Posted by: @little-lights

↑

@jamespa Thanks - I'm OK with having part of the house, not the whole house - I've def made my peace with that. In an outage, if we could keep the heating / hot water, lights, and a judicious use of sockets I'd be a-OK (esp if it was able to recharge from solar). So I've figured out: the Solis inverter we have doesn't have a generator port.

I am way, so a bit late, just sharing a few threads in case you have not seen them. 

One that @jamespa started about adding a hybrid inverter to a pure PV setup covers many considerations including the regulation side... The Solis model that I have is different from yours, as others mentioned. Below it a diagram that shows the options. My Solis S6 has a standard grid port, a backup/ups/auto-islanding port and a "smart" port that can have a grid tied inverter (or work as a lower backup port). Yours would be the "PV inverter" in the diagram below.

There is also a thread about Solis hybrid inverter options that may help. 

The Sunsynk has very similar inverters, their documentation is much better, they also seem relaxed about which batteries are used (Solis has a compatibility list that many people in this forum ignored but that Solis tries to misuse to restrict warranty cover..).

I have the sense the UI, app and monitoring of the Solis is a bit better than Sunsynk and the Solis includes AI (probably better than when I evaluated it). But if you use HA or anything like that, this will not matter, as both can be monitoring using modbus. Another brand is Solax. 

Posted by: @little-lights

↑

I was told there's no way to get that capability without replacing both the battery and inverter, which we can't afford.

[...]

I queried this with Pure Drive, wondering if I could replace the inverter with a hybrid inverter, but alas no. The same answer: I'd have to take everything out, and start from scratch.

That may well be correct.

However we don't have enough information here to confirm that one way or the other.

For example, I've come across a PureDrive Installation Manual which contains this diagram:

On its own the diagram suggests that the PureDrive battery can be recharged from the grid or from a solar string inverter.
To do so it requires measurements from two Current Transformer Clamps.

But I don't see any reference to CT Clamps in your description of what's been installed.

Secondly, both the PureDrive battery and the Solis S6-GR1P3K inverter have RS485 ports.

We don't know if your existing installation has already used either or both of those ports to connect to something.
Nor are we aware of the inverter having any external CT-clamp or meter which provides it with feedback.

However, if both RS485 ports remain unused then those have the potential to be connected to a self-built micro-controller such as a Raspberry Pi.

That may be heading into a field of technology which you hadn't intended learning about. But many people now use online AI tools to write the code for their projects, which makes the learning curve less steep.

... just a few thoughts to chew over!

Posted by: @colinc

↑

However, the panels and battery should be transferrable into a revamped setup.

I agree with @colinc that you can reuse some of it. A simple drawing of the components and connections would allow us to advise further. 

I hope you can recover your system. Did your installers provide you with an MCS certificate?