Gyll Batteries Just Facts.

[GVSolar]

FWIW, I've had nothing but good interactions with Signature Solar, up to and including tech support from James Showalter, the owner (and his brother, John). I have no connection to their outfit - and I don't know them personally. But I do like their Gyll battery. It has performed admirably in my off-grid system. Best.

 

[JoeHam]

FWIW, I've had nothing but good interactions with Signature Solar, up to and including tech support from James Showalter, the owner (and his brother, John). I have no connection to their outfit - and I don't know them personally. But I do like their Gyll battery. It has performed admirably in my off-grid system. Best.

Same here.

 

[tonyreynolds57]

Am following this thread and seeking info on how to go with my first solar setup. What we want is an off-grid solar "generator" (solar-charged battery powered investor/controller/charger) that will take the place of our 4.2Kw dual-fuel generator in a grid out situation: ie, an extended situation where filling stations aren't able to pump gas or propane and supplies run out. I'm looking at the Gyll batteries in 24V and 48V configurations and used a battery calculator to do a comparison and need to know, for the same number of Kwh (9.6) capacity, which is better, the 48V bank with 200Ah or the 24V bank with 400Ah? Attached is a copy of the comparison. I'd welcome input.

We're not sure about grid-tie. My wife asked the obvious question, "Why spend 10X more than a generator for a solar backup system that will seldom be used?"

BTW, our home is 6 months old, and has a 200A panel fed of the main 320A panel in the adjacent shop building. We have a 30A input wired into the outside of the house that feeds the house's panel AFTER a manual transfer switch is made to not back-feed the grid and to power certain critical loads, like the 1/2HP well pump. I don't know how this complicates things, if it does. Thanks in advance.

 

[GVSolar]

Your wife may have a point. The generator option is, by far, the least expensive and simplest way to deal with an occasional outage.

That switch is very handy, by the way, giving you the option to simply plug in a genny or an inverter/solar set up. Depending on your locality, Gridtie (selling back to the utility) is becoming less and less attractive - and is likely to get even less so - as utilities pay less and charge more to be solar-connected.

The other option is just to use solar/inverter/battery to power some critical loads to offset utility bills - without selling to the grid. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. I suggest reading - lots of it - do some searches on hybrid inverters, ups, emergency battery backup, etc. Do a power survey of just how much you want to backup - and how much you actually use now.

And make an honest evaluation of your DIY skills along the way.

As to 24v vs 48v... really a matter of inverter/wiring size, safety and cost - and a cart that is way ahead of your horse.
Welcome to the forum and enjoy.... Best.

 

[tonyreynolds57]

Your wife may have a point. The generator option is, by far, the least expensive and simplest way to deal with an occasional outage.

That switch is very handy, by the way, giving you the option to simply plug in a genny or an inverter/solar set up. Depending on your locality, Gridtie (selling back to the utility) is becoming less and less attractive - and is likely to get even less so - as utilities pay less and charge more to be solar-connected.

The other option is just to use solar/inverter/battery to power some critical loads to offset utility bills - without selling to the grid. There are a number of ways to accomplish this. I suggest reading - lots of it - do some searches on hybrid inverters, ups, emergency battery backup, etc. Do a power survey of just how much you want to backup - and how much you actually use now.

And make an honest evaluation of your DIY skills along the way.

As to 24v vs 48v... really a matter of inverter/wiring size, safety and cost - and a cart that is way ahead of your horse.
Welcome to the forum and enjoy.... Best.

GV Solar, thanks for the response. Believe it or not, we've been watching Will Prowse and David Poz videos night after night, and I've been reading as much as I can. We've learned enough to know we have far to go. The thought that occurred to us last night was why not try to build a battery/solar system that can be used in emergencies, but that can also be used to power ONE thing to save energy on a day to day basis. Our thought was our hybrid heat pump water heater. That load is supplied by a double throw 30A breaker. Barring that, there are potentially other things. Our energy cost here in SW Washington state is about 7.5 cents per Kwh, NOT counting fees and distribution charges. Current by-back rates are 10 cents per Kwh, and those programs are being phased out. Am pretty much leaning towards a 3K-4K portable system that can simply be plugged in when needed, but that can be charged via solar. Whether that can power a load to save energy when the grid is running is something we'll be looking at.

