How about a solar car port on a budget?

[Crossy]

I know the polycarbonate isn't fire-resistant.

 

But it was in the shed, I can lift it, and it keeps the cat/chickens out (yes, I removed the eggs from behind the smaller packs).

 

[Sophon]

On 5/3/2024 at 3:43 PM, Crossy said:

Hernia anyone??

 

Those Liyuan 280Ah x 48V battery packs are about 110kg each!

 

No, I didn't lift them in!

 

We just happened to have a couple of Thai labourers re-building (actually knocking down) our damaged retaining wall. A hundred Baht each (probably about 30% of their day rate for demolishing the wall) and they were more than happy to oblige.

  

 

Keep an eye on the cells in your new battery packs. I installed an identical battery pack (from same seller) in January, and after just three months of very gentle use (as you can see from the cycle count) one of the cells is already failing:

 

To protect the cells I set the low voltage cut-off at 3V, and when cell 9 reaches that voltage the other 15 cells are still close to 3.3V (approximately 70% SOC). As a result I have very little usable capacity in the pack. Clearly, cell 9 has a manufacturing defect, even though it looked OK when i first received the battery pack.

 

I have sent all the evidence to Luyuan, and am waiting for their engineers to take a look at it.

 

[Crossy]

36 minutes ago, Sophon said:

I have sent all the evidence to Luyuan, and am waiting for their engineers to take a look at it.

 

Do let us know how you get on, reports on other forums are generally positive for Shenzen Luyuan Tech. Co. Ltd.

 

https://szluyuan.en.alibaba.com/index.html

 

 

 

[Crossy]

Here we go with the numbers for May.

 

[Crossy]

Patience is rewarded, Lazada have two 15% "6-6" discount vouchers (having two is unusual).

 

So, I bought two Deye 5kW inverters (two separate orders, 1 voucher used on each), one order got an extra 50Baht off for using my UOB card 🙂

 

12k will get quite a lot of beer

 

 

[Crossy]

Inverters have arrived.

 

All good.

 

[Muhendis]

1 hour ago, Crossy said:

Inverters have arrived.

 

All good.

 

The boxes look nice.

 

But I wouldn't say "all good" until after switch-on and all the blue smoke has dissipated...........

[carlyai]

37 minutes ago, Muhendis said:

 

The boxes look nice.

 

But I wouldn't say "all good" until after switch-on and all the blue smoke has dissipated...........

Pessimist:)

[Muhendis]

16 minutes ago, carlyai said:

Pessimist:)

 

Who me?   

 

[Muhendis]

47 minutes ago, carlyai said:

Pessimist:)

 

Sometimes my sense of humour leads me to wonder why I have not been shot yet.

 

I hope all goes swimmingly every Deye  day after switch-on

[Crossy]

Gonna power them up tomorrow to verify they are the same S/W version.

 

Manufacturing data suggests they will be but ...

 

[lom]

2 hours ago, Crossy said:

Gonna power them up tomorrow to verify they are the same S/W version.

Based on mfgr date they most likely also have the latest firmware in them already but if you need to update them it can be done remotely by Deye.

Send a request email to service(at)deye.com.cn and give them the Inverter serial numbers and the logger serial numbers and keep your inverters on-grid until they have done the update.

Congrats to a good purchase, I'm sure you will not regret it!

Edited June 9 by Rimmer
email address edited per forum rules

[Crossy]

21 hours ago, Muhendis said:

But I wouldn't say "all good" until after switch-on and all the blue smoke has dissipated...........

 

Both powered up OK, no smoke of any colour observed 🙂 

[Muhendis]

5 minutes ago, Crossy said:

 

Both powered up OK, no smoke of any colour observed 🙂 

Great news.

How about the software.

[Crossy]

Just now, Muhendis said:

Great news.

How about the software.

 

Yeah, same version. Not worried (yet) whether it's the latest and greatest.

[Pink7]

On 6/9/2024 at 1:47 PM, Crossy said:

Inverters have arrived.

 

All good.

 

It feels great when waiting for the right offer is rewarded.

