My Pytes battery install with my SolArk 12k, AC coupled to Enphase micros

[Ampster]

I decided to start a new thread about my Pytes battery install. My previous thread about my SolArk install can be found here:

My SolArk 12k install with Enphase Micros

I had previously reported on my Outback Skybox install with a 7kW Enphase micro GT system.. I recently evaluated my needs and the easiest way for me to add incremental capacity is with micros on my west facing roof pitches. For a couple of reasons I decided to upgrade to a SolArk 12k which in...

diysolarforum.com

As I reported on that thread, I temporarily installed 3 of the Pytes V5 batteries and set up communication. The first issue was that the batteries did not support my loads during the 4-9 period I had previously set up. I did not completely reboot but kept the inverter on when I turned on the battery switch. The SolArk took the essential loads panel offline briefly and went through what I thought was a boot up process. Eventually the Pytes batteries charged from solar and then to full overnight from the grid, Later today I will try the full reboot sequence and see if the batteries will support the loads during the 4-9 period I had previously programmed.
In addition the batteries do not show up on part of the web interface but shows up on Solar Assistant and the screen on the SolArk.

 

[Oldphile]

Keep posting. I'm having 4 Pytes V5 installed Thursday.

 

[Ampster]

I'm having 4 Pytes V5 installed Thursday.

The temporary Pytes install of three batteries went well and I hope you have the same luck. As noted below, the issue seems to be the SolArk. I have had the SolArk for 15 months and thought I worked out the kinks and had the system humming but it is like learning the SolArk all over again. I still have to get the V-BOX-OC mounted and the batteries installed in that and wired. More later.


I got to 4PM when the SolArk was supposed to support the loads from batteries and it was not doing that. I then turned off the grid input to the SolArk, and the batteries started supporting the loads. So I know that the batteries are capable of discharge. I had the TOU settings working well before I sold off my DIY pack and I don't recall changing any settings but I am sure I toggled something inadvertently. I will leave the grid off until 9PM and see what happens. I think I set the SolArk to not charge from the grid until 1PM because I want to use available solar for as much as I can. I will see what happens at 9PM when I turn the grid back on. I am going to to a full reboot at that time to see if that changes anything. I will make a note of the battery SOC at that time.
EDIT: As noted below it was a simple check box which I had disabled when I was temporarily running the SolArk without batteries.

 

[glandpuck]

This is my 2 cents: Pytes web site has the manual inputs for Pytes batteries to use with Sol-Ark. This is in case the CAN BUS connection is lost. Have these values been programmed into the Sol-Ark aside from activating the lithium batteries.

I have the Pytes Ebox. Max discharge rate for a battery is 50 amps. If your V5 are the same specs, then your maximum discharge rate is 150 amps at say 53 volts. This would equal a power output of 7950 watts and should last for 1.925 hours at that rate.

I use about 12kW from 4-9 PM TOS. But I have a stack of 8 Pytes.

 

[Ampster]

Have these values been programmd into the Sol-Ark aside from activating the lithium batteries.

I checked and Float was at 56.7 and I set it to 55 to see if it takes. I prefer a lower setting about resting voltage but I want to see how the TOU settings affect it.. The one thing I did find that I had disabled the TOU check box when I disconnected my pack and that may be the issue. I will wait til 9PM to turn the grid back on and do a full reboot at that time to be sure all the settings take. I will also see how much the percentage of the pack is at that time as well. My house loads are currently about 1500 Watts and my battery is at 96% and declining about 9% per hour so I should see about 75% left in the battery when I turn the grid back on at 9PM.

 

[Ampster]

I think I have the SolArk dialed in again. I woke up at 4:30 AM and noticed the batteries had stopped discharging at about 3:20 AM when they reached the settings of 45%. They are inside my garage at a temperature of 51F, but the outside temperature is 37F so the heaters would have come on if they were outside.

 

[Leodoggie]

Glad to see that your Pytes battery install is progressing, just got my final done with the city inspector. The Pytes and Sol Ark tech guys are telling me that I can leave my batteries at 100% SOC for prolonged periods without any problem. As you have had lifepo4 batteries and the sol ark for quite awhile is that advisable.

