Say I have 3kW of solar panels feeding a hybrid inverter and a battery stack which charges when there's excess power from the solar, if my overall consumption exceeds the output of the panels, and the inverter switches to town power (PEA or whatever), do the batteries charge from the solar or from the town power?

 

I've looked at various datasheets for inverters and I can't find a definitive answer.

most will do what you program them to do 

You can set your priority order in the inverter. My standard settings is solar first then battery then grid. 
 

My LFP batteries are kept at a minimum state of charge of 22% by the inverter. Above this point they are only charged by solar as I have chosen that setting as I don’t want to wake up in the morning with batteries that charged to 100% from the grid just as my solar panels start producing. 
 

My solar panels power the house and my EV then any excess is put into the batteries. 
 

I occasionally use the grid to help power my house load, but never to charge my batteries. 

 

Thanks for the tips. I'm still weighing up the cost benefit but this helps a lot.

As others have noted, the inverter will do what you program it to do (some are rather more programmable than others).

 

One point, most (maybe all now) hybrids no longer actually "switch" to grid power, they use the grid to top up what's coming from the solar in which event the batteries neither charge nor discharge.

Any recommendations for such an inverter? One that can switch seemlesly between battery and main power and have the batteries charged by the main?

Costs?

10 minutes ago, LukKrueng said:

Any recommendations for such an inverter? One that can switch seemlesly between battery and main power and have the batteries charged by the main?

Costs?

I am very happy with my Growatt SPF 5000 ES inverters that I paid ฿36,000 delivered. They can be programmed to do all the things that you asked for.

 

 

 

Happy with our Deye (8kW), though only 7 weeks in.  They offer a 5kW that is PEA approved.

On 9/23/2022 at 8:00 AM, Bandersnatch said:

I am very happy with my Growatt SPF 5000 ES inverters that I paid ฿36,000 delivered. They can be programmed to do all the things that you asked for.

 

 

 

Growatt SPF 5000 ES with Wifi Hybrid inverter Price 42,500 THB on Solar-Thailand.com

 

 

On 9/23/2022 at 8:25 AM, KhunLA said:

Happy with our Deye (8kW), though only 7 weeks in.  They offer a 5kW that is PEA approved.

Deye SUN-5K-SG03LP1 Hybrid, Off-Grid Inverter ฿47,900.00

and

Deye SUN-10K-SG04LP3 Hybrid, Off-Grid Inverter ฿95,900.00

on solaris.co.th.

 

Both Deye and Growatt mention 8V low voltage battery. Does that mean batteries included in the price or those are the supported batteries?

34 minutes ago, LukKrueng said:

 

Both Deye and Growatt mention 8V low voltage battery. Does that mean batteries included in the price or those are the supported batteries?

No batteries are extra with Growatt. I went win nRuit more info on my blog EcoHouseThailand.com

49 minutes ago, LukKrueng said:

Does that mean batteries included in the price or those are the supported batteries?

We wish ... ????

51 minutes ago, Bandersnatch said:

No batteries are extra with Growatt. I went win nRuit more info on my blog EcoHouseThailand.com

WOW.........

You built a fortress. Fort Knox seems a little shy next to your house ????

I wish I saw this page before I built my house as I might have incorporated some of the insulation ideas but I wouldn't go that style. My house is about 150Smr including the front balcony. Big windows all around and no bars as I like to see the view outside.

 

As for the inverter and batteries - all I want is to create a full house UPS. Electricity here is unstable with lots of up/down voltage - killing my LED lights, and very frequent blackouts. I recently learnt that Tesla makes complete house UPS systems but can't get them in Thailand AFAIK and a while back they stopped selling the UPS as stand alone and only sell it as part of a complete solar system. In the US they sell the UPS for US$10K, but again, only if you buy the complete solar system...

@LukKrueng 

 

Christian who runs this group does solar UPS systems https://www.facebook.com/groups/300126774329850

 

On 9/24/2022 at 3:39 PM, Bandersnatch said:

No batteries are extra with Growatt. I went win nRuit more info on my blog EcoHouseThailand.com

Amazing, thanks for sharing!