Maximize Your Battery Bank's Potential: a step by step guide.
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- Опубликовано: 7 окт 2022
- Full assembly of the EG4 cabinet and rack from Signature Solar. Loading it up with over 30 kWh of LiFePO4 batteries, 51.2V (48V). Wiring. Custom Fuse for over-current protection. Updating the firmware and top-balancing. Whew! That's a lot to cover in this video, so let's get to it.
My goal in this video is to have a step by step guide to help walk you through the process of setting up a large battery bank for your whole house backup. I use this off grid for my 100% electric house.
Signature Solar Affiliate Links:
30+kWh kit with batteries and rack: signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepo...
New EG4 Battery with latest firmware and rack: signaturesolar.com/eg4-ll-lit...
Wall Charger for LiFePO4 Batteris: signaturesolar.com/eg4-batter...
Read/write cable: signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepo...
48V 100Ah Battery page with manual and software downloads: signaturesolar.com/eg4-lifepo...
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Related Video:
Signature Solar firmware update video: • EG4 LifePower4 Firmwar...
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Class-T fuse, 400A: amzn.to/3CmSYNQ
Thread Checker: amzn.to/3T4O5jp
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Disclaimer:
My videos are in no way intended to be instructional "how-to" lessons. I am simply documenting my project for informational purposes. Property damage, personal injury, or death may result, even when following manufacturer's instructions. I cannot be held liable for such damage or injury. It is YOUR OBLIGATION to ensure that you are complying with any local and federal laws as well as code and permit requirements.
David Poz, LLC 
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Hi Dave, I have to admit I loved that little bit of your 2-year-old son figuring out how to open the cabinet. As a father, you watch him do that and on one-hand you say "YAY, look at you figuring things out!" and on the other hand, at the exact same time, you say "Holy crap, don't ever do that again!" Ah, the "joys" of fatherhood.
Great job demonstrating safety and details. Thanks David!
Awesome David!
Thank you very much for taking all the pain behalf of the community!
Dave saves everybody a lot of headaches thank you Dave looking forward to more videos
weldon David. Nice you made the bold move to go offgrid and fully maximize the potentials of your system.
i made a similar decision in the month of March this yeat and its been a wonderful exprience for me.
i wish you all the best as you go off the grid.
I love those plastic busbar covers. And that busbar you made up to the fuse is awesome!!
Thanks for sharing!
Super installation DAVID 👍
I just ordered that rack and 2 of the same batteries along with the 6500ex inverter. Not so great to hear about the firmware issues but it'll be a few months before I put it together so hopefully it'll be better then.
Thank you for doing these vids, it is already, and will be a great help to me. Cheers!
Thanks for sharing your experience in solar systems.
Your welcome, thanks for checking out the video.
When you figure the headache of updating the firmware gives you a free battery, I think that it's a "no-brainer" when people can watch this video and figure it out. These service rack batteries are the kids meow for battery banks. Four racks, like you have, setup in my home ( 122.4kW) is enough power to run everything in my home for almost a month, without any outside recharging from PV. Amazing amount of power in a compact size case. Nice job, David.
Appreciate all the work David.
Thanks
Nice work Dave!
I’m in the middle of setting up the exact same batteries. I purchased the SS EG4 6000EX-48 inverter and 2 of the batteries to start. I’ll be updating the firmware on them this week and your video is right on time!
Thank you and keep up the great work 👍🏻
I have 4 of these inverters and 6 batteries that I am working with. Let me know how your story goes-
@@jasonhensley947 did you guys figure out how to update the firmware? I’m trying to do it for my dad but in the bottom left corner it keeps saying “satus: serial port not connected” and not sure whats going on with it”
I just bought the 6000ex and 3 batteries excited to see what I can power with this setup
Morning Dave, love the fuse, and the Ireland music. Not much solar today, lots of flooding here in Victoria Australia.
Great video, thanks very much. You give clear, concise, detailed and thorough descriptions. I just purchased the same set of batteries with that rack today. Your video will definitely help me with my setup. I also have the Schneider inverter as I see you do, and I know these batteries can be set up so the BMS will communicate with the Schneider inverter. However I am having a tough time following the Signature Solar video on that. So I look forward to your video on that part of your setup. I know you will have some information that will help me. Keep up the good work!
