Solar panels and battery - any real world recommendations?

carrot1401 · Thursday at 14:42

Got a fox setup here and enjoying it, got a Fox H1 5kw hybrid inverter, 12 panels and a 5kw battery but wish I went for a bigger battery. I see an EP11 with a junction box is £2700. Wonder how much it would cost to get it added on?

My other question, anyone in Oxfordshire (Didcot) sorted out Home Assistant with this? I've got the parts (https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_modbus/wiki/Elfin-EW11) but not confident soldering wires or just touching the thing. Wonder if any OCUK lot are local and able to assist?

Jonathan spectra · Saturday at 17:51

carrot1401 said:
Got a fox setup here and enjoying it, got a Fox H1 5kw hybrid inverter, 12 panels and a 5kw battery but wish I went for a bigger battery. I see an EP11 with a junction box is £2700. Wonder how much it would cost to get it added on?

My other question, anyone in Oxfordshire (Didcot) sorted out Home Assistant with this? I've got the parts (https://github.com/nathanmarlor/foxess_modbus/wiki/Elfin-EW11) but not confident soldering wires or just touching the thing. Wonder if any OCUK lot are local and able to assist?

You cant mix the ep5 and ep11, you will need to add another EP5 with the fox junction box.

Also note that if you have the ep5-h to install the same one or you'll lose the heating function.

Journey · Saturday at 19:19

Ecoflow haw the 800w Microstream inverter back at £99 on their site again, couple of cheap 420-460w panels and you can have a great baseload reduction setup for £200.

reef · Saturday at 20:08

Still waiting on my G99 from Northern Powergrid after 6 weeks now. Installer has called them and they were very unhelpful, saying they have a long backlog and will take all of the allowed 45 working days. That would be the end of October.

Installer has suggested we install in early October with a 3.68kW limit until we hear back and go from there. If they cap the inverter size then they'll cover correcting that. I'm not entirely keen, but it'll be mid-November at this rate otherwise and I've done the whole install during winter thing twice now and didn't like it.

Shocking from NPG considering they charge £990+VAT for this regardless of the outcome.

Jonathan spectra · Sunday at 11:22

reef said:
Still waiting on my G99 from Northern Powergrid after 6 weeks now. Installer has called them and they were very unhelpful, saying they have a long backlog and will take all of the allowed 45 working days. That would be the end of October.

Installer has suggested we install in early October with a 3.68kW limit until we hear back and go from there. If they cap the inverter size then they'll cover correcting that. I'm not entirely keen, but it'll be mid-November at this rate otherwise and I've done the whole install during winter thing twice now and didn't like it.

Shocking from NPG considering they charge £990+VAT for this regardless of the outcome.

What size Inverter?

reef · Sunday at 11:49

Jonathan spectra said:
What size Inverter?

Its the Sigenergy 12kW single phase.

Jonathan spectra · Sunday at 18:10

reef said:
Its the Sigenergy 12kW single phase.

Then you can't install it and limit it down to 3.68kW while waiting for the G99.

Marakith · Sunday at 19:50

Installation update! (Still work in progress!)

The battery, gateway etc are in! As are the top roof panels (12 on the front, 6 on the dormer). Super neat unit. Didn't realise how many other bits and bobs there'd be.

During the install of the front slope panels they wanted to run the cables over the side of the roof edge, which looked dreadful, so I'm glad I insisted they go through the attic and up under the tiles instead.

The installers didn't have enough cable to reach the consumer unit, so had to order it. So won't be able to finish until the end of next week, which is frustrating.

The rear pergola panels haven't been installed yet, and I'm a bit bothered by the design. The pergola is flat, and the installers seemed to struggle with how they would install the panels at an angle on top of the pergola. I would have thought it'd be possible to get brackets that were at different lengths to get the angle you need for the installation... For now they seem to want to install 2 rows, with one row flat, and the other row at an angle. But I worry about runoff problems and poor efficiency. They're subcontractors (wasn't expecting THAT!) and so this could be a miscommunication with the actual supplier.

Apart from these niggles I'm happy so far - just need them to finish the job and get the system running!

reef · Sunday at 21:03

Jonathan spectra said:
Then you can't install it and limit it down to 3.68kW while waiting for the G99.

Yes, Unfortunately it seems so. I didn't realise this. Luckily with an existing system its annoying but not the end of the world. (That would be if they impose an inverter limit as I need 4 strings

).

We can at least get the panels installed and trench dug etc for when we know before the weather turns and it gets darker. The job involves re-routing the EV, heat pump, SE array PV strings and AC from the string inverter all from the house to the Sigenergy gateway, so these can be done separately when the old 5kW inverter is taken offline.

