Ian0 I probably was not expressing myself well enough. I appreciat you trying to get to the bottom if it. I don't think that I am lacking knowledge, but if I do then please point it out to me.You seem to have failed to grasp some of the major concepts about solar panels, and are then getting angry when the experts point out your lack of knowledge. The output is a constant current source with the current dependent on the amount of light falling on the panel, so the voltage measured on the output will vary, but it varies with the load.
If you connect the output from solar panels to a battery, the battery will stabilise the output voltage.
I understand the basics of MPPT, NOCT, STC, temperature degradation and all this.
The idea is to have the "center" battery voltage matching the "center" MPP of the solar panels. (caribbean, no clouds, no seasons, no variation in temperature, ...) SPP = single power point.
I understand that if I center the panels to the batteries, that there will be a very minor inefficinecy compared to MPPT. But the purchase of a couple of extra solar panels is economically more viable than some fancy non-economical MPPT.
The BMS disconnects the battery from the bus when the voltage drops or exceeds the battery specification.
Everybody is invited to read up about LiFePo4 chemistry, voltages and safety, also about the capabilities and possibilities of the mentioned BMS's. I would encourage that.
The exact ammount of batteries has to be worked out based on temperature that the panels are subjected to.
Again, no MPPT needed. But if there are concerns about the capabilities of the BMS's disconnecting the batteries then I would like to hear about them.
You are right, I wasn't specific enough. Sorry about that, I will get back with the exact type of freuqency drive, VFD, variable frequency drive and also solar panels.By "frequency drive" do you mean a Variable frequency drive? They are for driving motors, and they normally take a single or 3-phase AC input, and would soon shut down with an error message if given a randomly varying DC input, so I'm presuming that what you have is actually a grid-tied solar inverter. You were not too specific about what this device was: probably you don't know what it does.
i know what they do, I have to because I work with them and yes we are talking about variable frequency drives, VFD's.
How do you change yourAC's frequency? One way is to rectify it to DC with 4 diodes, smoothen the ripple with capacitors and then convert it to AC at the desired frequency using inverters.
MPPT means "maximum power point". How does a frequency drive (variable) know or care where the DC is coming from?If I am correct about what it is, then supplying it from a battery is a really bad idea, because it is an MPPT controller (you know, the thing that you refuse to use) and its job is to extract the maximum power from the source. Attempting to extract the maximum power from a battery is probably not such a good idea.
This is the first time myself I have seen or heard about such an installation.
But somehow those frequency drives accept (direct) DC input. I guess this would be DDC then?
And they are also connected to grid AC 480V.
I haven't even looked at that part, I was just asked about how batteries could be intergrated into the system (without MPPT, PWM).
I guess the BMS's classify as PWM controller? ...
I will be back with exact solar panel specification and the type of the (variable) frequency drive which accepts 480V AC / 850V DC