Domestic battery experiences (on grid)

Solarchaser

I forgot about this thread, I should have updated it a month ago when I switched to lux 3600 inverters. 

The lux 3600acs inverters are supposed to be able to run in parallel (note this is not the actual parallel model I was told I was buying!!!) but so far are not managing that, though Lux are doing a decent job of trying updates etc.
Bought in March 2020

Plus points. 
1. Good ramp rate, not quite as quick as the sofar, but not much of a difference,  maybe 15 seconds instead of 10 for the sofar
2. Good information on the display, better than on the sofar.
3. 3400w of input/output in comparison to 3200w input 2800w output of the sofar
4.The online/app functions are a completely different world to the sofar, refresh rate is around 2 mins vs 10 on the sofar, and you can interact with the inverter for charge and discharge times, minimum discharge and many more functions, 2 way communication vs the sofar/solarman simply providing information. 
5. Ability to link up to programming utilities to make the best out of minimum pricing etc on agile rates ("ev and pv "or "Zarch know much more about this)

Minus points
1. Lack of a graphical display of consumption and grid import vs sofar (would be good to be able to edit the graphs you see)
2. Sold as parallel,  but not working that way (hopefully that should be "yet)

JKenH

I would be interested in hearing battery owners experiences during this particularly good spell of weather. It is traditionally this time of year that solar pv/battery combinations are considered to be at their most useful as there is a good balance of domestic demand and excess solar.

Based on your own experiences what are the optimum battery sizes for say 4kwp and 8kwp PV installations?

Are battery owners finding they are storing more than they need to get through the evening and overnight?

How are battery owners who are Octopus Agile users responding to negative daytime import rates?

mickyduck55

JKenH said:

I would be interested in hearing battery owners experiences during this particularly good spell of weather. It is traditionally this time of year that solar pv/battery combinations are considered to be at their most useful as there is a good balance of domestic demand and excess solar.

Based on your own experiences what are the optimum battery sizes for say 4kwp and 8kwp PV installations?

Are battery owners finding they are storing more than they need to get through the evening and overnight?

How are battery owners who are Octopus Agile users responding to negative daytime import rates?

Hi I have recently (feb this year) had a 10kW battery system installed with a Lux inverter.  The first couple of weeks were very disappointing with poor overcast weather  and little spare solar to pour into the batteries.  The last 10 days or so I have had an almost perfect experience where my batteries are fully charged, my water heated and minimal import from the grid.  Ideally I would have another battery as still exporting to the grid but TBH the costs would far outweigh any real advantage.  Batteries have been fully charged by early afternoon and provided they get to about 50 % they cover me overnight, I have a large plasma TV that is the main drain in the evenings.

Posted already in another thread but since install Feb 13

Total Usage                      726 kWh

Total Generation              798 kWh

Total Import                     110 kWh

Total Export                    152 kWh

Total Battery Discharge 398 kWh

joefizz

JKenH said:

I would be interested in hearing battery owners experiences during this particularly good spell of weather. It is traditionally this time of year that solar pv/battery combinations are considered to be at their most useful as there is a good balance of domestic demand and excess solar.

Based on your own experiences what are the optimum battery sizes for say 4kwp and 8kwp PV installations?

Are battery owners finding they are storing more than they need to get through the evening and overnight?

I cant use it all at the minute. No work so computers arent running 24/7 and Im mostly gardening and clearing out the garage so not working on cars (yet) or building the garden wall (yet) so all the measures Id detailed in the previous battery thread are pretty much useless at the mo ;-) All 4 freezers are already full due to prepping, too cold at night (unusually - no cloud cover) to turn the ashp on, hot tub not up and running yet and loads of beer to be made as well as diy.

Max output is close to topping out and 9.6kwh battery almost full now by about 10am ish. Usually not seen until late May/June.
Not experiencing the local network problems with max export I had last year as most of the neighbours are working from home/kids at home during the day, so my neighbours are using all my cheap solar.

The garage should be cleared out by end of play today or tomorrow and electric cement mixer will get a blast out for a few days, then hot tub and so on. Got a campervan to revamp and some other woodworking/metalwork projects to do. Then of course theres at least 4 batches of beer to be done in preparation for this all ending (or pausing temporarily ;-))
Over on the battery thread I detailed a lot of stuff to utilise more than one cycle per day which confused the o level physics people but its useful to see the energy generated as currency and to optimise the amount you generate to benefit you rather than just get 4p or whatever export. (even if it is letting the neighbours plug their electric lawnmower into your external socket)

Ectophile

I have only a small battery connected to my Solax inverter.  It's 3.3kW nominal, 3.0kW usable (to make the battery last longer).  In the current weather, it fully charges by lunchtime.  I haven't managed to run it flat for several weeks now.

Working at home now, I tend to run things like the washing machine during the day, so I don't have any big loads in the evening.  Even baking something in the oven only knocks off about 20% of a charge.

Doobedoo

Powervault 8kw battery here which has been the biggest regret and possibly the worst purchase I have ever made.

Where to begin I’ll try to keep it short. Well essentially I had the battery installed on the 31st of October and I have never had it working as It should do, it’s been issue after issue. 

For the first 3 months I wasn’t getting full capacity, I’d only get somewhere between 6-6.8kw which was acknowledged by Powervault but took until the 6th of February for them to come up with a solution. So the solution was applied in the form of a software fix which restored the full capacity. Fast forward until the last 2 weeks where I had been monitoring and noticing more issues, like pulling from the grid when I had surplus solar generation or power in the battery, randomly grid charging the battery, again when it had no need to. Examples given below.



Contacted Powervault to explain the issue and finally got a response of “The software fix we applied to fix the capacity issues has had a knock on effect causing the grid issues you have reported, it is that has been known to us for a little while. You have 2 option restore the capacity back to what it was aka only 6-6.8kw, or put up with the grid charging issues”.

So essentially 6 months and I’ve never had a fully operational battery. Ive had enough and will be trying creating a dispute with Recc to see if I can it removed and a full refund. I’m absolutely gutted as I was really excited in the technology but now have been put off completely. Not sure where I stand to be honest and I may have to go the legal route but that is hassle I really don’t need.

Please guys do yourself a favour and avoid Powervault imo it’s not worth the expense or hassle.

Philip1000

Got a growatt system 6kw plus battery in march 2021. So far battery is not discharging much. Max 0.3 kwh per day. Load overnight about 3kwh. Very disappointed. The panels are working as expected or perhaps even better
 Around 30 to 40 kwh per day. Still waiting for installer to fix. Anyone got any clues? My money is on the ct clamp, seems to be a real bodge.

Solarchaser

Can you give us a bit more info on your system, model, battery size, are you using a growatt remote ct clamp (from experience they tend not to work)?

Does the inverter see the load, and just super slow to respond, or does it not see the load at all?
Which way is your CT clamp arrow pointing?

01642

Hi i had my Powervault removed non stop problems but the main thing is they are miss sold so got a full refund when i bought mine they said all the power was usable but could only get about 3.3 kw out of 4 kw