Yes, I plan to set up closed loop communication once I install the insight home. But for not, I'm running under factory settings.
Man, you have all the cool tools!
Good to see you are not messing with car batteries anymore, loved those videos though, great set up...running 5 pylontechs with the same setup, works like it's not there 😀
Great job as always, I bought a Mercedes’ sprinter after the Appalachian trail looking forward to doing a small system
Cool. If you are in Massachusetts, we could work together.
Great video and hard work! 👍
Great video, thanks for your sharing!
Nice job David. I am getting close to getting a 6 pack with the rack myself and I noticed they have FREE shipping right now. Thanks!
Yeah, that free shipping is a pretty nice discount right now
Been watching your videos, your setup looks real nice!
David!! Love the vids - appreciate your work!! Would you consider a video getting into the whats-and-wherefores of a battery backup for a well pump? Sizing, etc.? I think that would be a great help to many!! 😎😎 Thanks again!!
Appreciate the time you spent in showing all this. It really helped when doing my firmware upgrade.
The reason the cage nuts don't line up is because you are skipping one square space between units. Server racks are designed to line up equipment at the start of each rack unit (the U in 21U or 42U rack). Skipping a space will throw of the alignment of each rack unit unless you skip an entire U, which is 3 squares. Server racks and equipment are designed to cool from front to back with no vertical space between equipment.
Nice build and video!
That would be great information for Signature Solar to know. They are the ones who sell the rack. The shelves were pre-installed before I got it.
two headache sources when consider which battery bank we should buy. one is connunications between batteries. what happens to the roftware when competer upgraded? second is communication between inverter and battery bank. we need easy installation of the whole system! thank you david, your your videos always informative!
Hey Dave I've learned a lot from your videos but something I wanted to let you know is that the spacing on the rack nuts is groups of three. You need to put the nut in the centre of that group so they will all align correctly. It's an industrial rack thing, they have their reasons. Hope this helps. 👍
yea, was going to post the same thing. learned that early on in my networking and telco work. surprised they don't mark them like some of the racks i've been seeing lately. extra cost i guess.
If you ever find that you need to take power tools to a rack, you should take that as a sign that you need to stop.... and give a hard think about what you're about to do.
As stated above, rack Us are in groups of three. If you look at them as "Outer, Inner, Outer" you'll find that there's a larger gap between outer and inner holes than two adjacent outer holes. Use that larger gap as your spacing guide. That's the MIDDLE of a U. Look for the small gap between holes. That's the BOUNDARY of a U.
Thanks for the video. FYI, the dip switch settings are binary for 1-6. 0001=1, 0010=2, 0011=3, 0100=4, 0101=5, 1000=6
Minor fix: binary 6 is 0110
@@georgejohn6519 yup... 1000=8
Took me a while to figure it out as well. That last 10% of knowledge takes the longest to figure out. Using an old laptop I had, I now have BMS Test running for each of my batteries with the info being displayed on a monitor I mounted to the wall. Really needed to fine tune your charging parameters imho.
Awesome video brother, tha k you for your time and effort on Educating us :) God bless
Since first viewing your excellent video on the EG4 batteries and cabinet, i have purchased the Blue Sea Class T fuse holder. In viewing how it fits under the top cover of the cabinet, I didn't like the clearance. As a result I thought I'd post my solution to provide more clearance below the mounted Blue Sea fuse holder.
I removed the top cover and flipped it over and resecured it. Then I put the fuse holder on and made the 90⁰ bus bar ...
It all turned out great. Highly recommended.
Where is this post showing your "flipped over" fuse holder?
Did flipping the lid give you more clearance?
Thanks....this helped me save a lot of time.
Nice video. I have three EG4 LL batteries in a six compartment cabinet. Two things that I have done. #1 is I reversed the negative buss bar and attached my main cable to the bottom of the buss bar. I want the electrical path the same through the batteries. #2, I have run a ground wire into the cabinet along with my power conductors. I have a stacked pair of Outback inverters.
I'm curious about your ground, did you mean the server rack itself? Is there a pre-made ground lug for the server rack or did you make your own?
