Were getting closer to the battery solution (Now completed)

[Tay]

So, the kit is in, I'm pretty happy with it, but still waiting in some docs for the DNO for the battery system.

Its been a pretty slow process, I had surveys done back in Nov and the battery element of the system went in on the 1st of March.. I've had fun with British Gas (When dont I) They have been ripping me off since Nov. I was ready to pull the plug and move to Octopus now that the system is in.

I'll do a BG update thread elsewhere.

What I went for in the end:

Victron Multiplus II 48/8000 110 - I wanted a decent charge rate for the Pylontechs and this delivers it
5 x US5000 Pylontech (4.8kWh) batteries - I got these as I wanted the 95% DoD and capability to charge fast due in part to TOU windows
Cerbo GX - Lynx DC distribution - GX50 screen on the box where the Cerbo GX is stored

I initially left my 2 pergola panels running on the micro inverter as Victron is smart enough to recognise the AC coupled panels and that PV generation simply catered for my AC general use. The batteries complimented any use above what the PV generated.

I had crap weather during the install and the installer wanted to come back and finish off the armoured cabling to the back garden, I agreed so we had a bit of a delay until last Thursday when it was all finished. The batteries + inverter and reporting have worked perfectly since March 1st.

I thought about keeping the AC PV generation but I really wanted the reporting after seeing the whole VRM stuff.



This is what it looks like after the three strings of DC cabling were put in, the cabling job was superb and you can hardly see it go to the back of the house Paul the electrical guy did a fantastic job hiding it. It exits into a water proof box on the back of the house to MC4's right now but we'll see if we keep that. I've now used 1 of the strings for my 2 panels on the pergola in series.

I have these LonGi 435w cheapy panels and they are pretty meaty, I got a little worried when I saw the panels hit 890w's at one point on the MicroInverter (a Hoymiles 800w !!) a few days back so I have moved them on to a Victron charge controller (I've seen them hitting 900w's since !!. Panels now go to the battery if there is surplus to the normal AC requirements other wise the Multiplus II chucks it on to the AC to cover use there.

I might experiment with AC coupled as the Victron can handle it all but I might need something to manage the terrible shading capabilities of the LonGi panels.

Phase 2 designs are on the way now, next door liked the single end to end panels 1 deep, BUT its going to work out a bit more expensive for materials and we get little else for it, the 2x2 or 2x3 four or six panel garden 'lean too' is our fav as we get shade and play area for the grandkids in the summer and storage for odds and sods (garden furniture etc) in the winter.. I reckon I can still make it within current building regs so we're not decided yet.

Lets post this before my browser crashes ^^

[Joeboy]

That looks great, particularly like the distribution graphic. Seems like a lot done in a short time?

[Tay]

That looks great, particularly like the distribution graphic. Seems like a lot done in a short time?

Day and a half for the full install, i lost some shelving in the garage other than that everything fits in, room to grow too..

Best of all 99.99% of grid power taken between 12:01- 02:30, so the next phase will be the storage heater testing in a few weeks, as the grid draw reduces as the batteries go north of 80% that leaves a chunk of bandwidth to charge up the heaters with off peak too.

Ground solar is going to take some time, id like to have 3kwh of system in within 2-3 months, but thats down to time and money. That will take some of the burden off the batteries too.

[Joeboy]

That's great, a decent sized battery stack and panel volume let's us/we run the soc low knowing it will be made up the next day. I tend to start the day now with 30% soc knowing we are past the 1kW generation bar even in cloudy conditions. Have fun learning the seasonal parameters.

[Krill]

That Victron kit looks snazzy, especially the battery stack.

[nowty]

Tay, do you have the power for each Pylontech battery wired into some sort of central busbar ?

[Tay]

Tay, do you have the power for each Pylontech battery wired into some sort of central busbar ?

yup, the batteries excluding the comms obvs goes through the Victron Lynx distributor which is a modular busbar (The last photo is of the cables and Lynx). I'm not sure how much you can keep adding to it but I think its quite a bit.

Link to Lynx distributor

[Fintray]

Tay, do you have the power for each Pylontech battery wired into some sort of central busbar ?

It looks from the second last picture if they all tie back to the Lynx busbar.
Beaten to it

[Tay]

That's great, a decent sized battery stack and panel volume let's us/we run the soc low knowing it will be made up the next day. I tend to start the day now with 30% soc knowing we are past the 1kW generation bar even in cloudy conditions. Have fun learning the seasonal parameters.

I'm letting the Victron stuff sort itself out at the moment, the predictive stuff is pretty good, this is todays: Scattered rain most of the day .



I'll have much more to play with when I move to Octopus, the system (although not yet figured it out) can hook into Octopus agile and batteries can discharge to grid (Once all the stuff has been sorted) during peak times and draw when free/cheaper.

I wanted this with a view to when we go off on holiday and the PV side is all set up and the PV might go to waste if the batteries arnt being used much for washing machine/dishwasher etc.

Then we can start getting stuff back, this is simply a monthly cost saving exercise right now, removing all peak usage (which we've now done), then to find a decent provider; you know my views on BG; then get some decent PV in place and start to reduce off peak usage or utilise the solar for A/C's or something like that. Maybe around the time that all happens I might be convinced to drive a Hybrid EV or something like that.

I kinda miss having the panels AC coupled through the Hoymilesas the Victron inverter plays nicely with non victron devices, I was halfway through testing the RS485 connection and about to get a zigbee device to plug it into the Victron but the gave me a cable install date before I could blow cash on it... probably wise.

It was nice seeing zero A/C usage on a decent day AND the batteries being charged by the Hoymiles

[nowty]

Tay, do you have the power for each Pylontech battery wired into some sort of central busbar ?

yup, the batteries excluding the comms obvs goes through the Victron Lynx distributor which is a modular busbar (The last photo is of the cables and Lynx). I'm not sure how much you can keep adding to it but I think its quite a bit.

Link to Lynx distributor

Quality !, you will be able to push the amps.

The standard pylontech cable gets very warm at 100A and hot at 120A.