What Propane Generator to Pair With Hysolis Apollo 5K

[Central Coast Solar]

Here is the scenario: I have a customer who wants to put an off grid system in a new tiny home. I recommended they go with an EG4 system, but the builder wants to go with a single Hysolis system and and extra battery or two. Everything is running on 110V so one unit will be fine. I told them that they will also need some kind of generator (probably propane) to top off the batteries during the Winter months.

Does anyone know of a propane generator that can interact with a Hysolis Apollo 5K? We need it to be able to turn on when the batteries are getting low and turn off when they are charged (remote start).

 

[sunshine_eggo]

Here is the scenario: I have a customer who wants to put an off grid system in a new tiny home. I recommended they go with an EG4 system, but the builder wants to go with a single Hysolis system and and extra battery or two. Everything is running on 110V so one unit will be fine. I told them that they will also need some kind of generator (probably propane) to top off the batteries during the Winter months.

Does anyone know of a propane generator that can interact with a Hysolis Apollo 5K? We need it to be able to turn on when the batteries are getting low and turn off when they are charged (remote start).

Generator sizing is generally recommended to be 30-50% above inverter output power. Since generator power is passed through to loads during charging, the generator must support all loads + charging. Smaller generators may run into a situation where charging+loads causes generator overload.

 

[Madcodger]

I suggest it's not the specific brand of generator your need to worry about so much as whether it can be started automatically based on input from a relay, and whether the inverter (or even a smart shunt) has such a relay on it. When our batteries get down to a specific level (that we can select and change as desired), the inverter closes a relay designed to signal the generator to start. When the batteries reach the level or charge we select, the relay opens and the generator stops. Many generators designed for home backup have this capability. Simply speak with any decent generator retailer (or better yet, local installer) about this.

 

[wkyongae]

Generator sizing is generally recommended to be 30-50% above inverter output power. Since generator power is passed through to loads during charging, the generator must support all loads + charging. Smaller generators may run into a situation where charging+loads causes generator overload.

When we put our off grid system in we were told the size generator thing too. Well, simple solution, shed the load, charge batteries a little bit, bring load back online slowly as generator allows.