Just curious Tom how many things are you running on a daily basis with your 3 batteries. I just ordered the 6000EX and 3 batteries 🤞🏼🤞🏼🤞🏼
Tks for sharing...is awesome!
Good video. Thanks.
Hi David.
Great video again, thanks for showing and explaining everything in detail! :)
I've got 8 ARK 2.5L-A1 batteries (2.56kWh, 51.2V) the charge/discharge current of one battery is 25A. I will connect them to 2 Growatt SPF 5000ES inverters in parallel so I should have a 10kW output which is exactly what I'm looking for.
The only problem with these batteries though is, according to the datasheet, that when you connect more than 4 batteries in parallel, the current will still be 100A. Instead of 125A for 5 batteries, 150A for 6 etc. It's probably the BMS limiting the current. Otherwise with 8 batteries I would have expected an output of 200A. But 100A and 51.2V would only give an output of 5.12 kW.
So I thought when I make two groups of 4 batteries each and connect these 2 groups in parallel, I will have 200A. But then I've got 2 BMS (CAN) cables instead of one. After searching the internet for a while I found the ARK LV HUB-A1 combiner box which simply consists of 2 bus bars. One to connect all positives and one to connect all negatives and also a BMS combiner. But unfortunately this product is no longer in production.
I contacted the Growatt if they had a solution, but they confused me even more and they said that 200A is too much for the inverters to handle. But from looking at your video, you connect even more Amps to the inverter without any problem. Or is my calculation wrong and can I somehow get the desired 10kW continious power from the batteries with just the 100A.
Otherwise I can always connect the 2 groups of 4 batteries together myself and try to combine the 2 BMS cables into one. I was wondering if you know a kind of BMS combiner device that would do the trick or is it simply connecting all wires in the 2 BMS cables in parallel as well or would this maybe have to be a special growatt product that is configured to deal with both signals? I'm a bit lost on this subject. I hope you can help me with this? Many thanks in advance!
Sounds like you are on the right track. I have not used the ARK batteries, so I'll have to keep my comments to more general ideas.
In this video, with 6x EG4 batteries in one rack... Each battery has a BMS built-in. I can parallel the batteries as much as I want because each battery has it's own protection. In this case, each BMS has a maximum 100A current. Since I have 6 batteries, (each with a BMS) I have 600A potential. Note the use of the word "potential". I can hook this cabinet up to a 500W inverter, which would only draw 10A@50VDC; or I can hook it up to a 30kW inverter pulling the full 600A@50VDC. There is no such thing as having too much potential for the inverter, the inverter will pull what it needs and that's it. Note, I said "inverter" in the previous sentence. This is different than a discussion about wire size, current protection, etc.
Thumbs up and a comment for the rhythm.
Great video David! love the details you capture with your vids. I've found the manual for setting the dipswitches to be upside down and backwards. Just an FYI. An easy way to verify what you have addressed with the dipswitches is to open up the BMS test software and go into the battery info tab. Then set your pack number to a high count like 14 and start address at 2. After you click add address to sequence it will automatically go through each battery/pack number and if the dipswitches are set to that number it will be displayed and the data will populate. One other interesting FYI is I find I can run my inverter connected to battery/pack #0 and then connect a PC or Laptop to the last pack #6 and check out my batteries any time I wish without having to disrupt my inverter connection. If I get ambitious I'll attempt to make a video on the subject as well as get them working with my new 15KW Victron inverter.
I would love to see that video.
Yes, please post video we would love to see it!! (Says the man with his own server rack ready to be delivered any day now- lol)
In particular, hoping to gain insight as to how it works with your inverter. I purchased a SolArk 15k which is also on its way. Now I'm regretting getting the eg4 rack vs spending the extra money for the eg4 LL set. (Based on what Dave says about them working well with multiple inverters)
@cdurch1 would you be interested in selling any or all of your LifePOWER4 EG4 batteries (to free up your purchase of the new Version-2 EG4 batteries)?
In the last video you looked a bit depressed and without joy - glad to have you back :) but don't feel pressured, just do things that you like :)
I'm sorry I came off that way. I didn't mean to. I really enjoyed meeting Richard and sharing the awesome work he did on his system.
@@DavidPozEnergy hey:) I did not want to criticise you it was just a little feedback. The video was interesting, but it seams less enthusiastic then usual.
