On-grid domestic battery storage

flyinggoose

Dolor said:

flyinggoose said:

QrizB said:

flyinggoose said:

So i'll be having a Tesla Powerwall installed soon with solar panels and i've been looking into SEG and Economy 7 tarrifs (i'm not eligible for Octopus Go unfortuantely as i do not have an EV).

I don't know the details - you might need a Tesla car as well as a Powerwall - but do you qualify for the Octopus Tesla tariff?

Yeah i qualify for the Tesla Energy Plan but i've decided against it for now as i don't want to give up total control of the battery to Tesla/Octopus, it might make sense in the winter months though when my solar pv isn't generating much but during the summer from i've seen i'm better off just selling to the grid myself with something like the Agile tarriff as i could sell at certain times when export rates are at the highest points.

I hate to rain on your parade but Tesla doesn’t allow owners to manually export power from their PW2s to the Grid. It follows that Agile Outgoing will be of no benefit to you as far as the PW2 is concerned. In sum, PW2s are probably the most restricted battery on the market. It follows that it is the Tesla Energy Plan or nothing. As far as Octopus SEG is concerned, make sure that your array is MCS-certified; you have a smart meter and can provide Octopus with DNO sign off on your installation.

PS I post this as a PW2 owner.

Ah, I had a feeling there would be a catch, I was a bit uncomfortable discharging the battery more often anyway due to degradation, (exact reason why I'm trying to avoid the energy plan if I can) and the agile tarrifs... I'm not sure they'd even suit me as I would like something where I can just set and forget (which is why the octopus go tarrif would have been great) instead of checking the prices every day and adjusting accordingly, I did find it interesting but never mind anyway.

The main purpose of the Powerwall is to make the house more independent from the grid, I don't expect to ever break even on it, I might recoup 70% of the cost over ten years but another way I've thought about it is that by ignoring the solar pv cost I can recoup the battery costs in about 9 years, and after that I would start to recoup the costs of the solar pv which would be another 10 years or so but I'm pretty sure there's a flaw in my thinking there.

The panels will be mcs certified along with G99 hopefully (from my understanding I'll need both the notification form and the response from the DNO for octopus) , I have a smets 1 (non-secure) meter which I'll be upgrading to a second generation smart meter soon aswell.

Starfrog

Things I wish I had known when installing a solar panel array and battery storage. the main thing is making sure I have maximised my potential solar generation but not realizing that my inverter would clip it all at 3.5 due to the requirement of what I can pass back to the grid!, secondly not getting more battery storage than the 4.8 I currently have. ! 

I've decided to replace my Aoboet Batteries (2x2.4kWh - 4.8kWh) and buy completely new Pylontech US3000C 3.5KWh x 4 giving me 14kWh of potential storage. I dont have a smart meter at present and here in the far northern scottish highlands I dont think they have any urgency to fit a smart meter, so my export to the grid was completely wasted 1489kWH which i could have used to power more batteries for me to then offset my grid import. at todays prices for electric at average of 40p that means i can save maybe £600 and the pricing is only going to get worse !! 

I assume I can just hook up those batteries to my existing LuxPower hybrid inverter and it should just work and recognise the new batteries (maybe need to tell it has Pylontech now ?)  Anybody interested in purchasing my year old Aoboet batteries let me know or I might just use them on the seperate UPS option on the inverter .... Learning curves will need to be done for me to get this right !!! 

Reed_Richards

Starfrog said:
...the main thing is making sure I have maximised my potential solar generation but not realizing that my inverter would clip it all at 3.5 due to the requirement of what I can pass back to the grid...

That's not directly due to the export requirement, you just have a duff type of inverter.  My inverter limits the export in software but lets me use the full quantity of solar generation in my house (when the opportunity arises).  

Dave_Fowler

Starfrog said:

I assume I can just hook up those batteries to my existing LuxPower hybrid inverter and it should just work and recognise the new batteries (maybe need to tell it has Pylontech now ?)  Anybody interested in purchasing my year old Aoboet batteries let me know or I might just use them on the seperate UPS option on the inverter .... Learning curves will need to be done for me to get this right !!!

