@transparent

Finally @misterb... you are no longer allowed to refer to yourself as a 'newbie'. 😉 

Over the past week, you've amassed more knowledge on this subject than 99% of the population will ever achieve!

you wont get me into your bed that easy, you smooth talker LOL

i really do appreciate the words of wisdom, even when i was probably driving you all mad ! i am busy reading and re reading the information posted on here in relation to running parallel inverters in the hope i start to get the picture. am off on holiday to France for 6 weeks or so from the middle of july, so my mind might be on other things for a while .... 🍷 🍷 🍷 🍷 

but i am getting there and yes, i will and am spreading the word of home built systems - hence the link to the way i did my seplos case build - if you think it might help, i am happy to take the time to copy and paste all the stages on this forum. would that be helpful? perhaps under a different thread heading which might make it easier to find? 

re adding additional inverters, just to confirm that if they are capable of being linked to each provide 3kw during off peak that its worth considering getting an additional 14.3kw of batteries? it just needs planning properly? we do get solar in the winter but admittedly not that much and i dont really want to have 14.3kw sat there not being used for 4/5 months of the year

@misterb

Is there a reason you require so much energy in the Summer, or even in the Winter if you have storage heaters?

@derek-m 

I'm in this for the long term. If I can recoup any investment over the next six or seven years, then i think it's worth it. 

Saving £3 per day over a year is close enough to £1100, which is about half the price of a Seplos DIY kit from Fogstar..... So with two of them, that's four years to recoup cost. Then allowing for the inverter and installation of around £1600, is another year and a bit, so under six years I reckon. 

Added into that in my particular case is the approx £1000 every year from the FiT payments from PV, which have now paid for themselves. So even having excess storage only used some of the time seems to make sense to me.

I think if I was paying for this to be done by a business then the sums just wouldn't work out, but as has been highlighted, the sooner people realise there is a DIY option then we all benefit. 

I am lucky in that I have the finances to push the project along a bit faster than some others might have, some of which were as a result of overpaying octopus and having enough money in credit to buy another battery now, some of which was saved by installing a Chinese diesel heater to help heat my kitchen/dining conservatory and it made a difference over last winter! Just to clarify, the heater isn't in the house, but outside, and a duct feeds air from the house into the heater and then that air is heated and travels down a separate duct back into the house. All the ductwork is fitted under the kitchen units and runs are kept as short as possible. The heater works off remote control, so the only thing I have to do, other than press the blipper,  is to keep the fuel topped up every couple of days (or fit a bigger fuel tank later this year!)

Happy to share photos of that etc if anyone is interested? 

Sorry if the response went on a bit, I am quite passionate about reducing living costs, even over the long term as most retired people are, sorry but I'm not an eco warrior trying to do this to save the planet, but do sympathise with the concept. 

A pound saved is actually £1.20 saved, as you have to have an income of £1.20 as a lower rate tax payer to be able to have a pound to spend !! 

Posted by: @vaugi

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Posted by: @misterb

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we are on the octopus go tariff

 

One thing to double check before you go off planning is whether you are able to go on Octopus Intelligent instead - that gives you 6 hrs (11:30-5:30), and a cheaper rate.  You need either a compatible EV, or a compatible charger (Ohme pretty much at the moment) to use it.

That would give you 18kWh on your current set up, or for example 30kWh on a 5kW Hybrid.

You sort of need to plan all this if you are going to do it, as you don't really want to be chopping and changing DNO applications I guess?  Up here on Northern Powergrid a >3.6kW application is £650.

Personally, I would see how your current system does over Summer and Winter, and make a decision then if it's all installed and working now.  Even with cheap DIY battery boxes if you don't often use a large amount of kWh then the saving can be marginal if you get multiple boxes.  You can already shift your storage heaters overnight for example without any battery need.

I think a 5kW Sunsynk is a nice sweet spot, we rarely go over 5kW and that's because I've forgotten and put the dishwasher and washing machine on at the same time as the oven...I just go an pause the washing machine until finished cooking.

