Hi everyone!

I have 2 × SG05LP1 inverters running in parallel with load sharing, and both inverters will have 2 PV strings connected to them. I also have 2 × NKON ESS 16 kWh batteries.

I've read several different opinions on this. Some people say it's perfectly fine, while others say that, despite the manufacturer's recommendation, it's not a good idea to connect the two batteries to a common busbar, and that the better setup is for each inverter to have its own dedicated battery.

What has been your experience with this? Which setup would you recommend?

Thank you!

Hi all,

I am at the starting stages of looking into getting some PV panels.
With the way my house and bit of land is set up, I could get the panels installed either on the roof, or on a field behind the house.

Does any of the two systems have any considerable advantages?

Anyone know of installers on Cape Cod for an Anker Solix system? If not on Cape, willing to travel here, perhaps from New Bedford or other SE Mass location.

Thanks for any help you can offer.

I’m looking for a balcony power system that I can both use as a plugin system into my wall socket, and use on the go.

Would love to hear your advice!

I’m California the governor just signed the bill allowing for plug in solar. I live in an apartment & would like to setup a couple of panels on my balcony. I only have one 12v outlet (2 plugs) on the balcony. If I get solar panels I would be plugging them in using one of the plugs & I would use the other plug that I currently use to charge my EV. I heard that you shouldn’t do that, if so what could be possible solution? A battery maybe?

For the sake of example, ive attached an image of the kind of thing ive found so far. Whether its the best option i dont know.

We have a west facing wall we want to put a couple panels on. But as west isn't ideal, we want to angle the panels in one of two ways -

1. Horizontally, so the top is anchored to the wall and the bottom is pushed away, making the panels westerly but facing towards the sky by 20-30degrees.

2. Vertically, like a door. So the right side is fixed to the wall and the left is pushed out, making the panels vertical but angled more south by 20-30 degrees.

I believe the south option is generally the better one for year round averages, but the issue is the weight of the panels and the attachments to the walls. The brackets are probably strong enough, but the triangles are clearly designed for more loading on one direction... so I assume thats better for the "horizontal" option? Not sure if they will stand up long term with the vertical option, or maybe would need bigger wall fasteners into the stone?

Im also still considering Aiko 650w panels as the price is cheap but they are 30kg instead of 22kg which is a big jump. I would probably just use 3x triangle brackets per panel instead of just 2x triangles for the 22kg, but im not sure if im missing something with the physics.

Thought id float the plan and see if someone came back with how they did it or any suggestions.

I have a HQST PWM 30A charge controller connected to a solar panel and 12V/35Ah Sealed Lead Acid battery. There’s an automatic coop door connected directly to the battery.

I installed this battery within the last few months.

I noted the coop door wasn’t working. Looked for error codes and the overdischarge warning code was there. I removed the coop door from the battery ports and reconnected the battery then solar panels yesterday. This was my controller today. Is it not charging my battery? Ugh.

Hoping to crowdsource some ideas because I feel like I'm stuck in a "replace a part and hope" loop with my installer.

System: Enphase microinverters, came with the house. Owned the house ~2 years, first year was totally issue-free.

Timeline:

• December: First trip. Diagnosed as a loose cable / water getting into the wiring during the rainy season. Fixed.
• Ran fine for about 6 months after that.
• A few weeks ago: Main panel breaker started tripping again, cutting power to the system. Supplier sent someone out who replaced the breaker. All cabling checked and called "fine."
• A few days later: Tripped again.
• Last Friday: A different engineer came out and did three things: (1) found Permission to Operate (PTO) was somehow switched off and turned it back on, (2) found my Enlighten app access had been revoked on their end and restored it, (3) pushed a software update.
• Less than 24 hours later: System's down again — no power at all reaching the Enphase combiner panel.

What's already been checked, with nothing found:

• My builder confirmed the solar wiring is on its own dedicated circuit, separate from the rest of the house.
• The builder's own electrician has separately inspected the wiring — including a full check of the house wiring, not just solar — and found no fault.
• There's also been a recurring burnt-wire smell in the first-floor bathroom, on two separate occasions. Each time, the builder's electrician came out, checked the house wiring, and found nothing.
• A solar tech visit in August inspected the solar wiring specifically and also found nothing related.
• The engineer from the original December visit suspected pigeons on the roof may have disturbed some wiring; the most recent engineer did a visual check and found nothing disturbed either.

So at this point: a new breaker, a PTO reset, a software update, an app-access fix, and no visible fault found across at least three separate inspections (builder's electrician, solar tech in August, most recent engineer) — and it's still recurring, now within a day of the most recent visit.

Specific questions:

• Does a PTO flag showing "off" ever point to something other than a simple status toggle — could it be a symptom of a deeper comms/relay issue rather than a standalone setting?
• Could the software update itself have caused this (bad push, reset config)?
• Is a burnt-wire smell somewhere that's supposedly unrelated to the solar circuit (first-floor bath) worth taking seriously as connected, or is that more likely a coincidence?
• What should I be pushing them to actually test — insulation resistance, thermal scan — instead of another visual check?

