Sol-ark 15K view of internal connections

[@drod6424]

Super helpful Jeff. Thank you for taking the time to record this video.

[@sethgthomas]

If you haven't seen them yet, there is a nice set of Bus Bars that you can fit onto the battery lugs that make for a nice clean/easy install and give you the full charge/discharge rates.

[@jeffmotes2129]

I saw those … after I already had this completed. Nice looking bars.

[@sethgthomas]

@@jeffmotes2129 Logical. I like them. I don't need them with my current battery bank setup, but with the soon pending upgrade, thought it would be beneficial, saving some much needed room and cable fighting. :)

[@jessematchey4802]

Who carries the bus bar you’re referring to?

[@EL34XYZ]

I am getting ready to set up the same system. Sol-Ark 15k and 6 EG4 batteries in a rack cabinet. I will not have solar panels to begin with but will add them later. I want power backup for a small building to start with. Thanks for the look inside the Sol-Ark 15k

[@jeffmotes2129]

That’s a good way to start.

[@solargoat]

Good shit as always! Thanks, Jeff!

[@jeffmotes2129]

Thanks!

[@billparsons7732]

For permitted work, will you need to have conduit bonding bushings for the equipment bonding conductor?

[@jeffmotes2129]

That will probably depend upon your area. My boxes are bonded and the locknuts bond the conduit to the boxes. No permits required in our area.

[@peterbatchelor8819]

Thanks. Great info...I plan on getting one of these.

[@craigmitchell5628]

Thanks for the close up video of the 15K. I agree with you on the separate transfer switch for the generator. The internal TS is a nice feature but I don't think I trust it if you have a catastrophic inverter failure. Plus like you said, you need to be able to isolate the inverter for repair or replacement. I have a ATS which I intend to put directly ahead of my house panel with the house panel as load, SolArk as normal, Gen set as emergency. Now I got to figure how to bypass the SolArk grid input to the ATS in able to "easily" isolate the inverter completely in case of failure.

[@jeffmotes2129]

That’s exactly how I did mine with tge ATS. I use a manual transfer switch (MTS) to feed my ATS. The grid and the sol-ark are source 1 and source 2, respectively, for the MTS. For me UP position on the MTS is for grid and DOWN for Sol-Ark.

[@craigmitchell5628]

@@jeffmotes2129 do you have a line diagram of MTS, SolArk, and ATS please.

[@jeffmotes2129]

@@craigmitchell5628 I can’t figure out how to post a picture here

[@craigmitchell5628]

I think I can figure it out. Thanks again!

[@snoflite5234]

Happy New Year! Bought a last minute of the year solar purchase. 13KW of more panels. Looks like I will be busy again this year after the frost comes out of the ground in late April, or early May. Hope the Sol Ark install is going well.

[@jeffmotes2129]

A very merry new year to you and yours! Hopefully, I’ll have the sol-arks online this week. How large will your PV array be once this is added?

[@snoflite5234]

@@jeffmotes2129 Probably around 40kw. Depends if I keep the east and west facing panels on my garage or not. So far they are under performing in winter. When I get the last batch of batteries installed, I will have 130kwh of storage. Everything in my house is electric, including 2 electric cars.

[@jeffmotes2129]

@@snoflite5234 going to be nice.

[@snoflite5234]

@@jeffmotes2129 Nice, but a lot of work, lol. I have to modify my control panel I built to combine outputs of inverters. When I built it I only planned of 4 inverters, but left space for a 5th future. Now I am adding a 6th in. Can't wait to see your next video.

[@jeffmotes2129]

@@snoflite5234 no doubt about the work part!

[@Zorlig]

Looking forward to seeing it running!

[@jeffmotes2129]

Me tool

[@jeffmotes2129]

Made a mistake right at the beginning. The 2 - 200A breakers are on the positive only. Not the positive and negative as I stated.

[@quattrohead]

Totally clueless. Yet another prime example of people doing things way beyond their skill set. Usually that's OK, but with power it is stupid. This is how people get hurt.

[@jeffmotes2129]

@@quattrohead lol. You’re clueless. I’m merely showing the connection points for those who have an interest. The system is installed and operating properly and flawlessly.

[@KenosysEnergySolutions]

Great video! Just one thing, the breakers interrupt both positives, one each, the negatives are not interrupted by breakers.

[@jeffmotes2129]

Yes. I realized that shortly after the video. Thanks.

