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My experience with the Selpos Mason DIY kit

batalto · 2022-10-08T15:40:06Z

My Seplos kit arrived last week and I've put it all together with some Xuba 280ah cells. I thought I would give some insight and some pictures as to the process and what I found.Firstly the cells came first, they were from Xuba and cost $2112 USD delivered and duty paid to the UK. These were then top balanced with a little bench power supply to 3.663V. This took AGES. Nearly two weeks end to end. The cells also came with the bus bars and nuts. They came well packaged and I don't have any complaints.Cells unpacked and top balanced. The kit arrived well packaged (on the outside. On the inside everything was just kind of thrown in there. The bags were zip tied onto a central strut and one bag had broken open. This is something I believe has been experienced by others too. From my understanding Seplos is now putting all these bits in a sealed box. That's great going forward, less so for me. That said, very few bits were actually loose.Box arrived and opened up Below is the full kit unpacked. There is NO INSTRUCTION manual. You get a lot of bits in the kit. To summarise you get the BMS, BMS Fuse, flexible metal plates for the BMS so it can reach the batteries, some heat sink blu tack stuff, tonnes of screws, nuts and bolts, bus bars (aluminium), front plate + and - connectors, EVA tape for between the batteries and for under the balancer and some hard fibre board to electrically insulate the case. The case is also built like a bomb shelter. I also ordered some cables and a BMS connector cable (which didn't arrive) - more on this part later.Everything unpacked The build was frankly very straight forward. I didn't really need the instructions but I had to ask Seplos to send them to me. I did use a couple of YouTube videos to make sure I didn't do anything too wrong. 90% of the work is building the BMS and the final 10% is putting in the cells. All in all I would say end to end this took me about 2-3hrs. I could easily do a second one in way less time. As a note on the ease I built the bulk of this with a single screw driver and allen key. I didn't use a torque wrench until the end, when I tightened everything up.The BMS fuse is a bit… meh. I might add my own in line fuse in the future. If this one goes, that's it, its a one shot burn through job.The BMS assembled. Everything assembled, waiting for the cells The cells were very easy to put in. Pop the EVA foam on them and slide them in. They also tighten up a huge amount and get very snug. With the cells in, the battery weighs the same as a small car. I put mine on a small dolly and did the final assembly on the floor. Lifting this thing would be a small hernia in the making. Its over 100kg.Cells in and the front plate tightened up. The top plates for the BMS was simple to install, 4 screws. Getting the cells in and connecting them was very simple. Seplos provides a battery layout diagram which is simple and also makes perfect sense. Everything fit well. They did provide little copper washers for the top of the cells. This is a complaint. They were 3 short in the bag. Therefore some cells have them and some don't. I made sure that all cells were matched e.g. copper touching copper under the bus bars, but its an annoyance it was short. I know some people didn't bother with them at all, but I added them anyway. Nuts were torqued to 8Nm on the front plate and 5Nm on the cells. I do have a measured torque wrench so this wasn't an issue. However if you had no wrench you could probably get away with a screw driver torque wrench. I did them by hand by first and almost all of them were at 5Nm when I used the measure wrench.BMS installed Finally I checked the cell voltages on the ribbons before I connected the BMS. Everything was fine so I added the BMS front plate, connected up and tightened what needed to be tightened. I would suggest you add the ribbons to the BMS and connect to the cells vs connect to cells and then to the BMS. The space is too tight in behind the BMS to get your hands in easily.Last thing was to connect to the BMS on my laptop to set the cell size to 280ah (default is 200ah). I couldn't do this. I ordered the cable with the kit and Seplos forgot to put it in. Frankly this SHOULD come with it. its $25 from them (which is too much anyway). The kit was $600 plus shipping, it should be included. I tried my pylontech cable... didn't work. Tried a normal ethernet... didn't work. In the end I had to buy a USB adaptor and build my own ethernet cable with the pin out they sent me. I really shouldn't need to do this - just chuck in the cable guys.Overall this is a very easy kit and I would build another. It cost under $3k USD delivered and tax paid for 15kwh of storage. Is there more work than a normal server rack, yes. Is it a hassle to build? No. Its at best an afternoon of work for even an unskilled person. I would give it 4/5.

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MisterB

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03/07/2023 12:02 pm

@chickenbig

thanks, the grid port and load port refer to the Emergeny power supply (load port) which isnt connected or operative in the function settings, its referred to as the EPS

im not sure what you mean by concept of installation? i will try to do a quick sketch of the layout but its identical (as far as i can tell) from the layout shown in the manual

PS - thanks for sticking with me, it must be frustrating when dealing with a numpty like me LOL

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ChickenBig

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03/07/2023 12:05 pm

Posted by: @misterb

↑

which isnt connected

It was just your picture of the inverter shows to set of flexible cable trunking connecting to the right had side of the unit. I could not quite make out whether there was a wire coming out of the trunking which goes vertically up the RHS.

