Anyone using a SofarSolar ME3000SP inverter

G

glyndwr1998

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2018
Messages
31
Hi all,

New here, just registered after doing alot of surfing in relation to sing 2nd life batteries as storage solutions, and was drawn here.

I have a 7.5kw solar array, 3.5kw on east elevatio and 4kw on west elevation.

Looking to get into a phase 2 project of battery storage. Ive already got the battery, its a Lifepo4 battery i had prviously used in a Toyota prius plug in hybrid conversion, which i run for 2 years.

I,ve now reconfigured the battery into a 48v 120Ah configuration ready to match up with an AC coupled inverter.

I`ve seen a reasonably priced SoFar Solar mass energy ME3000SPinverter from a few distributers here in the UK, and I was hoping that some members ere using them, and could share their opinions on them, good and bad, on the operation, reliabilty and support on them before I opt in to buying one of them.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

I ahve already experimented with the same battery in a DC coupled system using a Solax X hybrid II inverter that worked very well to be honest, except for its innefficiencies, we were loosing too much energy in the charge / discharge process, meaning our generation meter was loosing out, hence loosing FIT.

With an AC copled system like the ME3000SP, the units generated are counted before any charge / discharge has taken place meaning no loss in FIT due to inneficiency, and still getting the energy diverted to the battery after the FIT count but before it escapes down the grid.

If youd like any info on the solax, please ask away.

glyndwr.
 
I've pondered that Solax, how many KWh are you losing a day ?
 
Sean said:
I've pondered that Solax, how many KWh are you losing a day ?
Click to expand...

Hi Sean,

We tried it as an experiment to be honest, i picked up the inverter used, the previous owner had moved to a tesla powerwall.

OK, in my brothers house where we trialed it, he has 2 solar arrays, a 3kw array on his main roof, and a 3kw array on his garage roof.

Both systems have been installed for over 2 years so we had good data to look back at.

In general, the main roof array produces approx 10% more energy per day, and this has been very consistent.

So, we installed the solax x hybrid into the main roof pv and ACcables, set the inverter up to operate with our home made 48v lifepo4 battery, the inverter was very easy to set up.
Each pv inverter has its own generation meter.
We monitored daily the production through each generation meter, andover a 3 week period recorded the results.

Now, we found the main roof array was approx 20% behind the garage array, equating to a mean loss of approx 30% in real terms through the main roof generation meter.
Isolated the battery for a week to test the solax inverter efficiency as a standard pv inverter without any battery connected thus nocharge / discharge cycles, and the main roof was back to its original approx 10% more than the garage roof.

so, in our basic conclusion, with the set up paramenters we had used, the solax was loosing 30% efficiency with batteries connected and operating all day.

Without another pv array on the house, or without any data to fall back on we wouldnt have been any wiser to the efficicency losses.

We now have to change plans and move to an AC coupled system, as then, we will still get the max output from the main roof pv array through the generation meter, so not loose any FIT, then use the AC coupled inverter to divert the energy into the battery that would have ordinarily been lost to the grid.Now, in this AC coupled solution, it doesnt really matter so much about efficiency as the energy would have been lost to the grid anyway.

The solax manual statesa 7% loss in charge, plus 7% loss in discharge, but in reality we were seeing much greater losses than that, although through the night with lower power house consumption, apparantly this is a very heavy loss scenario practice for all inverters.

It is a well built inverter, quiet, easy to set up for any battery, good battery parameter options in the menu, i really like the inverter, but n our scenario, AC coupled is the only way to proceed.

Hope this helps,

glyndwr1998
 
glyndwr1998 said:
Sean said:
I've pondered that Solax, how many KWh are you losing a day ?
Click to expand...

Hi Sean,

We tried it as an experiment to be honest, i picked up the inverter used, the previous owner had moved to a tesla powerwall.

OK, in my brothers house where we trialed it, he has 2 solar arrays, a 3kw array on his main roof, and a 3kw array on his garage roof.

Both systems have been installed for over 2 years so we had good data to look back at.

In general, the main roof array produces approx 10% more energy per day, and this has been very consistent.

So, we installed the solax x hybrid into the main roof pv and ACcables, set the inverter up to operate with our home made 48v lifepo4 battery, the inverter was very easy to set up.
Each pv inverter has its own generation meter.
We monitored daily the production through each generation meter, andover a 3 week period recorded the results.

Now, we found the main roof array was approx 20% behind the garage array, equating to a mean loss of approx 30% in real terms through the main roof generation meter.
Isolated the battery for a week to test the solax inverter efficiency as a standard pv inverter without any battery connected thus nocharge / discharge cycles, and the main roof was back to its original approx 10% more than the garage roof.

so, in our basic conclusion, with the set up paramenters we had used, the solax was loosing 30% efficiency with batteries connected and operating all day.

