Battery charging and discharging explained

Example 1

Power coming from the grid - battery available

You might wonder why your system is pulling power from the grid when your battery is available and has power? The inverter has a special sensor (called a CT meter) that monitors electrical current. When electrical demand occurs in your home (e.g. appliances are turned on) your system will automatically pull power from the grid. Your inverter will then use the monitoring data provided by the CT meter, to discharge the battery as appropriate. It will incrementally discharge the battery to meet that demand, until the power flow from the grid becomes static, meaning no discernible power in or out.

Your inverter is also quicker than your app. So you will see a delay between whatever action the inverter takes, and when it registers on your app for you to see.

Common (approximate) refresh times include:

• Solis cloud - 5 minute refresh
• iSolarCloud 30-60 seconds (almost instant)
• Ecoflow 30-60 seconds (almost instant)

This time lag is perfectly normal and does not mean there's a fault with your system.

Example 2

Power going to the grid - battery not fully charged

You might wonder why your system is sending power to the grid, when your battery is not fully charged? In this example, an appliance may have finished its cycle or been turned off in your home. The inverter, for a short time continues sending power as it was before the appliance was turned off. Once it confirms the demand for power has changed, it then adjusts accordingly, slows down the power going to the grid, and if your battery has room to take charge, it will begin to store the extra power there.

As your battery reaches its full capacity, it also ramps down the rate of charge. From 0%-90% most batteries can charge at approximately 5kW. From 90% to 95% typically 1.2kW-3kW, and the remaining 5% between 400-600W. This protects battery health and is part of the normal, healthy functioning of your solar system.

How to refresh your solar app

How can you make sure your system is as up-to-date as possible? When you refresh your app, it communicates with the data stored in the cloud and pulls it fresh onto your device.

iSolarCloud - How to refresh the app

Sungrow inverters and batteries use this app. To get the latest data, just pull down from the top of the screen. This gesture will sync your app with the data available in the cloud. The app will refresh automatically if the clock symbol near the top right hand corner of the screen is coloured green or blue. Alternatively if the clock symbol is grey in colour, this means automatic refresh is unavailable and you will need to refresh manually by tapping the refresh button. Remember, if you're only seeing old or frozen data, this is not reflective of the current operating of your system.

Solis / EcoFlow - How to refresh the app

For Solis and EcoFlow inverters, refreshing your app to pull the latest data from the cloud simply involves pulling/swiping down from the top of your mobile screen.