Batteries

ispookie666

Can those who have batteries installed provide some information about

• Capacity
• Expandability
• Product support

Please, no GivEnergy, I'm thinking of getting rid of the useless system.  

Spies

Lux + pylontech is quite popular around here

theboylard

Solaredge install, 4kw of panels, 10 years old.

Waiting to install 15kWh of 3 x 5.12kWh Fogstar batteries with a Sunsynk 5kWh hybrid inverter in AC mode.

This will allow me to install further panels without affecting the current FiT on the Solaredge.

Without plugging Fogstar too much, their prices are a bit of a shock!

I paid £4k for the batteries in a cabinet last August.

The build quality seems good, can't speak for how they operate as not up and running yet.

Currently same package is £3k!

Or, they have a much neater 15kWh battery for £2.5k!!!

ispookie666

Frogstar looks good.  I hope it is as good as they say, being able to use Victron inverter.  

Waywardmike

Growatt SPH3000AC Inverter
Growatt GBLI 6.5 kWH battery

£3700 fully installed nearly 2 years ago.

The day after install it filled up to full capacity and then sat idle.  I contacted installer and Growatt (in China) and to be fair both did respond in a couple of days but by then I'd figured out that the installer had put the CT clamps on the wrong wire (also moved my iBoost clamp to the wrong wire ). The inverter couldn't 'see' what was being imported/exported. 

Once I'd moved it to where it should be, It behaved exactly as it should and hasn't missed a beat since.  Drops to 10% before stopping, actual usable capacity is ~6kWh.  I can definitely have two 6.5kWh batteries on the same inverter according to Growatt, there are claims from users that it can handle four.

I've seen setups using the same inverter but with Pylontech batteries.

Monitoring platform is garbage IMO, some people get on with it though.  I use a third party software, Solar Assistant.  I can set up two charging or discharging windows.

I use Wonderwatt which is currently free, and they predict the following days solar output and charge the battery accordingly during my cheap Octopus Go period.

It was really cheap comparatively to other systems I was quoted for (inc. GE).  I have no regrets, yet.

zeupater

theboylard said:

Solaredge install, 4kw of panels, 10 years old.

Waiting to install 15kWh of 3 x 5.12kWh Fogstar batteries with a Sunsynk 5kWh hybrid inverter in AC mode.

This will allow me to install further panels without affecting the current FiT on the Solaredge.

Without plugging Fogstar too much, their prices are a bit of a shock!

I paid £4k for the batteries in a cabinet last August.

The build quality seems good, can't speak for how they operate as not up and running yet.

Currently same package is £3k!

Or, they have a much neater 15kWh battery for £2.5k!!!

Hi

There was a Fogstar thread opened up for feedback/discussion last year .... when it's working can you keep us updated on your experiences/thoughts on the kit over there to keep everything together ...

Cheers - Z

theboylard

zeupater said:

theboylard said:

Solaredge install, 4kw of panels, 10 years old.

Waiting to install 15kWh of 3 x 5.12kWh Fogstar batteries with a Sunsynk 5kWh hybrid inverter in AC mode.

This will allow me to install further panels without affecting the current FiT on the Solaredge.

Without plugging Fogstar too much, their prices are a bit of a shock!

I paid £4k for the batteries in a cabinet last August.

The build quality seems good, can't speak for how they operate as not up and running yet.

Currently same package is £3k!

Or, they have a much neater 15kWh battery for £2.5k!!!

Hi

There was a Fogstar thread opened up for feedback/discussion last year .... when it's working can you keep us updated on your experiences/thoughts on the kit over there to keep everything together ...

Cheers - Z

And it was that conversation that prompted me to look at Fogstar!

Thanks Z and yes I will

Solarchaser

Started with a sofar me3000sp and 3 pylontech,  worked well, but I needed/wanted more.

Got a growatt sph3600 and darfon 5kwh battery to run together with the sofar and was battery disappointed with the growatt, terribly slow to respond and a bad system in general,  threatened growatt with courts to eventually get them to take it back.

My wife loves white goods and one sofar doesn't cover the washing machine and tumble dryer on together, so needed parallel. 
At that point, no-one knew how to make the sofar run parallel,  (though a friend has now) so the only real option was lux.

I think 4 years ago went to dual lux 3600acs inverters and went from 3 pylontech to 8, and then a few months later added a 9th.
Been pretty happy with them for the last 4 years, but in moving to being an all electric house 18 months ago, I needed a bit more storage. 
Looked at adding more pylons, but had my head turned by the seplos 15kwh B cells.
For the last 3 months I've run one inverter on the 9 pylontech and one inverter on 2 of the 15kwh seplos vertical batteries, and after 2 months of running the seplos, I decided to buy another 2 seplos and to sell my pylontechs. 

Do I need 60kwh of storage?
Is it a good way to run for roi?
No, absolutely not, but I've been playing with batteries for over 5 years, and now I'm hoping to just let them run the house and not think about "should I charge today, how sunny will it be tomorrow" etc
Which I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this thing of checking multiple apps every night, and I just want to not have to.

For the last year of running fully electric,  the 14,000kwh I've bought, less than 2% has been at the on peak price, so I'm pretty happy with my decision.