Butt keep up the good work anyway. Unspired me that the new home I am Building will be completely independent of water, heating and electricity supply :)
That will be an awesome build!
@@DavidPozEnergy yes it will :) I am planning roof and wall solar to all Sides(about 50kW), the backs ventilated to the heatpump, geothermal using a 50m^2 ice storage and about 100kWh of storage + evs :D
You got a like with the rib nuts. Then a sub on the rest. Nice job.
Very knowledgeable and so much detail information. I am one of your subscribers and did not see anything on a Hybrid Off Grid system which uses both solar and wind turbine (for night time recharging and cloudy days). I love this setup so much and very convince into putting this for use. Can you put something such as a hybrid system together in the future?
Batteries don't really care what source you are charging them from. You can charge batteries from Solar, Wind, Hydro, your car, generator, and the grid. You can even charge the same battery bank from multiple sources at the same time. But, with each source you need a different type of CONTROLLER in between the source and battery to control the charge. For solar, you need a "solar MPPT charge controller". For wind, you need a controller that can brake the turbine and/or have a dump load. I don't have experience with wind turbines since my location is not very windy. Try checking out this website, which has more info on wind: www.hurricanewindpower.com/
Thanks
Nice!
Am still trying to get used to your new look ...thanks for sharing
I've been thinking about a redesign of those terminal blocks that allows a little more freedom of motion to allow the cable to clear the breaker... either that , or *move the breaker*... I'm running 20kWh. Get the castors... the stuff is *heavy*... Mr. Poz is a *beast*... not everyone can sling those batteries around so easily! ;-)
Haha, those batteries are still heavy.
So how do us old weak guys put the top batteries in?
I received my EG4 battery and rack enclosure like yours. Besides none of the screws lining up that you mentioned, the casters I received only lock if I'm standing on the lock. It doesn't latch. Also, the battery is longer than the cabinet is deep. I had to turn the "L-brackets" around, so I could gain an inch in front, and lose an inch at the back. Regardless, the price and delivery was worth the hassle thanks to the nice, shrink-wrapped bus bars. I would think that if they were designing a cabinet for their own batteries, they would consider the depth of the battery enclosure.
Thank you for sharing your experience.
I really wanted to put in a system like that with our solar panels. Weirdly I understand that our county doesn’t allow you to be “off grid “. Can you guess…..it’s California 😁. Thanks for the great and informative videos.
Don't go off grid. Put a 200 amp manual transfer switch between your meter and your fuse panel for your "generator".
@@jjackson3240 I love this! On the Victron (and probably others) you could even go a step further and set the generator auto-start to power on a contactor to energize the generator input from the meter :)
Thanks. Like 1.3K+
Excellent attention to detail! I really like the way you added the fuse to the case. I am excited for the next video. Are you sticking with the Growatt inverters or are you perhaps switching to the EG4 6500EX? Or perhaps something else?
I love testing new products. The Growatts are still working and in operation, but I have plans to test another inverter soon. Probably the next video I'll introduce it. Please forgive me for not answering directly, but I want it to be a surprise.
@@DavidPozEnergy I totally understand and also want it to be a surprise! It is much more exciting that way! I am looking forward to it even more now!
@@DavidPozEnergy please please please be a SolArk 15k!!
Lefty loosey with the drill there 😂
Hi Dave this is very informative but I wanted to know is if I have two or more inverters in a parallel system and the grid goes off. Would both of the transfer switches switch to batteries or would one remain sending current to the grid.
Thanks for this video. I am looking at upgrading my system to 30 kWH...and not 100% sure which battery system to use. I really like having a roll around rack system since my solar equipment is in the garage. How is yours performing? Any suggestions working with Signature Solar? Thanks.
Hi Chris, I've been very happy with my batteries from Signature Solar. Here are some things:
At one point I ordered the cabinet flat-packed. Meaning, I had to assemble it myself. It was $100 less. That ended up being a mistake because it didn't come with casters, or a floor, and all the joints were screwed. Then I ordered the pre-built cabinet and it came with some joints welded, and the casters and floor. The casters were the only thing that needed installing. I just checked their website, and it looks like they removed the listing for the flat-packed version. Just something to be aware of.