 

[Ampster]

As you have had lifepo4 batteries and the sol ark for quite awhile is that advisable.

My DIY batteries were Grade B and not matched so I treated them gingerly. They also came from three different vendors with varying manufacturing dates. The Pytes I received were manufactured in January 2024 and for the cost, I would expect them to be close to Automotive Grade. I have always heard that it is best to not leave LFP at 100% for prolonged periods. Yesterday before I figured out the settings, they were at 100% for five hours but that that was only 3.55 volts per cell. Today, I think think the won't be there that long. I also have some confidence in the ten year warranty by Pytes.

To answer your question it may be too soon to say but I am going to exercise them vigorously and might not take them to 100% everyday any way. I am trying to just charge from solar. It may depend on the application. I am using them to carry me through the 4-9 peak rates period so they will drop in voltage everyday and not spend many hours at full charge. What is your usage pattern?

 

[Leodoggie]

As I have not had my setup for long I have not really established a usage pattern. But since I put in a heat pump last year during this winter most of my usage is mainly in the early morning hours when the house is cold.

 

[SunDave]

Hi Ampster,
I have the Pytes 48100R x6 since November. They have been good. I floated all of this month so far without a full charge, but also without hitting the minimum. So I know they don't have to hit 100 percent regularly. I think I'll go charge only for a few days and get them to 100 percent again.

One thing I used to do is grid charge if I didn't have good sun. I don't do that at all anymore. It seems to be very inefficient. It will take you a while to get there because it is fun to mess with the settings and know what is going on, but the most efficient way to operate is just leaving it alone. Set a low % cutoff in the TOU, and just let the system use whatever sun you get.

Good luck with your new battery setup. The Pytes V5 looks great.

 

[Ampster]

One thing I used to do is grid charge if I didn't have good sun.

I know what you mean. I had to do that in December, January and February but now the days are longer and I don't need the heat pump to warm the house as much anymore. In my case with Non Bypassable Charges from PG&E I pay a $0.025 premium over my lowest rate for NBCs and they add up. Some of that was EV charging but I am also charging from excess solar during the day. Last year at True Up my NBCs for the year were $230 which did cover my Minimum Delivery Charges, but I would still like to reduce them. The best I can do is reduce them to my MDCs which were about $120 last year. I have only been running the Pytes for a few days and I realy like them.

 

[Ampster]

I got the base of the external enclosure mounted to the ground with the supplied anchors. My concrete walk is not level so I had to do some shimming to make sure it was plumb since it is only 3/4 inch away from the exterior wall of my garage. This is an East exposure and is in shade most of the day except an hour in the morning.

 

[Oldphile]

My installers were very diligent, went to the big orange store to get shims. They used stainless steel washers. They will order a pair of 4/0 wires because they prefer factory crimped lugs. I bought the bus bars that strap the Sol-Ark double battery terminals together. They called PYTES for instructions on wiring from the batteries to the bus bars, since the install instructions were lacking. This is the V Box-OC. The V Box-OC includes breakers and bus bars. Now I wait.

They were very impressed with the PYTES battery and cabinet. This was new to them. They're a Briggs and Stratton installer. B&G bought Simpliphi and added their own (probably Chinese) inverter.

 

[Ampster]

They called PYTES for instructions on wiring from the batteries to the bus bars, since the install instructions were lacking.

The biggest issue in wiring I found was how to connect the four positive cables to the circuit breaker. There are four openings on the top of the circuit breaker but no apparent way to tighten those clamps on the spade terminal ends of the cables provided. I unscrewed the two screws holding the breaker to the cabinet and found the four tightening screws in front, above the breaker levers. The picture below shows the breaker assembly pulled away from the bracket to expose the clamping screws. Only one positive cable is attached so you can see the empty slots for the others. The instructions are lacking on that detail and it is not obvious from just looking at the breaker connections.

I had considered using 4/0 cable because my cable distance is about eight feet. That would reduce some loss but since I am using closed communication the voltage measurements are at the battery and the Inverter will compensate. For convenience I went with the 2/0 cable which I already had on hand. I also have a 225 Amp Class T fuse so the cables are protected. My SolArk 12k has a maximum charge and discharge setting of 175 Amps which is on the borderline of 2/0 capacity. When I get all seven connected I will review that. If I was using the 15k, my decision would be different.

