<div dir="ltr">We had one Sunny Island system go totally dead years ago. The only way to get it running again was to charge the batteries, which we did in groups of two (6 volt batteries each) with a heavy duty 12 VDC automotive charger. It took about a week to charge all the batteries. Jerry, it's good to know that there are 48 VDC chargers out there. Do you have a model you like?<div><br></div><div>William, once the battery bank voltage goes really low (I can't recall the cutoff voltage) the Sunny Island displays indeed turn completely off. </div><div><br></div><div>We stopped installing Sunny Islands about 3 or 4 years ago. It is a solid product, but definitely part of the older generation of battery inverters that take a lot of skill to install and program properly to set the project up for success. The Sunny Portal at the time could give the owner a little insight into their battery state of charge, but I don't think it sends push notifications in real time. I think it will send error event notifications but they are delayed. You might check with SMA about the potential there.</div><div><br></div><div>August <br><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Dec 17, 2020 at 12:12 PM Jerry Shafer <<a href="mailto:jerrysgarage01@gmail.com">jerrysgarage01@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto">Wrenches<div dir="auto">This is why AC coupling is not the best solution but<br><div dir="auto">you can program the SI to protect low voltage so if this happens you still have headroom to reboot the system, also program the GT inverters not to wait 300 sec to start. I would also suggest having a 48 vdc charger wired directly to the gen set as a fail safe charger to wake up everything. </div><div dir="auto">Jerry</div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Thu, Dec 17, 2020, 11:55 AM William Miller <<a href="mailto:william@millersolar.com" target="_blank">william@millersolar.com</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div lang="EN-US"><div><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Friends:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">I have a client living off-grid with a Sunny Island system AC coupled to Sunny Boy inverters. They returned from being away to find the system entirely shutdown due to cloudy weather, a dead generator cranking battery and a water leak which ran two booster pumps continuously over a period of time. The displays on the Sunny Islands were blank and therefore the inverters would not start. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">We put a new cranking battery into the generator and got it started, but with no life in the Sunny Islands, neither the generator nor the Sunny Boys had any possibility of reviving the discharged 6,000 amp-hour lead acid battery array. Fortunately after disconnecting the batteries for ten minutes, the voltage rebounded just enough to start the Sunny Islands which allowed the generator to connect and we were back in operation.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">I am not sure why the displays went dead on the Sunny Islands. I am on my way back out to download and examine the SD card logs. I have developed an Excel tool to help me tabulate the data. Maybe there is some clue in those files. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">In the meantime I have these questions that those of you with more Sunny Island experience might be able to answer:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><span>1.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Is it normal for the display screens on the Sunny Islands to go blank after shutting off due to low battery voltage?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><span>2.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Is there an up-to-date option for remote monitoring that will send an email if certain error conditions occur?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"><span>3.<span style="font:7pt "Times New Roman""> </span></span></span><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">What would you do with a 6k AH battery bank with a voltage too low to start a battery inverter or solar charge controller?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">Thanks in advance. The wrenches hive-mind is a huge asset.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Verdana,sans-serif">William Miller</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">Miller Solar</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">805-438-5600</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif"><a href="http://www.millersolar.com/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank">www.millersolar.com</a></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:12pt;font-family:Arial,sans-serif">CA Lic. 773985</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p><p class="MsoNormal"> </p></div></div>
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