There are three versions of the battery. The ones I have are the LifePOwer4 (no screen). It's the cheapest of all of them. The 30kWh kit with rack is selling for $9k right now. The newest version they have is the EG4-LL (V2). It has a screen, and updated firmware. But, it's $1500 more for the whole kit. Affiliate Link: signaturesolar.com/eg4-ll-lithium-batteries-kit-48v-100ah-x-6-30-72kwh-6-server-rack-batteries-with-pre-assembled-enclosed-rack-with-door-wheelsac/?ref=4_rHcgZ9x-TiF-
Hi David. You mentioned at the beginning that you were working on taking your entire home off grid. I was wondering about your experience with your Growatt inverters. Specifically have you run your washing machine on them? The reason I’m asking is I have 2 EG4 6500-EX inverters at my home and I’m looking to do the same thing you are. When I run my washing machine on my inverters, any lights that are on start pulsing in time with the washing machine cycle. Curious if you’ve experienced anything similar.
I run my house, including the washing machine and dryer. I think what you are experiencing is based on universal motors clipping the sine wave. No, I don't have that issue with my Growatt inverters. I still have the lights dim for a moment when fist starting up, but that's a blink and then nothing.
@@DavidPozEnergy Thanks for the info. Wonder if it’s happening due to the age of the washing machine. Must be at least 10 years old or so. If it wasn’t so annoying it would almost be funny. When the washing machine is running, the refrigerator lights pulse with the cycles when you open the door.
Some LED lights are more touchy. Try a different brand. And or Try putting a transformer on inverters output to smooth out the surges.
You should make and sell those busbar jumper bars. I'll take 2 of them.
Hi very helpful video thanks, I was wondering whether it would be possible to mix-match the EG4 server rack battery setup with an Aims low frequency inverter? Would there be communication between them two (via cat5 patch lead)?
I don't know if communication would work. However, the inverter would certainly power up with simple Voltage parameters.
Great video. One question, many others suggest that the two leads coming off of the 2 buss bars should be diagonal to maintain equal strain on the the batteries. It did not look like you did this. Do you not recommend this or did you not feel it was all that important with the bus bars? Really enjoy your videos!
I don't know why this is asked of me so often. I get it when we are talking about daisy chaining batteries, and I made a whole video dedicated to that. But it's not needed with these cabinets and these bus bars. I owned my first set of Gyll batteries over a year of daily use off grid. I tested it several times and the Amps were shared equally. The batteries are all aging equally. Given my observations on actually using these batteries long term, I can say it's not necessary. Yet I get asked about it a ton. Again, I have no idea why it seems to be a concern.
I really appreciate the explanation here. Definitely a little conflicting info out there, I was thinking about flipping mine thinking it might help and can't hurt (well, I guess a little longer of a cable run). I feel much more confident leaving it with knowing there was some testing behind this data.
Yes battery bank🔋🔋🔋 ⚡🔌💡👍
Hay david.. awesome info sir.. what about flipping the negative bus bar upside down to balance the voltage draw?
I have found it doesn't matter in this setup. It wouldn't hurt anything, but isn't needed.
David, we have the 48V 230Ah/280Ah DIY battery box, we hope you can test our box!😀
Did it take you a week to upgrade because of the learning curve, or because it took a week for Signature Solar to get back with you on a question? I have the same 6 pack with dual EG46500 split phase and relied on google for answers as Signature Solar was not helpful after they got my money. Love your channel it got me through a few rough spots.
The learning curve. Although I did wait on hold 50 minutes one day for Signature Solar tech support.
Hey Dave, the installation process on the fuse is very interesting. Could you possible link a video that shows how you get your main cables out of the cabinet to your inverter? The fuse is positive side fuse, correct? The "empty" stud on the right side is where you take the power out to the inverter, correct? Little more information on that "finishing" work would be quite helpful. Thank you.
Yes, the fuse is on the positive side. You got it down. Sorry, I didn't show hooking it up. This next video kinda shows it, but it isn't very clear: ruclips.net/video/7zXcny77sKQ/видео.html at about 10 min. 57 seconds
Dave, you should be on EG4's payroll! Such great videos. Curious... how much heat is generated by these EG4 48V batteries? Do they have fans? Thanks!
