diy solar

diy solar

Hi from freezing TX

jnoxon

New Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2021
Messages
1
I'm dropping by for some advice, and I'm not sure where my post belongs.

I have a SolarCity system, 12.35kW DC, two Delta inverters, and 3 Powerwall 2's in a whole-house backup configuration. I have no major complains other than price. The system has been going strong since 2017 and has handled over 100 hours of outages including this current winter storm.

We lose power frequently, though usually just for a few minutes here or there. The transfer time on the PW2 is often fast enough that my home servers, Internet, and router do not notice. But it's frequently too long and stuff is jacked up until I manually power cycle it. This is particularly annoying with the rolling blackouts we are currently experiencing.

Most UPSes do not work well with the PW2 because the AC line frequency is over 65 Hz when the PW's are full. They see 65 Hz and go to battery, run the battery to zero, and shut down. Additionally, most UPSes are hot garbage and more trouble than they are worth between lead acid batteries and poor efficiency. So I'm looking for something a little more DIY and more capable.

I want something that can handle ~ 200 watts of AC load and help avoid these crashes that occur when transferring from grid to backup. I'm not even sure a battery is needed--maybe some supercaps would work, but a LiFePO4 setup would be fine, too.

I was looking at something like Victron Multiplus, but it seems like overkill.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!
 
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