DIY Battery/Solar installation..

Making some progress :)
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Had to cut away more of the wood on the right, moved the fan/cat5 trunking right, added some 50mm trunking for the battery cables, class T fuse and bus bars added.
I have the shorter 30cm cables for connections to the bus bars and mrbf fuses for each battery too.
Blue Sea battery isolator arrived today, i did accidentally buy a cheaper knock off one, but changed my mind after seeing the quality of the class T fuse holdsr from blue sea, so went with the known brand.
Just waiting for some 10.5mm terminal lugs to let me make up and crimp some shorter cables for the new setup.
 
Looking good.

I removed my Victron isolator, it was getting rather hot, had about 180 amps going thorough it. I've got isolator's on the batteries, and the PV can be turned off via isolators/MCB's as well, so no need for it really.
 
Some were unsure of the value, but I added MBRF fuses to the posts of each battery:

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You can see the original terminal cover fitted here, these required a little persuasion to fit over the new fuses:

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Vs the original

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Ok, now to get the positive side lined up. You can see if flipped the fuse on the right battery to aid with reducing cable strain on the cable to the bus-bar:

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Now the negative:

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Close up
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Annoyingly, the existing 110cm negative cable I have has connectors for 70mm2 cable, and are slightly thicker than the 50s I am using on all my other cables:

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This means I cannot fit it through the gland into the inverter, without some considerable faffing

As such, I have had to leave the original cable, and run it over the front of the panel, and not through the trunking yet.

Debating if I will clip this back, and re-crimp the correct connector on myself, cut down the tab itself make it thinner, and fit through the gland, or just suck it up, and buy a new cable.

I was also thinking of adding a second blue sea isolation switch to the negative from the battery, after the class T, like the Positive, so might wait till I have made my mind up before taking further actions :)

Mostly buttoned up!

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I decided I wanted to add some cable separation behind the batteries and closer to the inverter. Just to help protect against any potential rubbing of the cables.
So I designed and printed some simple separators or varying lengths/orientations:

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With the trunking covering fitted, and some of the isolators in place.

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I re-added the third fan to check its affect on peak temps, and it did seem to bring it down a good 5 degrees on the terminals of the class T. It is running on the same timer as the ones on top of the inverter, and looking to secure that to the wall just to the right of the battery units to blow over the bus-bars and fuses. I like the idea of at least having a little air movement during peak times to aid longevity and move any heat away and into the rest of the garage. Might help a little with keeping the garage warmer in the winter too...

And that is where we are up to. This was done 2 days ago, and things are just ticking along as per normal for now.

This is pretty much the last set of steps now till I start on the solar side of the project!
 
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An excellent read through, as I've considered doing similar myself, as (like you've said), the material vs installed cost difference seems a little extreme.

A couple questions if you don't mind:
  1. How hard did you find it getting a sparky onboard to sign off the work? Can any standard sparky signoff solar/battery systems, or do you need to find someone with specific extra qualifications?
  2. How much do you think it's cost you in total for the whole system? What's your payback period like?
 
R.C.Anderson said:
An excellent read through, as I've considered doing similar myself, as (like you've said), the material vs installed cost difference seems a little extreme.

A couple questions if you don't mind:
  1. How hard did you find it getting a sparky onboard to sign off the work? Can any standard sparky signoff solar/battery systems, or do you need to find someone with specific extra qualifications?
  2. How much do you think it's cost you in total for the whole system? What's your payback period like?
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The first sparky I asked did it for me :)

He has recently contacted me about helping me add solar and offered to get my install certified via his MCS, which was not actually part of my initial plan.

Anyone who is a qualified/msc solar/battery installer would be sensible from a skills perspective.

Total is a shade under 4k, but some of that was spent on other works done whilst the system was being comissioned.

Payback (without solar) is working out to be just under 24 months based on my current projections.
It would likely work out about the same when I add the solar, perhaps stretching it out by another 6 months depending on time of year/generation, and maybe less if I get a MCS cert and paid for dumping batteries/excess solar!
 
Malt_Vinegar said:
The first sparky I asked did it for me :)

He has recently contacted me about helping me add solar and offered to get my install certified via his MCS, which was not actually part of my initial plan.

Anyone who is a qualified/msc solar/battery installer would be sensible from a skills perspective.

Total is a shade under 4k, but some of that was spent on other works done whilst the system was being comissioned.

Payback (without solar) is working out to be just under 24 months based on my current projections.
It would likely work out about the same when I add the solar, perhaps stretching it out by another 6 months depending on time of year/generation, and maybe less if I get a MCS cert and paid for dumping batteries/excess solar!
Click to expand...
Excellent, thanks! I think I definitely need to look into it in more depth then. If I can get a similar payback period, it seems a no brainer really.
 
knightkash said:
Does your inverter have UPS mode? - looking at the current specs for the Sunsynk 8.8 hybrid inverter it can do full house backup as standard.
Click to expand...
It has a load port that can be used to power specific circuits, if there is an issue with the power supply. I am not using this at the moment.

It is also compatible with an Automatic transfer switch, so it can be used for whole house backup, but this is additional hardware. I am considering using this at a later date also :)
 
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