Bored and finished building 6kw system

[Joe BoyKey]

Here it is, start off with the grand design Word generated schematic/layout, pretty simple after 1 year of sitting at home and trolling EVERYWHERE, basically 2 systems - 12v revamped Agm 10 year old system (new used agm batteries and Make Sky Blue CC) tied to a 1 year old Lifpo4 system, via a new Victron buck converter and low voltage detect board that turns on at 12.3v until the sun comes up, rare but does happen on cloudy days. Multiple strings of Panels are separated to to 2 charge Controllers (48v) 2nd controller can be dumped into a newly added 30 gallon hot water pre-heater, took a year to get here, just finished 48v 302ah Diy Catl build to get to 51.2v @ 1002 ah - 51.302kwh, Once obtained Solar Assistant to monitor Growatt SPF-6000T-DVM I found Home Assistant - WoW, Joe.

Old 12v sla - new 12 agm with 200ah Lifepo4 backup


New 1 year old Growatt - MakeSkyBlue bad-as system

10 year old 12v panel array minu 2 Sharp 167w panels




Back roof winter shaded panels


51.2v 1002ah Batteries - started out a year ago with these 51.2v 200ah, was too small for Growatt


Added 3 Gyll and 1 Gyll EG4 batteries, then built Diy - 64 - topband/Navitas 4p16s, and just finished 51.2v 302ah Catl Diy battery.


Solar Assistant


Home Assistant - monitors Solar Assistant, Ambient Weather Station, Emporia Vue circuit monitor and Windy.com widget, love this stuff.

 

[Joe BoyKey]

dang only 10 files, here is Home Assistant, Joe.

 

[Jerrys13]

That is an awesome system! Thank you for sharing! I suppose any water heater can act a dump?

 

[JWLV]

In the first picture of the roof, are those flex panels? And they lasted 10 years? I used two 50w flex panels for a portable setup on occasion and one already died in less than a year.

 

[Joe BoyKey]

That is an awesome system! Thank you for sharing! I suppose any water heater can act a dump?

Yes be careful to choose the right element and NEVER put in the top of Water heater's fast heat cavity, blew hot water out the pressure relief valve and have a 140 degree thermal overload before element for safety, here is a Excel calculator from David Poz to calculate element, Joe.

HOME | davidpoz

www.davidpoz.com

 

[Joe BoyKey]

In the first picture of the roof, are those flex panels? And they lasted 10 years? I used two 50w flex panels for a portable setup on occasion and one already died in less than a year.

They are not flex, they were from a Gps tracking project on 18 wheeler refrigerated trailers that ended up using Reefer battery. Their thick fiberglass.

 

[Horsefly]

On your 48V system it looks like you have a 400Ah, a 302Ah, and a 100Ah pack all running in parallel. Have you seen any problems such different packs in parallel? Have you ever tried to check for current running between the packs? I.e., some current going from the 400Ah pack to the 100Ah pack as the system is discharging?

 

[Joe BoyKey]

On your 48V system it looks like you have a 400Ah, a 302Ah, and a 100Ah pack all running in parallel. Have you seen any problems such different packs in parallel? Have you ever tried to check for current running between the packs? I.e., some current going from the 400Ah pack to the 100Ah pack as the system is discharging?

All 1002ah of Lifepo4 batteries stay within 5% Soc and finish charging within 30 minutes of each other, not sure why but all 4 gyll batteries reach close to 100% then go to standby while the 2 diy batteries get to 100% then the Growatt starts raising the voltage to about 55.6 and all batteries stop charging, then the Growatt shuts down Solar until all batteries drop down to 54v and solar comes back on to cover the load, yes have seen some battery to battery flow, not much. With the new Solar Assistant software ver 11-2-21 - I finally have a real/correct Soc and EG4 battery temp added to Home Assistant.

 

[JoeHam]

There have been a number of folks over the years asking about how to mount panels on a roof that is not optimally pointed at the sun.

I will have to remember this thread to show a picture of one way to handle that situation.

Nicely done.

 

[Joe BoyKey]

I cut up Extension ladder to raise panels and screwed into Carport, screwed into treated 4x4 on roof. all with "Rooftrac" under panels.