Lifepower4 charging question

[Subdood]

Hey all, I have a question about the charging of the EG4 Lifepower4 battery. I have one that does a max charge of 50A via my EG4 6500EX. This isn't changeable by me, so I'm guessing the BMS is telling the inverter on how to charge it. At 95% SOC, it throttles back to 10A until it's topped off. There is a closed comms between the inverter and battery via a cable supplied by EG4.

I have a 3.6KW array, and it usually takes about 2 hours to charge my one battery if there's sufficient sunshine. That's a max of 2.75KW at a time, considering the 50A charge rate, and 30% SOC.

I have considered getting another Lifepower4 battery. My question is will the master battery set a higher charge current after I install it. Like will it go up to 100A to accommodate two batteries? I know with a 3.6KW array it won't be able to produce that much current (70A max?), but was curious if the charging setpoint on the inverter would change.

 

[AZ Solar Junkie]

Hey all, I have a question about the charging of the EG4 Lifepower4 battery. I have one that does a max charge of 50A via my EG4 6500EX. This isn't changeable by me, so I'm guessing the BMS is telling the inverter on how to charge it. At 95% SOC, it throttles back to 10A until it's topped off. There is a closed comms between the inverter and battery via a cable supplier by EG4.

I have a 3.6KW array, and it usually takes about 2 hours to charge my one battery if there's sufficient sunshine. That's a max of 2.75KW at a time, considering the 50A charge rate, and 30% SOC.

I have considered getting another Lifepower4 battery. My question is will the master battery set a higher charge current after I install it. Like will it go up to 100A to accommodate two batteries? I know with a 3.6KW array it won't be able to produce that much current (70A max?), but was curious if the charging setpoint on the inverter would change.

It does, yes. I have 3 and the master reports to the inverter a max charge rate of 150A

 

[Subdood]

It does, yes. I have 3 and the master reports to the inverter a max charge rate of 150A

Thanks. Don't you have a EG4 3000? I'm guessing it doesn't charge at 150A? What's the max charge current you've got out of it? Also does your inverter show total capacity of 300Ah? Mine doesn't show any of that info, not that that's important to me. How long does it take to charge all of them up?

I'm also tempted to get another 4KW in panels, but probably need the battery first. My present array could probably charge two of them in about 3 or 4 hours.

 

[AZ Solar Junkie]

Thanks. Don't you have a EG4 3000? I'm guessing it doesn't charge at 150A? What's the max charge current you've got out of it?

I'm also tempted to get another 4KW in panels, but probably need the battery first. My present array could probably charge two of them in about 3 or 4 hours.

I did have the 3000, but switched to the 6000XP several months ago. I need to update my profile.

My array was on the small side though I've improved it since then. The highest battery charging amps I saw was 48.1A with the 3000 and my array the way it was at the time. The 3000EHV manual says it has a max charging current of 80A.

 

[Subdood]

I did have the 3000, but switched to the 6000XP several months ago. I need to update my profile.

My array was on the small side though I've improved it since then. The highest battery charging amps I saw was 48.1A with the 3000 and my array the way it was at the time. The 3000EHV manual says it has a max charging current of 80A.

Ok. How are you liking the new inverter? I imagine it charges at a higher current than your 3K? How long does it now take to charge up those 3 batteries?

 

[AZ Solar Junkie]

Ok. How are you liking the new inverter? I imagine it charges at a higher current than your 3K? How long does it now take to charge up those 3 batteries?

Oh I'm loving the 6000XP - it's a very nice upgrade. Yes, the tech specs state a max charging current of 125A. The most I've seen with just PV coming in is 76A which is when my current array was near the max theoretical output. I don't have any more space for my backyard array, so without replacing panels it's probably the most I'll be able to pull. With my SOC at 23% at about 9am, and the PV power gradually increasing over the next few hours, it charged my 3 batteries from 23% to 95% by 1:30pm. With the BMS throttling the charging rate at that point, it took another hour or so to get all the way to 100%.

 

[Subdood]

Oh I'm loving the 6000XP - it's a very nice upgrade. Yes, the tech specs state a max charging current of 125A. The most I've seen with just PV coming in is 76A which is when my current array was near the max theoretical output. I don't have any more space for my backyard array, so without replacing panels it's probably the most I'll be able to pull. With my SOC at 23% at about 9am, and the PV power gradually increasing over the next few hours, it charged my 3 batteries from 23% to 95% by 1:30pm. With the BMS throttling the charging rate at that point, it took another hour or so to get all the way to 100%.

That's not bad, just 2.5 hours to almost a full charge. I imagine you'll be getting more charging time as the days are slowly getting longer.

Are you running the whole house on the inverter or just critical loads? What 240V stuff can you run now? Sorry for all the questions, just curious.

I'd like to maybe upgrade to the 6000xp, but am pretty good with what I have now. I'm planning on getting one more battery this month as Sig Solar is doing a free shipping promotion.

 

[AZ Solar Junkie]

That's not bad, just 2.5 hours to almost a full charge. I imagine you'll be getting more charging time as the days are slowly getting longer.

Are you running the whole house on the inverter or just critical loads? What 240V stuff can you run now? Sorry for all the questions, just curious.

I'd like to maybe upgrade to the 6000xp, but am pretty good with what I have now. I'm planning on getting one more battery this month as Sig Solar is doing a free shipping promotion.