From my memory of when the installer set up the Lux, you will have to change a setting on the Lux inverter to tell it that it has Pylontech batteries - I think they are type 1 - I seem to remember the Aoboet are type 7.  I've got 4 of the Aoboet batteries.  Scotland is too far for me to pop up and buy your battereis from you else I would make an offer.

Starfrog

Dave_Fowler said:

Starfrog said:

I assume I can just hook up those batteries to my existing LuxPower hybrid inverter and it should just work and recognise the new batteries (maybe need to tell it has Pylontech now ?)  Anybody interested in purchasing my year old Aoboet batteries let me know or I might just use them on the seperate UPS option on the inverter .... Learning curves will need to be done for me to get this right !!!

From my memory of when the installer set up the Lux, you will have to change a setting on the Lux inverter to tell it that it has Pylontech batteries - I think they are type 1 - I seem to remember the Aoboet are type 7.  I've got 4 of the Aoboet batteries.  Scotland is too far for me to pop up and buy your battereis from you else I would make an offer.

Happy to meet you half way when I drive down next time to that there England 

Starfrog

Reed_Richards said:

Starfrog said:
...the main thing is making sure I have maximised my potential solar generation but not realizing that my inverter would clip it all at 3.5 due to the requirement of what I can pass back to the grid...

That's not directly due to the export requirement, you just have a duff type of inverter.  My inverter limits the export in software but lets me use the full quantity of solar generation in my house (when the opportunity arises).  

well I dont think its Duff i just think its a limitation of the Lux AC ESS 3.6kww inverter, in other words its doing what it was designed to do. I just wish i knew about that limitation prior to going with it. Hindsight is everything !

Starfrog

Having purchased 5x2.4 Plyontech US2000C batteries that gives me 12kWh of storage. Question I have is matched to my Luxpower AC inverter 3.6Kw. If I have a power draw from my house consumption and the solar is giving me 3.5 power how much would the battery give out ? I currently see around 3kwh from my current Aoboet 4.8 battery storage. Would I get more output from the batteries as there are more batteries ? also would i be able to use those Aoboet batteries solely for the UPS component or would that not work, Im a novice at this but my logic is maybe sound but often flawed on what id like things to do and what they can actually do !! 

EVandPV

Just scored a one year old 2.4kwh Pylontech for £715 delivered on fleabay.
Still one left of anyone's interested.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pylontech-US2000-Plus-2-4-kW-Li-Ion-Battery-Pack-48V/325089961309?mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l3160&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=c798941d6ad5429189347923aa61f552&bu=43022666713&ut=RU&osub=-1~1&crd=20220308031453&segname=11021&sojTags=ch=ch,bu=bu,ut=ut,osub=osub,crd=crd,segname=segname,chnl=mkcid&pageci=e592a3e6-60e0-4094-aa85-b7cb40dfba11&epid=3029963771&redirect=mobile

QrizB

EVandPV said:

Just scored a one year old 2.4kwh Pylontech for £715 delivered on fleabay.

I read that as £175 and got quite excited for a moment

Starfrog

EVandPV said:

Just scored a one year old 2.4kwh Pylontech for £715 delivered on fleabay.
Still one left of anyone's interested.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pylontech-US2000-Plus-2-4-kW-Li-Ion-Battery-Pack-48V/325089961309?mkpid=0&emsid=e11021.m43.l3160&mkcid=7&ch=osgood&euid=c798941d6ad5429189347923aa61f552&bu=43022666713&ut=RU&osub=-1~1&crd=20220308031453&segname=11021&sojTags=ch=ch,bu=bu,ut=ut,osub=osub,crd=crd,segname=segname,chnl=mkcid&pageci=e592a3e6-60e0-4094-aa85-b7cb40dfba11&epid=3029963771&redirect=mobile

I purchased my ones direct from this company and they arrive tomorrow. I think its a good price for brand new one inclusive of Vat at £765 for a 2.4kWh US2000C (I bought 5 of them and they give you a £15 discount per battery on orders over 4 batteries so the saving made my shipping cost only around £19 for all of them. 

PylonTech US2000C with 95% DOD - Trade Prices, next day delivery – ITS Technologies