Home Battery Installed!
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- I have had home batteries for a while now, so time to talk a bit about them, theres loads more to talk about but let's start with this basic over view of how we got here and what we have seen so far out of them.
At this point I can say that the system I discussed in the previous video worked so well it lasted about five minuets before I bought more batteries! It's a significant upfront investment and only time will tell how the pay back will go, but right now they are saving a significant amount of money by allowing me to buy all my energy on a cheap overnight rate instead of a very expensive day rate due to the current world events pushing up energy costs.
It would be cheaper for the Government to install solar & battery systems in every available property in the country, than build Sizewell C or HS2! But, of course, that would impact dividends to the shareholders of big oil & big energy, so they won’t do that… The whole situation stinks!
What will happen in January when those solar systems are doing almost nothing? In 10 years time all those battery systems would be life expired and we’d be left with nothing, not a great deal for the tax payer. Battery systems should be zero VAT rated without solar, no subsidies as it just encourages profiteering and cowboys.
I have had batteries for over 10years now was running lead acid then built my own 18650 packs now running 80 kWh of lifep04 batteries with seplos BMS with 15kw of solar panels and 30kw of inverters it has take me 8 years to build up but am now really happy with it I have no mains gas anymore so everything is electric I have a 40kwh Nissan leaf and it just all works and I live in the UK
That’s cool 😎 you should make a video about that 😃
Just installed our Eddi to run at end of Go period to reduce gas usage 😀 hopefully see more benefit once the sun is shining...
Really useful video. Would be great for you to do a video about the actual configuration and how you monitor usage. We've had solar since 2011 and EV's since 2015. We looked at batteries but couldn't justify the cost but as you say the changes in the rates makes it worth looking at again.
Yes I’m planning on doing one in the next week or so
I gotta say I’ve had 9kw of solar on my roof and 16.4 kw of batteries for about 2.5 years and all I pay for is the standing charge for my electric. I also had fitted the Bunsen system for all my hot water. Back in the 70s there was a British tv program about solar and I thought then that’s what I’m gonna do. It’s took me a long time to get to my forever home A slight criticism of your video is what you say about grants. I personally think too many people think the government should provide what they need and that inevitably comes out of our taxes. I’ve always prepped for a (what if scenario ) and now it’s happened and I sit in my bungalow virtually grid free and I’m proud of what I’ve achieved.
Do you heat your house 100% with electricity? In bleakest December and January there's precious little decent sunshine to charge your 16kWh bats.
Hi that’s really cool! My point on grants is that in a climate change & war situation it will help people move to clean energy more quickly. however i agree they are not always helpful given the boom bust it caused in the solar industry, however I think that scheme failed to account for the fall in prices of the technology.
@@mb-3faze hi bud I also run a Chinese diesel heater to heat help heat the house running on old engine oil with that and the Bunsen system which does all my hot water We’ve only run the central heating a few weeks ago when the temps were -9
@@eviain the best thing the government should do is make the electricity companies give you a fair price for feed in. IE they charge you 34p per kw you get 30p back Not the 4p back so they can sell it back to others at a 30p profit. By the coming summer I should have another 8 kw of panels put up
@@stagman4611but wholesale prices don’t work like that, the electricity you produce along with everyone else on a sunny day just isn’t very valuable. The electricity you want in the middle of winter can be £1/kwh on the wholesale market.
I just moved into a house we bought where the previous owners were retired. Every single bulb was a 60w, 100 or 150w incandescent bulb. The garden had 2x500w security lights! Tesco was doing £2 LED bulbs and BOGOF. Changed EVERYTHING for about £30 and ripped out the security lights. Probably saved that £30 in less electricity usage in the last month alone.
Shocking isn’t it! Great that you’ve swapped them all out 👍👍
Brilliant, love your attitude towards energy and especially the war effort comments!
There are hobs that have half of it run on gas and half of it on electricity to keep the options (some foods are better made on gas). The holes are usually pretty much standardized but you could check the hole size from beneath and look at the installation manuals from online for different hobs.
Yes I’ve seen ones with a central wok ring. I do love cooking on gas especially when using a wok, but I have found it’s fairly easy to adapt to induction, it’s quick to heat up unlike old electric hobs. The only issue I found is over heating the wok and burning food, but I have learned to control the temperatures now.
I bought 3 X Pylontech US5000 batteries from ITS for £4560 last Sept (£1520 each incl vat and delivery) but they're only just ready to be installed this week. They're currently showing as £1746 each on their website incl VAT. I paired them up with a Victron Multiplus-II Inverter/Charger 48/5000 which cost me £1754.
