Growatt 5000 ES Settings 

Glad it helped

You are welcome!

Here’s the manual. It’s helpful to see the options available to you. Settings 01 and 14 are most important for your considerations. As well as 11 and 49. signaturesolar.com/content/documents/GROWATT/1519013-manual.pdf Grid and battery do not provide power at the same time, but solar and battery or solar and utility can. See setting 01. Normally I have it set so solar charges the batteries and powers the house during the day (SBU mode). At night it runs off the battery until the battery gets to less than 30%. Most of the spring/summer/fall I can make it to the next day and stay off the grid. Occasionally, the battery does get too low and the grid is used. Depending on how the inverter is set it will stay on grid until solar charges it to a target value, in my case 45%. However, you can also allow the grid to charge the battery if you like. In winter I typically use SOL mode where the battery is only used while there is solar. The reason is that in Dec/Jan there are days with so little solar that the battery may barely be above the minimum before the sun sets. If the battery gets too low I allow the grid to charge it. This is to protect against grid power outages leaving me with insufficient power. You can control if the grid is able to charge the battery, when and the maximum current. I spent many weeks experimenting with the settings to get what I felt was good for me. It will vary depending on your set up, load and climate. I recommend starting conservatively and pushing your setup to the limits until you are comfortable. My goal was to minimize grid usage, which is very hard in winter. Overall, I have been happy with the inverters. I started with two and added one more due to my load. I haven’t had an significant issues since I installed them early 2022.

The battery percentage is displayed if you are on Li battery mode. Otherwise it displays the battery voltage.

After monitoring the setting change for a few days it appears to be helping. However, the weather is also warmer and the furnace blower does not need to go on as much at night. Overall, the system feels more efficient, but with changing conditions I’ll have to continue monitoring to be sure. The change had a neutral to positive effect. I frequently have 50% or better left on my 20Kwh battery pack each morning.

@@ZeusRadls we phone the technician to came and see our settings for us. Because the people that installed the setup for us isn't prepared to came and sort out our problem and they didn't left a manual for us. We stay in the South Africa FreeState and every time they must came out from Gauteng they charge us a arm and a leg. We have permanently loadshedding 2 hours off 2 hours on and that effects our sistem. The installers connected it direct to the grid and cost us a lot on electricity that we try to avoid. We will contact u again if technician doesn't came but thanks a lot for your help. Thanks Peter

@@user-te8vb1zt9j Here’s a link to the manual. What Li battery are you using? signaturesolar.com/content/documents/GROWATT/1519013-manual.pdf

You are welcome

The BMS controls the charge/discharge rate for LI batteries. You might be able to override this by not selecting LI, however I recommend using LI if that's the battery pack you are using. It's best to let the BMS handle battery function if possible. Setting 02 sets the charge limit unless you have a LI battery. Setting 11 lets you limit the charge rate from the grid/utility. I've set this to allow a small late night charge if the batteries get too low.

@@ZeusRadls Dear Richard, thank you very much for your reply and your help. Something last please. In number 14, which program you think that is better? -Solar first? -Solar and utility? -Only solar? I believe that the first is ok, you?

I prefer CSO and then I use setting 49 to determine when it can charge and setting 11 to limit how much grid power can be used to charge the battery.

The battery connects to each inverter. The three inverters are connected to each other through data ports. This allows the inverters to balance the house demand evenly and to charge the battery pack from solar or grid. The inverters use setting 23 set to PAL to put the inverters in parallel mode. However, this might not be practical in Europe depending on your power system.

​@ZeusRadls Do you connect each inverter to the same battery terminals? Also I've got 40 nickel iron batteries in series to make 48 V. What settings should I be using on the inverters? I'm completely off grid with solar panels and a generator in Saskatchewan, Canada. I've got 3 SPF 5000 ES inverters and 5kW auto tranformers and trying to power a 50 Amp camper.

This video discusses the 20kWh Li battery pack I use. ru-vid.coma4mr5amROgM You will likely need to use 'USE' for setting 05. However, the assorted settings (19, 20 and 21) will be dependent on your specific set up. The manual is moderately helpful.

​@ZeusRadls OK. Thanks. I lost the manuals so I'm trying to find it online.

You can find the manual here. signaturesolar.com/content/documents/GROWATT/1519013-manual.pdf

It should be set for Li batteries for V to become %.

I have 6.2 kW west facing panels that generate 20-40 kWHr from spring to fall and very little in the winter months. Peaks in summer. I have an issue where I can generate more than I can use depending on my needs that day. I’m not sure if that helps, but hopefully it gives a reasonable comparison.

@@ZeusRadls Thanks for your valuable information brother

If solar is not enough the utility should compensate. The battery supplements the difference if the solar is insufficient and utility is unavailable. Any excess solar power will be used to charge the battery. At night the utility powers the load. You can set the inverters to charge the batteries with a maximum current (011) and window of allowable charging (049). I try to avoid grid charging except in the winter and incoming storms in summer.

thank you very much@@ZeusRadls, why would you avoid grid charging (grid suppose to be cleaner and more stable)

Utility is generally clean, but the cost can vary between day and night. You can manage the charging rates and times to charge to minimize costs.

