daklein
New Member
- Joined
- May 8, 2020
- Messages
- 196
Sure they're not just GFI tripped? I wouldn't toss them until trying to reset that from your envoy.
Using solar micro inverters with batteries instead of panels
- Thread starter chopwood
- Start date
Not sure whats' wrong with them. I don't have Envoy to test them. I will most definitely not toss them out haha.
you are likely no longer interested but here is a quick response.
the enphase gateway limits the output of the micro inverted based on the ac requirements from the consumption CT. no timers required for this part and reduces draw on battery when not needed. for charging.. I do have a timer for 9pm off to midnight on. during this 3 hours I have 42v chargers charging my battery packs. these chargers are on a timer. they shut down when 42v is reached. 9 to 12 is free power so I draw significantly on this.
9 micro inverters are connected. most the time only 3 or 4 are all that's needed.
batterys shut down when 32v is reached. ideally I don't want to charge to max or draw to minimum. I did have this controlled via the digital timer to be automatic. when I changed the setup I haven't put this back in and manually monitor.
Overthinker
New Member
May I ask which app this is? I love data.Mine is similar. I have 1 Envoy micro inverter per battery. You can have as many micro inverters as you like.
I have one 24V Battery with 5KW AC capacity running every night for 14 hours @ 300W AC (240 V)
Also one 24V Battery with 1.6KW AC Capacity running every night for 14 hours @ 200W AC (240 V)
Because my system is Micro Inverters everything is 240V AC.
So I charge my batteries during day with good quality 240V chargers.
I don't like the chargers that do everything (AGM, Lead Acid, LiFePo Etc - all in one) (I use Dedicated only)
20Amp is a bit slower but the whole system runs quite cool.
AC-DC 24V 20A Lithium LiFePO4 Battery Charger - Amptron
AC-DC 24V 20A Lithium LiFePO4 Battery Charger AMPTRON® Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery chargers are state-of-the-art battery chargers with a charging profile specifically designed to charge and maintain Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries, and can safely achieve a 100% State of...www.amptron.com.au
I charge about 8 hours per day.
View attachment 144650
Overthinker
New Member
Thank you for posting all this detail. I want to do this as well. Reading through your posts, I see that this has been a bit of a learning experience. If you had to do things over, what would you do different? I like to do things as simple as possible, but also like automation when it makes sense.
So, just to recap half year of thinking, and rethinking...
I got step up converters form aliexpress for the plan of boosting a 24V battery in the range of my microinverter, then I was thinking of using li ion 36V battery from e-bike that is not in use (or in use 2x a year) to use with microinverters.
So after a lot of thinking all the stuff is still in boxes, I didn't want do risk mi HM 600, because it's a bit expensive to replace and I have to call the installer so they program a new HM 600 in my dtu if I burn the one I got.
So with that 800W of panels that I can have in EU without asking any permissions I can have max 2.4kWh of "surplus". So doing the math of buying, a 2kWh battery and complicating my life for saving additional 50c a day (max). (currently with tax and all the cost is about 20c/kWh ).
I decided to leave the system as is for now, because battery boxes are getting cheaper, now is possible to buy a 5kW system (5kW panels, 5kW hybrid inverter, and 5kWh battery) for 5000euro, actually by shopping around and getting unknown brands is possible to get down to 3700 eur.
I will probably wait another year to see if the prices will fall or not and then go for a 5kW panels and inverter, and 5kWh or 10kWh battery.
It wold cost me about 1000 to hack my system to work on battery + battery (MPPT charger + battery + step up or soft start) and there are no guarantees, and it will cover 30% of my power usage in summer and 20% in winter. Or pay hopefully about 4000eur, nexy year and have more than 90% of my usage covered by solar.
But I have to ask for permission to put up solar panels, because people were putting up panels in all kind of orientations and the autoritis have decided that panels must be installed in a way that doesn't hurt the "aesthetic look" of houses.
Just for information, I tried to orient the panels E-W , and I discovered no benefits compared to pure south orientation. If two panels produce 20% in the morning or one panel produces 50% and the other one 0%, the final result of daily production is the same. The beginning and end of production in a day is about 15min sooner in the morning to reach the first 100W and in the eavening is about another 15m longer, so 30min of production more in a day, but less peak power.
I got step up converters form aliexpress for the plan of boosting a 24V battery in the range of my microinverter, then I was thinking of using li ion 36V battery from e-bike that is not in use (or in use 2x a year) to use with microinverters.
So after a lot of thinking all the stuff is still in boxes, I didn't want do risk mi HM 600, because it's a bit expensive to replace and I have to call the installer so they program a new HM 600 in my dtu if I burn the one I got.
So with that 800W of panels that I can have in EU without asking any permissions I can have max 2.4kWh of "surplus". So doing the math of buying, a 2kWh battery and complicating my life for saving additional 50c a day (max). (currently with tax and all the cost is about 20c/kWh ).
I decided to leave the system as is for now, because battery boxes are getting cheaper, now is possible to buy a 5kW system (5kW panels, 5kW hybrid inverter, and 5kWh battery) for 5000euro, actually by shopping around and getting unknown brands is possible to get down to 3700 eur.
I will probably wait another year to see if the prices will fall or not and then go for a 5kW panels and inverter, and 5kWh or 10kWh battery.
It wold cost me about 1000 to hack my system to work on battery + battery (MPPT charger + battery + step up or soft start) and there are no guarantees, and it will cover 30% of my power usage in summer and 20% in winter. Or pay hopefully about 4000eur, nexy year and have more than 90% of my usage covered by solar.
But I have to ask for permission to put up solar panels, because people were putting up panels in all kind of orientations and the autoritis have decided that panels must be installed in a way that doesn't hurt the "aesthetic look" of houses.
Just for information, I tried to orient the panels E-W , and I discovered no benefits compared to pure south orientation. If two panels produce 20% in the morning or one panel produces 50% and the other one 0%, the final result of daily production is the same. The beginning and end of production in a day is about 15min sooner in the morning to reach the first 100W and in the eavening is about another 15m longer, so 30min of production more in a day, but less peak power.
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