 

Pink

[Pink7]

On 6/7/2024 at 11:14 AM, Crossy said:

Patience is rewarded, Lazada have two 15% "6-6" discount vouchers (having two is unusual).

 

So, I bought two Deye 5kW inverters (two separate orders, 1 voucher used on each), one order got an extra 50Baht off for using my UOB card 🙂

 

12k will get quite a lot of beer

 

 

34k for Deye must be great value. Look like prices in Thailand on Inverters getting better..I saw the Growatt was at better price in Thailand now also.

 

Pink

[Crossy]

OK, so the Deye inverters are installed and working, it took me some fathoming to get them to actually run in parallel but all operational now.

 

Still a bit of tidying (get those cable ties out!!) to do but I'm happy.

 

We wired for 3 Deye units so the third space is occupied by our old Sofar hybrid which is just being a smart battery charger (no mains connections).

 

 

So, as of today the system is: -

• 15.3kWp of assorted panels on the car-port.
• Two Deye 5kW hybrid inverters running paralleled.
• One Sofar 5kW hybrid just being a solar battery charger (it has a string of 9*340W panels).
• 1,540Ah (about 75kWh) of LiFePO4 storage.

I need to re-vamp the energy metering system so there won't be a meaningful graph this month, fear not, numbers will be back soon 🙂 

 

Jobs to do: -

• Sort out the metering
• Install the new ATS set up for main use = inverter.
• Make covers for the DC MCCB terminals.
• Test how well the Deye inverters like my cheap Kwaithong genset on the "generator" input.
• Anything I've forgotten.

My first shot at terminal covers, just 2.5mm acrylic sheet bent using a heat gun, the MCCBs have convenient holes so small self-tappers hold the covers on: -

 

 

My Thai step-son was intrigued by my labels, he didn't think solar panels could be dangerous or even kill you! Our strings of panels are up to 400VDC!

 

 

The Solarman Smart app and website actually work quite well but Solar Assistant may be on the horizon if I get bored.

 

 

 

 

We embarked on a major experiment.

 

Starting at midnight I turned off our grid connection (actually the water heaters are still on-grid) so we are running (as opposed to walking) on sunshine!

 

We're unlikely to actually have the meter removed, I'll probably leave the water heaters on-grid so it does actually move.

 

Family will be here over the weekend so the A/C will be getting a hammering, will we survive??

 

We are now entering the Twilight-Zone!

 

 

[Crossy]

We swallowed 37kWh from the batteries overnight, Saturday wasn't a very good day for production either.

 

Batteries are currently reading 55% which fits reasonably well with the capacity of 75kWh 🙂 

 

Spot what time the family arrived 🙂

 

 

 

[KhunLA]

Tell me about, as it took all day to get back to 'near' 100% charge on the batteries.  Think we managed 94%.    Usually the batteries are topped up between 1000-1200 hrs, and you won't see any blue after that.

 

 

Sa far, good today, and even plugged the car in, and batteries already @ 92%

Edited June 30 by KhunLA

[Crossy]

Sunday wasn't a terrible day for generation making about 55.8kWh of which we used 23.8kWh as self-consumption during the day.

 

We got 32kWh back into the batteries during the day.

 

Of course, we promptly vacuumed 22.4kWh out of the pack overnight leaving us with a net charge gain of about 9.6kWh when we started generation on Monday morning.

 

We survived an off-grid weekend!

 

Let's see if we manage the week, I'll be WFH so the office A/C will be running.

 

[Crossy]

So, here we are after a week running off-grid (apart from the water heaters).

 

 

The bad production days were offset by the good days being really good, over the week we produced 337.9kWh we used 314.7kWh. The difference being explained by system inefficiencies and the batteries actually being about 7% (about 5kWh) higher state of charge at the end relative to the start.

 

Over the same period the water heaters used 8.5kWh from PEA, I'll probably leave it connected this way to keep the meter moving.

 

The lowest we got the batteries to was 55% on the morning of the 30th with the 29th having been cloudy.