There is no active cooling (fans) in the battery or in the battery cabinet. My battery bank is fairly large in ratio to my potential loads, which means each battery sees very low current. If you have one inverter that can handle 6.8kW continuous, and this one rack of batteries, then each battery sees 24 Amps each.
6800W/48V=142A
142A/6 (number of batteries in the cabinet)=23.67A per battery.
Each battery is 100Ah, so this is a 0.24C Rate. As a rule of thumb, you don't need to add active cooling until you go over a 1.0C Rate.
(Although there are exceptions. For example, if you are in a very tight and warm space, such as under a seat in a van. )
BTW, if you make a purchase through my affiliate link, then the channel will receive a small % back. Thank you if you choose to use my links.
@@DavidPozEnergy amazing answer. Like I said you should be on their payroll. Will definitely use your affiliate link.
So eager to get some signatures solar gear. Such a pity they are not available in Europe 😢
Nice add with the fuse, well done. You’ve come a long way from the days of scavenging pouch cells from the leaf, huh. One question, why did you feel the firmware update was needed? Looking at the SS website they seem to indicate it’s only needed if your running in excess of 28% (if I remember the number right) on a regular basis. Will you be pulling 150amps+ continuously, am I misunderstanding, or is something else going on?
Thanks
Facing my fears. I'm not good with computer stuff, but I was asked to show how to do the firmware update. Might as well tackle it head-on
@@DavidPozEnergy that’s what I always called growth. Nicely done sir
Cool bussbar build! I don't suppose you will be flipping the negative bussbar in this battery rack? That way it is staggered? Just curious. The bussbar seems thick enough to handle 400A with minimal voltage drop. Thanks for the videos!
I'm not planning to flip it. I don't know why I get asked that so often. I've owned my first rack over a year and tested it several times. The Amps are evenly distributed. The batteries are all aging the same. Don't fix what ain't broke.
@@DavidPozEnergy ok all good
@@DavidPozEnergy I've never seen anyone actually show this test.
Hi David. Thanks for your tutorial videos. If I have an enphase solar system grid tie, would it be possible to install a server rack battery system to my system?
Sorry, I have never tested an Enphase system.
This man is going off grid with his barbering
Bro that hair just gets more glorious every video
Lol, thanks.
A lot easier than the automobile battery builds.
👍👍
Do you still have the other 6 Gill batteries and the new 30kwh?
Is there a special unit to balance a set of 6 48v batteries simultaneously? Your reply will certainly be very helpful to me. Thanks.
Hi David, thanks for your videos. I purchased a 3 battery set up from Sig Solar. I am connecting to my existing solar via AC coupled. Do you know the correct info on grounding the battery system? I don't see a grounding lug on the EG4 case, but I see they bonded the door to the case. Is there a good way to ground the case? If I ground from the negative terminal, do I connect that ground to AC system ground at the inverter (or mini pdp)?
Bonding metal enclosures of equipment to a ground rod is great. However, I don't ground the positive or negative terminals of my battery.
I would bond the metal enclosure using a ring terminal and a star washer. The star washer should bite through the pain to bare metal.
Regarding the negative bus bar on the right side of the rack, some videos say it should be inverted (to avoid current sharing issues) and others say it is not necessary. I will soon be setting up the same rack. Should I remove the negative bus bar and invert it? If yes, then I don't understand why Signature Solar does not ship the unit with the bus bar correctly mounted.
It doesn't matter. Flip it if you want to, but it doesn't matter. I have personally tested my rack over and over again. The Amps are shared, the batteries reach 100% SOC at the same time.
Are you bothering with the BYD batteries you setup earlier or are you all server rack batteries now? Also what is you total storage capacity? It would be interesting to see a recap of actually going off grid, usage, types of appliances, solar production,etc..
I no longer have the BYD batteries. As for appliances, I have standard household appliances. Things like electric oven, electric dryer. Actually, my dryer I bought on Craigslist for $50 10 years old. It draws about 5kW.
Is the firmware update required for the growatt 50003es inverter setup you were previously using?
Not required for the Growatts, but I think it still helps with the pre-charge resistor.
Did you do a video on how you added the victron shunt to the battery rack?
