Posted by: @davidalgarve

↑

My installer set up my system on "Power Generation Mode" but how does "Power Consumption Mode" differ and how do you choose?

@davidalgarve, those aren't terms I'm familiar with even though I have a Growatt inverter and batteries. Which model do you have?

The terms most of us who have Growatt kit will be familiar with are "Load first", "Battery first" and "Grid first", and those terms are intended to denote what function gets priority. The default is "Load first", where any house load is serviced from solar PV first, then from the battery, then from the grid, whereas "Grid first" will prioritise pushing any solar PV generated out to the grid to take advantage of the export tariff. "Battery first", combined with "charge from grid" is what I use to tell the battery to charge up from grid power when, for instance, we have negative pricing.

My very wobbly guess would be that "Power Consumption Mode" would be the equivalent of "Load first", but I'd really want to have something else to corroborate that; I'm by no means sure.

Are we discussing a Growatt solar inverter, or storage battery inverter, or a combination (hybrid) unit?

The official Growatt distribution channels don't supply all models to every country.
I imported SPF-5000ES inverters direct from China, but then found they needed a firmware upgrade which the UK-based representative wasn't au fait with.

The manufacturing date is also relevant.
For example, I bought five SPF-5000ES inverters, but they have two different processors and therefore don't run the same software!

@majordennisbloodnok Thanks for your reply.

My Growatt inverter is Model No: MOD 4000TL3-XH and I have 2 x APX 5 batteries.

I will attach  a screenshot of the Dashboard which uses the terms I mentioned.

I don't think that there is an option here for off peak charging of the battery, but I have not enquired

@davidalgarve, thanks for that.

Having had a quick look through the manual (

GROWATT.TECH "https://growatt.tech/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/MOD-3-10KTL3-XH-User-Manual-EN-202201.pdf"

) it looks like the terminology is as I described above. Also, if you look at the left hand side of your screenshot, it says it's running in "Load First" priority. I've had a look at the Growatt portal myself and I don't seem to have the ability to choose between power generation and power consumption so I'm still guessing but given the Growatt manual doesn't make mention of these I'm a little more confident that they may be modes for how to display information on the portal and not modes for configuring your inverter. If I'm right, switching to power consumption mode may well simply repackage what the web page is telling you so the focus is where the energy is going rather than where it's coming from.

Posted by: @davidalgarve

↑

...

I don't think that there is an option here for off peak charging of the battery, but I have not enquired

As far as the manual is concerned, it's perfectly possible to charge the battery from the grid. Whether you want to do so or not is a separate matter.

Having seen that screenshot, I think I know what "Generation Mode" and "Consumption Mode" are referring to.

It's simply two different ways of presenting the data on screen.

Those radio-buttons aren't sending any command to the inverter, or defining how it operates.

@transparent I have been a little reluctant to select "PowerConsumption Mode" without a full understanding and my installer has not responded to my question. However, I have just selected it on the Growatt Dashboard on my iMac and it reports: "No Device" 

Hah! 

Well I guess we're all in the realm of conjecture.

Perhaps "Consumption Mode" is a mechanism which requires input from another device, such as a Growatt Storage Battery.