That’s supply and demand for you and the extra cost of logistics I guess. I did look at the victorn but although it’s clearly the daddy I couldn’t see me needing the 5000w! Looks like a solid feature rich unit with a good reputation 👍
That's allot for the Victron.
I have the same multiplus and got it for £1390 back in May.
Then just ordered a 2nd Multiplus-ii for parallel use a couple of days ago for £1420
If you want to track temperature in your inverter space and do something if it exceeds a certain amount then look into home assistant. It’s free, can run on a raspberry pi and works with lots of tech like the xaomi Bluetooth battery powered temperature and humidity sensor. Shelly do some great stuff too that just works with home assistant so you could alert you and fire up a fan to blow the hot air out.
A lot of the inverters interface with it, Shelly do a great power monitor so you can monitor power usage by the house, greed feed in etc. plenty of RUclips videos that take you through it step by step. Good content as well.
Thanks for the tip David!
For the amount of storage, I think you've actually got a great deal for your install! Even in the last 6 months prices have increased approx. 20% as far as I can tell, with massive lead times.
Thanks! I did steer clear of all the install costs and I’m sure lots of folks will have very different situations. But buying the kit direct I think did result in me getting a bit more for the money. Prices are definitely increasing on this stuff!
Thanks Iain, as usual hugely helpful and informative.
Thanks Paul!
Lovely video. Got a lot out of it. My home is already very efficient in terms of energy saving stuff (LED lights, A+ appliances etc.). I have 5kW inverter and 4.6kW PV on the roof. My next stage is battery. I am thinking 12kWh for starters as my normal energy use before PV was below 15kW a day. Move to Octopus is going to happen at the end of this month... Sounds like some savings could be made in my house too...
Great video so far, I suppose am in the same boat doing my hit even before the huge hikes. But very important. How much have you spent totally including labour to get to this position. It's really good to get that monthly bill down . But let's say your system cost £14,000 your monthly bills were £100 and now £50 that's a great saving,BUT you have not really saved anything until your system has returned your £14,000 . After which point you are in a better position to say you are saving and it's now free to run your home or even the reduction in bills. I also have an economy 7 meter so I boil kettles for each day in them hours and keep them in flasks for that day. We get up earlier to shower it's cheaper .
It’s really unknowable with such volatility in the world what is going to happen to energy prices so it’s tough to guarantee if there will be a payback and how much it will be. The technology also has to last over the long term too!
However faced with the choice of buying an asset or sending my money up in smoke I have chosen the former.
Personally I think the prices will stay high for a while because the war will drag on, plus the government will recoup the cost of subsidising everyone by putting some charges on top of energy costs.
Awesome install, I’ve got a more DIY setup with a custom built LiFePo4 pack, SEPLOS BMS and ME3000SP inverter. Combined with shifting all the demand I can to the night time it covers 95% of my demand. I’m happy to pay 35p for the little amount of top up energy I need, that’s more cost effective than more kw of inverter and kWh of battery that doesn’t get used most of the time. If you’re going to be grid tied you might as well use it to your benefit IMO.
Try and mount your inverter low if you’re in a restricted space, it helps with the heat!
100% we’re seeing a little grid use in the evening right now which like you doesn’t bother me, I’m expecting little to no use at expensive times in the lighter months! Sounds like a fun project building your own system I’m a bit jealous!
@@eviainyeah it’s normally when cooking I go over the inverter capacity, for a a little while I was trying to “Apollo 13” it, carefully managing the hob and oven to stay under 3kw. Soon figured out it wasn’t worth it, just pay a few pence for the few minutes I’m over the 3kw and get dinner cooked with less faff.
Puttin s war has nothing to do with the UK to be fair. It's our 12 years of conservatives that has put the UK in this position. Relying on other country's for fuel is bonkers when we have our own.
I’d blame both con and lab tbh with nuclear being so controversial both have not solved the huge issue of what will replace Britain’s aging nuclear fleet. Any home reduction in gas is a benefit as it means more gas to generate power in our gas plants or sell to Europe instead of Putin
@@eviain the UK and EU have hugely cocked up. Putin is trouble but not his issue that the UK and EU messed up. Let's see what the future holds for our over-populated planet.
