Battery is not charging...Not sure where power is going

[HSC85]

Hi,

I am pretty new to this so apologies if it seems like a daft question.

I am currently generating approximately 3.5kw of PV and it shows on the cloud that only 0.05kw is charging the battery and the rest is going to the house.

I know from historical use and myenergi app that the house is only using 0.3kw and that is showing that the rest is going to the grid.

I have the inverter set to self use which I believe is load>battery>grid.

What have I done wrong and where is power going?

Thanks

[Dave Foster]

That looks very much like your CT clamp has been fitted the wrong way round (it’s directional) if it’s a recent install I would call you installer and ask him to check the CT clamp orientation.

Or you could locate it your self and reverse it, it should be located on the smart meter live feed and is a small white clamp with a black cable - there is a clasp on one side which you can pop open the clamp will then pull away and you turn it through 180 and clamp it back on.

[HSC85]

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly,

It is a recent install and being honest, the electrician didn't really seem to have a clue and kept on saying that this is the first time that he has installed this equipment.

I have reversed the ct clamp and it doesn't seem to have made a difference.

The house is still only using 0.3kW and not what the fox cloud is suggesting.

Thanks for your help

[Dave Foster]

The app data only updates every 5 minutes so it might take a while to ripple through.

Can you take a picture of the CT clamp and the surrounding cables etc.. so I can see where it is located.

[HSC85]

As requested

[Dave Foster]

Ok, that looks to be in the correct place and is next to the black myenergi CT clamp which appears to be reporting correctly - and just to double check you have turned the white CT clamp through 180 degrees and the writing (‘Split Core CT’) would have been going upwards, whereas now it is running down.

Now it’s had a bit of time to update has the house load settled down at all ?

[HSC85]

Hi Dave

I did rotate the ct clamp through 180 and I have attached another picture showing the arrow just in case I have got it wrong.

The Fox cloud is still showing the incorrect load on the house and the battery is only charging at 0.049kW.

I have attached another pic, whilst appreciating that the sun is setting.

Once again, thanks for helping.

Harry

[Dave Foster]

The arrow is supposed to point towards the grid (meter) but the problem is if it is wired in reverse at the inverter that also reverses the arrow direction, however as the feed is still showing incorrectly can you turn it round so that the arrow is pointing upwards (away from the meter) and lets see if that corrects it

[HSC85]

So the arrow is now pointing upwards.

I have attached a pic of the inverter just in case it has been wired in reverse.

[Dave Foster]

Ok, lets see what the morning brings as you’ll need some solar again to tell.

But that is an unusual installation, normally the CT clamps black cable would be wired directly back to the inverter and it would go into the meter connector (the big connector between the red battery lead and the datalogger with the red light).

But here you have a grey cable which I assume must be coming from the Chint meter and that suggests the CT clamp has been connected to that instead and the Chint meter is communicating with the inverter - all a bit strange.

If in the morning it is still not showing load correctly, I would call your installer back and get them to check that wiring - it ‘can work’ like that but it is overly complicated and the inverter has to be configured to communicate with the Chint meter and not a CT clamp… so your inverter settings need to be checked over as well.

[HSC85]

Thanks Dave,

Have a good night

[HSC85]

Hi Dave

You are correct, the grey CHINT meter cable is going into the inverter and not the black ct clamp cable.

I assume that this is why the inverter is not reading from the grid.

Could this be why the inverter is sending output to the house and then to the grid and not the battery (the 0.049kw is just to keep the battery on?).

I can't work out where the black ct clamp cable is going to.

Annoyingly as, I don't yet have a MCS certificate the grid is getting all this energy for free... it is my gift to you or I'll lose my sanity over these "electrians".

[Dave Foster]

I suspect so, the fact that we could reverse the CT and it make no difference makes me think that it's probably not connected to anything sensible - if the inverter isn't reading the feed at the meter it has no way of accurately working out the load and as a result it thinks everything it is outputting is load. The problem then is for your batteries as they wont be charged as the inverter doesn't know there is excess power, equally the won't be used as the inverter can't work out what the load is.
There may be good reasons for all of this, sometimes distance is a problem between the smart meter and the inverter, but it's definitely not working as it should.

I believe that Octopus will allow you to sign up for export without an MCS certificate, so might be worth having a look at that.

[HSC85]

So the electrician has been back today and he initially had the CT going into the CHINT meter and the CHINT meter going into meter 485A and 485B into the inverter. After reading the manual he has now bypassed the CHINT and fed the CT directly into CT1- and CT1+ and left the CHINT going into 485A and 485B.

Nothing has changed and the inverter is behaving as it was before. He is now stumped and says that he will have to speak to FOX to resolve it.

I took a pic before he put it all back together.

Is the wiring correct? I am wondering if the CT is faulty?

Thanks

[Dave Foster]

That looks to be wired correctly now, the CT clamp should be wired directly to the inverter.

It would seem the wiring from the CT clamp to the inverter is changed to run inside that multi-core cable so you would need to be sure that the connections at either end have been made consistently but the green and white wires are going to the correct pins in that connector now.

So 2 options, either leave it form him to talk to Fox (and they will definitely be able to fix it), or you can check in the inverter settings to see if the CT clamp has been enabled (or not) - if it hasn't obviously it won't work.

You can check it by at the inverter menu, select Settings and it will ask for a password, the default password should be 0{enter},0{enter},0{enter},0{enter} and then you select 'Feature', 'Meter/CT' and 'Set' it should say 'CT' if it doesn't use the up/down arrow keys to change it to say 'CT' - the inverter will restart and if the CT is wired correctly it should now be measuring load correctly (or if the wiring is the wrong way round it will be reversed but at least we will know the setting is set correctly)

[HSC85]

I think we're getting somewhere....

The battery is now charging

Is the load the wrong way around on the inverter? It is showing what appears the be the house load and not what the panels are producing?

If I reverse the ct clamp the load on the inverter shows as a negative figure approximately -3400kW.

Thanks

[Dave Foster]

Perfect, if the load is negative you have the CT clamp the wrong way round - but a positive small load as it is showing looks to be correct.

Keep an eye on it for a few days, remembering that what you see on the app could have happened up to 5 minutes ago when the same was taken - the screen on the inverter itself is real time.

[HSC85]

Dave... you are a legend...it all seems to be working as advertised

Whereas before the inverter was showing the total PV generation, it is now showing the house load.

The battery was charging when there was excess PV and is now discharging as there is no PV generation.

Thanks for all of your help, I really appreciate it. I just wish that all installers were as competent as you!

[Dave Foster]

You're very welcome