 

[Oldphile]

I unscrewed the two screws holding the breaker to the cabinet and found the four tightening screws in front, above the breaker levers.

That must have been the problem. I happen to walk in when he had the breaker in his hand. Pytes sent them a video. They need to put this on their web site.

 

[Ampster]

They need to put this on their web site.

Yes, and it should be more clear in the instructions included with the enclosure. It is a learning experience for me but at electricians labor rates it unnecessarily increases the cost of installation. I did add a photo to my earlier post.

 

[Ampster]

These batteries are heavy! Long gone are the days when I worked as a stock boy in a lumber yard and nails came in 100 lb kegs. For the upper batteries I rigged up pully system to lift the batteries into the rack.

 

[Ampster]

I got all the batteries in place and connected them to the SolArk. They were at 54.6Volts so when I turned them on I did not connect the closed loop communication cable. That meant they reverter to voltage settings and began charging at 115 Amp, which initially was 6000 Watts. My solar was producing 7000 Watts on this beautiful sunny day. You can see the charging indicator green bars on the picture below. Just before my 4PM TOU period starts I will activate closed loop and note the percentage SOC and the voltage.

 

[Oldphile]

I can't wait to get mine operating.

 

[Ampster]

I had a bad Ethernet cable and could not get closed loop started until I swapped cables this morning. The pack got to about 80% before starting to discharge yesterday at the 4PM TOU peak period. Today it charged from the grid to 100%. I toggled it to charge from the grid to get it to a good 100% before going back to charging from solar tomorrow.

 

[Ampster]

The next day the batteries charged from solar and now that my overnight loads are only 500 Watts I am only down to about 55% by morning. That means I get back to 100% easily by Noon on these clear days. I checked my PG&E site and for the last week or ten days I have barely used the grid. That means my goal of reducing my Non Bypassable Charges for at least the Spring, Summer and Fall may be able to be accomplished.

The only thing that may change that will be if I can't charge my EVs from excess solar and have to use the grid overnight. Even then the $0.025 in NBCs above my lowest overnight rate is still much more convenient and less expensive than buying gas. Shameless plug for EV ownership.

 

[Ampster]

I used Hyper Terminal and a RJ45 to USB cable to list details of my cells. Right now with only a few cycles some of the cells are showing 0.021 volt difference but I expect that to narrow over time. This was at 100% charge and average cell voltage of 3.5 volts. I am still waiting on the WIFI stick to be delivered which will be more convenient than plugging into the console port of the master battery.

 

[Oldphile]

I used Hyper Terminal and a RJ45 to USB cable to list details of my cells. Right now with only a few cycles some of the cells are showing 0.021 volt difference but I expect that to narrow over time. This was at 100% charge and average cell voltage of 3.5 volts. I am still waiting on the WIFI stick to be delivered which will be more convenient than plugging into the console port of the master battery.

Where did you buy the Wi-Fi stick? The only place I found was AltE store.

 

[Ampster]

The only place I found was AltE store.

NAZ, Northern Arizona Wind and Sun. I bought the batteries and enclosures there as well. I hit them at the right time, with an extra 6% discount in addition to their good prices.
EDIT' I just checked prices and the WIFI stick is $200 on the AltE store. My sales order from NAZ shows $37. I don't know why there would be as big a difference even if one vendor has stock on hand.

 

[Oldphile]

NAZ, Northern Arizona Wind and Sun. I bought the batteries and enclosures there as well. I hit them at the right time, with an extra 6% discount in addition to their good prices.
EDIT' I just checked prices and the WIFI stick is $200 on the AltE store. My sales order from NAZ shows $37. I don't know why there would be as big a difference even if one vendor has stock on hand.

Thankyou for the pricing. AltE also had a ridiculous price for the V-box-OC early on. I got my V-box-OC from AltE for the same price as NAZ. I'm sure they'll drop the price on the stick. Once my batteries are functional, I'll give them a call. I'm waiting for the 11' 4/0 battery cables to connect to the Sol-Ark.