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Seeking ideas / information / commiseration - Pure Drive

Little Lights · 2026-04-26T15:09:00Z

Hello, Little story of battery woe, and then an appeal for any help/info/hope people might be able to offer. The Story: We moved into our home in Dec 2022. In March/April 2023 we had the following installed: - 6 solar panels (3.27kWp) and - Pure Drive 10kW AC coupled battery installed (gateway AC connection), with - Solis inverter (S6-GR13PK, inverter topology is non-isolated). Small local installer. We told the installer that we wanted a system that worked off grid, and would re-charge from solar in the event of a power outage. We're pretty rural, and we knew that when storm Arwen came it took this area out for two weeks. I was pretty 'green' to renewable energy and didn't understand the specs we were given by the installer. My bad. Had I understood the specs, I would have understood that the system would not do what we wanted. In my defence, I had a phone call with the installer and specifically asked if it worked off grid, and was told it did. The written specs (had I understood them) told a different story. It was installed, and in August that year there was a power cut and (imagine my surprise!) it didn't work off grid. I queried it. I then spent 10 months chasing and chasing and getting no where (there were actual tears) before being told by the installer "We're busy doing commercial work not residential." I got the message. I spoke to Pure Drive, and they put me onto two other approved installers in the area who could look at it. One came out. Explained that based on what I'd said I wanted, I'd been sold a dud set up. Absolutely gutted, because we'd spent £15k on the system in total (panels and battery plus install). That second installer agreed to do a 'work-around' for us whereby there is a back-up circuit installed in the house that has sockets (they're all on one circuit) and lights, and not the kitchen. In a power cut, we get the heating still working, sockets (so fridge freezer is OK) and lights. We can use what's in the battery at the time, but it doesn't have capacity to re-charge from solar. 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. There have been a couple of other niggles. - Most mornings the battery trips out when the sun comes up, and we have to flip it back on at it's fuse board. No idea why. If we miss that, it's just out until we notice. - Intermittently but at multiple occasions in the day the Solis inverter presents a 'NO GRID' error, mostly when it's sunny. The upshot of about 2.5 months of query, chase, and investigation regarding that with the original installer, second installer, Pure Drive, Northern Powergrid, and Solis is that the panels and/or battery are 'overloading' the Solis inverter in sunny periods and it shuts itself off to protect itself, and then turns back on again. It also turns out that the Solis inverter wasn't installed with remote monitoring, and my original installer agreed to install the required piece of kit so that it could be remotely monitored, and then didn't. All in all, I gave up pursuing that further because it doesn't seem to massively effect performance - the inverter switches off for 30secs to 1min30secs at a time, during sunny periods, multiple times a day, but, it comes back on again and the battery can then get back to charging. Apart from that it, it does charge, store, and power the house as it should. I have it to charge at night, and have it in 'power cut' mode so if the worst happens we should at least have a decent amount of charge in the battery to keep things ticking over. The Question: Is there any way - any at all - that I can affordably (I'm thinking £2k-ish...?) get this system to work as I originally wanted it to: panels and battery, optimising home usage, and in the event of a power cut to have the ability to charge up the battery from the panels and run the (low-power) essentials of the house from the battery, off grid. So far I haven't found it, so I'm not hopeful. I last looked into this maybe over a year ago (early 2025) and it was gruelling trying to get answers - that's partly down to me not really understanding the tech (again, my bad). I know this is very technical and no one can see my set up, so there's maybe a limited amount anyone can say - I think I'd even just appreciate some commiseration at this point. I've wondered about selling the equipment, and using that to fund the correct kit/installation, but I expect we wouldn't get close to covering the cost from the second hand market. As I say any advice about options or ways forward very welcome, and thanks in advance for anyone willing to read my tale of woe and even consider replying.

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Batpred

(@batpred)

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Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 1158

27/04/2026 8:33 pm

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.

8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kW export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; Vaillant Arotherm Pro 7kW; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC

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Transparent

(@transparent)

Illustrious Member Moderator

Joined: 5 years ago

Posts: 3401

28/04/2026 2:47 pm

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!

Save energy... recycle electrons!

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Batpred

(@batpred)

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Joined: 2 years ago

Posts: 1158

02/05/2026 12:39 pm

Posted by: @colinc

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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?

8kW Solis S6-EH1P8K-L-PLUS hybrid inverter; G99: 8kW export; 16kWh Seplos Fogstar battery; Ohme Home Pro EV charger; Vaillant Arotherm Pro 7kW; 100Amp head, HA lab on mini PC

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