I added the Victron shunt way, way, way back. I don't think I have a recent video on it with this battery.
Thank You !
That fuse should be included in the system and priced in from oem. 22:56 Thanks .
Hey Dave, grounding the batteries: in the manual is a statement that the batteries need be ground to a"ground rod". Did you do this? I was thinking about 8 gauge " ground loops" to go from battery to battery. This would put two ring terminals under the same grounding screw, with the final one going to the rod? Does this make sense to you?
To be clear, you are talking about grounding the metal case of the battery, and metal server cabinet. This is known as equipment grounding. We are NOT discussing grounding the positive or negative terminals.
I have not personally bonded the metal case to a ground rod. It's not a bad idea, and if I pick a permanent spot for my cabinet I'll add the bonding wires.
Please get a dedicated mic (and run it through a simple leveling/mastering filter) so you can produce consistent audio levels.
Hey Dave have you ever done a simple package diy for power outage...as in simple low cost for emergency....Not to be used except in say Winter ????...P.s love watching you have for long time... your's Pietro
Which is most important watts amps or volts when trying to match all in one inverters?
should these cabinets have air filter elements? if they are usually installed in garages, will dust be an issue?
The batteries don't have any fans, they are just passively cooled. I'm guessing they will be ok.
I would have flip the negative bus bar and have the main inverter negative lead connect on the bottom to have the current equal on all the batteries!
Have you tested this setup and found the current not equal?
It is good to have a class T fuse but not always required. If the load breaker is under the current rating of the wire the circuit breakers will be fine as the wire can handle short duration shorts that will trip the breakers on the batteries. Even at 200A on 6 batteries totaling 1200A of current in a short, the breakers will trip without the wiring melting given the short duration. Overloads are generally more dangerous since they load the wire for extended period of time causing heating issues. This is why you see ground wires in home electrical smaller than the main current carrying conductors because they only need to carry current long enough to trip the breaker in short circuit situations.
True for a single pack, maybe two, but if you have more than one or two packs unless your okay with a continuous 200+ amp short running through your wiring you should really fuse the main with a T class fuse about 25% higher than your anticipated surge. With 6 it is a must. You would be quite dead or there would a lively blaze before those individual breakers decided something was wrong
Hi David, I have similar batteries, I'm unsure though, if these batteries require grounding.
My thoughts where to ground the neutral terminals and run it back to a ground rod.
Is this acceptable for these type of batteries?
That is sometimes done, in specific situations. My battery terminals do not go to a ground rod. I would only do it personally, if the inverter manufacturer says to do it in the inverter manual
@@DavidPozEnergy Thank you for the reply David, its appreciated, the seller on alixpress said not to ground the battery's.
Thank you though for your help. Your channel is very good 👍
Hi David, Can we just use a 4 AWG cable to connect to the Class T Fuse instead of the Copper Bar? Is there a reason why you need to use the copper bar?
Thank you,
Sea
You can use a wire to go from the busbar to fuse. No need to make a copper bar. If you use 4 AWG wire, then you will want to use a 75 Amp fuse. I used a 400A fuse in the video for a 4/0 wire.
@@DavidPozEnergy Thank you David for the respond. I love your show.
I got the V2s... ;)
Good night
I have two sungold hybird inverters installed in a parallel as.master and slave. When ever I manually switch from SBU tO SUB the slave inverter
Switches to error and shut down. It has to be reset manually. Do you have an idea what is causing this problem and what can be done?
Thanks for your help.
We hope to buy a Hysolis Apollo battery and one add-on battery when they become available. That will give us 10.4 kWh’s. We would like to recharge those batteries with a single Panasonic 400 Watt solar panel. The Apollo’s minimum solar input voltage is 120V. The maximum power voltage for the Panasonic solar panel is 42.7. How do we step up the voltage to meet the Apollo’s minimum solar input voltage of 120? Any help would be appreciated!
I see the new version has 'fire arrestors'. Do you know what that does exactly? My FLA are outside in an unheated but insulated box. If I go to LiFePo, I would have them in the house....but I'm a little worried about them catching fire some day! I mean, you hear about Li-ions in various toys/devices catching fire quite regularly.
So you don't think that something like contact gel ist necessary for these screw terminals?