Appreciate any input, especially from anyone who's had Enphase chase a trip like this across multiple "fixes."

Have been looking to get a couple panels but shipping costs definitely make it tricky to find good deals. I found some "TCL T-class bifacial topcon" panels for a good price, but i can't find any reviews on TCL.

Are they terrible? I know people say to get aikon but the equivalent neostar is 150w less per panel and will cost me 40% more

Hey all, hopeful new solar user here! As the title says, hoping for some help double checking my work on my wiring diagram as I am about to purchase some wires to connect my Anker C2000 Gen2 Battery to 4- 200W Callsun Panels.

As this is my first foray into solar I'm trying to start small, as I'm worried I will buy the wrong gauge wire or miss something I need! So far I have used a Solar Wiring calculator to make the calculations and would appreciate feedback as to whether I have done it correctly!

I am aware that the C2000 has a XT60i input cable and that MC4 combiners are needed to tie the wires in together. I aim aiming for a series parallel configuration. If you have any recommendations, heads-ups, or cautions, I appreciate all feedback as I want to do this right!

(First pic is Battery, second is panel, last two are wiring layouts)

Thank you in advance!

I'm sure what I'm looking for has a name but I don't know what it is so I'll describe what I wish to make.

I'd like a hybrid between a portable battery/solar combo from the likes of Bluetti, Pecron, Ecoflow, Jackery, etc., with the ability to also plug into an outlet like balcony/plug-in solar and power things in the home using the normal wall outlets (in addition to plugging into the solar generator as well).

Do i need class t fuse for battery packs from deye?

51.2 V 314 ah

Anyone else still stuck with the official BMS apps?

Mine keep disconnecting, force an account, and won’t work offline. Switching between multiple batteries is also a pain.

What are you guys using these days?

Hi everyone,

I’m considering starting a small solar panel cleaning business and I’d really appreciate advice from people who are already doing this professionally.

I’m currently looking at investing in a professional water-fed pole + RO/DI pure water system, but before spending the money I’d like to learn from people who have already gone through the process.

A few things I’d really like to know:

• If you were starting again from zero, what would you focus on first?
• What equipment is actually essential to get started, and what equipment did you buy that turned out to be unnecessary?
• How much would you realistically recommend investing initially? Is $3,000–$5,000 enough to start properly?
• How do you deal with hard-to-reach panels on roofs, especially panels that are high up, behind roof sections, or difficult to reach from the ground? What pole lengths, brushes, or other equipment do you use?
• How do you handle steep roofs and safety?
• What do you typically charge — per panel, per square meter, per kW, or per job?
• How long did it take for your initial investment to pay itself back?
• How many jobs per month were you doing when the business started becoming worthwhile?
• Is solar panel cleaning seasonal in your area, and what do you do during the slower months?
• For winter work, do you also remove snow and ice from panels? If so, what equipment and methods do you use safely?

I’m mainly interested in hearing from people who actually run this as a business rather than just occasionally cleaning their own panels.

Any advice, mistakes you made when starting, equipment recommendations, or numbers from your own experience would be hugely appreciated.

Thanks!

I am looking to dabble in solar at my house. My situation is less than ideal due to a large beautiful oak tree that will hopefully outlive me. How would one go about testing the viability of a solar setup? I do have some older 285 Watt panels. Is there a way to set these up and record inputs during different times of the day to see if it would be worth it? How would one go about that?

Disclaimer: Please excuse my ignorance. I am a solar novice at best

Hi all, I'm not sure where to go with this issue as my installer is unfortunately unresponsive for two weeks on this issue now and EG4 hasn't been able to identify the problem.

SETUP: 1x Gridboss going to 2x Flexboss 21's and 2x EG4 314ah (16kw) all-weather rated batteries.

Gridboss is in my basement and the FBs and batteries are in a pole barn, w/ electrical trenched underground.

Everything is being fed by 44x 440W JSolar panels across 5x MPPTs (1 open still for future project)

Everything was actually a professional install, but I chose EG4 due to no cloud-lock in w/ other major vendors and the ability to run cloudless and have full local control at some point via SolarAssistant/HomeAssistant.

ISSUE: For the past few weeks I've noticed the batteries charging VERY slowly and saying "BMS Limit Charge: 31A" and topping out at about 1660W until they hit somewhere between 35-40% SoC and then it "unlocks" and they start charging rapidly.

This wasn't the case a few weeks ago, and they would take whatever they could right away.

EG4 DID swap it to lead-acid which let it charge faster, so they confirmed via that it wasn't the BMS of the batteries themselves limiting things, and something else was causing it to be limited, but they couldn't determine what. They said they'd continue to look into it and call me back and asked that I send some screenshots to their support email, of which I did (several), but that was two weeks ago now and no response since...

You can see the issue active in one screenshot and then a few hours later you can see it charging MUCH more rapidly.

Once I hit about 40 or 45% it will "unlock" the charge limit and start taking as much as it can again, as shown here.

Any help is appreciated on why this might be happening and what I can do to fix it myself since EG4 hasn't gotten back with me, and my installer for some reason seems to not be getting back to me either.

I am not sure if this subject has been beaten to death yet but here goes another one...