Just to add my pennies worth I believe we only use or did use 5 percent of our gas supply from Putin. But the war effected the world supply of gas which the price we pay is linked to
Spot on we’ve got 300 years of coal and enough shale gas for the whole of the uk energy needs for the next 25 year underneath us…
@@xlp3t3r wow for once a sensible person ,yes agree, but we still need to plan our way away from coal and gas but not with this governments time scale which we have now. I feel if the government has firm orders for nuclear stations now then the net zero time scales should reflect their opening . So banning car production 2030 and 2035 should really be 2045/2050. This is more realistic .but we need to change our habits and make things cleaner
Would you have been better off going to an air/air heat pump system to heat your house? Your MG can provide a power back up in case of a power cut.
I’ve not looked in to air to air. I have quite a few rooms do you need to put units in each I think that could get pricey!
I am just about to embark on a similar project so it must be the “lemming effect”
My only negative thought is your choice of the size of the inverter which is quite limiting especially when you state the flexibility of your choice of stacking batteries. Did you take into account the ongoing load of the inverter and peak use
I am installing in the garage and through looking at forums have become aware of “temperature efficiency” so have insulated the garage door and bought a Weather station from Amazon that you keep indoors which gives an indoor temperature and has a remote sensor for the garage which shows the outside temperature that seems to have a minimum temp of app 8 degrees so might have to have a cabinet for the stacking batteries with perhaps insulation boards. Originally I was not going to have Solar but by having 5kwh of Solar has enabled me to use 4 instead of 5 batteries and also removes the VAT from the whole installation thereby saving about £4K from the cost to almost cover the cost of the Solar🤞
It is all very exciting and as you say giving a 🖕to Putin and supporting the Ukrainians is the added benefit
Hey Mike thanks, The cost of a 5kw inverter just didn’t seem necessary. I have a few months of graphs now and the peak load in my home rarely exceeds 3kw, unless I’m doing car charging which would never come from battery’s anyway. If your installation is in the garage you should definitely keep an eye on charging rates as they will drop down as a function of temperature.
It would seem that you haven't done another video about the actual configuration? I am interested to know what inverter you used. I had my PV installed back in 2011 so the FiT rates are really good - I would have to install an AC coupled system in order to protect that. Did you self-install, or have at all done by a third party installer?
Great job, thanks for the video. Presumably you cannot use your batteries during a power cut unless you can isolate your house from the grid?
Our battery system, that's FINALLY scheduled to be installed in a few week's time, has an EPS output which is kept separate from those circuits connected to the Grid. I understand that it can be switched to UPS, which is my preference.
The inverter had a secondary backup output which can be used in a power cut, however it’s currently not connected up, I think we will have a single plug connected to it so we can run essentials if needed.
Look you can hook as much chargers on those battery’s as they can handle of max amp charging load .. for example… buy a few cheap 3 ore 4 0re 5 amp scoter chargers on allie for 7 ore 8 pounds a pice .. parallel them together.. put a bms between the charge connector for some extra overcharge protection.. you got your self a cheap fast charger … me neven lipo ore lifo4 .. after two years they lose more than 50 capacity…. 18650 is now here with 3400 mah and higher.. last longer than 10 years and than you still got 80%.
Good video and informative, but I’m struggling to understand why you’ve only just “looked” at your parents house when LED lamps have been out for quite a while now. I LEDed my parents house quite a few years back and also updated their boiler (via grant) and Opentherm their controls for efficiency. It’s didn’t take something like a “project” to do this 😂 and I’d suggest that we all look at opportunities where we can too.
Well they are fully grown adults capable of doing things themselves 😅, much of their home was already led but there were still a few that would have had a very negative impact on the effectiveness of the batteries as the size is quite modest.
@@eviain every little helps as the saying goes. I do like the induction hob thing you’ve done, which I’m going to adopt too 😂. I’m in the process of getting solar PV and batteries installed atm, and this is such a god way to use up electricity and avoid gas.
Will take this guy years to get the investment back, probably at the time reinvestment will be required to replace the inverter and batteries !!
This is a statement of the obvious. Any business person understands capital investment and the risks vs reward. There’s no guarantees in life except death and taxes.
A return on my investment is only one reason for my decision, there are other benefits to the grid which I gift.
The alternative is paying for ever more costly energy with no return and no sailable asset at the end of the lifetime.
By using less gas we're only sticking it to putin in a round-about way since the UK doesn't and didn't get that much gas directly from vlad. Still, point taken, since it's a "market". Using less gas to reduce one's carbon footprint is certainly laudable.