Without another pv array on the house, or without any data to fall back on we wouldnt have been any wiser to the efficicency losses.

We now have to change plans and move to an AC coupled system, as then, we will still get the max output from the main roof pv array through the generation meter, so not loose any FIT, then use the AC coupled inverter to divert the energy into the battery that would have ordinarily been lost to the grid.Now, in this AC coupled solution, it doesnt really matter so much about efficiency as the energy would have been lost to the grid anyway.

The solax manual statesa 7% loss in charge, plus 7% loss in discharge, but in reality we were seeing much greater losses than that, although through the night with lower power house consumption, apparantly this is a very heavy loss scenario practice for all inverters.

It is a well built inverter, quiet, easy to set up for any battery, good battery parameter options in the menu, i really like the inverter, but n our scenario, AC coupled is the only way to proceed.

Hope this helps,

glyndwr1998
Click to expand...
 
We have ME3000sp fitted , presently having nothing but trouble with it . It completely switched off , company came out and added a new battery , worked for all of about 6hrs , then completely shut off again . Company who we purchased from are trying to tell me its in standby , I have explained until Im blue in the face that its not in standby its completely off but they dont seem to understand ! We have it set up to charge at night on our economy 7 , its not even doing that ! Help !!
 
Juliehelen101 said:
We have ME3000sp fitted , presently having nothing but trouble with it . It completely switched off , company came out and added a new battery , worked for all of about 6hrs , then completely shut off again . Company who we purchased from are trying to tell me its in standby , I have explained until Im blue in the face that its not in standby its completely off but they dont seem to understand ! We have it set up to charge at night on our economy 7 , its not even doing that ! Help !!
Click to expand...

Hi

I don't have the ME300PE yet but I will be ordering it soon.

Is it displaying an event code?

Looking at the manual a switch off occurs when the battery voltage is low (ID86) or it's received a remote switch off command (ID84).

What type of batteries are you using? Are they the Pylon batteries, is the inverter parameters set to the correct battery type, is the depth of discharge and minimum battery voltage setting corect?
If not the battery could be over discharged and the bms is sending a shut down signal.

I'm guessing that this will have all been checked out already but might be worth confirming.

I don't have mine yet, this is just what I can glean from the manual.
 
Yes we do have pylon batteries. We have been reading the manual and researching and thats our next step , to check all the parameters etc. We managed to reboot it so we can now at least get in to the menu to check everything . Its a slow process as we are not electricians , so just trying to find our way around it .at 2.44am this morning , the batteries were almost fully charged ( from the grid , economy 7) but by 7am ,one was completely empty and the other almost . It didnt appear that we had had the usage from them , according to our smart meter . The researching continues .
Thanks for your reply .
 
Juliehelen101 said:
Yes we do have pylon batteries. We have been reading the manual and researching and thats our next step , to check all the parameters etc. We managed to reboot it so we can now at least get in to the menu to check everything . Its a slow process as we are not electricians , so just trying to find our way around it .at 2.44am this morning , the batteries were almost fully charged ( from the grid , economy 7) but by 7am ,one was completely empty and the other almost . It didnt appear that we had had the usage from them , according to our smart meter . The researching continues .
Thanks for your reply .
Click to expand...

Hi !
I was reading your particular problem, storing cheap Economy7 power. My thoughts went like this:-
1) Must be wired to "7" side of fuse board ?
2) It was written in winter, do you have storage heaters?
3) If yes, are they on?
If the answer is yes to question 3 then if they are still heatingwhen Eco7 turns off then the batteries will step in and supply power until the thermostat on all of them has switched off.
I am making a big assumption here, but if you do have them, the heaters & hot water tank then turn each one off and see if your batteries fully charge and stay that way.
There are "time zones" that you can programme on the ME3000SP but I haven't used them myself so am not totally sure if it would help. Keep the faith and keep on updating the site on your progress. :)
 
Is the solarman app the only one for this charger?
Is very intermittent at loading all the data.

Refresh and it shows all input and export, wait to refresh 5 min later and its only showing solar produced but no batt, mains , or usage!!!
 
Juliehelen101 said:
Yes we do have pylon batteries. We have been reading the manual and researching and thats our next step , to check all the parameters etc. We managed to reboot it so we can now at least get in to the menu to check everything . Its a slow process as we are not electricians , so just trying to find our way around it .at 2.44am this morning , the batteries were almost fully charged ( from the grid , economy 7) but by 7am ,one was completely empty and the other almost . It didnt appear that we had had the usage from them , according to our smart meter . The researching continues .
Thanks for your reply .
Click to expand...
Hi,
I have a Sofar ME3000SP with Pylon battery, and my Sofar box has shut down as well - display completely blank.
Battery is in standby - green light flashing very slowly.
How did you manage to reboot the Sofar box?
 
