A while ago I shared the details of my system with you (20.8kWh) and you commented that I must use a lot of energy. Good to see that you've realised that there are more benefits to a larger system than just meeting one day's needs. I explain my system thus: I can cover my normal needs for two or three days if there's a blackout (unlikely but possible) and zero sunshine. I top up the battery overnight (7p/kWh) so it's 100% at 05.30. Most solar produced each day is sold to the grid at 15p/kWh. This setup gives me a bill that is >90% cheaper than if I had done nothing. Nearly every youtuber I've watched say the same that they wished they'd got more (solar & battery) when they first set up. I took this advice and maxed out on my install last year and don't regret it.
@@EVPuzzle It's makes a lot of economic sense to have the installer make just one trip to your roof and now that panels are cheaper than ever then all new installs should make maximum use of roof space. As V2L becomes more common then the EV will come into play as a natural part of the domestic setup.
I do think you’ve over battery’d but fair play if you enjoy it as a hobby! For most people 10kwh and sweating the system is how you get it to pay back.
The Grid in Australia is rapidly becoming an export tool rather than import. As an example on a typical Spring day with 12kw of solar, 22kwh of Pylontech batteries, 22kw of off grid inverters , and 2 x 5kw of on grid inverters, 0.010 kwh was consumed and 39.55Kwh exported If it were not for the solar feed in's and the odd rebate paying for the Grid fees (and part of the batteries) of $1.40 a day i would simply disconnect from it.
Having more storage does give you a warm fuzzy feeling and lots of opertunities to play the power up and saving sessions game but will it ever pay for itself i don't think so in my case but its like going to put a bet on at the bookies but the initial stake is a bit higher and you always win 😊
Ive had my 5000's for 17 months now. They balance at 89% then shoot upto 100% so watch that point for charging as it might be why you say the first 10% has a lot of capacity. Ie it might say 89% but in reality you could be at more if its sat there for a while. Mine are on 99% soh and i work them hard during the winter with a 3.6kw ASHP if its very cold i start shutting down unused rooms as my house is 1880's built with internal insulation fitted on most external walls. I first went 10kw of batterys but added a second 10kw later so 4 x 5000 pylontech batterys. Im thinking of adding a 5th so i can run with extra capacity in the coldest winter weeks when no solar added...but im also solis 3.6kw inverter so limited charge time when over 21 kw capacity!
I have 5 x 3000C, started with 2 and added 1 more at a time with the newest as node 1 after checking the firmware version. The only thing I did was to flash the firmware to same version.
Can you buy Pylontech or any other brand of Batteries second hand and then mix and match them. Whilst I will have bidirectional EV charging. Just as with compute spreading ever cheaper compute into its networks and speading up in the process (pun intended) so having more batteries should make load managment across the batteries.
Hi nigel , if you don’t get the battery’s up to 100% not all BMS systems will balance the individual cells within each pylontech battery , so it is a good idea to fill the battery’s once in a while and leave them there while the BMS balance the individual cells within each black box
Cheers mate , I will let mine charge to 100% infrequently in winter more often when there's more solar but it raises a good question whether it's healthy to charge to the Max 53.5v occasionally. I can't find anything online saying it's healthy to do this or not
Hi mate I just plugged mine in and turned it on in a stack when all LEDs were about the same I turned them off then soft boot to the Victron, Victron on and that’s it
@@EVPuzzle yeah the pylons have a soft start up, I was made aware of this after I built my soft start for the inverter Capps so you don’t get that big in rush on the caps just the red button then the stack slowly powers up
Hi Nigel, good video, I have a 2/12 year old system, 5.44 kw array (solis 5kw inverter) with 16 panels, 4 pylontech us3000 batteries , I would like to add at least 2 us3000s or us5000s to my system as we have recently added Toshiba A2A system like yours, Having watching yours and other videos it appears to be fairly straight forward to do it yourself, I did ask my original installer who were not very helpful as they have moved away from using pylontech. Do you have any recommendations for the best place to buy pylontech batteries to be self installed ? Regards
I am hoping to be able to add more batteries but as previously stated my DNO don’t seem to want me to add anything extra. So all in all not super confident about getting this.
