On-grid domestic battery storage

Zarch

1961Nick wrote: »

Mine live in the garage & are currently at 17C. Yesterday's range was 15C - 21C.

So in theory, what's the max distance the battery can be from the fusebox/solar?

What cables do we have to run? A single electricity cable and one for the clamp?

EVandPV

Zarch wrote: »

So in theory, what's the max distance the battery can be from the fusebox/solar?

What cables do we have to run? A single electricity cable and one for the clamp?

Our Lux ac controller has 2 CT's, one for PV and one for the grid.
Not sure if there's a max distance from the CU but the CT cables are 10 meters.

1961Nick

Zarch wrote: »

So in theory, what's the max distance the battery can be from the fusebox/solar?

What cables do we have to run? A single electricity cable and one for the clamp?

The DC cables are pretty bulky so the inverter ideally needs to be close to the battery. The AC cable can be as long as you like. The CT cables can be extended with Cat 5e & should be fine for most domestic properties.

Solarchaser

The inverter creates a bit of heat, batteries dont tend to, or if they do, its within a couple of degrees of room temp, as they have never been warm to the touch.

In theory your ac inverter can be any distance you like from the cu, as you can extend the ct clamps with cat 5 cable.
The only thing you have to be mindful of is that the ac inverter and its batteries have to be quite close together

joefizz

Just to add a little bit to others posts about the cat 5/5e/6 cable. You can get signal extenders instead so in theory the distance can be anywhere.
Id keep the actual cables as short as you possibly can although mine are less than 3m from the supply box, direct connection, no joins, just through grommets in wall plates. 5-10m would be fine, the lower end of that ideal if you have any breaks in cable (which I would just avoid, more for fault finding than anything else).


As with others the heat isnt much but in a well insulated unused room it could be the difference between needing the heating on or not. Of course when you need the heating on and you only run off solar (not mains charging) then the heating effect of the inverter will be the least effective. Where you have to watch is if its a hot summer day and you are using it a lot and you have a room with big windows/direct sunlight.
I may have mentioned earlier I didnt place mine in the loft for this reason, if I had my time again I would have insisted my solar inverter install didnt go in the loft either (due to the extreme temperature range - well extreme from an optimal operating conditions point of view). Im sure that extra month taken off the lifecycle might come in handy sometime ;-)

Zarch

Those with multiple Pylontech batteries.

Can you just stack them directly on top of each other? Or do you need to invest in the brackets to create clearance between each one? For airflow / heat dissipation etc?

If so, i'm wondering how tall 3 batteries are in the brackets?

I'm still investigating best place for me to try and store them would be. Space is an issue.

Cheers.

EVandPV

Zarch wrote: »

Those with multiple Pylontech batteries.

Can you just stack them directly on top of each other? Or do you need to invest in the brackets to create clearance between each one? For airflow / heat dissipation etc?

If so, i'm wondering how tall 3 batteries are in the brackets?

I'm still investigating best place for me to try and store them would be. Space is an issue.

Cheers.

Quite interested in people's thoughts on this too.
We currently have 2 stacked one on top of the other with no issues. I'm considering a third but will probably give it a few more months to see how it pans out with 2.
Heat may become more of an issue with 3 or more due to the increase in charging/discharging current. We're limited to 2400 watts with 2.

1961Nick

Zarch wrote: »

Those with multiple Pylontech batteries.

Can you just stack them directly on top of each other? Or do you need to invest in the brackets to create clearance between each one? For airflow / heat dissipation etc?

If so, i'm wondering how tall 3 batteries are in the brackets?

I'm still investigating best place for me to try and store them would be. Space is an issue.

Cheers.

Each battery & bracket is 12cm.

I wouldn't advise stacking them without brackets because of the weight - 53lbs each!

chamelion

Here's a random query.
Can you have your battery export to grid certain times of day if you had a LUX inverter?
Scenario - you're on Agile octopus for import and export. They pay you the same rates for export as for import. So, in theory, you have peak rates 4-7pm at over 20p/kwh which you can capitalise on if on a export guarantee tariff instead of FIT which could earn you a decent buck if you pump out 7kwh (or whatever your battery capacity is) during this window.

Just wondering whether the battery system would only let out what your house is consuming, gather than push out excess that you'd export?

EVandPV

chamelion wrote: »

Here's a random query.
Can you have your battery export to grid certain times of day if you had a LUX inverter?
Scenario - you're on Agile octopus for import and export. They pay you the same rates for export as for import. So, in theory, you have peak rates 4-7pm at over 20p/kwh which you can capitalise on if on a export guarantee tariff instead of FIT which could earn you a decent buck if you pump out 7kwh (or whatever your battery capacity is) during this window.

Just wondering whether the battery system would only let out what your house is consuming, gather than push out excess that you'd export?

Yes, you can set up to 3 forced discharge schedules with the Lux ac controller at up to 1200 watts per Pylontech battery module.
As far as I'm aware though, you can't be with Octopus for import and export, only one or the other.