Retrofit Batteries & Overnight Charging

[Oldgreybeard]

Should have mentioned what Nowty has pointed out - the Sofar app is indeed only any good for monitoring, to change settings you need to use the front panel, or use another WiFi interface method. In practice I rarely change the inverter settings though. In the spring I change the charge threshold from 85% SoC to 55% SoC, in late autumn I change it back again. Some times in the summer I switch the inverter to auto (no grid usage at all), but even with 6kW of PV there are times in summer when we need some off-peak charge, so it rarely stays set to auto for more then two or three days at a stretch.

It's pretty easy to add a Wifi dongle (not the one that comes with the Sofar - that only talks to China and the Solarman app) and set up something like Home Assistant to automate the ME3000SP (and a range of other inverters that have an RS485 port). All the data I get from my Sofar now comes from a home made ESP8266 based RS485 to WiFi dongle, all open source and easy to integrate with other systems.

I also have an off-the-shelf WiFi dongle, and Elfin EW11a (about £25) that has an RS485 port and will work fine with the Sofar, and other, inverters. I haven't got around to setting it up yet, but as soon as I do I'll report here.

[cycling_mike]

@cycling_mike, most battery systems work in a similar way so its usually quite easy to set them to do what you want.

I presume your getting this model, I flicked through the manual but its not obvious to me how you do it.
You probably change the "Working Mode Set" (page 37), not much other info on it in the manual.
https://www.autarco.com/fileadmin/user_ ... Manual.pdf

Hi Nowty,
The Solar electrician did a survey today and admitted that the autarco retrofit invertor was not the easiest to change charging settings and did not have the setting options of the ME3000SP. I have asked him if he could supply and fit the ME3000SP but was not sure if they would take it on.
Maybe this needs to be on another thread but how do you find reputable companies?

Mike

[dangermouse]

I think the ME3000SP is an older model? Mine is a HYD3600ES and although I bought it about a month ago, I think it too has been discontinued in favour of the HYD3600EP.

Not that there's anything wrong with the older models, but supply might be limited. I bought mine from TradeSparky, fwiw.

[nowty]

I’m afraid it’s like the Wild West out there at the moment. What I would say is I had never heard of that battery or inverter brand before. Most of us on here use Pylontech batteries as they are reliable, modular and work with just about any brand of battery inverter. The common Inverter brands we use on here are Sofar, Lux, Solis, Solax, Goodwe. There are more professional types like SMA and Victron which are a bit more pricey.

I advise you to take some time reading some of the older threads on here under Energy Storage and you might get a better understanding of what you want.

Many of us do it DIY but its up to you to determine whether that’s even a credible route.

[nowty]

I think the ME3000SP is an older model? Mine is a HYD3600ES and although I bought it about a month ago, I think it too has been discontinued in favour of the HYD3600EP.

Not that there's anything wrong with the older models, but supply might be limited. I bought mine from TradeSparky, fwiw.

The ones you mention are hybrid inverters so they take both batteries and / or solar panels. The ME3000SP is an AC coupled battery (only) storage unit and it is still sold,

Tradesparky has some in stock.
https://www.tradesparky.com/solarsparky ... JgEALw_wcB

[ducabi]

I just want to add that I went for Us3000 instead of US5000 because of three reasons:
- US3000 are no longer much more expensive per kwh/£
- US5000 had much worse ETA in ITS shop
- lots of people complain about combability of US5000 with Sofar.

So, it's worth double checking what your expectations are because there is no longer much difference (in cost) between US3 and US5 but if you want lots of batteries, then US5 might be a better choice.

[Stinsy]

I just want to add that I went for Us3000 instead of US5000 because of three reasons:
- US3000 are no longer much more expensive per kwh/£
- US5000 had much worse ETA in ITS shop
- lots of people complain about combability of US5000 with Sofar.

So, it's worth double checking what your expectations are because there is no longer much difference (in cost) between US3 and US5 but if you want lots of batteries, then US5 might be a better choice.

Your chiropractor will thank you for choosing the US3000 over the US5000 too!

[Oldgreybeard]

I think the ME3000SP is an older model? Mine is a HYD3600ES and although I bought it about a month ago, I think it too has been discontinued in favour of the HYD3600EP.

Not that there's anything wrong with the older models, but supply might be limited. I bought mine from TradeSparky, fwiw.

The ME3000SP is still a current model: https://www.sofarsolar.com/product-detail/323/ME-3000SP. I believe it's the only AC coupled model Sofar now produce, so if, like me, you need AC coupling and have no need of the DC PV input capability then the ME3000SP is ideal.

The HYD3600ES is a hybrid model, that has direct DC PV inputs as well as an AC capability. Internally it seems to be virtually an ME3000SP plus an MPPT and DC input module added to allow DC as well as AC operation. Power looks to be the same as the ME3000SP, 3kW max charge and discharge, so run as an AC coupled unit it would be near-identical to the ME3000SP. The main benefit it has is that it can accept up to 4.79kW of DC (split across two strings) in addition to the AC capability.

The market is a bit skewed at the moment as the availability of popular inverters is restricted, just because demand seems to have sky rocketed over the past few months, and UK importers are struggling to get hold of both inverters and batteries. Prices have rocketed, too, it seems.

The hybrid models make sense for new PV systems, too, and demand for new PV installations with integral battery storage seems to have risen, hence one reason why the availability of hybrid inverter/chargers may be slightly better.