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Making a Sol-ark 15k a 15k

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DIYrich

Solar Wizard
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Mar 6, 2022
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Another thread got me thinking... the reason the Sol-Ark 15k is advertised as 12k off batteries is because it is limited to 275 amps off the battery, and they use a conservative 48v for the battery.

Instead of 16 cells, if you put 18 cells in series, you can deliver 15k and stay within the 63v limit for the battery input.

Any thoughts?

Also, with a rack battery, can I put a two 100 Amp cells in series with the rack to boost it up to 18 cells? I would run the battery as open loop (by voltage).
 
Is there a BMS capable of accepting 18 cell leads? Maybe see what the handful of a high voltage guys out there are using (MikeG on YouTube comes to mind).
 
I think it will take a surge up to 15Kw but I think it will probably only go to 14K maybe a tip over on continuous output.
A better and in most cases cheaper solution is to just use a low cost 51.2V 5Kw Inverter hooked into the same battery bank and AC couple it into the Sol-Ark 15K. That way you could get 17KW of power.
 
That's exactly what I would do. I have verified that the high voltage DC to low voltage DC converter can do 15kW+ so I don't see any reason why you wouldn't be able to invert 15kW from batteries only with an 18S LFP battery down to around 3.15-3.2V to cell.
 
63v is still 3.5v per cell, which is plenty to full charge.
robby said:
I think it will take a surge up to 15Kw but I think it will probably only go to 14K maybe a tip over on continuous output.
A better and in most cases cheaper solution is to just use a low cost 51.2V 5Kw Inverter hooked into the same battery bank and AC couple it into the Sol-Ark 15K. That way you could get 17KW of power.
Click to expand...
What's the reasoning for your skepticism at 14kw? Do you think the bus can't handle it?
 
robby said:
I think it will take a surge up to 15Kw but I think it will probably only go to 14K maybe a tip over on continuous output.
A better and in most cases cheaper solution is to just use a low cost 51.2V 5Kw Inverter hooked into the same battery bank and AC couple it into the Sol-Ark 15K. That way you could get 17KW of power.
Click to expand...
Do you need to feed split-phase power into the 15k? Or can you feed in 240v no split? I have a pair of growatt 5ks that are not split phase I've been curious If I can use as AC-in to boost the 15k to quite a bit more :)
 
hipringles said:
Do you need to feed split-phase power into the 15k? Or can you feed in 240v no split? I have a pair of growatt 5ks that are not split phase I've been curious If I can use as AC-in to boost the 15k to quite a bit more :)
Click to expand...
I'm pretty sure it needs to be split phase
 
hipringles said:
Do you need to feed split-phase power into the 15k? Or can you feed in 240v no split? I have a pair of growatt 5ks that are not split phase I've been curious If I can use as AC-in to boost the 15k to quite a bit more :)
Click to expand...
I would use Split Phase.
 
Lt.Dan said:
Very cool.

So SolArk isn't lying when they call it a 15k. It CAN output 15kW, but only when the battery is over 53.5v.
Click to expand...
I think they got the 15k from "with solar" aspect.



also somewhat annoying, they still ship as 12k with solar, and you have to update the damn thing to get that 15k with solar unlocked.
 
Lt.Dan said:
Very cool.

So SolArk isn't lying when they call it a 15k. It CAN output 15kW, but only when the battery is over 53.5v.
Click to expand...
Discharge is 275A continuous (for some reason the charge limit seems to be 5A higher). 15000/(275*0.95) = ~57.4V.
 
hipringles said:
I think they got the 15k from "with solar" aspect.



also somewhat annoying, they still ship as 12k with solar, and you have to update the damn thing to get that 15k with solar unlocked.
Click to expand...
That's surprising. Mine is still on 10-11 month old firmware and can hit all the limits fine.
 
niktak11 said:
That's surprising. Mine is still on 10-11 month old firmware and can hit all the limits fine.
Click to expand...
Tbf, mine was literally a first day order. Mine drops out after 5 minutes at 13.4kw in full sun. The tech support said my fw version was too old
 
Lt.Dan said:
Very cool.

So SolArk isn't lying when they call it a 15k. It CAN output 15kW, but only when the battery is over 53.5v.
Click to expand...
My 15K w/ batteries is part of the utilities Energy Storage Solutions program. The battery line takes the full 275 amps for 3 hours from 51.5v down to 50.5 v. About 14kw of battery energy. If the app is right, it is initially drawing 14.147kW from the battery and producing 13.097kW of AC (93% conversion rate).

If I can add two more batteries in series, that would boost the voltage to 57.9v, delivered power of 15.9kW, and produce 14.7kW of AC power. Add three batteries, and it should be at 61.2v at 267A to deliver 16.3kW to net 15.0kW.
 
DIYrich said:
If I can add two more batteries in series, that would boost the voltage to 57.9v,
Click to expand...
How does adding batteries in series allow you to boost the voltage. I assume you are talking about battery voltage? What is your battery chemistry? My 16S LFP pack could charge to 58 volts but I limit it to a little over 55 volts which is 3.45 volts per cell.
 
Ampster said:
How does adding batteries in series allow you to boost the voltage. I assume you are talking about battery voltage? What is your battery chemistry? My 16S LFP pack could charge to 58 volts but I limit it to a little over 55 volts which is 3.45 volts per cell.
Click to expand...
He wants to make an 18s LiFePO4 pack, which will charge to 63v or 3.5v per cell.
 
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