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Hi Everyone,

I have a few questions to ask regards PylonTech batteries while I mull over how best to add battery storage to the cottage.

We use approximately the national average of 2900kWh per year for our small 3 bedroom solid stone 1880's cottage. In the late spring, summer and early autumn months our 3.6kW peak West North West facing array gives us ample generation to offset evening use and night loads.

With two small under 5s and another one on the way we do use the tumble dryer maybe 3 times a week for an hour and a half - other times when the wood burner is in use we use the pulley maid airer and open windows to circulate allow moisture laden air out of the house. Its not perfect but it works well and we don't have much in the way of black mould (the bane of older housing stock) in the cold bridging areas of the cottage not yet eliminated.

I have read quite a bit and looked at various battery solutions but keep coming back to the PylonTech offering However and this is my first question I note in their sales information they recommend certain Hybrid inverter brands. I really like a certain brand inverter with a 5.5kW inverter that costs around the same price as the 3KW recommended inverters - but will the batteries work ok with that inverter?? Is it to do with the BMS and how the two communicate ? - here i am woefully short on knowledge.

I haven't mentioned the hybrid inverter as I am not sure of forum rules and still under the old place habit of not mentioning brand names.

Moxi

Without the brand no one can say. Brands are allowed as this forum is independent, I think.

I use an old SMA Sunny Island 5048 with my batteries without any problem. I also use ELTEK chargers but do the communication through a Teensy that modifies the CAN signals to what they need.

I do also have another inverter that is on Pylons list. I'm not sure how Pylontech are re warranty.

No problem mentioning brands. I have a cheap/cheerful LuxPower inverter/charger linked to my stack of Pylontech batteries. It works well, the web based user interface is a little clunky, but it does its job and I haven't heard any stories of unreliability. Solax, SoFar, and Solis are also well regarded at the cheap end of the market.

Pylontech batteries are not just cheap per kWh they perform very well compared with other batteries. Here is a great long term study: https://batterytestcentre.com.au/wp-con ... 021-V3.pdf.

The question of how much storage you need won't have a definitive answer. If you're all out in the daytime, you don't have a DHW tank, and you don't want to "spill" a drop of precious electric to the grid would require 4x your kWp on kWh. So that'd be 6x 2.4kWh batteries. However if you're home in the daytime and can time your usage to coincide with the sun shining (eg wash your bedding, run the dishwasher, etc.) then you don't need as many batteries, also if you have a "diverter" on your immersion heater and can therefore make use of excess power when the batteries are full you don't need as many batteries. Conversely, if you have a ToU tariff (eg Octopus Go) you can make good use of batteries even when there is little-to-no sunshine.

Many people find it useful to install the inverter/charger with 2-3 batteries, then add more as funds allow and once you've seen the benefits in action.

What kind of tumble drier do you have? I bought a cheap Beko heat-pump drier a few years back and it uses very little electricity. Before we had kids we didn't need a drier, and I'm sure some families do without one, but the volume of washing a family creates really does require one.

Moxi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 15, 2021 1:11 pm Hi Everyone,

I have a few questions to ask regards PylonTech batteries while I mull over how best to add battery storage to the cottage.

We use approximately the national average of 2900kWh per year for our small 3 bedroom solid stone 1880's cottage. In the late spring, summer and early autumn months our 3.6kW peak West North West facing array gives us ample generation to offset evening use and night loads.

With two small under 5s and another one on the way we do use the tumble dryer maybe 3 times a week for an hour and a half - other times when the wood burner is in use we use the pulley maid airer and open windows to circulate allow moisture laden air out of the house. Its not perfect but it works well and we don't have much in the way of black mould (the bane of older housing stock) in the cold bridging areas of the cottage not yet eliminated.

I have read quite a bit and looked at various battery solutions but keep coming back to the PylonTech offering However and this is my first question I note in their sales information they recommend certain Hybrid inverter brands. I really like a certain brand inverter with a 5.5kW inverter that costs around the same price as the 3KW recommended inverters - but will the batteries work ok with that inverter?? Is it to do with the BMS and how the two communicate ? - here i am woefully short on knowledge.

I haven't mentioned the hybrid inverter as I am not sure of forum rules and still under the old place habit of not mentioning brand names.

