MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
For each battery, you can connect 2 ARO in parallel.
Also could ac couple anything you want with whatever batteries you want depending on what inverter(s) you decided on.
Growatt Whole Home Backup (SYN-200) questions
- Thread starter kscessnadriver
- Start date
Also could ac couple anything you want with whatever batteries you want depending on what inverter(s) you decided on.
Copy that. Just making sure the op is aware of this
kscessnadriver
New Member
Sure it's not battery agnostic, but in the functions it provides, it's similar. What new Growatt coming out this month?
kscessnadriver
New Member
Very aware, even at a 5kw limit, with 3 inverters, you could do 15kw with the basic battery installs, if you wanted to go that route (or 30kw with the expanded battery packs).
Ok so now compare the cost of a solark 15k with 90kwh of battery with a growatt/syn with the same amount of battery
kscessnadriver
New Member
No one said it was cheap, nor is it something I would do. I'm just not interested in a Solark, as I find it marketed too much towards the prepper group.
Also, you didn't answer how you would install the syn. Between the main panel and meter?
kscessnadriver
New Member
Yes, between my current main panel and meter
MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
10 kW battery per inverter. 5kW per battery, up to 2 per inverter.
The ARO is expensive, but for my desires it’s good choice. Once you wire it up, it’s hands off. It takes completely care of itself- none of the myriad of settings and close monitoring necessary with all of the lower end batteries. Also well contained in a enclosed cabinet safe for random people to wonder by - unlike a server rack.
It protects itself electrically and just works, my first one was 20 months ago and has been completely hands off, not a single hickup. 6 separate cabinets now, all will ever need. They should outlive me by a mile
kscessnadriver
New Member
What's your opinion on the APX versus the ARO? Or is the APX too new to have an opinion on so far? I can't seem to find it for sale anywhere right now.
MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
1. With ARO you can install 36kW-hr of useable battery on a single inverter (90% of 2x19.8) The APX is less than that - don’t remember what it’s max is, it’s lower though.
2. The APX will charge/discharge each individual module equally. But with the ARO, when the SOC of modules diverge as they discharge it’s always at low discharge rates in my observations. I attribute that to unavoidable errors in measurement of current. If an individual module hits the 10% lower limit the others continue to discharge. When they charge, they all hit 100%, the module that discharged the most is last to reach 100%. If you watch the charging current you can see it automatically do it’s equalizer part, or whatever it’s correctly called.
3. The only advantage I see to the APX is the only wiring to install is to the inverter. With the ARO to get 19.8 kWhr you have to wire two 9.9 kWhr cabinets together, but that’s not hard, the cabinets already have the breaker installed.
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
I find the SolArk prepper thing pretty cringe, but they do provide domestic support for a good product line (Deye).
And if you compare the manual quality (menu guidance and installation) of Growatt to SolArk (or even EG4 in the 18kpv and 6000xp era) it's not in the same league.
Does Growatt have grid assist / grid shave / forced export, generator integration, like the $6000 inverters? IE, suppose you spend the same total dollars on the ESS, is it better to have the value go into nicer batteries or nicer inverter features, for your priorities.
The dirty secret of having to baby a lot of the popular batteries (not even talking about DIY) more than stuff ought to be babied in 2024 is really, really under appreciated on this forum. And for different reasons depending on the thread.
Would you take the ARO over a hypothetical bug-free version of the PowerPro (IE, has IP65 enclosed cabinet, and fix it by having plug and play firmware update and comms without weird bugs)? The PowerPro would still be a raw battery with no DC power converter to simplify expansion (IE in theory a DC power converter would reduce the need to pre-balance the batteries if adding in stages).
MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
No I would not take powerPro over ARO, but would not fault someone for doing so.
1. The wires from each of my 5kW (19.8 kWhr) AROs to inverter are AWG 10. Easy to wire with 16 amp breaker and can put a long way from inverter if desired.
2. The PowerPro is a big heavy single item I believe. With ARO, it’s a cabinet with three separate batteries in it and 9.9 kWh, a 2nd makes 19.8. As a package it’s heavy, but you never have to handle the whole package. One less than average strength man can do it all by himself with no stress. I’m above average and could handle powerpro but why?
“Does Growatt have grid assist / grid shave / forced export, generator integration “…
Yes, but no generator integration. I have means to connect generator to system that have not used since pre solar days. Don’t expect to ever have to but I am in process of putting in a 60 amp capable feed to new barn just built, don’t need anything close to that. In a pinch I could run generator there and power limited house stuff or slowly charge batteries by setting inverters to ac charge (grid tied) limit the charge rate and let it go, might test it when time in next year or so.
If I end up with $ and time to burn (it’s not looking like both will ever occur at the same time) I may buy something like the power pro, put in barn and try to develop a method of using it with my spare MIN inverter, but it’s not looking like will get that bored.
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
Is there a different manual than this that covers it, or do the menus show more than the manual?
As written in the manual the 18kpv supports more IIRC, and there are some arcane incantations EG4 support can push into the inverter to support more than what the manual has / fix the behavior as claimed in the manual (the incantations are not user accessible which is very far from ideal on several dimensions but expands the capabilities of the equipment)
I do like the HV stack batteries for misc technical reasons but they aren't in open platform/same price point as the 48V at present.
I do like that installation flexibility that HV affords. Are they legal to install with that distance? (For the PowerPro the layout is very prescribed). How easy is it to get breakers properly rated for HV and breaking the available current (I guess the DC converter throttles the available current, which is another random windfall from having one).
Yes, PowerPro is one behemoth. 16s of 280Ah pouches.
MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
Post in thread 'Looking for a schematic for Growatt MIN series of inverters for repair'
https://diysolarforum.com/threads/l...ies-of-inverters-for-repair.77231/post-992265
MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
16 amp breakers for 600 or 1000 vdc are easy to find, both cheap and otherwise. There is no limitation on distance in the manual and guides, got to stay within Rs-485 distance of course and common sense follow tables on <16 amps and awg10. Could go bigger of course.
zanydroid
Solar Wizard
Cool, thanks for collecting that. Weird flavor of “underpromise/overdeliver”, leaving these features buried in random places.
MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
I’m a engineer with no sales or marketing skills/experience whatsoever, but I could do a lot better than they are with their products. With respect to the MIN-US inverters and ARO batteries, with better & easier to find documentation they would sell a lot more than whatever they are selling now.
kscessnadriver
New Member
I get the distinct feeling that there aren't a lot of native English speakers in the Growatt engineering department, which leads to the lack of documentation thats easy to understand.
MajicDiver
Solar Enthusiast
I would expect that there are absolutely none. China trains lots of extremely good engineers- I’ve worked with many in past years. They’ve been making stuff cheaper than us for more than a generation, they’ve been out engineering us for a good long time now. Our engineering inertia from previous generations is waning rapidly………
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