is needed.

You can do it with Sol-Ark's TOU settings, but it is so convoluted and
confusing.

We typically want the generator to start at 20% SOC when closed-loop comms
are available and stop at 40%. It can do that multiple times overnight if
needed. If the generator starts just before sunrise, there is no reason to
keep it running. Just get me to daylight!


Jason Szumlanski
Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208




On Sun, Apr 12, 2026 at 2:27 PM Ray Walters via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> Another thing to consider is that factory recommended settings are fully
> charging the battery, when off grid you really only want the generator to
> bring the battery up to 70 or 80% and then allow the sun to do the rest.
> I've recently been raising the start voltages so that the batteries don't
> get down into the harder to predict < 20% SOC range, but then also lowering
> the shutoff voltages, so that the generator doesn't run so long.  Running a
> generator for that topping off phase is wasteful, and just not necessary
> anymore with LiPo4.
>
> Finding the best voltage settings with LiPO4, is tricky, since they have
> more stable voltage for most of their range.  However, spending the time to
> dial in a system can significantly reduce gen run time, which helps
> everybody.
>
> Ray Walters
> remote Solar
>
>
> On 4/12/2026 10:43 AM, Mac Lewis via RE-wrenches wrote:
>
> Wrenches,
>
> I think Victron offers a great model for integrating an effective
> autostart logic, more geared toward an off-grid system of course.  They
> have many, many options and you can use the quiet time to segment how you
> want it to behave during specific time periods.  An example would be using
> quiet time in the hours before dawn to start the generator at a lower State
> of Charge (SOC) and also stop at a lower SOC before the sun comes up.
> Another nice feature is a DC current start trigger and an AC current start
> trigger.  You could use this to base the start on actual battery load, not
> just inverter load, so if solar provides sufficient current, the generator
> won't necessarily trigger.to run.
>
> Here is a screenshot of some of the triggers available:
>
> [image: image.png]
>
> On Sun, Apr 12, 2026 at 10:22 AM Zeke Yewdall via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> The ability to stop the generator when the sun comes out is one advantage
>> of the AIO's over older equipment (at least the Midnite AIO can do that,
>> not sure about others).  That was always super annoying when people didn't
>> have a large enough battery bank to make it till morning, and the generator
>> would start at 5am, and fully recharge the batteries, leaving the solar
>> with nothing to do when it did finally come out.  I had one customer build
>> his own PLC controller just to accomplish that on an outback system.
>>
>> I agree, having a quiet time that still starts the generator, just at a
>> lower SOC, could be a good option.
>>
>> Zeke
>>
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>
> --
>
>
>
> Mac Lewis
>
> * "Yo solo sé que no sé nada." -Sócrates *
>
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