Hello, I have a grid tie 20kw solar array. I want to get a whole house backup. I have an isolation switch that takes me off grid turning on to generator, leaving my solor on my panel. How would you add battery backup to a generator input yet still be able to charge
It will depend on your exact setup, but generally you will need to add a "Hybrid" inverter to interface with the battery and your grid tie inverter. Outback Radian, Schneider XW PRO, and Sol-Ark all have that feature.
Dave how does the yellow cable connect to the computer?
Love your videos. I’m wondering about your ‘gotchas’ in the firmware update process though. (1) - the need to disconnect the communication between batteries - if all batteries are set to the same address, this is expected, as the batteries will interfere with each other on the communication. (Each device needs to have a unique identifier on the bus in order to communicate with each other) (2) supplied cable. Would have been interesting to see a close up of that, because thats just weird. (3) skipping address 1 on the dip switches - wonder if this might have been the root of all your trouble. Would totally screw up communications especially along with the weirdo cable. Also, even if all is wired well it looks like your bus is having trouble with address 1 anyways, so might cause trouble….
I'm guessing that when you say "bus", you are not referring to a school bus. Haha. I don't know all the reasons it wasn't working, I just know the sequence that did work.
@@DavidPozEnergy fair enough ;). Basically though a “bus” is a fancy way of saying “a bunch of connected things all talking over the same wires”. Things on the “bus” need to know when things are trying to talk to them, vs something else on the “bus”. Basically what your set of steps did was to bring the bus down to the simplest possible case (1 device on address 0), and then once you flashed everything, you put the bus back together again and assigned addresses. I would imagine, looking at the software you showed, that if the bus is all set up properly, you should be able to say “ok, flash the bank at address 3 with this firmware” with everything hooked together….
what is your plan if you have a fire, been hearing a lot about electric cars in Florida catching fire simply because the lithium in the batteries is highly reactive with water. so what I am asking is if you have a fire at your house what is your plan for extinguishing it? knowing that you cant use water.
EVs use li-NMC, I'm using LiFePO4, which is much safer
Good morning
I find your instructions very user friendly. I have a question. I bought 2 Sungold hybrid bluepowerTp6048 inverter/chargers and set them up in a parallel off grid system, only using the grid for back up however when the inverter is placed PYL it produces an error code to shut down. I have only been able to use it in USE setting. I am using EG4lifepower batteries. Also I haven't been able to establish a communication between the inverter and the batteries they seem not to be recognizing each other. How can I get pass these two issues. Thanks for your help.
You might not be able to setup communication. Not every battery will communicate with every inverter. The EG4 batteries will communicate with the EG4 inverters like these: signaturesolar.com/eg4-13kw-off-grid-split-phase-inverter-bundle-2-x-6500ex-48-13000w-output-16000w-pv-input-split-phase-120-240vac-all-in-one-solar-inverter-system/?ref=4_rHcgZ9x-TiF-
(This is an affiliate link which will help the channel)
@@DavidPozEnergy Thank you so much
My four EG4LL 25.6v/200Ah batteries came w no breaker. Each had an on/off switch. Please, will a class T fuse as you've installed be sufficient to compensate for the lack of breakers? Anything else to add? Also, no top/bottom plate, no front/back closure or wheels for their rack I paid £499...any suggestions because no support from SS.
Correction u.s.dollars 499
If I had your setup, I would still install a Class-T fuse. When I've built my own batteries without a breaker, I still use a fuse and/or a breaker.
On a house that uses only 110Vac, how would you connect a single phase off grid inverter to the electrical panel?
It depends on the exact setup. If you have grid power coming into your electrical panel, then you will need a transfer switch between the grid and panel that lets you switch to the off grid inverter.
what a beautiful setup, i wish i was rich.
David:
Why was the rivnut fastener necessary when a simple nut, bolt, and washer, would've done the job?
You are correct, that a bolt and nut would have worked equally well. Party, I used the rivnut because it eliminated needing to hold both sides of the fastener. And, partly, because I like showing off different ways of doing things. Maybe next time I'll use something else.
@@DavidPozEnergy okay, that makes the project more fun. I only asked because I do a lot of work on cars and have only used riv nuts for where I needed a captive nut when there is access to only one side of a metal panel.