The CT clamp is how a hybrid inverter learns which way power is moving on the service. It is a current transformer: it reports current by coupling to the field around a conductor, and the inverter reads the sign. Import, export, charge, discharge, and an export limit all depend on that sign. Reversed, the decisions run backwards. The arrow and the phase have to match the manual. This page will not draw the wiring.
The sign decides the next move
When the building is drawing power and the array is idle, the sign should read as import. When the array produces more than the building is using, the sign should read as export. Self-consumption and export are bill categories that assume this direction is true. An export limit caps how much surplus may leave. A cap that trusts a backwards clamp throttles the wrong hours. It may cut production while the building is still importing, or it may allow export while the screen insists the building is a large load.
Charge and discharge follow the same sign. A hybrid told that the building is exporting, when the building is in fact importing, can charge the battery from a flow that is not there, or refuse to discharge into a load it thinks is already covered by solar. The battery then sits at the wrong state of charge for the evening you bought it for. The mode looks busy. The direction is mirrored.
Arrow and phase, without a diagram
The manual draws an arrow and names a conductor. Matching that drawing is the installer's work. An arrow reversed flips the sign on the conductor that was otherwise correct. On a split-phase or three-phase service, a clamp on the wrong conductor reports a current the decision is not supposed to use. A clamp around the battery lead, or around only the solar output, answers a different question than a clamp on the service conductor the manual named. The screen can look confident and still be about the wrong wire.
Some hybrids use a meter in place of a clamp. If the manual names a meter, the clamp story is not your sensor. Read which device this unit trusts before anyone adds a second sensor in the hope that two opinions are safer. Two sensors that disagree will not average into the truth. The manual's sensor is the one the firmware believes.
Checks that stay on the screen
Pick two moments you understand without opening a panel. At night, with the array idle and a known load running, the screen should show import, or the battery covering that load in the mode you selected. At midday, switch on a large load you can hear. Export should fall, or import should appear. If those two observations are backwards, stop the automatic charge and discharge modes and call someone who can compare the clamp with the manual.
Do not correct a backwards sensor by flipping a charge window in the menu. That teaches the inverter to trust the wrong sign, and the next mode inherits it. Do not open the service equipment to spin the clamp. The person who may do that is qualified for the panel, and they follow the manual's arrow rather than a forum photo.
Frequently asked questions
The app shows export while a kettle is heating and the array is covered. What should I suspect?
Suspect a reversed clamp or the wrong conductor until a qualified person confirms the sensor against the manual. Also confirm the login is this site. Leave automatic modes off while you wait. The kettle test is an observation, not a repair.
The battery voltage already matches the inverter. Is the clamp still required?
Yes, when this hybrid uses the clamp to judge import and export. The voltage match is the battery window. The clamp is the direction of power at the service. Whether the battery and the inverter are actually exchanging messages is a third test, in battery and inverter communication. Passing one of the three leaves the other two open.
