Battery advice needed

[Mercracing]

I have a recently installed solar system that consists of the following.
Sol-Ark 15K - Grid tied
8.2 KW of SunPower panels on a ground mount

I am in the process of trying to decide on how to move forward with adding batteries and a generator to the system. The primary reason we are wanting the batteries and generator at this time is for back up power due to our less than reliable rural power grid (four power outages already this year). Budget is always a concern so I have narrowed down my battery options to the following, EG4 LL, SOK (I don't like the rack option), Trophy, or the outlier Bigbattery. My areas of concern between the vendors is largely coming down to customer service and product support. I really like the price point and the rather all in one place purchase aspect off the EG4 LL loaded cabinet from Signature Solar, but it seems like the support can be lacking. I spoke with Scott from Practical Preppers once and was impressed, that having been said I have attempted to contact him two times since then (over about three to four weeks) to discuss purchasing a Champion standby generator without luck or a return call which doesn't give me the warm fuzzy's. I have spoken with the owner of Trophy battery a couple of times and have been very impressed with his availability and willingness to jump in and help. My concerns with Trophy is the lack of comms with the Sol-Ark and getting the batteries into some sort of a cabinet with bus bar. I would appreciate any advice and or the groups good or bad experiences dealing with the previously mentioned companies and products. I will be using the product manager who handled our solar install (he is an electrician, has been a solar installer, and teaches solar at the local junior college) for/helping with the install work. My fear with the more questionable vendor support is not being able to get assistance while the installer is on site and then having to chase everyone around trying to correct issues.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[MisterSandals]

Have you read any of these?

Search results for query: sol-ark 15k

diysolarforum.com

 

[houseofancients]

I have a recently installed solar system that consists of the following.
Sol-Ark 15K - Grid tied
8.2 KW of SunPower panels on a ground mount

I am in the process of trying to decide on how to move forward with adding batteries and a generator to the system. The primary reason we are wanting the batteries and generator at this time is for back up power due to our less than reliable rural power grid (four power outages already this year). Budget is always a concern so I have narrowed down my battery options to the following, EG4 LL, SOK (I don't like the rack option), Trophy, or the outlier Bigbattery. My areas of concern between the vendors is largely coming down to customer service and product support. I really like the price point and the rather all in one place purchase aspect off the EG4 LL loaded cabinet from Signature Solar, but it seems like the support can be lacking. I spoke with Scott from Practical Preppers once and was impressed, that having been said I have attempted to contact him two times since then (over about three to four weeks) to discuss purchasing a Champion standby generator without luck or a return call which doesn't give me the warm fuzzy's. I have spoken with the owner of Trophy battery a couple of times and have been very impressed with his availability and willingness to jump in and help. My concerns with Trophy is the lack of comms with the Sol-Ark and getting the batteries into some sort of a cabinet with bus bar. I would appreciate any advice and or the groups good or bad experiences dealing with the previously mentioned companies and products. I will be using the product manager who handled our solar install (he is an electrician, has been a solar installer, and teaches solar at the local junior college) for/helping with the install work. My fear with the more questionable vendor support is not being able to get assistance while the installer is on site and then having to chase everyone around trying to correct issues.

Thanks in advance for your help.

sok and trophy would give you an a class and local support.
both can communicate with the sol-ark
@HighTechLab and dan will go above and beyond to support you

 

[Mercracing]

Have you read any of these?

Search results for query: sol-ark 15k

diysolarforum.com

A few of them. Lots of reading about peoples systems more so than a more to the point review of people dealing with the vendors (unless I missed a something).

 

[HighTechLab]

The nice part about rack batteries, is that even if you don't like the rack, they conveniently use a standard form factor that fits other racks.