 

We really made little attempt to economise on consumption, Madam still watering her plants, leaving lights on etc.

 

I'm a happy bear 🙂 

 

What next?

 

Well, I still have to finish tidying the wiring and sorting out the new ATS.

 

Also, there's a stack of panels in the car-port looking forlorn. Having discussed with Madam they are going on the patio roof. There's room for 8 maybe 9 up there, it's not ideal as it gets shaded later in the day but it slopes east so should catch some early morning rays. All the bits are in-stock so it's not like it's going to cost $$$ other than time.

 

 

[Crossy]

Just added another 2.7kWp onto the patio roof, bringing us to 18kWp installed. We are actually now limited by the capabilities of our older Sofar inverter only being able to do 3kW PV => batteries.

 

Note how the battery power is pretty constant, whist PV1 mirrors PV2, I feel another Deye inverter coming on.

 

 

I thought we had filled every available flat roof with panels. But I just noticed that the chook house gets full sun from about 10AM, and there's room for at least 9 panels!!

 

EDIT The chook house in question (it's actually now garden storage, the chooks have moved into much more salubrious accommodation), that mango tree would only shade the panels in the morning when the house would also be in the way.

 

[KhunLA]

18 minutes ago, Crossy said:

I feel another Deye inverter coming on. ...   and there's room for at least 9 panels!!

Nice ... 

 

Hindsight, should have got two 5kWh instead of the 8kWh inverter.   As still not really enough just for the house.   As we only run the AC in the bedroom at night, where we are anyway.  Dinner done & over with by nightfall.   But if we entertained, we'd have to take the ESSs down below 60%, which I don't like doing

 

So even a 3rd 5kwh inverter & panels would be better, along with another 10kwh of ESS.  15kWh of inverters & 30kWh of ESS would be just enough to be properly 'off grid' 24/7.  Provide that extra juice at night time, for those that entertain, or need the rest of the house for what ever.  If having kids and another AC going all night, then it would be required.

 

Hard for many expats that retired at 65 or older, to justify the cost, especially if not married to a 20 year old younger wife, who will appreciate the savings long after I'm gone.

Edited July 7 by KhunLA

[Crossy]

This is the inside of the patio roof using our thermal-imager.

 

Bonus points if you can tell where the solar panels end 🙂

 

[Crossy]

10 minutes ago, KhunLA said:

Hard for many expats that retired at 65 or older, to justify the cost, especially if not married to a 20 year old younger wife, who will appreciate the savings long after I'm gone.

 

I'm long past justifying the cost, I'm an engineer doing what engineers do 🙂 

[Muhendis]

49 minutes ago, Crossy said:

We are actually now limited by the capabilities of our older Sofar inverter only being able to do 3kW PV => batteries

Don\t forget to derate your panels.

[Crossy]

The sun has got his hat on ...

 

Now, about that 250A MCCB I have as my main battery isolator ...

 

[Crossy]

In our quest for more power, "more volts Igor, more volts!!" we stuck 6 x 445W panels on the patio roof.

 

We are now up to 51 panels totalling 18kWp.

 

The roof slopes to the east and the panels are shaded by the house later in the day but their performance has actually been rather better than I anticipated.

 

The 4 baby panels power our floodlights.

 

 

 

 

[Crossy]

On 5/6/2024 at 9:57 AM, Sophon said:

 

Keep an eye on the cells in your new battery packs. I installed an identical battery pack (from same seller) in January, and after just three months of very gentle use (as you can see from the cycle count) one of the cells is already failing:

 

To protect the cells I set the low voltage cut-off at 3V, and when cell 9 reaches that voltage the other 15 cells are still close to 3.3V (approximately 70% SOC). As a result I have very little usable capacity in the pack. Clearly, cell 9 has a manufacturing defect, even though it looked OK when i first received the battery pack.

 

I have sent all the evidence to Luyuan, and am waiting for their engineers to take a look at it.

 

 

Did you get anything back from Luyuan?

 

Our packs are behaving well and staying well in-balance (we do have the optional active-balancers).