Moxi

Hi Moxie, we are doing it for the distributed knowledge and kudos amongst ourselves and the planet. No money involved. I use a Goodwe 3600 sbp. If I did it again or this unit failed I'd step up to the Goodwe 5000sbp for the extra max output. Decent enough inverter. App software is a little clunky but works for setting up charge times. Just say the inverter type. Someone will likely have one. Cheers!

Evening all and thank you for the replies so far - had to drive down to Kent to do some unexpected inspection work tomorrow so apologies for not replying earlier.

The bud rid inverter I was looking at is the Yong hui 5.5kw hybrid inverter - I’ve used some of their kit before and found it to be functional and thus far reliable but I’m aware that the hybrid would be a step up the rings so to speak so I am open to people’s experience and thoughts.

We are home based and most of my work keeps me at home as well so we make good use of whatever energy we generate where we can but we do spill a lot to the grid for around 9 months even with a west north west array and being up in north Wales so batteries to use some of this power through the night and during dull days would be practical now.

I’ve been monitoring 24 hour consumption and it’s gone from around 1kw in August to around 7 kw in November as the days shorten and solar becomes less reliable.

The dreaded but oh so helpful tumble dryer is a condensing unit A rated from Hotpoint and although I don’t necessarily expect to run it when on battery power I wanted an inverter that could deal with it if my wife put it on without realising.

I was thinking of the 3000c packs so I could go for two first to give me good cover and then add two more packs of two to take me up to 21kwh when my finances allow - is that practical ?

The panels on the roof usually start generating over 500W around noon from March through to Oct and then notch up to 26kwh on a perfect day and more usually 5kwh to 20kwh depending the usual variables.

Hope that’s filled in some gaps in the previous post.

Moxi

Try and get a copy of the CAN Buss Protocol for the inverter then you can compare it with the Pylontech protocol to give you an initial indication of compatibility.

Moxi wrote: ↑Mon Nov 15, 2021 10:43 pm Evening all and thank you for the replies so far - had to drive down to Kent to do some unexpected inspection work tomorrow so apologies for not replying earlier.

The bud rid inverter I was looking at is the Yong hui 5.5kw hybrid inverter - I’ve used some of their kit before and found it to be functional and thus far reliable but I’m aware that the hybrid would be a step up the rings so to speak so I am open to people’s experience and thoughts.

We are home based and most of my work keeps me at home as well so we make good use of whatever energy we generate where we can but we do spill a lot to the grid for around 9 months even with a west north west array and being up in north Wales so batteries to use some of this power through the night and during dull days would be practical now.

I’ve been monitoring 24 hour consumption and it’s gone from around 1kw in August to around 7 kw in November as the days shorten and solar becomes less reliable.

The dreaded but oh so helpful tumble dryer is a condensing unit A rated from Hotpoint and although I don’t necessarily expect to run it when on battery power I wanted an inverter that could deal with it if my wife put it on without realising.

I was thinking of the 3000c packs so I could go for two first to give me good cover and then add two more packs of two to take me up to 21kwh when my finances allow - is that practical ?

The panels on the roof usually start generating over 500W around noon from March through to Oct and then notch up to 26kwh on a perfect day and more usually 5kwh to 20kwh depending the usual variables.

Hope that’s filled in some gaps in the previous post.

Moxi

The Y&H 600W and 1000W grid tie inverters have a cult following. They’re astonishingly cheap and surprisingly reliable but woefully inefficient. I haven’t read any reviews of their bigger stuff I’m sure it offers decent VFM.

The only downside with the 3000 series Pylontechs is the weight, shifting 35kg will require some profane language. It depends what you can find in stock and at the best £/kWh when you come to order. But going for 2x 3.5kWh batteries now and adding more later is a decent plan.

Hi Moxi,
Can't remember if i asked you this before, have you ran down all the vampires in the house and went low energy where you can already? That in itself can make a big difference and best to get it out of the way before it leaches the batteries overnight. We run at about 135W +/- 20W background load.

Moxi,
Do you run a Ecofan on your WS? Thinking about ways to avoid tumble dryer.

Joeboy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 16, 2021 7:06 am Hi Moxi,
Can't remember if i asked you this before, have you ran down all the vampires in the house and went low energy where you can already? That in itself can make a big difference and best to get it out of the way before it leaches the batteries overnight. We run at about 135W +/- 20W background load.

135W?

I think my smart plugs use more than that!