 

[JK2369]

Tom, I’m studying similar issues and have the following thoughts to offer:
1) Re: the choice of 24v vs 48v battery bank, both contain the same amount of electrical power, but the discharge rate is also limited by the BMS. For both, the continuous discharge limit is 100a, so the 24V at 100A discharge has a nominal sustained output of 2400 watts, and the 48V has a nominal sustained output of 4800 watts. The equipment will last longer if used in the middle of the operating range rather than continually pushed to the edge of its specifications. A 48V battery offers higher sustained and peak output when matched with other components.
2) To charge a a 48 V battery from solar, the panels arranged in series need to generate a high enough voltage. The Gyll 48V battery states a charging voltage of 58V. Depending on your panels, this requires at least 2 or more panels in series. More panels require more room, either on top of the shed, or in a ground mount array.
3) the solar charge controller needs to be sized to match the combined open circuit voltage of the solar panels in series; for an all in one unit such as Growatt or MPP, this won’t be a problem.
4) the inverter sustained and peak output needs to match the requirements of the load. Motors, refrigerators, and well pumps are examples of inductive loads, which require a certain amount of current to run, but a higher (or much higher) current to start. https://offgrid.co.za/inductive-loads.html The inverter needs to accommodate that peak startup power.
5) The heat pump water heaters I have looked at require 240V power. Inverters generally are able to produce either 230-240V, which could directly power such devices, or 110-120V, which are usable for most home loads; two 110-120V inverters can be combined to create 240 split phase power for 240v loads. A 240V inverter output can also be stepped down to 120v through a transformer. System design is simpler if you are targeting only one type of voltage.
6) I suggest looking primarily at self consumption of your solar power from your critical loads panel. With your manual transfer switch, as long as you have solar and battery power you could power your loads, or if you run out of battery and the grid is up, switch manually to consume grid power for your critical loads. Incentives to tie your solar back to the grid, as you point out, are decreasing.

 

[tonyreynolds57]

Tom, I’m studying similar issues and have the following thoughts to offer:
1) Re: the choice of 24v vs 48v battery bank, both contain the same amount of electrical power, but the discharge rate is also limited by the BMS. For both, the continuous discharge limit is 100a, so the 24V at 100A discharge has a nominal sustained output of 2400 watts, and the 48V has a nominal sustained output of 4800 watts. The equipment will last longer if used in the middle of the operating range rather than continually pushed to the edge of its specifications. A 48V battery offers higher sustained and peak output when matched with other components.
2) To charge a a 48 V battery from solar, the panels arranged in series need to generate a high enough voltage. The Gyll 48V battery states a charging voltage of 58V. Depending on your panels, this requires at least 2 or more panels in series. More panels require more room, either on top of the shed, or in a ground mount array.
3) the solar charge controller needs to be sized to match the combined open circuit voltage of the solar panels in series; for an all in one unit such as Growatt or MPP, this won’t be a problem.
4) the inverter sustained and peak output needs to match the requirements of the load. Motors, refrigerators, and well pumps are examples of inductive loads, which require a certain amount of current to run, but a higher (or much higher) current to start. https://offgrid.co.za/inductive-loads.html The inverter needs to accommodate that peak startup power.
5) The heat pump water heaters I have looked at require 240V power. Inverters generally are able to produce either 230-240V, which could directly power such devices, or 110-120V, which are usable for most home loads; two 110-120V inverters can be combined to create 240 split phase power for 240v loads. A 240V inverter output can also be stepped down to 120v through a transformer. System design is simpler if you are targeting only one type of voltage.
6) I suggest looking primarily at self consumption of your solar power from your critical loads panel. With your manual transfer switch, as long as you have solar and battery power you could power your loads, or if you run out of battery and the grid is up, switch manually to consume grid power for your critical loads. Incentives to tie your solar back to the grid, as you point out, are decreasing.

JK, thanks for the thoughtful reply. Lots to chew on for sure. We are seriously leaning towards building our own system based on Lishen 3.2V prismatic cells. I've pretty much decided that 48V is the way to go: just some many savings in ancillary stuff like wire, etc.

 

[JoeHam]

And note that there are a number of inverters that can provide 120v or 240v from a single unit.

 

[Robert (Angelguide)]

Ya that guy I recently talked to, had absolutely no clue how to answer any questions I had at the time. The women I first talked to was wonderful.

 

[brush4hire]

FYI, I bought my on-grid solar system from the company when it was James Showalter Solar Solutions. James answered questions via email for over a year before I made my purchase, then gave me his cell phone number & talked my electrician thru connecting all the components. He was absolutely fabulous! And I bought the system for about 1/3 the retail price. At that point he was doing commercial installs & buying in bulk, then selling the excess at great prices. My system has been running for 2 years w/ no issues. I'm currently talking to them about switching from on-grid to hybrid & this is the battery they recommended to me.