 

Thanks, its something for me to consider. 

i assume that by altering the settings re charge time from the grid, that i wouldnt have to use grid charging in the summer as the panels produce more than enough to keep the 14.3kw battery topped up. i also need to be sure thata 5 or 6kw inverter isnt a combined amount and it can still only charge at 3kw, which is why i was considring another 3kw sofar that i could link together, assuming it would then give me 2 x 3kw = 6kw charging capacity. even on octopus go over a four hour period that would allow 24kw of charging, though taking into account the 'lag' as identified in an earlier post, even if that gave me 20kw, it would mean 20kw at 7p rather than having to buy 20kw at 40p later in the day. That equates to £1.40 to buy £8 of electricity a saving of £6.60 each day. Over a 70 day period during the winter, that produces a saving of  £462, if my maths and logic are correct ????

But as i can already save £232 based on the same figures over that period, on what i already have, is it cost effective to add the additional inverter and battery capacity, which is i think what previous posters have alluded to (albeit that the saving would be more than that over the whole year)

For more power I think you might have to just upgrade your solar and battery setup with a nice hybrid inverter; something like a Sunsynk ECCO 5kW or 8.8kW would then simplify what you are getting permission for.

i have spent most of today on youtube and internet looking at the sunsynk 5kw and cant actually find anything i dont like about it. it seems to give me the things i am looking for, its on the approved list, has ahigher grid charging rate, ability to add more PV further down the line, it looks reasonably easy to programme - what more could i possibly want .....?? Answers are actually invited to make sure i go down the right path. 

can anyone suggest the best place to purchase from in terms of not just price but support, thanks

Posted by: @misterb

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the best place to purchase from

How about https://www.sunsynk.org/approvedinstallers for your nearest friendly installer?

Strangely I think CEF do the best price on the 8.8kW ECCO, if you want to manage things yourself.

Is the 8.8 on the approved list? I actually think the 5kw or 5.5kw will meet my needs. So long as I can charge at around 5kw from the grid at off peak, that will be fine with 28.6kw of batteries.

I can then add more PV when I'm ready.

Im not planning to be totally off grid, but I do want to reduce my grid consumption 

Posted by: @misterb

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Is the 8.8 on the approved list?

Strangely the Sunsynk website https://www.sunsynk.org/8kw-hybrid-inverter  lists it as having two identifiers SYNK-8K-SG05LP1
& SUNSYNK-8K-SG01LP1. Both of these are present in the ENA database with G99 & G100 approval.

Am I looking in the wrong database please? I am looking in the Type Test Register and there is no result found for them. Even when I search just by Sunsynk, no 8kw are shown. Some of the 3kw and 5kw are shown as approved.

But when I click on the documentation I find this 

Which lists the SYNK-8K-SG01LP1 in the same test report as the 5K inverter? 

I think you need a hyphen between SUNSYNK and the rest of the identifier. I think it is easier to search by manufacturer, power and GB Jurisdiction.

Incidentally this page also allows downloading the details of the inverters listed in the grid as a CSV file, which allows for further filtering within a spreadsheet. For instance G100 certification is pretty rare in the 8kW and above output.

@chickenbig 

thanks, for some reason the filter was set to berween 3 and 6 kw DOH!

i think i need to make this a different topic, as it isnt specific to the Seplos case and we (or rather I am !) are taking it off topic !!

Today I received an email from the Chinese manufacturer, BasenGreen, announcing their own DIY Storage case.

Details are pretty sparse at the moment, but their Alibaba site seems to have the best information.

The Basen Group of companies is in Shenzhen, and I'm unsure which products are badged under their BasenGreen name.
They are one of the more reputable Chinese-based suppliers.
They design and manufacture everything from phone charger-leads to commercial battery racks.

As with the Seplos product, the details matter.

Perhaps someone else here might like to find out more on the specifications, including the BMS parameters, protection fuse, type of cell-balancing and mounting/stacking possibilities.