[@samfish6938]

solark says to monitor correctly wire to generator not grid

[@WattsMiner]

Very nice walk through of this unit 👌

[@jeffmotes2129]

Glad it was useful.

[@AdamDeLayDIY]

Jeff, thanks for sharing a closer view of all the connection points. It’s great to see the progress of someone changing over from one system to another. Can’t wait to see it all wired up and get an unbiased review of everything!

[@jeffmotes2129]

Thanks!

[@excellberryhill3503]

I'm glad to see someone else had the same issue with cheap China inverter and went to Sol-ARK 15K to resolve their issues. Zero problems from the Sol-Ark. Would like to see a video on how you program your Sol-Ark and how many panels you have connect to each inverter. Great videos

[@jeffmotes2129]

I’ll work on that. Check out one of my earlier videos where I’m connecting my panels and combiner box.

[@ryancaesar5547]

Sol-Ark inverters are amazing. I wish I can afford one so I can get rid of my chinses inverter

[@pind507]

These are also Chinese built inverters

[@jeffmotes2129]

Like anything else there are different levels of quality with Chinese products. The sol-arks are very well made.

[@niktak1114]

Those battery breakers are actually both connected to the positives. That's why you're limited to 160A (80% of 200A) if you only use 1 of the battery inputs.

[@jeffmotes2129]

Good info.

[@EastyUK]

With gen on load how do you charge batteries from gen? Seems a significant capability downside to not be able to do that In an extended outage during bad weather you’d be running gen 24/7 for minimal loads rather than just running gen to charge batteries and then shut it off. Maybe an ideal Situation would be a quick switch to toggle between load attach or gen/grid input for grid select. Thanks for the video, interesting to see how the 15k varies from the 12k. I’ve used the 12 and 8 before that off-grid for a few years. There is a good activity at the moment to get direct access to the solark data via the mod bus onto lab, then you can read info live on home assistance display, far better than the slow update info via the dongle and app.

[@jeffmotes2129]

I had not planned on using the generator to charge batteries. But after your comment I may reconsider. Thanks!

[@jeffmotes2129]

I’ve also thought about setting up home assistant. Just haven’t had enough time to delve into it.

[@hp7033]

Exactly my plan as well. Instead of listening to the drone of the generator all night long while the house is drawing almost nothing, I can run off battery at night and then run the generator for a couple hours in the morning to replenish the batteries or just wait for the sun to come up. My 20kW generator will use 3l/hour of diesel regardless of load.

[@EastyUK]

@@hp7033 the only issue I've found is if your gen is limited less than max charge + max load it may trip your gen. I don't think that would be a problem when you have a 20kw genset. Maybe if you have more than 1 solark it's something you need to watch. I've not found away yet to limit the accumulative charge+load from the gen, which I think is an important feature to figure out.

[@michaelchownyk5255]

Thank you for posting this video and I like your system and I’m curious why the server rack batteries have such small wires to connect to the parallel bus bars when I look at SOK server rack batteries they have 4-0000 size wire and I’m wondering if that is part of your problem with batteries not being close in their state of charge. I also have an off grid solar system with a lithium battery but it’s NMC chemistry

[@jeffmotes2129]

Hey Michael. The battery jumper wires are 16mm (#6 AWG CU equivalent). These are what came with the battery. I would have preferred #4 or #2 awg. I haven’t seen charge rates over 40A per battery so I don’t think that’s an issue. I think it has more to do with the battery themselves. But I’m open for suggestions. I’m going to be doing a thermal scan soon to check the connections.

[@danw3113]

The 15k manual says it has a 250a battery breaker, but clearly yours has 200a. Is that a manual misprint or did sol-ark upgrade to a 250a breaker after this video was taken?

[@jeffmotes2129]

Hmm … my manual says 2 - 200A breakers. But the maximum charging and discharging current is 275A when using both batteries. Don’t know if they’ve changed the 15k or not. Bought these in December 2022.

[@owenjones7732]

If your generator has an auto start function, it would be nice to tie it to your Sol Ark through a bypass switch for convenience and redundancy. And the same for the grid.

[@jeffmotes2129]

I’ve had a whole house generator installed for at least twenty years. I prefer the transfer switch to be just above the line side of my house feeder panel. This way if I lose my solar power and the grid the generator automatically comes on and feeds my house. This has come in handy many times through the years and even several times when my Growatts went down.

[@owenjones7732]

@@jeffmotes2129 A very sensible way to configure the power electronics. Excellent work!