I don't think you can mask grid charging from being displayed. Why do you want to do this?

Turn off the beeping in settings

12 watts seems like you may have a bad connection or a faulty panel? I suggest checking the voltage of your string to make sure you don’t have any issues. If you find the voltage is too low you’ll need to check all the connections and each panel. One bad panel can ruin the entire string if you don’t have optimizers. If the string seems good then double check all your connections to the inverter(s). If all the connections are good and the voltage is what you expect it may be a settings issue with the growatt. In that case try changing the settings to SBU and see how it handles the load. What PV output are you expecting? Do you have optimizers?

I'm happy to help. Can you clarify your situation? A common problem is the state of charge thresholds. Settings 12 and 13 control when the inverters will shift to grid and solar/battery respectively. Mine are currently set to 30% 45% respectively. Also make sure setting 01 is set to SOL (solar/battery during the day), SBU (solar battery when the battery is at or above setting 13) or SUB (only uses batter if there is no solar or grid power). Manual: signaturesolar.com/content/documents/GROWATT/1519013-manual.pdf

I had mine without solar for a few months before I bought my panels. The best settings is to use UEI for setting 001. This will use the battery if the utility goes out. You can set the max charging current per inverter using setting 011 and setting 049 to determine when it can charge, to maximize off hours costs if possible. Let me know if you have any other questions.

I use a Growatt transformer to split the 240v output into two 120v legs. My load is evenly balanced. The purpose of the transformer is to maintain the voltage on each leg. Depending on your model is can handle a load difference from 20 amps or more. Note, anything that draws 240 volts will not be impacted by the transformer, it's just for single leg loads. signaturesolar.com/growatt-11-4k-split-phase-transformer-ats-11400t-us/ It's possible you have an issue with your downstream neutral. What happens if you switch the output to the two legs? Additionally, it's possible you can re-organize your downstream electrical panel to better distribute load to the two legs.

What battery are you trying to equalize?

This thread details this by design. As with all electrical components assume it's live, because it might be, even if it shouldn't be! diysolarforum.com/threads/growatt-5000es-ac-voltage-detected-on-pv-input.50235/

thanks for your reply yeah I wish growatt had this in their manual might save someone's life and me a lot of time.@@ZeusRadls

You can do this my running the inverters on SOL (setting 01) then set the window which you allow it to charge from the grid (setting 49). This should attempt to keep your battery at 100% at all times, either from solar or grid when available. You can also throttle the rate at which the grid can charge (setting 11). I had to set this per inverter on my parallel system.

@@ZeusRadls thanks i will try this tonight Have you tried the dry contact s, have you got them to switch. I couldn't get them to switch in any condition.

I have not tried them yet, What are you attempting to do?

@@ZeusRadls Hi, I have tried the Solar only settings and it worked for the charging but i noticed that the load consumption is 90% on utility and battery just 10%. As for the dry contacts i am trying to have an ac braker activated by the dry contact signal in case the settings doesn't work

Is the solar capable of supplying enough power to carry the load? If not grid power will be used. In my case when on SOL the solar and battery will power the house until the solar voltage falls below the thread and then the grid is used. I tend to use SOL during winter, because the battery often doesn't fill up and I want to preserve as much battery over night as possible in the event of a grid power outage.

I left mine set to 4. I don't think it matters when using Li batteries with a BMS. However, if anyone knows better feel free to let me know. Here's the manual for reference.

Yeah this setting had me worried too, until I found out I couldn’t change it (my battery type is set to Li.). But the manual description is misleading, saying “series”.

The manual could be better.

Hi Peter, Is your inverter plugged to your LI battery pack via the BMS port? Can you provide details about your setup (i.e. battery type, number of inverters, etc.)?

@@ZeusRadls I'm not very clued up with it we have a cable connected to battery from inverter. We have a Growatt 5000 inverter. Is there a way we can send u pics of set up. Thanks for caming back to us we appreciate it very much

Can you post the pictures on your RU-vid channel? If not, what battery are you using? I found the manual a bit cryptic, but helpful if you read over it a few times. Page 7 may help. It's also possible it's a battery setup issue. I'm using the EG4-LifePower4 batteries for 48V systems. You need to correctly set the dip switches on the battery connected to the inverter, as well as properly set the dip switches for any other connected batteries.

@ThePINCHEZ The settings in this video will work well for off grid. I power my entire home. The limiting issues will be your total solar capacity, battery capacity and load. On a typical summer day I can go several days/weeks without needing grid power - the battery pack is usually full at the end of each day. Winter (Dec/Jan) is when it gets rough. Very little solar available. Fully off grid will likely require supplementary power sources such a fireplace/stove to offset heating costs and possibly a generator for very dark periods. Recently I've been less conservative with our consumption. Running sprinklers and the AC are a heavy hit, even then I can still get to the next day if we don't over do it and we have plenty of sun. As long as the sun is out and bright I can do pretty much every thing I need.

​@@ZeusRadls how big is your battery bank?

20KWh. It gets me through the night on a full charge, unless we run anything overly demanding. I typically use my setup as a supplementary system, but in the event of an emergency we can rely on it for an extended period if we conserve power.