 

[629658]

I have a recently installed solar system that consists of the following.
Sol-Ark 15K - Grid tied
8.2 KW of SunPower panels on a ground mount

I am in the process of trying to decide on how to move forward with adding batteries and a generator to the system. The primary reason we are wanting the batteries and generator at this time is for back up power due to our less than reliable rural power grid (four power outages already this year). Budget is always a concern so I have narrowed down my battery options to the following, EG4 LL, SOK (I don't like the rack option), Trophy, or the outlier Bigbattery. My areas of concern between the vendors is largely coming down to customer service and product support. I really like the price point and the rather all in one place purchase aspect off the EG4 LL loaded cabinet from Signature Solar, but it seems like the support can be lacking. I spoke with Scott from Practical Preppers once and was impressed, that having been said I have attempted to contact him two times since then (over about three to four weeks) to discuss purchasing a Champion standby generator without luck or a return call which doesn't give me the warm fuzzy's. I have spoken with the owner of Trophy battery a couple of times and have been very impressed with his availability and willingness to jump in and help. My concerns with Trophy is the lack of comms with the Sol-Ark and getting the batteries into some sort of a cabinet with bus bar. I would appreciate any advice and or the groups good or bad experiences dealing with the previously mentioned companies and products. I will be using the product manager who handled our solar install (he is an electrician, has been a solar installer, and teaches solar at the local junior college) for/helping with the install work. My fear with the more questionable vendor support is not being able to get assistance while the installer is on site and then having to chase everyone around trying to correct issues.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Love our Trophies. Running open loop for 9 mos now no issues. Closed comms is unnecessary IMO. I do have a Solar Assistant which is a must have. Trophy support is the best and they ship extremely fast. I have 8 of the 220’s.

 

[houseofancients]

Love our Trophies. Running open loop for 9 mos now no issues. Closed comms is unnecessary IMO. I do have a Solar Assistant which is a must have. Trophy support is the best and they ship extremely fast. I have 8 of the 220’s.

Love our Trophies. Running open loop for 9 mos now no issues. Closed comms is unnecessary IMO. I do have a Solar Assistant which is a must have. Trophy support is the best and they ship extremely fast. I have 8 of the 220’s.

btw lt dan confirmed that the trophy's use a seplos bms.
closed loop between your sol-ark and these batteries should not be a problem at all..
create a ln utp cable, where the inverter side only has white-blue on pin 4 , blue on pin 5 and green on 6 and you can set lithium for you batteries

 

[629658]

btw lt dan confirmed that the trophy's use a seplos bms.
closed loop between your sol-ark and these batteries should not be a problem at all..
create a ln utp cable, where the inverter side only has white-blue on pin 4 , blue on pin 5 and green on 6 and you can set lithium for you batteries

I was working with Dan on this. I wired up some custom cables but it really messed with my Sol Ark settings. I may give it another try but honestly it’s not been any issue at all without comms so my motivation to change it is on my low priority list at the moment.

 

[DIYrich]

The batteries you have chosen I believe are UL 1973 listed. Might want to think about whether UL 9540 is worth it to you. If you require a local permit, see if UL 9540 is required.

Regarding generator, three major options:
1) 240v Inverter Generator at least 5kW. This can connect directly to the Sol-Ark Gen Input. Inverter provides "clean" power.
2) 240v conventional generator, at least 5kW. This can connect directly to the Sol-Ark Gen Input. Regular generator provides "dirty" power.
3) Any generator (preferably 240v, 4-7kW) connected to a Chargeverter that is directly connected to your battery. Sol-Ark provides clean power.

I have #3 with a WEN DF475T. It is a 3.8kW dual fuel generator. It costs $450 (plus $300 for the chargeverter). With the Chargeverter, in a pinch, I can buy any generator to recharge the battery and provide clean power to the house. The Firman tri-fuel from Costco is a good deal, especially when on sale. However, it weighs twice as much as the WEN. As backup to the backup, I figure I can deal with the inconvenience of a smaller generator. If I was going with option 1, then a Champion Inverter is what I would pick, and convert it to tri-fuel. But, it is heavy too.

 

[629658]

The batteries you have chosen I believe are UL 1973 listed. Might want to think about whether UL 9540 is worth it to you. If you require a local permit, see if UL 9540 is required.