I'm powering a good percentage of the loads in our house - full size refrigerator, upright freezer, 2 PC's with 2 screens each, a MacBook Pro, a mini fridge, a water cooler, 2 large TVs, cable modem, router, Synology NAS, etc. The only 240V loads in our house are the electric clothes dryer and 2 central HVAC units. I only have the clothes dryer on my loads panel right now. It draws about 5,500 watts, so combined with the other loads it pushes the 6000XP a little beyond the inverter limits. It seamlessly switches to grid bypass at that point and switches back to running the inverter once the dryer shuts off, so there's really no point in having it on my loads panel (except for now my temporary arrangement is I'm using the 30 amp dryer circuit for the grid input to my 6000XP so the dryer needs to be on the loads panel - temporary situation until I get the 6000XP on it's own circuit from the main panel and adding a proper Reliance Pro Tran 2 transfer switch in a few weeks). I'm planning to eventually add a second 6000XP, at which point things like the dryer will become an excellent way to dump extra power rather than wasting most of the solar after the batteries are full. I haven't evaluated by AC units yet to see if 2 x 6000XP's will provide enough power or not, but I live in Arizona where our AC is running much of the day in the summer time. In the summer our daily usage can exceed 90kWh with the AC, and I only have about a 5.5kW backyard array - definitely not enough for all our loads, but hey - maybe I'll try putting the smaller of the 2 AC units on the 2 6000XP's and see if it might work out. Might need to get one of those soft start kits to handle the startup surge, but I haven't worked out the numbers yet. I wouldn't be able to run it together with my other loads on the Pro Tran 2 transfer switch either as the biggest one they make is only 50A.

 

[Subdood]

I'm powering a good percentage of the loads in our house - full size refrigerator, upright freezer, 2 PC's with 2 screens each, a MacBook Pro, a mini fridge, a water cooler, 2 large TVs, cable modem, router, Synology NAS, etc. The only 240V loads in our house are the electric clothes dryer and 2 central HVAC units. I only have the clothes dryer on my loads panel right now. It draws about 5,500 watts, so combined with the other loads it pushes the 6000XP a little beyond the inverter limits. It seamlessly switches to grid bypass at that point and switches back to running the inverter once the dryer shuts off, so there's really no point in having it on my loads panel (except for now my temporary arrangement is I'm using the 30 amp dryer circuit for the grid input to my 6000XP so the dryer needs to be on the loads panel - temporary situation until I get the 6000XP on it's own circuit from the main panel and adding a proper Reliance Pro Tran 2 transfer switch in a few weeks). I'm planning to eventually add a second 6000XP, at which point things like the dryer will become an excellent way to dump extra power rather than wasting most of the solar after the batteries are full. I haven't evaluated by AC units yet to see if 2 x 6000XP's will provide enough power or not, but I live in Arizona where our AC is running much of the day in the summer time. In the summer our daily usage can exceed 90kWh with the AC, and I only have about a 5.5kW backyard array - definitely not enough for all our loads, but hey - maybe I'll try putting the smaller of the 2 AC units on the 2 6000XP's and see if it might work out. Might need to get one of those soft start kits to handle the startup surge, but I haven't worked out the numbers yet. I wouldn't be able to run it together with my other loads on the Pro Tran 2 transfer switch either as the biggest one they make is only 50A.

Kinda sounds like what I'm doing, I have almost all of the 120V circuits running off a sub panel off the inverter. I also have the grid feeding the inverter as back up. So when the battery's low or I want to give it a break it runs in bypass mode. The only things not on the panel are the smoke detectors and dishwasher. I'll probably switch the detectors over soon. We hardly use the dishwasher so it's not critical.

If we get sufficient sunshine to charge the battery, we've been able to run the 120v stuff off of the battery for days. Kinda cool. With days getting longer, and less cloudy, that'll be the norm. But another batt would help too. Today we had just enough sun to charge it up, but it was just down to 40%.

Yeah I don't know if you could start your AC unit with one of those inverters, even with a soft start on it. Having 3 batteries would help absorb some of that surge, but don't know if one inverter could.

 

[AZ Solar Junkie]

Kinda sounds like what I'm doing, I have almost all of the 120V circuits running off a sub panel off the inverter. I also have the grid feeding the inverter as back up. So when the battery's low or I want to give it a break it runs in bypass mode. The only things not on the panel are the smoke detectors and dishwasher. I'll probably switch the detectors over soon. We hardly use the dishwasher so it's not critical.

If we get sufficient sunshine to charge the battery, we've been able to run the 120v stuff off of the battery for days. Kinda cool. With days getting longer, and less cloudy, that'll be the norm. But another batt would help too. Today we had just enough sun to charge it up, but it was just down to 40%.

Yeah I don't know if you could start your AC unit with one of those inverters, even with a soft start on it. Having 3 batteries would help absorb some of that surge, but don't know if one inverter could.

Definitely one 6000XP would not handle the load from my AC units. It's a fairly large house with a 5 ton and a 4 ton. I'm not 100% sure even if 2 would, but I haven't seriously looked into it because all my available solar energy in a day will likely be consumed by all the other loads in the house anyway and I can't really expand my array much at this point beyond my current ~5.5kW.