Solar hybrid inverter - 3.6kWh or 5kWh?

Johnny_M_P

Hi DougMLancs,

Thanks for your reply.  I suspected the limit might be something to do with the DNO in some form or other.

I like the idea of your hack but I thought the PV output still went through the inverter to the batteries, so wouldn't the throttle at 3.6Kw still apply?

DougMLancs

The rating of your inverter refers to how much DC current it can convert to AC current for use by the house/grid. However batteries store energy as DC current so your hybrid inverter can direct the DC current from your panels straight into the DC batteries without needing to convert it to AC and so it won’t count towards your 3.6kW limit. 

The exception to this would be if your batteries were AC-coupled and so on the house side of the inverter. Then it would be like you say and battery charging would form part of the 3.6kW limit. This situation is most common where batteries are retrofitted to an existing PV setup which doesn’t have a hybrid inverter.

What make/model are your batteries just to confirm the setup you’ve got?

Johnny_M_P

Your hack worked, after a fashion. I need to mess with ettings.

Batteies are Greenlinx 3.2KWh x 2. fitted as part of the whole installation.

Alnat1

@Johnny_M_P You can see from my sig that I've got a similar kind of set up and I have the same capping problem.

I get round it by setting the Lux "System Charge Power Rate(%)" to somewhere between 0 and 5% in the morning and then gradually upping it as it starts to cap, usually around 1.30pm for me. I've also done a quick discharge if it clouds up and there's less than 3.6 coming off the roof. Depends how much time to faff I have.

Johnny_M_P

And there in lies the problem - faff time!

I was on OctopusAgile - that was enough faff in itself, to the point were my partner was making comments.

Now on Flux which is alot easier.  But Flux may become an issue in winter, cost wise.