SolarBattery
New Member
Hello forum and thank you for any help!
A retired friend has an old 3.68kW system on a legacy FIT (Feed In Tariff) and his production is pretty good. He gets a fat check every few months its incredible.
With the recent considerable drop in the cost of solar storage batteries, we were chatting and he asked me the other day if he could just add a battery to his existing system.
In my head I would have thought this is quite easy, but it turns out it might mess with his FIT agreement.
So I have a few questions please that I hope can be answered:
1 - Can one simply add a battery (say 5kWh) to an existing 3.68kW legacy system. It does not have a hybrid capability now.
2 - I assume if there is a 'swap out' hybrid inverter (is there?) that is the same, how do I find out if this will hit his existing FIT? We don't want to mess with this.
3 - If we just put in a bigger inverter (like 5kW) I assume this put him over the 3.68 and he would need to completely re-certify or something?
4 - Is there not a simply way to add a battery + charger/inverter/bms like an off-grid model, somewhere separate and some sort of CT clamp or reader that tells the battery when to charge? Something like the iBoost which I believe diverts excess production into your hot water element. Something like that which is a battery rather than the heater? And then asks for it back later when the sun has gone down.
5 - I must admit the rules about what can be done are confusing to me. AC coupled and DC coupled? Off-grid and zero export. In my simply mind I would think putting an 'appliance' on your home electrical system is nobody's business. But I also feel there is a rule out there that says I cant just fill my house with a fat battery and not let anyone know? Or can I, because its just like a UPS?
I appreciate any advice. Bit of a ramble so I apologise for this. In short: Can we just add a simply battery to the house, which uses excess power and then sends it back to the house when the sun has gone down, without a wholesale replacement of the whole system and the risk of losing the FIT etc.
Thank you!
A retired friend has an old 3.68kW system on a legacy FIT (Feed In Tariff) and his production is pretty good. He gets a fat check every few months its incredible.
With the recent considerable drop in the cost of solar storage batteries, we were chatting and he asked me the other day if he could just add a battery to his existing system.
In my head I would have thought this is quite easy, but it turns out it might mess with his FIT agreement.
So I have a few questions please that I hope can be answered:
1 - Can one simply add a battery (say 5kWh) to an existing 3.68kW legacy system. It does not have a hybrid capability now.
2 - I assume if there is a 'swap out' hybrid inverter (is there?) that is the same, how do I find out if this will hit his existing FIT? We don't want to mess with this.
3 - If we just put in a bigger inverter (like 5kW) I assume this put him over the 3.68 and he would need to completely re-certify or something?
4 - Is there not a simply way to add a battery + charger/inverter/bms like an off-grid model, somewhere separate and some sort of CT clamp or reader that tells the battery when to charge? Something like the iBoost which I believe diverts excess production into your hot water element. Something like that which is a battery rather than the heater? And then asks for it back later when the sun has gone down.
5 - I must admit the rules about what can be done are confusing to me. AC coupled and DC coupled? Off-grid and zero export. In my simply mind I would think putting an 'appliance' on your home electrical system is nobody's business. But I also feel there is a rule out there that says I cant just fill my house with a fat battery and not let anyone know? Or can I, because its just like a UPS?
I appreciate any advice. Bit of a ramble so I apologise for this. In short: Can we just add a simply battery to the house, which uses excess power and then sends it back to the house when the sun has gone down, without a wholesale replacement of the whole system and the risk of losing the FIT etc.
Thank you!