Regarding generator, three major options:
1) 240v Inverter Generator at least 5kW. This can connect directly to the Sol-Ark Gen Input. Inverter provides "clean" power.
2) 240v conventional generator, at least 5kW. This can connect directly to the Sol-Ark Gen Input. Regular generator provides "dirty" power.
3) Any generator (preferably 240v, 4-7kW) connected to a Chargeverter that is directly connected to your battery. Sol-Ark provides clean power.

I have #3 with a WEN DF475T. It is a 3.8kW dual fuel generator. It costs $450 (plus $300 for the chargeverter). With the Chargeverter, in a pinch, I can buy any generator to recharge the battery and provide clean power to the house. The Firman tri-fuel from Costco is a good deal, especially when on sale. However, it weighs twice as much as the WEN. As backup to the backup, I figure I can deal with the inconvenience of a smaller generator. If I was going with option 1, then a Champion Inverter is what I would pick, and convert it to tri-fuel. But, it is heavy too.

Sol Ark works well with most generators clean or dirty and for the most part charges the batteries. Loads will be on the generator too while it’s running but once batteries are full they are reconnected and the generator is stopped automatically.

 

[Mercracing]

btw lt dan confirmed that the trophy's use a seplos bms.
closed loop between your sol-ark and these batteries should not be a problem at all..
create a ln utp cable, where the inverter side only has white-blue on pin 4 , blue on pin 5 and green on 6 and you can set lithium for you batteries

I was not aware of that. I will have to give him another call.

 

[Mercracing]

Sol Ark works well with most generators clean or dirty and for the most part charges the batteries. Loads will be on the generator too while it’s running but once batteries are full they are reconnected and the generator is stopped automatically.

I currently have a Honda EU7000is and it is my first choice. I was considering the smallest Champion home standby generator (which is why I was trying to speak with Scott at Practical Preppers) as an option as we have a natural gas well on the property.

 

[houseofancients]

I was not aware of that. I will have to give him another call.

Post in thread 'Seplos CAN BUS RS485 48v 200A 8S-16S BMS' https://diysolarforum.com/threads/seplos-can-bus-rs485-48v-200a-8s-16s-bms.20051/post-761331

trophy battery com questions

So I'm building my system I have two 100 ah 48-volt trophy batters connected and working, but I have not connected the battery to battery com cables, I believe 1 battery has to be the master and one the slave on the com set up which requires dip switch changes , does anyone have pictures showing...

diysolarforum.com

 

[DIYrich]

The issue isn't how well Sol-ark works with batteries, the issue is the quality of power. The best Sol-ark can do is to supplement the wave form of the generator, the same way it can add to grid power. It passes through the noise of the generator. If you have equipment sensitive to bad power, that is a problem. The solution is to wash the noisy ac power through DC conversion. Yes it wastes power with the double conversion, but that is the cost of clean power from a cheap generator. Fortunately it is the backup to the backup, and not the primary power source.

Edit: issue isn't how well Sol-ark works with generators ...

 

[629658]

The issue isn't how well Sol-ark works with batteries, the issue is the quality of power. The best Sol-ark can do is to supplement the wave form of the generator, the same way it can add to grid power. It passes through the noise of the generator. If you have equipment sensitive to bad power, that is a problem. The solution is to wash the noisy ac power through DC conversion. Yes it wastes power with the double conversion, but that is the cost of clean power from a cheap generator. Fortunately it is the backup to the backup, and not the primary power source.

That is true up to a point. First, we have been using cheap generators for decades without an issue. We went 10 days without power and on a cheap 5k noisy Coleman generator. Ran most of the house on it for 10 days no problem. After that bought a Kohler 18kW whole home genny. Probably dirty power also but maybe not. So I’m certainly not as concerned as you about dirty power. Second, the Sol Ark accepts this “dirty” power and charges the batteries and loads with it until the SOC is 95+% then shuts the genny off and puts the loads back on ESS. This cycle repeats until grid is restored. So the real issue is can your inverter accept “dirty” power from a generator? Some can some cannot. The Sol Ark happens to be extremely accepting of generators if all types. Other inverters are not as flexible.