[RE-wrenches] Sol-Ark Gen Exercise Cycle

Thu Nov 12 21:41:52 EST 2020

Thanks Dustin for keeping us up to date on Sol-Arks feature progress.

While you are upgrading your firmware: :)

So an essential feature for off-grid with a generator is to be able to 
program various SOC levels for generator start AND shuf-off after 
charge.  90% is way too high for many sunny climes and other 
configurations.  Often batteries need a boost in the wee morning hours - 
when they drop below the preferred recharge point but that's only 
perhaps a few hours before the sun comes up - So say you want to start a 
gen to charge a Lead-acid battery at 50% or an LFP batter at 20% SOC but 
you only want to bring it through to the next often or possibly sunny 
morning.  So you set it to run from 50% to 65% (or from 20%-40% for LFP) 
- knowing that the morning sun will take it the rest of the way.  90% 
would waste a ton of fuel in this scenario not too mention unwanted 
noise and wear and tear on the genny.  Depending on the clients use 
profile, the climate, and relative size of the array and battery and 
gen, these figures could vary anywhere from 20% to 100%.  So it's 
essential us off-grid installers have that flexibility.

Also I know that your TOU settings might cover this (though not in all 
modes I believe) but another nice feature is to have 2 or 3 time periods 
with different start and stop settings (Sunny Island does this nicely).  
So if the minimum SOC is reached in the evening you might as well bring 
it up to a higher SOC for gen shut down as it needs to get through the 
entire night whereas if that minimum SOC start trigger is met after 3 
AM  it needs to only bring it to a lower SOC as described above.

I'm loving the Sol-Ark product so far but it is obvious the software is 
a work in progress - the architecture and thought behind it is an 
excellent foundation - thanks for your work and openness for input to 
make it even better.

Best,

Jeff

~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeff Clearwater
Village Power Design
linkedin <https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeff-clearwater-0622a312/>
www.villagepowerdesign.com <http://www.villagepowerdesign.com>
cell - 413-559-9763
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

> Dustin Douglas <mailto:dustin at sol-ark.com>
> November 12, 2020 at 11:46 AM
> Hi All,
>
> First and foremost thank you for sharing your experiences the the 
> Sol-Ark system. We try very hard to have different capabilities and 
> add new features that make it flexible for the customer. The two-wire 
> start is a feature however that we want to be seamless. In the 
> instance where the customer is seeing the system shutdown once the 
> generator shuts off has been addressed and fixed with a software 
> update. With this update we are able to handle larger generators that 
> tend to drift from 60hz. Please give our support team a call so that 
> we can update the customer accordingly. We are also looking at adding 
> more features including the ability exercise the generator in the near 
> feature.
>
> Thank you and have a blessed day,
>
> Dustin Douglas
>
> Sol Ark Engineering Support
>
> (972) 575-8875 x 108
>
> www.sol-ark.com <http://www.sol-ark.com/>
>
>
> ---- On Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:08:51 -0600 *Jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com>* 
> wrote ----
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try 
> the other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
> Jay <mailto:jay.peltz at gmail.com>
> November 12, 2020 at 9:08 AM
> Hi Bill
>
> In the past I’ve had similar issues with generators/inverters. Usually 
> a relay on the output power wires that opens( disconnects) when the 
> stop signal is sent works as the frequency doesn’t slowly go down, it 
> drops to 0 instantly.
> I don’t know if it will fix your issue.
>
> Seems like solark needs to greatly improve their firmware.
>
> Jay
>
> Peltz power.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try 
> the other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
> Bill Hennessy <mailto:bill at berkssolar.com>
> November 11, 2020 at 10:03 PM
> Hi folks--We've also been disappointed with the Sol-Ark two-wire 
> generator start. The unit starts at the charge set point, but the 
> inverter will shut down for about a minute every time the generator 
> stops running. After the minute wait, the inverter restarts and 
> everything is fine. But it is aggravating for the homeowners to be 
> left wondering in the dark.
>
> Sol-Ark says that when the generator shuts off, the frequency drops 
> out of the Sol-Ark range and causes the inverter shut down.
> They suggested we find a way to increase the generator speed to avoid 
> the frequency drop at shutdown. This seems like a lame suggestion, 
> since the generator has no idea of when the batteries will be 
> satisfied--it only responds to the on/off signal from the Sol-Ark. I 
> would think that the unit could be programmed to ignore the frequency 
> drop when it sends the shut off signal to the generator. The system 
> has an an Ecogen 15kW.
>
> Not having an exercise function is also a miss. As mentioned below, 
> the time of use can be used, but one has to go out and play with the 
> programming to check the generator.
>
> regards, bill
>
> Bill Hennessy
> Berks Solar, LLC
> 371 Centennial Rd
> Mertztown, PA 19539
>
> o 610 682 4300
> c 484 560 4666
> NABCEP certified installer
> PA contractor #44411
> www.berkssolar.com
>
>
> On Wednesday, November 11, 2020, 8:20:57 PM EST, Chris Sparadeo 
> <sparadeo.chris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> Thanks for the suggestion, Jay.
>
> Yes, the Sol-Ark has a very basic and limited AGS for 2 wire 
> compatible gen sets. Gen start can be programmed with voltage or SOC, 
> however gen stop is not a function that can not be readily programmed. 
> Instead, the Sol-Ark is programmed to charge the battery bank to 90% 
> of  the rated Ah capacity of the battery bank before turning off the 
> generator. You can ultimately adjust this gen stop parameter to be 
> based on a specific SOC or voltage, but I believe that doing so 
> requires a call into tech support. The tech I spoke with updated a 
> setting (having to do with a TOU parameter I believe) that was not 
> accessible via the system interface. AGS  from Schnieder, Outback and 
> even Magnum are less clunky, but I am hoping that Sol-Ark will 
> eventually come out with new programming to remediate these minor but 
> nevertheless, important issues
>
> -Chris
>
> On Wed, Nov 11, 2020 at 3:58 PM Jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com 
> <mailto:jay.peltz at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
> -- 
> Chris Sparadeo
>
>
> C_802-369-4458
> H_802-728-3059
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org 
> <mailto:RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try 
> the other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try 
> the other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches_lists.re-wrenches.org/attachments/20201112/2b7f8d9e/attachment.htm>