Philip53
10.4kw DIY Home Solar Sprinter Van DIY Victron
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2022
- Messages
- 111
Eleven years ago I installed a 2 array, 5.6kw grid tied system on my home. Since my home was not ideally situated, I ended up with SE and SW roof mounted arrays. The original system was close to net zero at the time, but as the years went by, my usage increased. Looking at either a ground mount, or replacing a 35 year old outbuilding, and using it as another roof mount, I decided to have double use, and replace the old lawn & garden storage building. With a true south roof orientation, of course.
My 11 year old Concorde Lifeline batteries (256ah) were showing their age. On our infrequent outages, they simply had little ability to power our critical loads for any appreciable time. So, I decided to replace them with two 220ah lithiums from Trophy battery. While I am still working on the building for the new 4kw array, I decided to go ahead and replace the old AGM's. After much research, I decided on the Trophy batteries from trophybattery.com. Talking to the owner, Dan, cinched the deal. So far I have been very pleased with the new batteries. Dan answers his calls himself, or will return the call in short order if he is busy, and has helped me program my older Schneider XW to work with his batteries. The new batteries are sold as 220ah, but as Dan said, they would be closer to 230ah. As promised, both of them show 230ah at 100% SOC. I now have approximately 3 times the usable battery back up than with the old AGM's.
With the added 4kw array during the midday sun, I will be overpaneled, but that will help keep my production curve flatter than it would normally be by catching some rays early and late, adding to the SE & SW production . I am sure I will max out my 6kw XW output, for a decent portion of the day. To that end, I also installed a twin computer type fan on top of the inverter to assist in cooling.
My 11 year old Concorde Lifeline batteries (256ah) were showing their age. On our infrequent outages, they simply had little ability to power our critical loads for any appreciable time. So, I decided to replace them with two 220ah lithiums from Trophy battery. While I am still working on the building for the new 4kw array, I decided to go ahead and replace the old AGM's. After much research, I decided on the Trophy batteries from trophybattery.com. Talking to the owner, Dan, cinched the deal. So far I have been very pleased with the new batteries. Dan answers his calls himself, or will return the call in short order if he is busy, and has helped me program my older Schneider XW to work with his batteries. The new batteries are sold as 220ah, but as Dan said, they would be closer to 230ah. As promised, both of them show 230ah at 100% SOC. I now have approximately 3 times the usable battery back up than with the old AGM's.
With the added 4kw array during the midday sun, I will be overpaneled, but that will help keep my production curve flatter than it would normally be by catching some rays early and late, adding to the SE & SW production . I am sure I will max out my 6kw XW output, for a decent portion of the day. To that end, I also installed a twin computer type fan on top of the inverter to assist in cooling.
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