[RE-wrenches] Sol-Ark Gen Exercise Cycle

Fri Nov 13 10:44:05 EST 2020

Michael:

What if the site is not connected to the internet?

William

Miller Solar

17395 Oak Road, Atascadero, CA 93422

805-438-5600

www.millersolar.com

CA Lic. 773985

*From:* RE-wrenches [mailto:re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org] *On
Behalf Of *MDElectricSolar
*Sent:* Friday, November 13, 2020 7:16 AM
*To:* RE-wrenches
*Cc:* Jeff Clearwater
*Subject:* Re: [RE-wrenches] Sol-Ark Gen Exercise Cycle

Jay,

You need to call Sol Ark tech support and they will push the update through
the Internet directly to your inverter, I had one done yesterday and it
went smoothly.

Michael D Nelson

MD Electric & Solar, Inc.

707-684-0064 mobile

707-884-1862 office

www.mdelectricsolar.com

www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar

On Nov 13, 2020, at 7:03 AM, Jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com> wrote:

I’m wondering how the firmware is updated?  USB or other?  I’ve looked on
the website but I couldn’t find any instructions.

Thx

Jay

On Nov 12, 2020, at 7:58 PM, Jeff Clearwater <jeffc at villagepowerdesign.com>
wrote:

 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
cell - 413-559-9763
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dustin Douglas <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

---- On Thu, 12 Nov 2020 08:08:51 -0600 *Jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com>
<jay.peltz at gmail.com>* wrote ----

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Jay <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.

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Bill Hennessy <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> <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> wrote:

-- 

Chris Sparadeo

C_802-369-4458

H_802-728-3059

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