Adding Addition Batteries

[dawsonnick]

Hello everyone,

I live in France and my installation is now two years old so I am getting to grips with what I actually bought, what I thought I was buying, how it actually works and how I can improve it!

Wow!

I have 21 panels in total split between an Imeon Inverter with a Pylontech 2.4KWH lithium battery which is fed by 11 panels whilst the remaining 10 panels work with micro inverters on each panel from a company called EnPhase.

All good stuff and it works but could be better!

• I effectively have no automated fail-over but then, we don't have power cuts so an expensive option for little gain.
• I get paid a pittance for the electricity that I "sell" to the grid so would be better utilising it where I can - I do use some of it but would use more with more battery storage as, in the winter our heating runs and this could use the power stored during the day rather than electricity from the grid and 10x the price.
• I think that had I all my panels running through the Imeon inverter, I would have more control but too late for that now.
• The Enphase system of micro-inverters performance is poor in hot weather in comparison with the Imeon solution. I think it is simply due to the heat on the roof as we are quite far south in France.
• The single 2.4KWH battery is too small and the installer took advantage of my lack of knowledge when he installed this - I was also charged a very high overhead for the battery !
• The battery is set to be used at sunset (controlled by the internet (?)) which is fine in the winter when sunset is early but, in the summer, the battery hardly gets used and our cooking in the evening utilises power from the grid as the sun is too low to give us much solar energy.
• My understanding of the battery warranty is the number of cycles so the sunrise/sunset thing works well for this but how big an impact woudl it be if I changed the settings to work on a timer?
• The installer seems to be doing very well with solar installs and has expanded his business but doesn't seem interested in supporting existing installations. I don't think that he really wants to spend the time tweaking installations and would rather move onto the more lucrative new customer. I have a friend in the UK who tells me that he sees the same thing.

So, what do I want to do?

I want to augment my existing battery with additional batteries.

I am not an electrician but am not adverse to getting involved. I have contacted my supplier but the emails go unanswered.

My understanding is that I can simply buy additional batteries of the same make and type i.e. Pylontech U2000C and connect them in parallel once I mount them in the cabinet - which has enough space to allow me to do so.

I can buy the batteries along with Supports and cables from a supplier here in France via the internet.

I am unsure what I need regarding the cables as the suggestion on the internet is that when buying the batteries, most people also but these cables:-

• 2x2m 25mm² red adn black
• Connecteurs Amphenol + cosses M8

I have no idea what Amphenol means!

If I buy four batteries that takes my total capacity to 12KWH

I link them all in parallel which I can do easily using the cables as above.

The existing battery is connected to the inverter - given that they are all in parallel, do i connect any of the others using that mysterious Amphenol cable?

Is there any configuration required on the Inverter to tell it that the battery bank has grown (albeit that the current should not have changed)?

So - lots of questions and a sterep learning curve.

Hopefully someone will have some experience here or perhaps I can share my experience to date!

thank you in anticipation

 

[binky]

This video should answer a lot of your questions. Not sure about your inverter, as I've never fitted one if those, but manuals should be available on line somewhere. The cables should be supplied with the batteries, you probably already have the long ones you need to wire to the inverter.