New from Germany

[Tuscumbia]

Hello there,

my name is Michael. I'm from Germany, my nicname "Tuscumbia" in because I have relatives in Tuscumbia, Al. Since October 2020 I have 72 Solarpanels on the roof of my house (23.4 kWp). I have a 20 kWp Kostal Piko 20 Inverter and no battery yet but like to build one.

Michael

 

[Sky-HHI]

Welcome Michael, I had to look up your relatives small town in AI as I was not familiar with that area of the USA. Two years ago we were visiting friends in Cologne Germany and I was impressed with the large number of solar panels on homes. Your country seems to be going in the right direction with residential solar. There is a lot of battery information on this forum and great people to help with a battery build. The main problem now is slow shipping of batteries coming from China due to the holiday rush and container shortage. Again welcome.

 

[Hedges]

Thumbing through data sheet, I don't see reference to batteries

https://www.kostal-solar-electric.com/en-gb/products/solar-inverter/-/media/document-library-folder---kse/2018/05/02/08/56/db_piko-10-20_en.pdf

Does your inverter support battery operation, or will the battery require a separate inverter?

Batteries cost 10 to 20 times as much as photovoltaics, except DIY with cheap cells bought direct from China can be 1x to 2x. Which still doubles or triples your cost per kWh.
I favor using power as it is produced, switching or varying loads to match production. Battery sized to support minimal loads overnight.

 

[Tuscumbia]

Welcome Michael, I had to look up your relatives small town in AI as I was not familiar with that area of the USA. Two years ago we were visiting friends in Cologne Germany and I was impressed with the large number of solar panels on homes. Your country seems to be going in the right direction with residential solar. There is a lot of battery information on this forum and great people to help with a battery build. The main problem now is slow shipping of batteries coming from China due to the holiday rush and container shortage. Again welcome.

Thank you Douglas,

in the last days I bought a set of 16 Lishen 272 Ah Cells from China. I think they will not arrive until march. My Kostal Inverter don't support a battery so I thought about buying a Victron Multiplus II but I'm still in the finding process.

Michael