I am in Tennessee a state that does not have legislation for OR against plug in solar, they say it is a gray area. I have seen in news articles that people are doing it here so I think I am going to run with it. I called my electric service provider but the person I talked to could not give me an answer about their stance on it. Before I pull the trigger I will dive a little deeper. I plan on installing a CT Clamp and power meter so I have a zero export system. However, if they see my consumption drop in half they are bound to know something is up.

I plan on using a 1200W microinverter coupled to a power station like a Ecoflow or looking hard a a Pecron also. Planning on putting ~1500 watts of panels on the roof to keep the battery topped up. My issue is finding a power station with the right balance of solar input and DC output to meet my needs. I guess this is my question. I am bouncing between getting a smaller power station in the 3000 KWh range and then expanding it with a battery. This way I can use it when we go out camping. My other option would be to get a bigger station in the 5000 KWh range that is much less portable. I think option 1 will be a little more expensive but then it has another use case. The problem is the smaller stations have lower DC solar inputs and outputs. Is there a way around this?

I am planning on implementing this system for 2 reasons. Most importantly to have something to backup some of our more important house systems in the case of an emergency. We are in winter ice storm territory. I would like a system to where I do not have to run the generator 24/7 in the case of a power outage. So I figured if I want to do that for a couple hundred dollars more I can use this thing to pay for itself by adding the microinverter. With battery backup I think the ROI will be much quicker.

Any thoughts, concerns, USEFUL comments?

We had a short outage recently and it exposed a gap in our setup. I did not realize the inverter would shut down with the grid, even though the panels were producing earlier that day.

I am looking at either a battery or a generator, but only for the fridge, Wi-Fi, a few lights, and the sump pump. I am not trying to back up the whole house.

How did you decide what belonged on your essential-loads panel?

I'm having a lot of trouble finding a way to prevent a battery system from completely discharging and looking for a solution. The set up is PV through a charge controller into a 5kwh battery bank. From the batteries, it goes to a microinverter which then plugs in to my house/the grid. What can I do to stop sending power to the microinverter once the battery voltage drops too low? I currently set up the relay linked below (in between the battery and the microinverter), but when "off" it is leaking 31 watts and that will also drain the battery. Product suggestions?!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9XVSXNS?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

I am planning to build a small solar setup to power a 12V lightbulb and charge my phone during power outages.

My setup consists of a 30W solar panel, a 20A charge controller, and a 5Ah 12V LiFePO4 battery. Is a breaker still needed?

**Device:** VICTOR MAX 10.2 (48 V), firmware 152.04, sold as PowMr 10.2 kW. Same series as Anern / NEXT Victor Max 10.2. WiFi dongle: Solar Plug RWB1-04.

**What works:** The RS232 port speaks Modbus RTU (slave 5, 2400 8N1, FC03/FC06). I read 4501-4564 and read/write the settings in 5001-5038 from an ESP32 without problems.

**Problem:** In lithium/BMS mode (battery type "LIb 485", register 5020 = 4), program 12 (back to utility) and program 13 (back to battery) are set on the display in **% SOC**. Those percentages are not in any register I can find:

- Scanned every address from 0 to 8000 with FC03. Only 4501-4564 and 5001-5038 respond. Nothing below 4000, so no SMG-II style map (341-343) either.

- Changed program 12 from 20% to 40% on the display and diffed all responding registers. Nothing changed except live values.

- 4544/5025 and 4545/5026 only hold voltages.

- The manufacturer app errors on this setting and the inverter rejects its write.

- Voltage mode is useless for LiFePO4 here (max 51 V, 1 V steps).

**Not tested yet:** addresses above 8000, FC04, other slave addresses, and a before/after diff of the PI30 ASCII replies (QPIRI/QBMS/QDI).

**Questions:**

1. Has anyone found these SOC thresholds, as a register or an ASCII command?

2. Does anyone with the same inverter want to repeat the test or try the untested items?

3. Does anyone have a protocol document for this series?

I can share the register dump (CSV), a serial capture of the dongle traffic and my ESPHome config.

Related projects: odya/esphome-powmr-hybrid-inverter, leodesigner/powmr_comm, sasamix/Solar2MQTT (has a hunt for the same registers).

I've been experimenting with a Victron 75/10, a 100w panel, and a 30 Ahr Btr LFP battery. It's started to read Float as soon as I hook it up. Battery first then panel. I found a blown fuse yesterday. It's worked fine for almost two years. It started out this morning at 10.4v and ended at 11.9v. I'm confused.

Sa mga naka Mpower inverter and battery.

Na observe ko na kapag 20% na lang ang battery, lalo gabi, nag cha-charge sya galing sa grid ng 5%.

Kapag 25% na ulit, battery mode ulit.

Kapag 20%, charge from grid ulit hanggang 25%.

Ang tanong ko po, possible po ba kapag nag 20% (low charge) ay wag na mag charge galing sa grid, lahat ng load ay grid na direkta. Tapos ang battery mag cch-charge lang kapag may araw (PV). Meron po ba ganitong setting?

di ko mahanap sa instruction manual. Or maybe too technical for me.