EG4 6500EX 120/240 Setup, 48V 105kWh Battery & Overkill 100A BMS Install

[PreppenWolf]

Finished the panel move/rewiring today. 16hr marathon. Just finished half hour ago. Had to get it done due to rain tomorrow. I'm pretty happy with the new setup. Will make snow removal much easier this winter. Currently weather says no rain till 10am. Hoping for at least and hour of morning sun so I can check all the connections with my thermal to be sure there are no issues. I made a lot of new cables today....

 

[OffGridForGood]

Small update.

Installed a new PV switch.

Installed additional battery switches at each inverter to be able to isolate them from the bank if needed or desired.

Installed a shunt for remote viewing general system status via hardwired monitor in the kitchen. This shunt uses phone line between the main module and remote screen. This allows me to use our homes existing (and previously abandoned) land lines already mounted on the kitchen wall.

In the middle of raising panels to winter position (55°). We also widened row spacing after marking last year's winter solstice shadow locations. I may make more changes next year, biasing the strings slightly westward 10 degrees from their current true south due to our tree lines. I'm not sure yet. Mayne just adding fixed panels to other location makes more sense than tweaking this setup more.

I'll post YTD numbers end if this month. October will be incomplete as I'm loosing at least 5 sunny days to this panel move, but it should really help our December/January compared to last year.

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I tilt mine up (65-70 degrees) near the end of October - before the snow, from the summer 30-35 degrees.
I tilt back down again after the end of snow in April.
Not sure about your chickens, mine would be trying to roost on the panels if I had them close to the ground !
I sure don't need chicken poop on the PV!

 

[PreppenWolf]

I tilt mine up (65-70 degrees) near the end of October - before the snow, from the summer 30-35 degrees.
I tilt back down again after the end of snow in April.
Not sure about your chickens, mine would be trying to roost on the panels if I had them close to the ground !
I sure don't need chicken poop on the PV!

I've never had chickens roosting on them. I think they probably hop up once in the summer and find out how hot they are, and abandon that idea. They do branch manage the shit out if the pines next to their coup though ?

 

[PreppenWolf]

Overview pic of panels stood back up. Rear row slightly more westward due to shading. I'll take some to show the spacing when it stops pouring later this week.

 

[PreppenWolf]

First snow today. Didn't stick, but winter is close. 23F tonight.

My system is nearly 1 year old since full time commission.

6.5MWh of solar captured
9.4MWh of power supplied to our house.

I will likely add more solar panels next year. I just need to decide where to put them.

 

[PreppenWolf]

A side note we are hitting 50+kWh on full sun days now and I haven't properly spaced the panels yet due to snow and ground frozen still. I learned a lot this winter. Spring/Summer/Fall should be a walk in the park for keeping the house running. I may even move the electric dryer and stove over to the solar.

Winter is really where the rubber hits the road in managing your system. If you can scale to provide full winter coverage in the NE US Nov-Feb, you can basically coast the rest of the year.

This post by me did not age well ?

1) We had a very rainy year. It rained for basically 6 weeks straight with zero full sun days in May or June

2) I did not anticipate the negative effects of warm weather on cell production. I get far better output from my array in cold weather direct sun than hot weather direct sun.

 

[PreppenWolf]

EDIT NOTE ALSO ADDED TO OP.

Due to discussion in another thread, specifying my strings are in fact 10 panels, and my VOC was tested and verified to be be roughly 440V BEFORE I wired my system. My panels are not hitting the ideal voltage values labeled on them. When building your system it is critical you ensure your VOC does not and will not exceed the 500V limit of a 6500EX inverter inncold temps or you will let out the magic smoke!

 

[Gavin Stone]

EDIT NOTE ALSO ADDED TO OP.

Due to discussion in another thread, specifying my strings are in fact 10 panels, and my VOC was tested and verified to be be roughly 440V BEFORE I wired my system. My panels are not hitting the ideal voltage values labeled on them. When building your system it is critical you ensure your VOC does not and will not exceed the 500V limit of a 6500EX inverter inncold temps or you will let out the magic smoke!

I actually did this with my LV6548’s. Pushed the limits too far. But the units would just throw a fault code and shut down. I’m sure they would smoke if were to happen too often.

 

[PreppenWolf]

My respacing of the panels is paying off. My highest production day in Nov last year was 18kWh. I've now had a 25kWh day. I do have more house shading now in late afternoon, but excellent noon full exposure.

 

[PreppenWolf]

Winter solstice is upon us. Still seeing gains from my array adjustments. 13kWh today and staying in double digits. Last year I struggled to with a high of 9kWh.

 

[PreppenWolf]

Update. As a note after 15 months of operation my batteries have a cycle equivalent of 86 as reported by all 8 of my BMSs.

January has been the usual crap cloudy weather. Production isn't great.

 

[PreppenWolf]

16 months in and we're at 93 battery cycles. We are current in 3rd winter. It snowed again last night.

Still zero faults/shutdowns since going live. We've lost grid power probably 20 times and the switching has been flawless.

 

[PreppenWolf]

Here are my current life totals for each 6500EX as of today.




I have too many simultaneous construction projects right now, but eventually my plan is to split the garage, the house, and the shooting range cabin into three independent solar setups. I'm likely going to do this by purchasing an 18k, installing that into the house, then putting one of each 6500EX into the garage and cabin.

Few reasons.

1) I think this is the cheapest way to split the systems to be independent.

2) The 18k is more energy efficient, especially in idle consumption, which will increase the efficiency of the house where power is used 24/7 but night energy is low leading to idle power being a significant portion. The other two building I can shut off the inverters when not in use with minimum user impact and minimizing the idle consumption.

3) I now have complete confidence in the 6500s ability to run, and in the longer term I could buy a 6000 for the cabin, then move the 6500EX from there back into the garage and have 240V standalone in the garage. I do have a 240 welder in the garage, but I can use the existing subpanel to power that one item from the new 18k in the house for the interim.

 

[OffGridForGood]

Nice.
I have similar ideas for my own MPP inverters - to be repurposed one in the Greenhouse, and one in the Barn, one for my remote cabin. each one is 120/240 so that is a nice plus, at least for small-ish loads. The only drawback being more batteries, but I fully expect some great new battery tech will emerge soon and free up all these DIY LFP packs for the other buildings...