On the pylon tech batteries: be aware that pylon tech changed the chemistry of their bats. The 3000C ones are iron phosphate which are a whole lot better that the previous nickel cobalt variety. However, the charging regime is governed by the charger/inverter and you may have programmed that to a standard set of parameters defined by the inverter manufacturer. I have a Solis charger/inverter and the same pylon batteries (3 of them) and I set my 'battery type' option to 'user defined' and carefully design the charging profile to what I want. I insist that the batteries are only charged to 80% SOC and only discharge to 20% SOC. This will make them last longer. (Every now and again, like once a month, they should be brought up to 100% SOC). I suspect you are charging to 100% every night - what they discharge to I don't know but it might be worth finding out.
Also, check the specification in the pylon tech manuals you got. The wording for the RJ45 ethernet cable that connects to the inverter has some rather specific instructions including the words, written in red, "These pins shall be null". The connecting cable was (probably) supplied by the inverter rather than the batteries. In my case I received three of these cables and not one was configured correctly. Chances are, everything is still working correctly for you (the CanBus protocol is quite robust) but it might be worth a bit more investigation.
Excellent info and agree, it’s more about using less gas to make our supplies more abundant to those that do rely on vlad.
I wasn’t aware of the change in chemistry, I thought they were all lipo, the inverter is set to 80% although they claim to be able to be discharged to 95% I think that’s not very wise. Currently they are being charged to 100% over night. I suspect during the summer they flip abit and will sit at quite a high SOC during the day.
@@eviain Another interesting calculation is the cost per kWhr stored. The 3000C can be recharged approximately 4500 times. Assuming the 3000C can store and discharge 3kWhrs for 4500 times that's 13500kWhrs. On your octopus go rate you are charging for 12p and saving (about) 41p when discharging so the net saving is 29p per kWhr which equates to 0.29 * 13500 = £3915 (over 10+ years). This is more than the cost of a single 3000C so definitely a saving. The more the batteries can be recharged from solar, the better, obviously. The equation is more advantageous as the price of electricity goes up but if we are only paying 18p per kWhr like we were last year the cost/benefit of the battery system decreases also. This is the situation at a relative's house where they are still on contract with the cheaper rate. Without solar charging the battery (and saving the cheap 6p per kWhr overnight rate) the saving cost is 18-6 * 13500 = £1620 which makes the batteries less attractive.
@@mb-3faze superb info! Cheers m b. I have 8.25p rate over night at the moment so that widens the saving slightly at least for this year. I hope 4500 is the minimum expectation, time will tell. I see they are fairly modular inside so perhaps they will prove to be serviceable in future.
@@eviain Just to continue this thread if other people are interested... When the disparity between overnight charge-up costs and daytime usage savings is as high as it is right now (in the UK), the economic benefits of installing batteries can outweigh adding solar PV. Firstly, installing batteries is pretty trivial. With a lower power system (say 2.5kW) you could literally plug the inverter straight in to a wall socket on a ring-main. There's no electrical reason why you can't have two, 2.5kW battery systems on the same ring main. The combo is only 20amps - and standard 2.5mm^2 ring main wire will handle that perfectly fine. From a cost point of view there is essentially no installation cost - a box of batteries and the inverter could be put on the kitchen counter (like any other appliance eg a microwave) and plugged in. Obviously installing a solar PV array is much more involved. So long as you don't want to export excess power to the grid as you would with a PV system, you shouldn't need to get MCS certification for your batteries. (Also, I believe with octopus go, you can't sell power back in any case.)
A simple 2.5kW inverter and a 3kWhr battery would cost about £1200 or so. If you charged at your 8.5p per kWhr and discharged when the rate is 41p you get just about £1 in savings for your 3kWhrs. Because you're not reliant on the vagaries of the English sunshine (or lack thereof) you can guarantee to make this £1 saving per 3kWhrs installed. So times 365 days and you have fully paid for your £1200 outlay in three and a bit years - well short of the expected lifetime of the batteries. After 12 years and 4380 charge/discharge cycles you will have zero pounds worth of batteries (but the inverter will probably be fine) so you're out say £1000. But in the same time you have saved £4380 per 3kWh installed. This is approximately and 'investment' gain of 260% over 12 years. (Somewhat better than the bank savings account.)
(Following this logic, it would actually make sense for the batteries to be a tenth of the price but only last a year. If you could get 3kWhs of storage for £100 (lasting only one year) you would make that 260% return every year. Possibly a different battery technology would work here - something with less longevity but lower cost and ease of recyclability. - nice to dream about.)
