Perplexed.Do i really need to change battery after 10 years?

2nd_time_buyer

Thanks @Solarchaser and @Heedtheadvice very useful. Did the assembly require any soldering?. Like you, I will be installing in the loft so the DIY modular assembly is appealing. I currently have the solar (Solaredge) inverter in the loft - would it normally be a case of the electrician putting the battery inverter in-line with the ac output of the solar inverter? Or would they need to run another line from the fuse box.

By the way, how are you finding the Lux power inverter?

Nick_Dr1

Martyn1981 said:

Hi Solarchaser, price reductions must be a dilemma now. I was thinking with cheap(ish) batteries we could install 110% of need, so batteries are run a bit more gently, but if they've lost 10% in 10yrs, you still have the required capacity anyway.

Or, with falling prices, just expand over time, as you mention.

You're 4MWh idea is a good metric. Perhaps not too long before batts just become an easy choice for more people as prices fall.

Yes, that's a fair comment but you can hammer modern batteries to their stated limits without affecting their lifetime, and in fact is is beneficial to charge them to 100% regularly.

Solarchaser

I've never had solaredge, so can't directly compare to yours.
But I have had growatt,  sofar and now lux for over 5 years, and the lux is definitely the best, and the growatt definitely the worst.

The lux can be set to import and export at certain times, however it's the same every day, which is a shame, it would be nice to have a weekday profile and a weekend profile for instance 

No soldering required for the fogstar batteries, purely mechanical (electrical) assembly.
I don't know if they now come with instructions,  but they didn't a year ago, so the you tube videos were what I used.
I can't now see the one I used, it was a couple of seplos guys in China (I assume) assembling and was 28mins long.
When I look now there are lots of different videos from contributers so I'm sure you could find one you like, the one I looked at was similar (at a glance) to this one:-
https://youtu.be/QS8qIo_pMew?si=j6Tj1E9r_bAZBU2h

You would really be best to have a battery inverter on its own trip.
Battery inverters generally speaking work with current clamps, rather than intercepting your power lines.
So you would have a current (CT) clamp going around your mains in and this would tell your inverter when power is coming into the home so it should ramp up to cancel that power out, and you would have another one on your solar output, and when it sees solar generation and export, it would ramp up to charge the batteries.

If you were OK with DC electrics you could buy some DC wire, and a DC trip from ebay/amazon etc and wire up the DC side yourself and then get a spark in to do the wiring to mains.

Ectophile

2nd_time_buyer said:

Thanks @Solarchaser and @Heedtheadvice very useful. Did the assembly require any soldering?. Like you, I will be installing in the loft so the DIY modular assembly is appealing. I currently have the solar (Solaredge) inverter in the loft - would it normally be a case of the electrician putting the battery inverter in-line with the ac output of the solar inverter? Or would they need to run another line from the fuse box.

By the way, how are you finding the Lux power inverter?

You're not allowed to put them in lofts any more: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/insights-and-media/insights/brochures/pas-63100-protection-against-fire-of-battery-energy-storage-systems/ and BS7671 is about to be amended to match that.

Actually, you'll struggle to find anywhere to put them in a home now.  A detached garage, or one with appropriate fireproofing should be OK.  Or maybe a bunker at the bottom of the garden.

Reed_Richards

So if we want to be greener by getting storage batteries, the safety regulations are fighting us.  Specifically:

6.5.5 Batteries shall not be installed in any of the following locations:

g) voids, roof spaces or lofts;

prohibiting loft storage (but not retroactively).  

powerful_Rogue

Solarchaser said:

I've never had solaredge, so can't directly compare to yours.
But I have had growatt,  sofar and now lux for over 5 years, and the lux is definitely the best, and the growatt definitely the worst.

The lux can be set to import and export at certain times, however it's the same every day, which is a shame, it would be nice to have a weekday profile and a weekend profile for instance 

You can do the same with Growatt, but can choose different times/days etc.

1961Nick

35har1old said:

mmistroni said:

HI all
 i am really confused from this article. 
Solar panel benefit seems obvious to me...  Even if it takes 10 years to recoup the cost of initial investment, after that my electricity bill will be mostly paid for the rest of my life?
But if i have to spend 5k every 15 years to replace battery, then the whole thing  is  not really cost efficient--- with 30-35 more years of life expectancy i will end up spending 20k in solar panels and i wont really get any benefits?
I live in a 2bed terrace house, my average electricity consumption is 2.7kw / year, i dont own an EV and due to my house setup i wont be able to install an EV charger outside my house
Based on my average calculations, between march/septembery i wont spend anything on electricity and the export i will do  will help pay for usage for october-february
Could anyone how has already having panels for quite a while (> 5 years) share some advices?
Thanks in advance and regards
 Marco

What's the lifespan of a panel?
Do they not loose there efficiency over time?

My panels are nearly 12 years old & there is no noticeable degradation. They still peak at 3.7kW & closely follow actual pvgis irradiation data.