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MisterB

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03/07/2023 12:09 pm

Above is the setup from the manual that the electrician followed

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Transparent

(@transparent)

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03/07/2023 12:17 pm

I agree with @chickenbig that we need more information on what's connected to the underside of the 3000-SE unit. Another photo perhaps?

There also appears to be a cardboard box on top, which won't be helping with the required airflow past the heat dissipation radiators!

Save energy... recycle electrons!

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MisterB

(@misterb)

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03/07/2023 12:22 pm

Posted by: @chickenbig

↑

Posted by: @misterb

↑

which isnt connected

It was just your picture of the inverter shows to set of flexible cable trunking connecting to the right had side of the unit. I could not quite make out whether there was a wire coming out of the trunking which goes vertically up the RHS.

i installed the trunking while i was doing a first fix and attaching everything to the wall, ready for the electrician, thanks for spotting it tand pointing it out though, shows you care ( ❤️ )

Re the cardboard box, you're right it needs moving. It's actually a Seplos 16s BMS with LCD screen that I originally bought last year to build my own battery, but it's not needed ..... Well not by me anyway !

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MisterB

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03/07/2023 12:34 pm

@transparent

The cables on the left are to/from the battery.

Next one (for m the left) is the Can communication cable between the battery and inverter as supplied by Sofar

Then the two CT Cables with the WiFi module in front of them and finally the incoming power supply cable.

This next three photos are of the CT connections to the cables the cables from both the solar output and from the feed to the inverter both go into the same connector, the brown box thingy. Does that mean they are both effectively connected to each other, could that be the issue. The CT Cables are connected in the correct orientation as I colour coded them when installing the cables

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ChickenBig

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03/07/2023 12:45 pm

Posted by: @misterb

↑

-- Attachment is not available --

Above is the setup from the manual that the electrician followed

Any chance of photos of the CT clamps and the cables which go back to the Sofar inverter (in particular is ethernet cable used, how long the cable run is and whether the signal cables run at a distance from mains wires)? Is the CT clamp on the PV inverter showing the correct power generated? We have established that the CT clamp on the total house load is incorrect, haven't we?

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ChickenBig

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03/07/2023 1:30 pm

Posted by: @misterb

↑

the brown box thingy

So your various consumer units are fed off these Henley Blocks. What does the white box at the top (with the cover closed) contain? And what is the Wylex box in the middle right contain?

In terms of wiring the CT clamps, the excessively long unshielded cable between the clamp and the ethernet cable is a little concerning (and probably should have been cut to length). More concerning is how multiple constituent ethernet wires are stuffed into a single wago terminal; I don't think that will help with getting a good signal back to the ME3000SP.

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Transparent

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03/07/2023 1:42 pm

Having seen the photos, I too have a plethora of questions!

Why is the red/yellow "emergency breaker" placed so high up and to the right?
This is what you or the fire-brigade need to get to when things go wrong!

Save energy... recycle electrons!

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ChickenBig

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03/07/2023 2:26 pm

Posted by: @transparent

↑

Why is the red/yellow "emergency breaker" placed so high up and to the right?

I also wonder about the battery isolation. From the photo is not clear, but from the dangle of the cables I think it breaks just the positive wire. Note that I had trouble finding a reasonably priced DC rated two pole isolator (at least not in the > 100A range).

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Transparent

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03/07/2023 2:45 pm

I too don't like the look of that breaker on the Battery wires. We discussed adequately-sized DC breakers earlier on this topic. You can buy them on eBay or Amazon but note that some are directly shipped from China.

Even so, those battery cables look like they're too thin in the photo.

For a Seplos Mason box I would expect them to be 25mm² but they look like 16mm² which can only carry 110A max. The cable capacity must always be well clear of the breaker's tripping-current.

Save energy... recycle electrons!

👍

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vaugi

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03/07/2023 3:02 pm

Posted by: @chickenbig

↑

I also wonder about the battery isolation. From the photo is not clear, but from the dangle of the cables I think it breaks just the positive wire. Note that I had trouble finding a reasonably priced DC rated two pole isolator (at least not in the > 100A range).

Do I understand it correctly, that the DC rated isolator should be sized based on the power of the inverter? My Sunsynk 5kW inverter has a max of 120A, so I used one of these Mersen NH00 with 160A fuses:

https://www.bimblesolar.com/DC-fused-disconnect-2pole

On advice from the Sunsynk manually I used 35mm2 tri rated cable for the inverter to isolator, the Seplos I ordered came with 50mm2 cables.

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