Solar panels and battery - any real world reccomendations?

katie279 said:
Exactly right - all local, so no 3rd party dependencies, subscriptions etc.

You'd be surprised at how many smart devices you have without realising - pretty much all TVs will connect, your PCs being remote controllable, all your hard disk/graphics card/cpu loads and temps in one place, network activity, your phones, tablets, routers, printers etc and as you say, with smart plugs even dumb devices become connectable.

It does a great job of making things into smart devices - eg I just installed a component that turns all my pcs into media players so I can use them along with my sonos stuff to stream music through the house (thus saving a few hundred quid to avoid getting sonos for rooms with PCs or TVs in them).
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Is better to run it in a docker or directly off a pi?
 
Indeed - well that's where it's great to not have to expose hundreds of devices to 3rd party servers in china, US and Europe - eg Hue lights don't actually need a hub with home assistant, likewise with the Ikea stuff I just bought, same with Samsung - basically just uses home assistant to take over and I don't need hundreds of cloud based queries flying through my firewall all the time....!

Gives me the smart stuff without the dumb stuff...!
 
SBo said:
Ah yes but my 10.5kwh of PylonTech LIFEPO4 storage cost £3,300 total plus £80 for the Raspberry Pi/Home Assistant to control it... so I suspect I have some wiggle room to pay myself with to set it up ;)

Would love to see what the Tesla control/app looks like though if you wouldn't mind sharing?
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Can you explain this set up? Is it just UPS batteries rather than 'other' ones? Interested because I have solar already (meagre 2.5kw) and a just battery install interests me
 
Vanilla said:
Can you explain this set up? Is it just UPS batteries rather than 'other' ones? Interested because I have solar already (meagre 2.5kw) and a just battery install interests me
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@Ron-ski has a great thread which goes into how his one is being setup here. Still installing it but as long as it feels to those watching no doubt it’s longer for him :D
 
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Vanilla said:
Can you explain this set up? Is it just UPS batteries rather than 'other' ones? Interested because I have solar already (meagre 2.5kw) and a just battery install interests me
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Yes I have 3 PylonTech US3000C batteries, connected to my LuxPower hybrid inverter. I also have panels but with all this rain it is the batteries saving me 32.5p kWH at the moment (between GO and full price) so £593 over 6 months of winter alone and without counting solar generation.

In your setup, assuming its not already a hybrid inverter that you have, I would either swap your current inverter out for a hybrid one and add the batteries to it, which may be more future upgrade friendly come adding more or higher output panels or if you can't touch it due to FIT then buy something like the LXP ACS 3600 which can sit alongside your current inverter with the batteries tied to that. The Pylontech batteries have been rock solid, are 95% DoD and score really highly for lifecycle.

I just had a google and looks like current best price for the US3000Cs is ~£1280 inc VAT or you can get the US5000 for ~£1770.

The @Ron-ski setup is awesome but is rather more advanced than the above and is in its own outhouse!
 
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Just got an email from my installer saying they can’t get Givenergy batteries but can get Growatt ones as replacements. Any reason why I shouldn’t go for the Growatt?
 
Growatt are a cheapish Chinese brand but people seem largly happy with their kit.
What models as I bet they are cheaper are they reducing your quote accordingly?
As per my post above you could ask for pylontechs, I would take those over Growatt batteries.
 
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