Can't yopu update the BMS firmware to the latest version? I nearly went to Pylontech, but preferred the look of a single 15kWh Fogstar setup. I follow the Off-Grid garage and find the DIY aspect quite easy.
anyone know what the ordeal with Plylontech 5000 batteries are?, check online and some 5000 are disounted massively and others still holding their price? Is there a difference in versions of the 5000 type hence why some are cheapr??? tia
Installed different panels at different times and always ,ade sense to add not replace plus every different orientation needs either aa separate mppt or optimisers to cater for when one array is in shade My system is a good example of getting it wrong going small, makes more sense to go for it in one go but then I didn't know what I know now
@@EVPuzzle thank you for the reply i did the same as you went for 3.6kw solis hybrid inverter quickly upgraded to a 6kw solis hybird inverter now im at my limit of solar panels 8kw i want to install more but my inverter only allows 8kw . not sure if i can add another inverter and apply for more export. im addicted to getting more and more
@@bareallotment7391how much clipping are you seeing ? Given the UK weather, it would be interesting how much time the inverter runs at maximum capacity.
@@johnrush3596 im not really seeing any clipping as i can use up any solar that is not getting exported . on clear days from around 10am til around 4pm im getting 6 to 8kw of pv depending what im using in house
A while ago I shared the details of my system with you (20.8kWh) and you commented that I must use a lot of energy. Good to see that you've realised that there are more benefits to a larger system than just meeting one day's needs.
I explain my system thus:
I can cover my normal needs for two or three days if there's a blackout (unlikely but possible) and zero sunshine.
I top up the battery overnight (7p/kWh) so it's 100% at 05.30.
Most solar produced each day is sold to the grid at 15p/kWh.
This setup gives me a bill that is >90% cheaper than if I had done nothing.
Nearly every youtuber I've watched say the same that they wished they'd got more (solar & battery) when they first set up. I took this advice and maxed out on my install last year and don't regret it.
It's good advice but hard to go all in up front . I've got there in the end ....maybe just a battery inverter charger upgrade to be perfect
@@EVPuzzle It's makes a lot of economic sense to have the installer make just one trip to your roof and now that panels are cheaper than ever then all new installs should make maximum use of roof space.
As V2L becomes more common then the EV will come into play as a natural part of the domestic setup.
I do think you’ve over battery’d but fair play if you enjoy it as a hobby! For most people 10kwh and sweating the system is how you get it to pay back.
The Grid in Australia is rapidly becoming an export tool rather than import.
As an example on a typical Spring day with 12kw of solar, 22kwh of Pylontech batteries, 22kw of off grid inverters , and 2 x 5kw of on grid inverters, 0.010 kwh was consumed and 39.55Kwh exported
If it were not for the solar feed in's and the odd rebate paying for the Grid fees (and part of the batteries) of $1.40 a day i would simply disconnect from it.
Having more storage does give you a warm fuzzy feeling and lots of opertunities to play the power up and saving sessions game but will it ever pay for itself i don't think so in my case but its like going to put a bet on at the bookies but the initial stake is a bit higher and you always win 😊
Ive had my 5000's for 17 months now. They balance at 89% then shoot upto 100% so watch that point for charging as it might be why you say the first 10% has a lot of capacity. Ie it might say 89% but in reality you could be at more if its sat there for a while. Mine are on 99% soh and i work them hard during the winter with a 3.6kw ASHP if its very cold i start shutting down unused rooms as my house is 1880's built with internal insulation fitted on most external walls. I first went 10kw of batterys but added a second 10kw later so 4 x 5000 pylontech batterys. Im thinking of adding a 5th so i can run with extra capacity in the coldest winter weeks when no solar added...but im also solis 3.6kw inverter so limited charge time when over 21 kw capacity!
