new member with new battery

[openspaceman]

Hi

I've just signed up to learn a bit. I have had 4kW installed PV power, 16 Sharp panels facing SW, for ten years now but they weren't contributing much to my personal electricity usage so I took advantage of my LAs bulk purchasing scheme for a 6.3kWh battery hoping it would look after itself.

Unfortunately there were quite a few problems with the installer so now I have to learn a bit more about the system.

[Joeboy]

Welcome onboard,there is a good range of experience here.

[nowty]

Welcome openspaceman.

If your 10 years in with the panels, I guess your on FITs, if so has probably paid you back for both your panels and the new battery system.

What are the details of your new battery system, brand, model, etc ?

What were the problems with the installer ?

What issues are you currently experiencing with the new battery system ?

[Tinbum]

Hi, and photos please.

[Stinsy]

Hi, and photos please.

^this!

[openspaceman]

If your 10 years in with the panels, I guess your on FITs, if so has probably paid you back for both your panels and the new battery system.


What are the details of your new battery system, brand, model, etc ?

What were the problems with the installer ?

What issues are you currently experiencing with the new battery system ?

Nosy but yes, In real terms I don't think the FIT has paid off the capital cost yet, remember panel prices halved soon after the initial FIT tranche finished.

From extrapolating the difference in bills I guess we only self consumed 2.5kWh on average per day before the battery was fitted end of September 2021

We seem to use about 8kWh daily and that has mostly been solar generated since the beginning of March. These sunny days we are exporting 2-5kWh/day

Battery is a Growatt LiIon Phosphate with its own growatt SPA3000TL BL inverter.

The problems started with the survey, the company owner undertook that and proposed that the battery and inverter should go in the attic near the current inverter and on the inside of the gable wall. After a couple of failed appointments the gear arrived but the electricians would not install it because the cable runs were too long and far from the supply and consumer unit. After much to-ing and fro-ing I agreed to remove a radiator by the following day to have the units mounted adjacent to the consumer unit. I was a bit concerned at having the battery in a hallway open to the living area. Anyhow there was a no show for the next month after which, and following several phone calls, a different electrician arrived and fitted the inverter and battery. During the months November to February the battery seldom charged much and at night there were phantom loads and unwanted imports/exports from the grid. I think the settings were constantly being fettled remotely but it then settled to a constant draw of about 90-180W which I take to be the parasitic load of inverter(s) and the fridge.

Then this sunny weather arrived and the battery which charges fine , reaches full charge and we see a large 2kW+ export then the battery locks out with a red light in the front panel and the inverter flags up a fault. The call centre for the firm advise doing nothing and the fault will clear, no response from firm to phone messages nor email but lock out remains and electricity is imported from grid.

I'm sure it fails safe but of course once the sun goes down we have a full battery and no access for its energy. In the absence of further advice I reset the battery by isolating the solar system and switching the battery off, then re enabling the solar circuit and switching the battery back on. I hear the noise of two contactors in the battery case and all seems well until the next time.

So far the only things I have changed in the house have been to replace the kettle for a 2kW one and fitted a 36" immersion element but with only 1.5kW power just to reduce conflicts as the inverter only copes with 3kW if the sun isn't shining. I have yet to look at automatic divert to immersion but as we use little DHW I'm thinking I might manually switch the immersion.

We have gas CH but have only used it for DHW this last winter, a 4kW woodstove sorts out most of the heating in this small but solid wall semi.

I need a better understanding of the battery operation, my original intention had been to go for a cheap off peak tariff in winter but most of those have disappeared. With four legacy motors with lots of life in them I doubt I will ever afford an EV as I'm getting on a bit.

[openspaceman]

Hi, and photos please.

^this!

What photos would you two like?

[Tinbum]

This sounds as if the settings in the SPA3000TL BL are not set up correctly.

Note- look at the battery system and PV system as two different systems they really aren't linked. As long as the PV is producing energy during the day OK then ignore that.

I would get your manual out for the SPA3000TL BL and have a good read.

[Joeboy]

Hi, and photos please.

^this!

What photos would you two like?

You'll do better not calling people nosy when they try to gather info on what your issues are? Or you could keep going as you are...

[nowty]

I am not familiar with that exact inverter but it is an AC coupled battery inverter and they all work in a very similar way. I agree with Tinbum, almost certainly the settings were not correct from the outset but you only found out when the sun really started shining.

There must be an error message / code associated with the red light, do you know the actual code or the error message ?

There is a list of error codes / messages in section 9 of the user manual.