On-grid domestic battery storage

Zarch

Solarchaser said:

Nice, this has given me some ideas..... a few questions.
How deep is the shelf?  I take it the batteries can go flush against the back wall?
Do the Pylontechs come with that front mounting bracket.
And lastly, how thick is the shelf?  Ie, the minimum required to cover the depth of the mounting bracket.
Cheers.

1961Nick

Solarchaser said:

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

Solarchaser said:

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

Not tempted to put a post under the left hand corner of the shelf?

Solarchaser

Zarch said:

Solarchaser said:

Nice, this has given me some ideas..... a few questions.
How deep is the shelf?  I take it the batteries can go flush against the back wall?
Do the Pylontechs come with that front mounting bracket.
And lastly, how thick is the shelf?  Ie, the minimum required to cover the depth of the mounting bracket.
Cheers.

Hi, the shelf is 440mm deep, but batteries are 410mm deep,  if I had decided on them sitting that way at the start, I'd have made the shelf 410 deep, but I was planning on something to sit in front of the batteries to stop them moving forward, putting them side on means screws through the shelf does that job.
Batteries can go flush with the wall, no issues. 

Pylontech do come with the little L brackets, I usually use the U on the L brackets for carrying them around.

The mdf is 18mm thick.

Nick, the last comment was kinda tongue in cheek. 
I tested each bracket by hanging my 80+kilos off the end and shaking to see if I could get them to move, none did.
So 3x 80 = 240kg, and the batteries are only 170 ish, so I'm certain they wont move.
Plus after I put the batteries up, I pulled myself up by the left bracket, still didnt move.

Batteries are in one of the kids rooms cupboards,  so I wanted to be 100% they couldn't fall down.
I put them up there so they were out of the road.

joefizz

Solarchaser said:

Zarch said:

Solarchaser said:

Well its brave, I'll give you that. ;-)

Martyn1981

Solarchaser said:

I put them up there so they were out of the road.

The batteries? The kids? Why were either in the road? Sorry mate but you can't just leave us hanging with a line like that?

Davo456

are the pylonTechs allowed to be use on their side ?
I thought when stacked horizontally, they need ventilation gaps between them?

joefizz

Davo456 said:

are the pylonTechs allowed to be use on their side ?
I thought when stacked horizontally, they need ventilation gaps between them?

Ideally, yes. (and in horizontal mode as well). Id be concerned about putting so close to the ceiling and above the sofar for the same reasons. Probably still within spec but a cooling fan would do no harm...

I think the 175kg above head height would concern me more than ventilation gap or earthing...

Ever seen one of these things dropped and go on fire? ;-)

Davo456

my setup.. have 6 batteries installed now (shown with 4).
Sofar with PylonTechs in a 19" music studio rack.

Solarchaser

Martyn1981 said:

Solarchaser said:

I put them up there so they were out of the road.

The batteries? The kids? Why were either in the road? Sorry mate but you can't just leave us hanging with a line like that?

Ha, very good sir, very good.
In the queens english I should have said, out of the way.
No children were harmed in the making of the shelf.

As for bravery... eh?
Why would I want to see them fall and go on fire... that's a strange question. 
So anyway as I already stated, the shelf takes my 80+kg as well as the 7 batteries,  and has not fallen down.
The bolts used have a shear strength of over 200kg, and there are 10 of them.
The 40x40 angle bar is welded and a thick diagonal welded in. There are 3 brackets.
The shelf is very slightly inclined at the front, so the lean is too the back.
The batteries sit flat, it's not like they are wobbling up there, and are secured with screws... which is overkill.

If you doubt this, look at wall mounts for 250l+ water tanks.

If you read the pylontech manual,  you will note that at no point does it mention any kind of air gap, and also says they can be put on their side.
I have 7 pylontech modules running a sofar with a max 3kw output, so they arnt going to be driving more than 500w of their 1250w normal running limit.... I really cant see them overheating. 

From monitoring the last week using 6 batteries (only got cables for 7th on friday) and doing forced charging for some, then turning on shower to force discharge to essentially heat test the system, see below screenshots of inverter and battery temperatures

EVandPV

Regarding temperature, what power settings is everyone using for ac charging ?
My Pylons sit at around 20°C or so when idle but get up to around 48°C when charging at full power (2.4kw). 
I don't see this as particularly warm so I'm not overly concerned, just wondering if there would be any point in reducing the power rate ? Would it significantly prolong battery life for instance ?