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diy solar

Want to add another inverter, share battery bank with current inverter?

doox00

Solar Enthusiast
Joined
Jul 22, 2023
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301
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US-MI
Hey all, I want to add a 12000xp inverter and some more panels to it, I currently have 3 6000xp's in parallel and have ~170kwh of battery storage. Can I setup the 12000xp and some new panels to it and have it hooked up to that same battery bank the 6000xp's are connected to? It will have it's own ac panel, separate from the 6000 xp's and I will not have grid ran into the 12000xp either (I have grid ran into my 6000xps).
 
I'm not an EG4 guy but in terms of the DC side of things, I don't see why you can't connect to the same bank in open loop. Not sure if you can do coms if you already have it in closed loop with one of the 6000XPs.
 
Actually I just got off the phone with signature solar and asked them if that was okay to do and they recommended against it, one inverter may be calling to charge the battery and the other could be pulling power from the batteries and I guess that could cause issues.
 
I've done it with a couple of 3kw PowMr all in ones, each with their own panels, without any issues.

Edit to add, they were not paralleled and quite often there would be situations with one charging and the other pulling from the battery bank. Bank was 500ah @24v of lifepo4
 
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I'm running a SolArk with batt comms and an EG4 6500ex on the same battery pack. No issues so far but I'm only barely making more than the house uses at noon and I've only had it working for a couple of weeks.
 
Actually I just got off the phone with signature solar and asked them if that was okay to do and they recommended against it, one inverter may be calling to charge the battery and the other could be pulling power from the batteries and I guess that could cause issues.
I'd ask them what issues that could cause. The inverter won't care if the batteries are using the power or if another inverter is.
 
The only issue I've seen is that since I'm producing a total that's less than the house is consuming that it runs the battery down until it hits the min setting. The secondary system keeps dumping electrons into the battery until it rises 1%, at which point it starts draining the battery back down. So it's micro-cycling the battery most of the day right now.
 
Hey all, I want to add a 12000xp inverter and some more panels to it, I currently have 3 6000xp's in parallel and have ~170kwh of battery storage. Can I setup the 12000xp and some new panels to it and have it hooked up to that same battery bank the 6000xp's are connected to? It will have it's own ac panel, separate from the 6000 xp's and I will not have grid ran into the 12000xp either (I have grid ran into my 6000xps).
Yes, but you can't have closed loop communication with both, if that matters to you.
 
Actually I just got off the phone with signature solar and asked them if that was okay to do and they recommended against it, one inverter may be calling to charge the battery and the other could be pulling power from the batteries and I guess that could cause issues.
That doesn't matter at all.
 
The only issue I've seen is that since I'm producing a total that's less than the house is consuming that it runs the battery down until it hits the min setting. The secondary system keeps dumping electrons into the battery until it rises 1%, at which point it starts draining the battery back down. So it's micro-cycling the battery most of the day right now.
Sounds like you need to tweak the settings a bit.
 
I ended up just ordering a 4th 6000xp to parallel with the other 3 and can add 20 more panels total to my system. The other 3 6000xps are already maxed out with panels.
 
I’ve had multiple inverters running off the same back for almost a year. No issues other than what @timselectric said where both systems can’t have battery communications.

If one inverter is charging and the other is discharging, the discharging inverter will take power off the DC bus bars (coming from the charging inverter) before I draws from the batteries. If the power requirement is insufficient, then it will pull the remaining power from the batteries.
 
I’ve had multiple inverters running off the same back for almost a year. No issues other than what @timselectric said where both systems can’t have battery communications.

If one inverter is charging and the other is discharging, the discharging inverter will take power off the DC bus bars (coming from the charging inverter) before I draws from the batteries. If the power requirement is insufficient, then it will pull the remaining power from the batteries.
Yeah, I agree I don't think it would make a difference but ultimately my goal was to not allow the new 12000xp inverter ever get power from the grid.. but that would not end up working anyway if I were sharing the battery bank, because the 6000xp's would just be supplying the grid to the batteries anyway.. so figured I may as well just expand the system I have.
 

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