Any day now 🤞

[nowty]

LONGi Solar Hi-MO 6 435WP Black Frame PV Module LR5-54HTH-435M

659120
£85.68
each, Inc. VAT from City Plumbing.

I just bought another 10

Is that the same 10 you bought last month or another 10 ?

[ALAN/ALAN D]

Ref from Mr Nowty " Is that the same 10 you bought last month or another 10 ? "

That is last months 10. Only got 2 more this month Sooo Far.

Am still Pondering what toooo buy myself for Xmas.

Just Done a count. Takes me up to 51

Not counting this one.


Or the little one for charging the tractor battery.

[Lincs Robert]

What's your plan for them?

At the moment I have two Lux ACS 3600 units with 5 Pylon US2000 on each and also a Chinese stack each. It’s been in a year and works well. The only minor issue is that I now have more storage than I can charge on my Octopus Go 4 hour window overnight. Two Lux units gives me a max charge rate of roughly 7kW, so that’s 28kWh that I can import overnight. Sometimes it’s actually less than that as the batteries charge rate reduces when it’s cold - it does warm during the charge cycle, but there is an occasional restriction. Each of my Chinese stacks adds another 13.4kWh gross, thus giving me a total gross capacity of 50.88kWh.

The plan is to add a third Lux unit, this will increase the charge rate to a theoretical 10.8kW, so in ideal conditions I can import 43kWh in the 4 hour window. However, the third Lux unit needs its own batteries and part of this will be met with the new Chinese stack, supplementing 4 of my existing 10 Pylons. Each of the existing Lux units will have its Pylon count reduced from 5 to 3, with the freed up 4 going to the new Lux. The capacity of the new Chinese stack is slightly less than the existing one as it will be 230Ah cells rather than the existing 280s. This means its capacity is slightly less @ 11KWh rather than the existing 13.4kWh, hence giving it the extra Pylon which neatly levels it all up. The new total gross will be just shy of 62kWh.

Hopefully that all makes sense. I know I’m on the threshold with the 3 Pylons to achieve a 3.6kW charge rate - but I’ll hopefully add some more when funds permit and I’ve seen how the system performs in practice over the coming months.

A somewhat lengthy explanation- but it is the trail of how I got to where I am now.

Cheers- Rob

Just a comment on one point: Luxpower ACS 3600 (the parallel version) can be connected to the same battery stack. I currently have two connected to three Pylontech US5000's.

There is an advantage to this: During the time that you don't need more than one inverter to discharge the battery, you can set the subordinate inverters to discharge at 0% in the app hence you get the benefit of a better discharge efficiency compared to a single, large inverter, but you can still access the entire battery store. If the batteries were split and this happened, then there is additional workload ie coding something in Node red etc to manage the same thing so that one stack does not drain compelte and leave you with less inverting power when you need it.

That’s interesting. Thanks. . It would also mean that I could essentially have all 10 Pylons connected plus multiple Chinese stacks I guess? That would reduce the load on individual Pylons even without going into the config change you commented on? Why don’t Infinity promote using a single battery stack? They essentially ignore this option don’t they? What other config changes are needed please? Certain food for thought as would mean that I don’t have to buy multiple more Pylons to lower the 3600W limit per inverter?

[Lincs Robert]

LONGi Solar Hi-MO 6 435WP Black Frame PV Module LR5-54HTH-435M

659120
£85.68
each, Inc. VAT from City Plumbing.

I just bought another 10

Thanks Alan. A new supplier to me. With free delivery and collection beats Tradesparky by £180 straight off the blocks

[Krill]

At the moment I have two Lux ACS 3600 units with 5 Pylon US2000 on each and also a Chinese stack each. It’s been in a year and works well. The only minor issue is that I now have more storage than I can charge on my Octopus Go 4 hour window overnight. Two Lux units gives me a max charge rate of roughly 7kW, so that’s 28kWh that I can import overnight. Sometimes it’s actually less than that as the batteries charge rate reduces when it’s cold - it does warm during the charge cycle, but there is an occasional restriction. Each of my Chinese stacks adds another 13.4kWh gross, thus giving me a total gross capacity of 50.88kWh.

The plan is to add a third Lux unit, this will increase the charge rate to a theoretical 10.8kW, so in ideal conditions I can import 43kWh in the 4 hour window. However, the third Lux unit needs its own batteries and part of this will be met with the new Chinese stack, supplementing 4 of my existing 10 Pylons. Each of the existing Lux units will have its Pylon count reduced from 5 to 3, with the freed up 4 going to the new Lux. The capacity of the new Chinese stack is slightly less than the existing one as it will be 230Ah cells rather than the existing 280s. This means its capacity is slightly less @ 11KWh rather than the existing 13.4kWh, hence giving it the extra Pylon which neatly levels it all up. The new total gross will be just shy of 62kWh.

Hopefully that all makes sense. I know I’m on the threshold with the 3 Pylons to achieve a 3.6kW charge rate - but I’ll hopefully add some more when funds permit and I’ve seen how the system performs in practice over the coming months.

A somewhat lengthy explanation- but it is the trail of how I got to where I am now.

Cheers- Rob

Just a comment on one point: Luxpower ACS 3600 (the parallel version) can be connected to the same battery stack. I currently have two connected to three Pylontech US5000's.

