We have had a storm here in Scotland and we were running on battery overnight. Just as the PV started to build up, the SOC on one of the batteries went too low and the Gateway shut down. PV will no longer generate any power as there is no grid voltage.
So the situation is now that there is more than enough PV to charge the batteries and that would power the gateway but the gateway will not start due to the low SOC.
We have a generator is fitted to a switch after the gateway, so we can run the house but the generator dose not provide any power into the gateway.
In a catch 22 situation. The grid is not due to be fixed for an other two days. The petrol filling stations are also out due to the wide area grid failures (over 200 in Scotland).
Is there any way of forcing the gateway back online (by setting the SOC limit to say 2%) or by feeding the benerator into the gateway, so it can start taking PV (the sun is out!) and charge the batteries?
Im not aware of a way to jump start it once its gone flat. I guess in hindsight (not much use) you could have set the battery cutoff to 9% and battery reserve to 10% which would give you the option to drop cutoff value down to 4% later and it should kick in again as a last gasp.
All of that does however rely on having wifi / internet to do so (could setup a hotspot from your phone I guess)
Subsequent to “the event”, I did think of that, however, we have two AIOs and the devices are controlled by the gateway, so I do not think it is possible to change the SOC floor once it has been reached as the gateway will not be running. A catch 22. I may try this out and see if it’s an option.
Otherwise, I will have the generator isolator moved onto the grid side of the gateway, that way the generator will run through the gateway (isolated from the grid) rather than its current placement which is between the gateway (load terminal) and the fuse panel. This would then power the gateway up (and even allow charging of the AIOs) to bring them back online so that the solar will reactivate. Once solar is producing, the generator can be switched off and the isolator turned back to grid supply, waiting for the grid to come back online while the house and the batteries are powered by solar.
I have read somewhere (here??) that it is very much not recommended to run the kit off a generator. I suggest you seek advice before doing so.
For (unhelpful) future reference, my storm protocol has me setting the battery cut-off limit to 10%, and having my router/network on a UPS which I expect to manually turn off when the SoC reaches 20%. And then turn on again when the sun is shining, so I can change the cut-off to 4% and then hopefully the inverter will start charging my AIOs. Repeat as necessary.
An as-yet untested protocol!
I am assuming that if I set the SOC floor to (say) 10% then the two AIOs will stop delivering power to the gateway. As I have dual AIOs, they are controlled by the gateway, so if the gateway is not being powered, then I cannot set the SOC floor to 4%
It’s a catch 22.
Not sure about feeding with a generator. Our grid supply has been very variable in the past (over 260 volts) and the gateway has managed fine
That is a very good point.
@TheDragon - will AIOs stop powering their GW when they get to their cut-off limit?
Another idea could be to use a DC charger off your generator to charge up an AIO sufficiently that it restarts the Gateway. May well be a “safer” alternative.
But, again, I would seek advice from someone far more knowledgeable than me!