I have 5 x 3000C, started with 2 and added 1 more at a time with the newest as node 1 after checking the firmware version. The only thing I did was to flash the firmware to same version.
@@neergh8886 wow flashing pylontech firmware hadn't even thought of doing that . Maybe one day I'll plug in directly
Can you buy Pylontech or any other brand of Batteries second hand and then mix and match them.
Whilst I will have bidirectional EV charging. Just as with compute spreading ever cheaper compute into its networks and speading up in the process (pun intended) so having more batteries should make load managment across the batteries.
Hi nigel , if you don’t get the battery’s up to 100% not all BMS systems will balance the individual cells within each pylontech battery , so it is a good idea to fill the battery’s once in a while and leave them there while the BMS balance the individual cells within each black box
Do pylontech battery’s let you have the voltage of each cell within
Cheers mate , I will let mine charge to 100% infrequently in winter more often when there's more solar but it raises a good question whether it's healthy to charge to the Max 53.5v occasionally.
I can't find anything online saying it's healthy to do this or not
Hi mate I just plugged mine in and turned it on in a stack when all LEDs were about the same I turned them off then soft boot to the Victron, Victron on and that’s it
Soft boot ?
@@EVPuzzle yeah the pylons have a soft start up, I was made aware of this after I built my soft start for the inverter Capps so you don’t get that big in rush on the caps just the red button then the stack slowly powers up
Hi Nigel, good video, I have a 2/12 year old system, 5.44 kw array (solis 5kw inverter) with 16 panels, 4 pylontech us3000 batteries , I would like to add at least 2 us3000s or us5000s to my system as we have recently added Toshiba A2A system like yours, Having watching yours and other videos it appears to be fairly straight forward to do it yourself, I did ask my original installer who were not very helpful as they have moved away from using pylontech. Do you have any recommendations for the best place to buy pylontech batteries to be self installed ? Regards
I am hoping to be able to add more batteries but as previously stated my DNO don’t seem to want me to add anything extra. So all in all not super confident about getting this.
Can't yopu update the BMS firmware to the latest version?
I nearly went to Pylontech, but preferred the look of a single 15kWh Fogstar setup. I follow the Off-Grid garage and find the DIY aspect quite easy.
Does anyone know if it possible to be able to charge the batteries without using solar ?
Ac charging from the house
@@EVPuzzle how do you do that. ?
@@kroozer5215 the inverter will have a setting and schedule to do it . If victron like mine it's on the vRM ess settings at the bottom of the list .
Who did you use for installation?
anyone know what the ordeal with Plylontech 5000 batteries are?, check online and some 5000 are disounted massively and others still holding their price? Is there a difference in versions of the 5000 type hence why some are cheapr??? tia
Not seen any really cheap ones tbh , where r they . I wouldn't trust every ad of course , some too good to be true deals are just that
@@EVPuzzle Voltacon Energy Systems £1099.00
hi been watching you for a while why do you have 3 inverters and what is the advantage ?
Installed different panels at different times and always ,ade sense to add not replace plus every different orientation needs either aa separate mppt or optimisers to cater for when one array is in shade
My system is a good example of getting it wrong going small, makes more sense to go for it in one go but then I didn't know what I know now
@@EVPuzzle thank you for the reply i did the same as you went for 3.6kw solis hybrid inverter quickly upgraded to a 6kw solis hybird inverter now im at my limit of solar panels 8kw i want to install more but my inverter only allows 8kw . not sure if i can add another inverter and apply for more export. im addicted to getting more and more
@@bareallotment7391how much clipping are you seeing ? Given the UK weather, it would be interesting how much time the inverter runs at maximum capacity.
@@johnrush3596 im not really seeing any clipping as i can use up any solar that is not getting exported . on clear days from around 10am til around 4pm im getting 6 to 8kw of pv depending what im using in house
@@bareallotment7391 you can always limit export and have more solar . G100 application
Hi Nigel. How did you ascertain the firmware version of your batteries?
I didn't specifically, they're purchased together each time so all the same fir each type. Just us 5000 always ahead or us3000