Using the Inverter -MPP HV2-5048 (no Battery Required)

Installing MPP Hybrid Inverter 5KW

HV2-5048

Australia is 240 volt 50 hertz and my place is single phase. This model also suits India ,Germany and South America it says. Cost $1156 AUD all up .(72c US conversion rate). Took 2 weeks to get to me.

I received this unit today with a little bit of knock around damage on the outside of the box but no damage to the Inverter as it is pretty well cushioned in dense foam. Handbook gives install details so into the install. Comes with a CD that has Linux Inverter and battery monitoring program in Mac and Windows also. Installed the Linux 64 bit version . There is a 32 bit version too.

That installed and started fine so now to the inverter wall fitting . I already have my battery set up as 2 strings of 24 volts with appropriate BMS’s and active balancers on each so the first job is to get my solar panels on the roof and connect them to the inverter .

This unit will take up to 24 normal 250 watt panels in 2 strings for a total of 6000 watts PV input , 6KW. Well I think I have about 18 spare so that will have to do.

It will operate without a battery if needed and will feed into and take from the grid if needed. So while the sun is shining I can draw up to 20 amps of 240v and run my stuff without battery attached. I can feed the grid if I want also during the day. So logic says buy whatever solar panels you can first ,install them , buy this inverter and you are producing your own power daytime . Add batteries and the grid if you want them later. A small cheap battery bank will do to run light and TV at night. Anything you can cobble together to get to around 54 volts.

It has an inbuilt charger so if a battery is attached it will feed solar charge or utility charge into it at a rate you can set in 10 amp increments up to 80 amps. Handy if you have a small battery attached that can only take say 20 amps . You can limit the charge to 20 amps.

The software and manuals are all available on the web at https://www.mppsolar.com/v3/download/

Put up on the wall and ran cables to the battery . Heavy guage AWG2 wires specified but I had some old insulated heavy copper about 5 mm diameter copper cross section and that will have to do for now. Crimped on some lugs with about a 7mm hole and they worked well. I have a small insulated shifter but you may as well buy yourself a screwdriver handle type driver to suit a 10mm socket too as everything I meet seems to have 10mm nuts . With a screwdriver hand tool you won’t over-tighten and strip them. Insulate it with Heat shrink to avoid shorting terminals . I have a boat swage tool for crimping but have just ordered the hydraulic crimper type for $25 AUD on ebay.

I wanted to check the inverter was working properly so I connected up the 240 volt grid input to the A/C input point . With nothing else connected ,no battery , no solar PVs, no A/C output and inverter switched off, I turned on my other 24v inverter supplied a/c at the plug. It fired into life and gave me a flashing warning that said “6P”. That worried me a bit but I had a look through the menu and saw that it showed A/C coming in in standby mode so I switched the inverter on. That showed that the unit was ready to supply A/C out and I heard the relays click on. Showed 230 volts in and out because my present 24v inverter was putting that out.

Turned out on reading the manual “6P” was “bP” which was simply telling me the battery was not connected ,so all was well. On to getting the solar panels up and then connected.

I have a couple of panels on the roof and I’ll put 4 more up so 6 in one string should give me a start at least 30v each approx by 6 of = 180v. The MPPT voltage starts at 120 volts input so that will do for now .Better fix the roof before I put the rest of the panels up. This at least will allow me to change over from 24v to 48v and continue to have solar power available in the house. In Battery I’ll only have 100Ah at 48v so I’ll have to secure another string of 16 100Ah cells and BMS etc in the near future before China stops all trade with excessive tariffs. Also I have a 16s BMS but Ill leave the two 8s BMS’s attached to each half for now and see if that causes any unforeseen problems. In operation the second in line BMS does not like that arrangement. I don’t know why but I bypassed that BMS for now.

When thats all done the system should supply about 22 amps of 240 volts as advertised but in the meantime I will gradually work up.

Settings time . The settings I will change for my use in Australia are:-

01/ sbu Solar/Battery/Utility.

03/240 My voltage out needed .

05/ lbu Load/Battery/Utility .

09/ g|-d Grid disabled..default .

10/ oso Solar to battery only.

11/ 20 Max charge amps atm .

14/ use User set battery.

17/ 54.5v c/v voltage 54.5v float .

19/ 48v low dc battery cut off (this is as high as it goes) .

20/48v cut battery disharge.

21/ 53v battery stop charging when grid available(?).

22/ |-ep screen stays where you leave it.

23/ lof Backlight turns off after use

All the rest are left at default. I’ll see what needs adjusting in operation . I took the float up to 54.5v temporarily to top up my batteries which were down a bit .

Well, put up 6 panels first as its full summer here and hot on the roof. Input is about 200 v so its fine to test . Current coming into battery was about 10 amps with a clamp meter so I’ll need to look at this as the amps out of the panels all in series should be 8 amps and if MPPT is actually happening then you would expect to get 16 amps or so charging but battery was filling up so maybe not.

Connected PV and also battery in 48v configuration . All running fine

It does not seem to have a wi-fi connection just USB and RS-232. Ill have a look at the supplied program when I get a longer usb lead. Anything else related to the install I’ll tag on here.

It is very bright at night (I found you can turn off the backlight in the software ) and the fans run all the time so its noisy at night . There is no adjustment on that so this is best placed away from your sleeping areas. Alternatively cut into the fan wire and use a temperature sensing board to switch it on when there is actually any heat developed . This should be built into all inverters and some in fact do have it.

The password to get into the software is “administrator”.

EDIT Have had a problem in that I noticed my laptop plugged into grid supply power and the usb data plug from the inverter which is not on the grid . Nearing the laptop USB plug there is a sparking from the cable to the laptop body . quite high possibly a 100 volt next to no current discharge. Went around looking for answers and the best seemed on the Aeva Forum and their advice was run a link from earth to neutral output in the inverter.

Bit concerned about that but did it anyway as Australian grids are 240v with neutral grounded to earth. So now the grid and the inverter were both neutral grounded . Did not make a difference to the sparking though so not sure where next . No effect on the operation of the unit.

The sellers are cheeky bastards. They took offence when I asked them how to tone down the display and turn down the fans. Said none of their machines have those features . Then when I found 23/ above and told them, they made out they knew all the time and it was my fault . Then laid a complaint to ebay on me and barred me from buying another ! Seems my warranty is useless anyway so only one star for that performance. Ill be buying from someone else in future.

On your battery, have a look at the discharge curves above for LFP ,LiFePo4 above to help understand at what voltage your cell is full and what voltage is empty.

For more on LiFePo4 see https://www.facebook.com/groups/271980786862023/

This Inverter

Some solar panels putting out say 200 volts in series