 

[brush4hire]

Tom, I’m studying similar issues and have the following thoughts to offer:
1) Re: the choice of 24v vs 48v battery bank, both contain the same amount of electrical power, but the discharge rate is also limited by the BMS. For both, the continuous discharge limit is 100a, so the 24V at 100A discharge has a nominal sustained output of 2400 watts, and the 48V has a nominal sustained output of 4800 watts. The equipment will last longer if used in the middle of the operating range rather than continually pushed to the edge of its specifications. A 48V battery offers higher sustained and peak output when matched with other components.
2) To charge a a 48 V battery from solar, the panels arranged in series need to generate a high enough voltage. The Gyll 48V battery states a charging voltage of 58V. Depending on your panels, this requires at least 2 or more panels in series. More panels require more room, either on top of the shed, or in a ground mount array.
3) the solar charge controller needs to be sized to match the combined open circuit voltage of the solar panels in series; for an all in one unit such as Growatt or MPP, this won’t be a problem.
4) the inverter sustained and peak output needs to match the requirements of the load. Motors, refrigerators, and well pumps are examples of inductive loads, which require a certain amount of current to run, but a higher (or much higher) current to start. https://offgrid.co.za/inductive-loads.html The inverter needs to accommodate that peak startup power.
5) The heat pump water heaters I have looked at require 240V power. Inverters generally are able to produce either 230-240V, which could directly power such devices, or 110-120V, which are usable for most home loads; two 110-120V inverters can be combined to create 240 split phase power for 240v loads. A 240V inverter output can also be stepped down to 120v through a transformer. System design is simpler if you are targeting only one type of voltage.
6) I suggest looking primarily at self consumption of your solar power from your critical loads panel. With your manual transfer switch, as long as you have solar and battery power you could power your loads, or if you run out of battery and the grid is up, switch manually to consume grid power for your critical loads. Incentives to tie your solar back to the grid, as you point out, are decreasing.

Wow, you seem to know what you are talking about, I'm considering the Gyll 48v batteries and two Growatt SPF 3000TL LVM-48P to convert to a hybrid system. I have 14 - 275w, 9.28Isc & 38.6Voc panels. Will it work? I might have to only use 12 panels depending on string lengths...

 

[ocular]

Not sure if these are the same, but certainly look the same on the outside with different labels.

With short-circuit protection 48v lifepo4 lithium battery-Vglory

With short-circuit protection 48v lifepo4 lithium battery:

www.vglorylibattery.com

This product is no longer available.

This product is no longer available.

m.alibaba.com

Edit---sorry should have done a forum search for vglory first---

Are Vglory Batteries the same as Gyll Batteries

wondering if these two batteries are the same because they look like they are I',m wondering if anyone bought them? and how good are they? gyll 48v battery https://www.signaturesolar.us/products/h7590c9c2a/2203789000006324403 this looks the same as the gyll 48v battery...

diysolarforum.com

 

[euphonius]

FYI, I bought my on-grid solar system from the company when it was James Showalter Solar Solutions. James answered questions via email for over a year before I made my purchase, then gave me his cell phone number & talked my electrician thru connecting all the components. He was absolutely fabulous! And I bought the system for about 1/3 the retail price. At that point he was doing commercial installs & buying in bulk, then selling the excess at great prices. My system has been running for 2 years w/ no issues. I'm currently talking to them about switching from on-grid to hybrid & this is the battery they recommended to me.

Dear brush4hire,

Thanks for this testimonial about what's now called Signature Solar. I'd be very interested to read details of the system you obtained from the Showalters. In my cute, they are playing an important role creating awareness of the enormous advances in off-grid and grid-tied solar that are coming out of China. Growatt, for example, far from merely aping western innovations, is one of several Chinese solar companies that are pushing the boundaries of solar technology. The longtime western "incumbents" have been caught flat-footed, and are struggling to catch up. This is creating problems for longtime western outfitters who have built their reputations on knowing how to cobble together a system of disparate components from Magnum, Outback, Midnite, etc, and now are finding their longtime expertise made increasingly obsolete by these rapid Chinese innovations. Whether the Showalter brothers know it or not, they are blowing up the conventional approaches to off-grid and grid-tied solar as it has evolved from the Trace Engineering-based systems of yore...

