On-grid domestic battery storage

1961Nick

joefizz said:

I dont know if anyone else lives on the edge of civilisation but with Storm Ciara approaching, Ive set my batteries to fully charge from the mains for the first time ever.

Will be disappointed now if the electricity stays on ;-)

Despite the risk of a bit of export today, I've also cranked mine back up to 100% in preparation for Ciara.

Solarchaser

EVandPV said:

Solarchaser said:

reassured I did the right thing buying more Pylons... especially as i Picked up 9.6kwh for £2k (used though)

That's not bad at all !
With 2nd hand Pylons, is there any way of telling the state of health percentage ?
The Lux inverter shows this in the web interface but wondering if there's another  way to check ??

Not as far as I know.
You are just making me pine for a lux even more.
I dont see anything on the sofar that says this.

So it's a bit of a roll of the dice.
I took the view, that as they were connected to a sofar, there wasnt that much damage could be done.
Though when they came, they were all pancaked, so took a bit of mains charging and then battery balancing to get them all to switch on without red lights.... that worried me a bit.
But the oldest one has only done 370 cycles, so I think it should be fine.

Regarding preparation for power cut, I haven't even set the sofar up for eps, as I've not had a power cut in.. 10 years at least. 
Could be a regrettable decision 

EVandPV

Solarchaser said:

EVandPV said:

Solarchaser said:

reassured I did the right thing buying more Pylons... especially as i Picked up 9.6kwh for £2k (used though)

That's not bad at all !
With 2nd hand Pylons, is there any way of telling the state of health percentage ?
The Lux inverter shows this in the web interface but wondering if there's another  way to check ??

Not as far as I know.
You are just making me pine for a lux even more.
I dont see anything on the sofar that says this.

So it's a bit of a roll of the dice.
I took the view, that as they were connected to a sofar, there wasnt that much damage could be done.
Though when they came, they were all pancaked, so took a bit of mains charging and then battery balancing to get them all to switch on without red lights.... that worried me a bit.
But the oldest one has only done 370 cycles, so I think it should be fine.

Regarding preparation for power cut, I haven't even set the sofar up for eps, as I've not had a power cut in.. 10 years at least. 
Could be a regrettable decision 

Haven't set the Lux up either for that either even though it looks like a 5 minute job. I don't think we're likely to see the worst of Ciara here anyway (touch wood).

Solarchaser

As there are a few here that have pylontech batteries,  I'm wondering if anyone else has them from different years?

I originally bought my sofar 2nd hand with one 2017 battery, and bought 2 new in 2018.
The batteries I got 2nd hand last week, 2 were 2017 and 2 were 2018.

What I notice with each of the 2017 batteries is that they charge and discharge faster than the 2018 batteries. 
So like 2017 batteries are lighting up 3rd charge light, while 2018 are only lighting 2nd.
Then on discharge the 2017 batteries will be down to 2 lights while the 2018 are still on 3.

Wondering if anyone else has similar experience?

1961Nick

Solarchaser said:

As there are a few here that have pylontech batteries,  I'm wondering if anyone else has them from different years?

I originally bought my sofar 2nd hand with one 2017 battery, and bought 2 new in 2018.
The batteries I got 2nd hand last week, 2 were 2017 and 2 were 2018.

What I notice with each of the 2017 batteries is that they charge and discharge faster than the 2018 batteries. 
So like 2017 batteries are lighting up 3rd charge light, while 2018 are only lighting 2nd.
Then on discharge the 2017 batteries will be down to 2 lights while the 2018 are still on 3.

Wondering if anyone else has similar experience?

They may balance better once they've had longer to get to know each other. Mine do go out of balance if they don't have an opportunity to idle with a part charge - at this time of year, they're either charging, discharging, or empty!

With 14.28 kWh it can't be too much of a problem?

Solarchaser

Well the "original" batteries have been together over 15 months.
I originally assumed the 2017 battery had been damaged by previous owner, as sofar settings were wrong.

Over the last week they have *pretty much* balanced against each other. (Far left one I just got cables for a couple of days ago, it's still a little out)
But I find it interesting that it's always the 2017 ones which "fill and empty" quickest.

And it's like 1st, 4th and 6th, so they arnt together in the stack.
If they are settled at say 50%, all will have either 3 or 4 lights on, it's only on the charge/discharge cycles

Solarchaser

chamelion

Solarchaser said:

Nice
Is it fine that you don't have each of those batteries grounded? 

Solarchaser

Tbh I think it's fine if I had none of them grounded.
It's only 50v, so kinda who cares, plus its DC, which doesnt tend to have grounds for low voltage.

But... I had grounding wires for my original 3, and none for the "new" 4, and the reality is I'm waiting on some grounding wire coming from Ebay to chain them together.

Logically it doesnt need them at all, but if I'm gonna earth some, I may as well earth them all. 

Need to tidy up all of the wiring, but thought I'd leave it a week or two and make sure the shelves stayed up first

EVandPV

I've seen other installations with no ground wires. Made me wonder if it's totally necessary.