The next part of my article deals with the limiter settings on the Sol Ark. Because after you have figured out most of the battery configuration (the BMS is not fully functional as of this time), you have to configure the limiter settings. If you don’t — you may not be getting all the solar power you are generating from your panels, because the default setting will only convert as much DC to AC as your critical loads need at any point in time.
All the information given here is as per my experience at the time of this writing. Note that hardware, software, electronics & documentation changes over time (100% validated because the older manuals say different things). Use this at your own risk! I would always use the quick, friendly and fast support people at Sol Ark for all my needs!
On a side note, my component vendor will be sending me the KiloVault HAB firmware update cables + USB drive soon. I hope that solves my BMS integration issues.
The Limiter
It is named as such probably because you should only be generating as much AC power as your house + critical loads need. Beyond that, you should be producing extra power only if it has somewhere to go — a.k.a the grid — which should only be allowed if your utility allows it.
So, at the time of this writing, something has to be selected:
- Grid Sell
- Limited Power to Home
- Limited Power to Load
By default, it is set to limited power to load only, which means the inverter will only generate as much AC power as needed by the critical loads. Clearly, we can’t leave it like that.
If PV is enabled and producing power, you need to atleast enable Grid Sell if allowed so that you generate full power, and any power beyond the critical load goes to your house + the grid, wherein the inverter will not track how much the house is pulling vs. what is going to the grid.
I am not going to put some of the diagrams from the manual here because they are confusing.
Grid Sell
If only this is selected, the problem as I see it is that even though you will generate full power, it will go to the…