In the mean time I hope NPG pull their finger out. Im holding out some hope as it'll be just a couple of weeks out, so not too long of a wait to get things finished.

the wopster · Sunday at 21:43

Is it a good idea to fully discharge the battery every now and again? It generally only gets to between 45-50% by the time it starts charging from the grid, but last night it got down to 20% for the first time when it switched to the grid

carrot1401 · Sunday at 21:59

Jonathan spectra said:
You cant mix the ep5 and ep11, you will need to add another EP5 with the fox junction box.

Also note that if you have the ep5-h to install the same one or you'll lose the heating function.

Thanks for this. Annoyingly you are correct. Also it’s just a non heating ep5. So either replace and sell, or cheaper option to grab another ep5 and junction box, but only 10kw total. Wish I knew that before investing. Least I have space in the garage to fit a load of batteries!

Ron-ski · Sunday at 21:59

Marakith said:
so I'm glad I insisted they go through the attic and up under the tiles instead.

The cables shouldn't exit under a tile, the tile could chaff the insulation, and over time wear through the cable.

A proper cable entry should be used, such as this.

Dektite® Lead Multicable Solar Flashing (Tile or Slate Roof) DNLS10MB

Deks Multicable Solar Flashing - Lead DLNS10MB

midsummerwholesale.co.uk

the wopster said:
Is it a good idea to fully discharge the battery every now and again

I discharge mine to 15% every night, no harm in it, no harm if you don't just don't leave them fully charged all the time.

SkyTerran · Sunday at 22:28

Journey said:
Ecoflow haw the 800w Microstream inverter back at £99 on their site again, couple of cheap 420-460w panels and you can have a great baseload reduction setup for £200.

I got two Streams, back in August when they were £89. And 4x JA Solar 445W panels for £255. But I'm so far unable to find someone to install the panels on the roof of my house. I contacted all 12 or so solar installers listed nearby on Checkatrade, but none of them showed any interest.

b0rn2sk8 · Sunday at 23:03

No solar installer is going to want that job when they can spend the day making way more money.

Call a roofer, installing brackets etc is a roofers job anyway. They’ll bound to be a local who has experience installing solar but isn’t working full time on solar jobs.

the wopster · Monday at 06:50

Ron-ski said:
I discharge mine to 15% every night, no harm in it, no harm if you don't just don't leave them fully charged all the time.

Is there a reason for that? My battery is generally down to 85% and when I get up on a morning then charges to 100% and is held there by the solar till about 4pm when we start taking from the battery again.

Marakith · Monday at 07:11

Ron-ski said:
The cables shouldn't exit under a tile, the tile could chaff the insulation, and over time wear through the cable.

A proper cable entry should be used, such as this.

Dektite® Lead Multicable Solar Flashing (Tile or Slate Roof) DNLS10MB

Deks Multicable Solar Flashing - Lead DLNS10MB

midsummerwholesale.co.uk

I discharge mine to 15% every night, no harm in it, no harm if you don't just don't leave them fully charged all the time.

Thanks. Will ask if they did this. If they didn't I guess they have to take up the panel and rectify. I notice the tile is MCS approved so does this mean if they don't use a solution like this they'll not pass MCS certification?

Marakith · Monday at 08:13

Marakith said:
Thanks. Will ask if they did this. If they didn't I guess they have to take up the panel and rectify. I notice the tile is MCS approved so does this mean if they don't use a solution like this they'll not pass MCS certification?

And @Ron-ski - although I can't see where the wires emerge from the roof, I have noticed that a lot of cables from the back of the panels seem to be touching the roof slates, which from Googling doesn't seem to be a good idea either. Is that something to be concerned about?

b0rn2sk8 · Monday at 08:40

IIRC, those flashings or similar are now required. The ‘old school’ method of passing some oval conduit between the tiles with the cable running through (or nothing at all) is no longer acceptable.

Ron-ski · Monday at 10:13

Marakith said:
And @Ron-ski - although I can't see where the wires emerge from the roof, I have noticed that a lot of cables from the back of the panels seem to be touching the roof slates, which from Googling doesn't seem to be a good idea either. Is that something to be concerned about?

Ideally you don't want the cables touching the roof, in practice that's very difficult to achieve, considering you need to connect the panel and lower it onto place.

The most important one is to make sure the MC4 connectors aren't on the roof, as it increases the chances of water ingress, and therefore corrosion.

Ron-ski · Monday at 10:22

the wopster said:
Is there a reason for that? My battery is generally down to 85% and when I get up on a morning then charges to 100% and is held there by the solar till about 4pm when we start taking from the battery again.

Apparently it's not good for the batteries to be stored at 100%, LifoPO4 should be stored long term around 30 to 50% SOC, but this does vary for different chemistries.

I've no idea if cycling 85 to 100% daily is bad or not, and if you Google it there will be a multitude of opposing opinions.