There is an advantage to this: During the time that you don't need more than one inverter to discharge the battery, you can set the subordinate inverters to discharge at 0% in the app hence you get the benefit of a better discharge efficiency compared to a single, large inverter, but you can still access the entire battery store. If the batteries were split and this happened, then there is additional workload ie coding something in Node red etc to manage the same thing so that one stack does not drain compelte and leave you with less inverting power when you need it.

That’s interesting. Thanks. . It would also mean that I could essentially have all 10 Pylons connected plus multiple Chinese stacks I guess? That would reduce the load on individual Pylons even without going into the config change you commented on? Why don’t Infinity promote using a single battery stack? They essentially ignore this option don’t they? What other config changes are needed please? Certain food for thought as would mean that I don’t have to buy multiple more Pylons to lower the 3600W limit per inverter?

I'd love to answer all of your questions, and to be definitive, but unfortunately I have no clue about most of this and I'm not going to claim I do.

However, I would guess that this is not promoted because Infinity want to push sales of batteries as much as they can, given how high margin they are. My system was installed by a third party installer who assessed and fitted the system, so obviously just bought the units from Inifinity as an accreditied installer. They didn't push me on the batteries when I said I wanted Pylontech. OTOH how many potential buyers understand the challenges of battery charge/discharge limitations? Maybe this just circumvents a sales issue?

I do know that as a user I can't set the system up to use a single battery but the installer account has the control (I must admit I do not like this problem). But yes, if all the batteries were in one huge stack (like Joeboys) then there would be fair less stress on them in general (no difference if charging at 100% though). There is the issues of the BMS though, I don't claim to know how that is set up to protect each individual "sub-stack".

[Lincs Robert]

Just a comment on one point: Luxpower ACS 3600 (the parallel version) can be connected to the same battery stack. I currently have two connected to three Pylontech US5000's.

There is an advantage to this: During the time that you don't need more than one inverter to discharge the battery, you can set the subordinate inverters to discharge at 0% in the app hence you get the benefit of a better discharge efficiency compared to a single, large inverter, but you can still access the entire battery store. If the batteries were split and this happened, then there is additional workload ie coding something in Node red etc to manage the same thing so that one stack does not drain compelte and leave you with less inverting power when you need it.

That’s interesting. Thanks. . It would also mean that I could essentially have all 10 Pylons connected plus multiple Chinese stacks I guess? That would reduce the load on individual Pylons even without going into the config change you commented on? Why don’t Infinity promote using a single battery stack? They essentially ignore this option don’t they? What other config changes are needed please? Certain food for thought as would mean that I don’t have to buy multiple more Pylons to lower the 3600W limit per inverter?

I'd love to answer all of your questions, and to be definitive, but unfortunately I have no clue about most of this and I'm not going to claim I do.

However, I would guess that this is not promoted because Infinity want to push sales of batteries as much as they can, given how high margin they are. My system was installed by a third party installer who assessed and fitted the system, so obviously just bought the units from Inifinity as an accreditied installer. They didn't push me on the batteries when I said I wanted Pylontech. OTOH how many potential buyers understand the challenges of battery charge/discharge limitations? Maybe this just circumvents a sales issue?

I do know that as a user I can't set the system up to use a single battery but the installer account has the control (I must admit I do not like this problem). But yes, if all the batteries were in one huge stack (like Joeboys) then there would be fair less stress on them in general (no difference if charging at 100% though). There is the issues of the BMS though, I don't claim to know how that is set up to protect each individual "sub-stack".

Thanks - it was really just thinking out loud. Yet another setting that users can’t access! If these settings were available to us it would be an excellent system. My installer is good, but I don’t want to take advantage by making changes. I’m happy to add new batteries & my Chinese stacks just plug in so can be unplugged if needs be. Nailing down config like this is anti-competitive in my view. It also limits the systems being sold on the 2nd hand market. Hey ho

[richbee]

LONGi Solar Hi-MO 6 435WP Black Frame PV Module LR5-54HTH-435M

659120
£85.68
each, Inc. VAT from City Plumbing.

I just bought another 10

Thanks Alan. A new supplier to me. With free delivery and collection beats Tradesparky by £180 straight off the blocks

Indeed - I got the same ones from them, with fitting rails and brackets etc - great value

[Lincs Robert]

And they’re here

A tad frustrating as the DPD tracker went from “we have your shipment details, but no package as yet”, to being delivered all within 2 hours! Hey ho.
But they have landed on the door mat & that’s the main thing.

So that’ll keep me busy into the new year - although I can’t get a slot to get the new Lux commissioned until the 2nd week of Jan so no need to rush anything. A few hours spend quietly wiring away when the sister in law visits will fit in nicely & kill two birds with one cell .

Happy Xmas all.

All the best - Rob

[Countrypaul]

And they’re here

A tad frustrating as the DPD tracker went from “we have your shipment details, but no package as yet”, to being delivered all within 2 hours! Hey ho.
But they have landed on the door mat & that’s the main thing.

So that’ll keep me busy into the new year - although I can’t get a slot to get the new Lux commissioned until the 2nd week of Jan so no need to rush anything. A few hours spend quietly wiring away when the sister in law visits will fit in nicely & kill two birds with one cell .

Happy Xmas all.

All the best - Rob

Have you been reading the Daiy Start Rob?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-the-papers-67740319

The Daily Star draws on a survey which suggests that one in three men will flee relatives on Christmas Day by retreating to the shed. The paper says sneaking off to the bottom of the garden can help avoid rows about politics or what to watch on TV after Christmas lunch is finished - with many men pretending they have a DIY task on the go.

[Lincs Robert]

Many a true word spoken in jest