 

[brush4hire]

Dear brush4hire,

Thanks for this testimonial about what's now called Signature Solar. I'd be very interested to read details of the system you obtained from the Showalters. In my cute, they are playing an important role creating awareness of the enormous advances in off-grid and grid-tied solar that are coming out of China. Growatt, for example, far from merely aping western innovations, is one of several Chinese solar companies that are pushing the boundaries of solar technology. The longtime western "incumbents" have been caught flat-footed, and are struggling to catch up. This is creating problems for longtime western outfitters who have built their reputations on knowing how to cobble together a system of disparate components from Magnum, Outback, Midnite, etc, and now are finding their longtime expertise made increasingly obsolete by these rapid Chinese innovations. Whether the Showalter brothers know it or not, they are blowing up the conventional approaches to off-grid and grid-tied solar as it has evolved from the Trace Engineering-based systems of yore...

I bought a Sunny Boy 4000US and Suniva 275 W solar panels.

 

[Pinyon Jay]

I just purchased and installed three 24v Gyll batteries.and I am having trouble with the BMS data communication. Where the BMS software is not recognizing any connected serial devices. I tried both the supplied ch340 dongle and a DSD TECH SH-U10 USB to RS485 Converter with CP2102 Chip dongle both with the brown and white to positive and the brown to negative as shown in the videos. With my batteries there are now 4 ethernet connector ports, CAN, R485, and two Batt Com ports. and I have tried connecting using each one. I have reinstalled both the USB serial drivers and the BMS software. and multiple reboots of both the batts and the computer.
I am wondering if there is a new version BMS shipping with the batteries that isn't compatible with the old BMS software, but that is just conjecture on my part.
I plan on contacting Signature Solar's tech support tomorrow, and will share any solutions.

 

[Joe BoyKey]

Had the same problem, for me fix was delete other ports ie.. PV Keeper to my Growatt, have seperate laptop for 3 - 51.2v Gyll batteries and run PV Keeper on the main PC. Also the dip switch settings in the manual are backwards - high is low and low is high, Joe.

 

[Pinyon Jay]

I just purchased and installed three 24v Gyll batteries.and I am having trouble with the BMS data communication. Where the BMS software is not recognizing any connected serial devices. I tried both the supplied ch340 dongle and a DSD TECH SH-U10 USB to RS485 Converter with CP2102 Chip dongle both with the brown and white to positive and the brown to negative as shown in the videos. With my batteries there are now 4 ethernet connector ports, CAN, R485, and two Batt Com ports. and I have tried connecting using each one. I have reinstalled both the USB serial drivers and the BMS software. and multiple reboots of both the batts and the computer.
I am wondering if there is a new version BMS shipping with the batteries that isn't compatible with the old BMS software, but that is just conjecture on my part.
I plan on contacting Signature Solar's tech support tomorrow, and will share any solutions.

I have the newest version of the batteries, that have four data ports, There are several differences between how the data communication is handled from previous versions. After a troubleshooting session with James at Signature Solar, we came to several conclusions:
1. Do not set the pack address to "1" on any of your batteries. That address is now being used for other purposes.
2. Be sure to reboot the battery after changing the dip switch settings.
3. You can no longer daisy chain the batteries using the Batt Comm ports. You must use the RS485 port to monitor the BMS. and you can only monitor one battery at a time by re-plugging the ethernet cable.
4. Make sure that you don't have a COM port conflict on COM 3 if you're using the supplied USB/Serial adapter.
The newest version of these Batts also have CAN ports that may be able to communicate with certain inverters. (hoping for more info on this soon.) and I'm not sure how to use the Batt Comm ports, hopefully these can be used to daisy chain the batteries, so that they can be monitored without swapping cables and allow equalization between packs. Since I'm hoping these are the last batteries I have to purchase, I'm hoping that Signature Solar keeps us updated on any new features and updates.

 

[Joe BoyKey]

1. Question - are the dip switches still reversed according to the manual - high = low and low = high?
2. There are 4 pairs of wires to each cat5e cable and you can do this:
Just keep solid + and solid/stripe - on each end, put on your own RJ-45 pin 7&8 to each battery, Joe.

 

[Pinyon Jay]

1. Question - are the dip switches still reversed according to the manual - high = low and low = high?
2. There are 4 pairs of wires to each cat5e cable and you can do this:
Just keep solid + and solid/stripe - on each end, put on your own RJ-45 pin 7&8 to each battery, Joe.
View attachment 48688

The dip switch addressing is still "reversed" with down being "on." so to set the address to 2, you would switch 1- down, 2 down, 3 up, 4 down.
My question is can you run multiple dongles into a USB hub and will they be recognized as being on the same COM port (presumedly COM 3?)

 

[Joe BoyKey]

Haven't tried that, could work with usb hub???