Freitag83 said:
Is the solarman app the only one for this charger?
Is very intermittent at loading all the data.

Refresh and it shows all input and export, wait to refresh 5 min later and its only showing solar produced but no batt, mains , or usage!!!
Click to expand...

Hi

I just set mine up. I have an issue at the moment with no data connection to my cheap Chinese BMS.

But it is displaying the grid and the solar panels.

Is it normal for the consumption to display 0w or should it be displaying what Im consuming.

Ive also noted that when Im consuming more that Im producing that the grid seams to be the sum of the consumption and solar.


image_viupdw.jpg

image_texopa.jpg
 
Hi all,

I too am installing an ME300SP but I am struggling to understand some of the parameters being used here. I have Yuasa SWL2500EFR Lead-Acid batteries. The manufacturers' datasheet has the following details

Specifications
Nominal voltage (V) 12
10m rate Constant Power (Typ) to 9.6V at 20C (W/Block) 2940
10m rate Constant Power (Typ) to 1.6V/cell at 20C (W/Cell) 490
20-hr rate Capacity to 10.5V at 20C (Ah) 93.6
10-hr rate Capacity to 10.8V at 20C (Ah) 91.4

Charge Voltage
Float charge voltage at 20C (V)/Block 13.65 (1%)
Float charge voltage at 20C (V)/Cell 2.275 (1%)
Float Chg voltage tmp correction factor from std 20C (mV) -3
Cyclic (or Boost) charge Voltage at 20C (V)/Block 14.5 (3%)
Cyclic (or Boost) charge Voltage at 20C (V)/Cell 2.42 (3%)
Cyclic Chg voltage tmp correction factor from std 20C (mV) -4

Charge Current
Float charge current limit (A) No limit
Cyclic (or Boost) charge current limit (A) 22.5

Maximum Discharge Current
1 second (A) 1000
1 minute (A) 500


Therefore, from this, I have only got the following so far (48v values in brackets)

max charge voltage 14.5 (58v)
max Charge current 22.5A
max protect voltage
min discharge voltage 11.5v (46v) - ASSUMED
max discharge current SET TO ANY HIGH VALUE
min protect voltage
discharge depth
empty discharge voltage MAYBE 11v
full charge voltage 13.65v (54.6v)

I would be very grateful if someone could even provide me with some guidance for the missing values.

Thanks in advance
 
All good,

I found out about using the following. It may help someone else in the future.

1. Battery type: Default
2. Battery capacity: 360Ah (Set to the size of your battery bank)
3. Max charge voltage: 57,6V
4. Max charge current: 40A
5. Max protect voltage: 58V
6. Min discharge voltage: 47V (Set to the lowest you want to allow the batteries to drain to)
7. Max discharge current: 60A
8. Min protect voltage: 42.5V
9. Discharge depth: DOD 50%
EPS DOD 60%
EPS Safety Buffer 20%
10. Empty discharge voltage: 44V
 
For those with Pylon Batteries and the ME3000SP, it seems you need a specific cable for the BMS of the Pylon to talk to the Sofar unit. I found the details on the MyEnergi forum, for someone who ended up in a similar situation.

Pins 3 & 4 (centre two of a 6 pin RJ11 connector) on the ME3000SP connect to pins 7 & 8 pn the Pylon Battery - pic attached

image_uofkdn.jpg
 
I’m looking at getting this AC Coupled battery inverter.
whatsvthe best bms you can buy to talk with it ?
This is my battery’s


50ah pylontec 2.4kw US2000 plus (original)



66AH 3kw Tesla battery ho



50ah pylontec 2.4kw home made lifepo4

16ah headway 1kw home made lifepo4

9kw total

60ah samsung 18650 20r 2.8kw (been built)

All are 48v
 
Your best bet is to run a pack on it's own BMS and just get the ME3000SP to do the charging and discharging. We can only hope at some point in the future that there will be a fully universal Canbus standard and that Sofar and BMS manufacturers can then interconnect seamlessly
 
I’m happy to hear that the me3000sp will run without the bms communication. On that note I’m getting it ordered. Thank you
 
One last question. If no bms communication is set up will the inverter think that the battery is a lead acid only.
 
You'll end up using the "Default" profile which is really for Lead-Acid's so you just have to tweak the settings for LiFePO4. Here are my settings for a 16S power bank

Type Default
Capacity xxAh (enter your capacity)
Discharge Depth 80% (EPS) 80%
Max Charge 40A
Over Protection 58.5v
Max Charge 58.4v (3.65v per cell)
Max Discharge 50A
Low Protection 42.5v (2.65625v per cell)
Min Discharge 48.0v (3.0v per cell)
Empty Discharged 51.3v
Fully Charged 53.90v

There's a new FB group which is supporting integration with a Raspberry Pi for Smart Charging etc. which makes for interesting possibilities going forward.

 
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