Considering large battery and inverter

MultiFuelBurner

Hi there,

Just looking at the moment and unlikely I will get a system we cannot move to a new house when we move so not interested in Solar.

Currently we have a house with an ASHP and ideally we would need a 20kwh battery and inverter with the need to charge that fully in 5 hours or sooner every night in the winter and about 12kwh charge in summer.

Does anyone have just battery and inverter and what sort of price are we looking at?

Thanks for all help

Reed_Richards

I don't know the answer but 20 kWh in 5 hours is about 4 kW charging rate and you might need an even higher discharge rate to meet the peak demands of a heat pump (although not so much if you can heat your hot water within the 5 hours).  My inverter came with my solar panels in 2019 and a downside I discovered subsequently was that it cannot charge my battery as fast as I would like it to.

QrizB

MultiFuelBurner said:

Does anyone have just battery and inverter and what sort of price are we looking at?

We do occasionally get people posting who have batteries but no solar. It seems to work for them, although the economics need to be looked at carefully.

As for cost, maybe £6k for 4x Pylontech US5000s plus another £1k for the inverter, then £500 for other electrical gubbins and £500 to get a sparky to fit it? So £8k? (Add £1500 for a fifth US5000 if you mean 20kWh useable rather than nominal capacity).

You might be able to do it for less, but that's a guide.

Alnat1

The price of Pylontech US5000s has been slowly coming down. They peaked around £1700 inc. VAT 18 months ago and can now be found at around £1300 inc. VAT.

With VAT free installation of batteries from 1st Feb, hopefully prices will be even lower.

MultiFuelBurner

Reed_Richards said:

I don't know the answer but 20 kWh in 5 hours is about 4 kW charging rate and you might need an even higher discharge rate to meet the peak demands of a heat pump (although not so much if you can heat your hot water within the 5 hours).  My inverter came with my solar panels in 2019 and a downside I discovered subsequently was that it cannot charge my battery as fast as I would like it to.

Ours doesn't go over 4kwh on hot water heat as we don't use the backup electric heaters as we heat to 50oC for an hour to kill bugs(note to others do not bother turning this into a Legionella discussion)

This really is the first idea of a moveable system. I have read of others utilising Octopus Go etc at 9p kWh (previously 7.5p)

It seems some setups come with a 10 year warranty which would be key for payback.

We tend to move every 5 years so a moveable system would work out best although that may invalidate a warranty so if anyone has done that let me know.

I suspect I am looking for something costing £6-7k so that might not be possible just yet.

Based on this year's usage Go calculated at 9p kWh we could save between £1000-£1200 a year on a useable 20kwh system.

MultiFuelBurner

Alnat1 said:

The price of Pylontech US5000s has been slowly coming down. They peaked around £1700 inc. VAT 18 months ago and can now be found at around £1300 inc. VAT.

With VAT free installation of batteries from 1st Feb, hopefully prices will be even lower.

Are these a good make, I am starting from scratch so what makes some better than others ?

Netexporter

MultiFuelBurner said:

Alnat1 said:

The price of Pylontech US5000s has been slowly coming down. They peaked around £1700 inc. VAT 18 months ago and can now be found at around £1300 inc. VAT.

With VAT free installation of batteries from 1st Feb, hopefully prices will be even lower.

Are these a good make, I am starting from scratch so what makes some better than others ?

The first thing you need to consider is whether you want an AC or DC coupled battery. If you haven't got solar than I think AC-coupled would be better, as the slight disadvantage of double conversion, in a solar set-up, is eliminated.

QrizB

MultiFuelBurner said:

Alnat1 said:

The price of Pylontech US5000s has been slowly coming down. They peaked around £1700 inc. VAT 18 months ago and can now be found at around £1300 inc. VAT.

With VAT free installation of batteries from 1st Feb, hopefully prices will be even lower.

Are these a good make, I am starting from scratch so what makes some better than others ?

Of the modular 48-volt batteries (where youre not buying a "system" from a single manufacturer), Pylontech batteries seems to have a good reputation and are reasonably priced.

MultiFuelBurner said:

We tend to move every 5 years so a moveable system would work out best although that may invalidate a warranty so if anyone has done that let me know.

Hyopthetically, you could put your system together in a 19" instrument rack and moving it would be simple. It would just need hooking up to the mains.

MultiFuelBurner

QrizB said:

MultiFuelBurner said:

Alnat1 said:

The price of Pylontech US5000s has been slowly coming down. They peaked around £1700 inc. VAT 18 months ago and can now be found at around £1300 inc. VAT.

With VAT free installation of batteries from 1st Feb, hopefully prices will be even lower.

Are these a good make, I am starting from scratch so what makes some better than others ?

Of the modular 48-volt batteries (where youre not buying a "system" from a single manufacturer), Pylontech batteries seems to have a good reputation and are reasonably priced.

MultiFuelBurner said:

We tend to move every 5 years so a moveable system would work out best although that may invalidate a warranty so if anyone has done that let me know.

Hyopthetically, you could put your system together in a 19" instrument rack and moving it would be simple. It would just need hooking up to the mains.

Indeed I am thinking about racking the equipment in the garage..thanks for the info

And @netexporter thanks hadn't thought of DC v AC 👍

1961Nick

Without solar the only option is an AC coupled system. Grid charging/discharging is always AC>DC>AC regardless of whether you use a hybrid inverter or an AC battery inverter.

Pylontech batteries are very popular & most inverters have Pylontech software installed. Advantages are: low price, modular, reliable & backwards compatible.

My original five US2000B batteries have now entered their 6th year & the state of health of the whole pack is just under 97% (1460 cycles). When I purchased them the SOH after 6000 cycles was supposed to be 70%, but if the loss continues to be linear then mine will be somewhere around 85%.