Hi, how are the batteries doing over the summer? Are you doing an update video?
Hi yes I’ll be doing some updates soon I hope. They haven’t missed a beat so far 👍 some fun with the inverter but that’s all.
Just installing a system , 15kw battery build , costs like £1800 , against the stupid prices of Pylontech , I’m not falling for that , victron is the same , way over priced , I got 10kw inverters for £1100 . Exports to the grid , no chance I’ll heat water with it.
Sounds like you have the basis for a sound business selling battery systems with an 80% markup
Over the last year my gas usage has been really low ,only using for cooking and using electricity to heat my house .later on I this month 25th Jan my old tariff run out ,currently 12p/kw and will be going up to 35p/kw ,so I'm afraid the gas central heating and gas fire will be in full use again as I only get charged 10p/kw of gas .
Can’t say I blame you it’s what the market is driving 😕
Surprised you have not made use of the V2L on the car you have a large KWH battery there.
I did vehicle to grid there’s a whole play list. V2L is only single loads, but your right having 124kWh of batteries on my drive way is slightly galling! 😅
I finally found calculators, and there are now plenty of monthly figures presented on RUclips, but explaining household changes as a consequence of installing Solar and Batteries is less common, thanks.
Perhaps this is because it's only done once?
You've made me question whether 3kW battery is sufficient. I guess it's OK in the summer, but not in the winter.
Thanks! The battery is 14kWh but it has a maximum charge rate of up to 3kw by the inverter. Battery sizing really needs calculations based on energy usage. I would get somthing that satisfies most consumption in winter otherwise they will be way over the top in summer. Hopefully with this setup I will only pay for electricity in winter and for some car charging in summer
I am doing the same...
but why did you not set up a Vehicle to home system and use your car batteries ?
That would be great but my current cars don’t support it. You can checkout my vehicle to grid stuff in my other videos but all that kit and the leaf has now gone.
@@eviain yes I was just watching it, I did not realize you could do that... well I don't think you can yet, other than in a trial like you did.
looking at the MG4 as an EV.
But I started with the thought that I would not export, so I bought Victron gear, just got my G99 approved on friday, so will start to install soon.
starting with a 5kW battary, but was thinking when there is no sun, I could keep the house battery charged by using the V2L from the MG4
however, I just saw someone talking about Octopus Flux... and I think that selling back at peak rate might be worth looking at now
any thoughts ?
Hello Evian. My Pylontect batteries and Solis inverter is being installed in January 2023. We are on Octopus Energy Go which back in November was 5p off peak(4 hours) & 14.3 p peak. Our new rates are 12p & 44p. Are you on 8.5p & 40p with Go (5 hours) ? Thanks
Hi Anthony, awesome 👏. Yes I’m on the 8.5/40p tariff after coming off a two year fixed 5/14.5p in august!
Pleased to hear I am not the only one wanting to reduce gas consumption due to Putins war.
Here we are on Octopus go with an electric car charging at 7.5p/kw at night also a 9.5 kw outdoor give energy charging at night also and discharging into the house during the day. Then when the sun comes out more as the year progresses the solar panels will charge batteries.
The next phase for us is air to air heat pump which will provide heat in the winter and cooling in the summer. Then bye bye gas boiler hopefully and my personal two fingers up to Putin!!!
That’s awesome very similar to what we have going on here! Question. With air to air are you putting units in all rooms or just your main hall ways and living spaces?
@@eviain Hi we are a family of 4 living in a 3 bedroom semi detached with open plan dining/living area with stairs coming down into the living room. So we are hoping to heat the whole house with three head units one in the living/Diner and the other two in the main bedrooms. Figures are being worked out if a three port air to air source heat would be sufficient. All good stuff!! I am regarding the cooling in the summer as pleasant bonus. I must add we are insulating all internal walls with celotex just done the living/ diner before Xmas and what a difference that makes. It’s a 1980s semi so not a lot of insulation compared to modern building regs.
Keep up your good work on the channel
Was 100% with you UNTIL it got political...buddy ...sorry but I'm out of here
Note to self, get more political. Generates comments. 👍
Doesn’t get all that political really though does it. Not exactly Question Time. If you’re watching the vid then you are prob interested in the subject- so do you feel the gov has done enough or could have done / should be doing more to accelerate progress as a country towards greener homes? (And transport, infrastructure etc). Can’t just bury your head in the sand or get upset when someone who is clearly passionate about it, calls out gov lack of action.
Interesting videos you’re posting Iain. Keep them coming.