I’m doing pre-install system testing before I get started on the real install later this week. Wanted to make sure all the components worked before I went any further. They’ve basically just been sitting in boxes in the basement since April.
Hooked up six of my 200W panels in a string and temporarily wired the inverter into the breaker panel to make sure that:
- Inverter was getting power from PV
- Inverter was charging the batteries from PV
- Inverter was outputting power
- The output was proper 120/240v split-phase (I tested that with a multimeter before hooking it in)
- The battery-to-battery communication was working
- The communication settings between the batteries and inverter were correct
- All the panels fit on the mounting rails and that my measurements were correct
All systems green!
The only thing that caught me off guard was that I mis-read the input voltage ranges for the inverter. DC input minimum is 120v but the MPPT minimum was 140v, so nothing was happening at first and it was only drawing from battery. I had planned to test with a string of 5 but that was just under the MPPT minimum so I had to lean a 6th one up against the 5 I had on the mounts.
The only untested mode is splitting the power input between utility AC and PV/battery. Due to the temporary way I have this hooked in, I can’t really test that. I’m also only able to test the inverter at half load since I only had a 30A breaker on hand to wire it into the main panel.