On-grid domestic battery storage

chamelion

EVandPV said:

Just scored a 3rd Pylon on fleabay for a fairly decent price. 
Still one left if anyone's interested ........ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133337776213
I've confirmed with the seller that the date stamp is 2017.

Installed! Pain free, all new and boxed, original - all working. 
He could only give 2 batteries for now - he'll deliver the 3rd tomorrow. 
Charged me 1800 all in - 400 inverter, 600 for each battery, 200 install. 3rd battery slightly more due to supply issues, but will still be 700 brand new. YMMV. contact me if you want contact details - they're happy to get more customers!

EVandPV

chamelion said: 

EVandPV said:

Just scored a 3rd Pylon on fleabay for a fairly decent price. 
Still one left if anyone's interested ........ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133337776213
I've confirmed with the seller that the date stamp is 2017.

Installed! Pain free, all new and boxed, original - all working. 
He could only give 2 batteries for now - he'll deliver the 3rd tomorrow. 
Charged me 1800 all in - 400 inverter, 600 for each battery, 200 install. 3rd battery slightly more due to supply issues, but will still be 700 brand new. YMMV. contact me if you want contact details - they're happy to get more customers!

That's a great price for a brand new Pylon ! That's what I just paid (£600) for the 2nd hand one on ebay after the seller accepted my offer. Free delivery mind you, but still.
Which inverter did you get ?

chamelion

EVandPV said:

chamelion said: 

EVandPV said:

Just scored a 3rd Pylon on fleabay for a fairly decent price. 
Still one left if anyone's interested ........ https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/133337776213
I've confirmed with the seller that the date stamp is 2017.

Installed! Pain free, all new and boxed, original - all working. 
He could only give 2 batteries for now - he'll deliver the 3rd tomorrow. 
Charged me 1800 all in - 400 inverter, 600 for each battery, 200 install. 3rd battery slightly more due to supply issues, but will still be 700 brand new. YMMV. contact me if you want contact details - they're happy to get more customers!

That's a great price for a brand new Pylon ! That's what I just paid (£600) for the 2nd hand one on ebay after the seller accepted my offer. Free delivery mind you, but still.
Which inverter did you get ?

The lux - LXP3600. 

EVandPV

chamelion said:

EVandPV said:

chamelion said: 

Charged me 1800 all in - 400 inverter, 600 for each battery, 200 install. 

That's a great price for a brand new Pylon ! That's what I just paid (£600) for the 2nd hand one on ebay after the seller accepted my offer. Free delivery mind you, but still.
Which inverter did you get ?

The lux - LXP3600. 

For £400 ......   

EVandPV

I cobbled together a serial cab!e to use with the Pylons and the Batteryview app and I'm finding it quite useful not just for checking battery temperature (the Lux doesn't yet display this) but also for checking what's going on with all battery modules in the stack.
It provides info such as voltage, charge current and capacity of each module plus the voltage of each cell which will be useful for checking for faulty cells.
This is the cable I used ..... 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01LPQM90G/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Which I spliced to a modem cable with the wiring in this thread .....  
https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2322-youdas-off-grid-lab/page/2/

joefizz

EVandPV said:

It provides info such as voltage, charge current and capacity of each module plus the voltage of each cell which will be useful for checking for faulty cells.

Now that someone else has put it out into the wild here I can comment ;-)

The ability to check for faulty cells is going to be one of the key parts of this software going forward. The BMS will only work so far and with age of batteries/usage etc it will end up with the BMS working all the time to stand still.

With this sort of software you can see which of the batteries is mismatched and which in turn will cause the BMS to constantly move charge around, so accelerating the demise of the other batteries.

Its then your call to see if you want to see how to replace the cells in each physical unit and if you do that can test the removed ones and perhaps assemble another physical unit with matched type of used cells from your other physical units (if that makes sense).

IF and im putting that in caps for a big IF battery tech changes then you can replace the cells with similarly rated cells of the new tech and the BMS probably wont notice the difference if you keep the firmware the same as it is now. That will be a judgement call going forward but if it comes to that, someone else online will have already done it (probably including me!) so advice/youtube tutorials etc will be available.

The monitoring of the individual cells is the first step though. Thats the data you will need going forward and potentially the key piece of info to keep ROI and maintenance costs down.

One other caveat with downloaded software, this and in particular the CLUI version are intended for advanced installations/engineers so treat with caution as you can brick the unit.

EVandPV

Just been sent a newer version of the Batteryview app ....... 
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vacsk4v3icnjhg8/BatteryView 20181220-低压.zip?dl=0

It's also handy for balancing as you get a more accurate view of the difference between each module.  

EVandPV

joefizz said:

One other caveat with downloaded software, this and in particular the CLUI version are intended for advanced installations/engineers so treat with caution as you can brick the unit.

I take it your referring to firmware updating there Joe ?
I contacted Pylontech as the 3rd battery I bought has a different firmware to the other 2.
Mine are B65.12 and B63t and new one seems to charging and discharging at slightly different rates to the other 2 although the guy at Pylontech said firmware shouldn't be an issue as you can mix and match Pylons with differing firmware.
He's currently taking a look at some screenshots of Batteryview for me.

joefizz

EVandPV said:

joefizz said:

One other caveat with downloaded software, this and in particular the CLUI version are intended for advanced installations/engineers so treat with caution as you can brick the unit.

I take it your referring to firmware updating there Joe ?
I contacted Pylontech as the 3rd battery I bought has a different firmware to the other 2.
Mine are B65.12 and B63t and new one seems to charging and discharging at slightly different rates to the other 2 although the guy at Pylontech said firmware shouldn't be an issue as you can mix and match Pylons with differing firmware.
He's currently taking a look at some screenshots of Batteryview for me.

Yes and No. Ive highlighted the most important word there ;-) All mine are on the same firmware and I'll probably keep it like that, no point introducing problems where none exist. If I did go more batteries with different firmwares Id probably see if I could put them on different strings or banks just to keep it consistent. I dont know  if you can do that with your setup but worth looking at if you dont get any joy with pylontech, might be worth dropping lux a mail as well.

The CLUI or command line user interface is available if you know where to look but its usually reserved for test environments or engineering use in the field. Its easy to brick something with it but if you are in a lab or have capability to flash the firmware regardless then its not really that big a deal, in a home environment it could be a nightmare! When my warranty is up and battery levels have dropped to about 60% I'll be tearing into mine, until then I'll just let it work.

EVandPV

I'm finding that the new battery is about 4-5% behind the other, even after balancing, but apparently this is normal when introducing an additional battery and they should even out in time. 
Even if they don't, I'd only be losing about 0.12kwh of useable capacity with the new battery so no big deal really.
Turns out the Pylon with B63t firmware is a US2000B and the ones on B65.12 are US2000 Plus and according to this there's no problem mixing them ..... 

https://www.dropbox.com/s/etsdkg6z1frrtrl/PYLON US2000B & US2000 PLUS Difference and Mixture Installation.pdf?dl=0