Can I join the sph-6000 club, installed with 2x6.5kwh batteries in July with a 7kw solar array.
A few points
When running from Solar the output does seem to get to 6kw or so, but you’re rite the 3kw output the rest of the time is a shame, I went into it a bit naïvely and thought 6 kW would be the output from both at any point and I find often in the evening we are running a kettle and oven or oven and air fryer and we go over 3 kW quite often so that’s causing us to pull an excessive amount from the grid, which I wasn’t prepared for in my cost saving calculations.
In addition to this, I found that the CT clamp that supplied is not accurate at low currents so the smart meter was bouncing around 100 W export to 100 W import at any one point which is fairly significant over the course of the day.
Switching the ct clamp for a dual pole modbus power meter brought the accuracy up to almost perfect zero import export at any one time.
I was shocked Growatt support couldent answer this on the phone and I had to find out through trial and error.
Starting in October, I disconnected the PV array to test a battery only scenario as an offering to potentially start a business and do this for the people, so I moved to EDF go electric which has a 4.5p night rate, which, combined with the meter, instead of CT clamp has made a big difference to the return on investment.
A few more annoyances when I do run out of the battery power if the Mrs has been running a tumble dryer in the daytime it’s quite annoying that we have all this investment and we still can’t make use of it at the core time in the evening, for this reason, I think I’m going to go to about 20 kWh of energy storage and swap the SPH inverter out for a 8kw victron. The Victron can pump out up to 15 kW for a short period of time which will cover all usage. It also has a significantly shorter ramp up time. For instance, if I turn the kettle on with the growwatt it might be 10 seconds or so before ramp and sync to grid at 3kw output, as a pose to the Victron which is pretty much instantaneous because the entire consumer unit is wired up in parallel as it can transfer 100 A full supply.
I also installed the A/T/S for Offgrid in the event of a power cut but again the output is limited to 3 kW, so you need to be careful what loads you’re pulling in the house in off grid mode and have a local Earth.
Will report back findings in a week or so as the victron is sat waiting to be installed, just need a few hours of peace to do it.
I think the growatt is great value for money and a super entry point into battery storage, but it is by no means perfect.
A few points
When running from Solar the output does seem to get to 6kw or so, but you’re rite the 3kw output the rest of the time is a shame, I went into it a bit naïvely and thought 6 kW would be the output from both at any point and I find often in the evening we are running a kettle and oven or oven and air fryer and we go over 3 kW quite often so that’s causing us to pull an excessive amount from the grid, which I wasn’t prepared for in my cost saving calculations.
In addition to this, I found that the CT clamp that supplied is not accurate at low currents so the smart meter was bouncing around 100 W export to 100 W import at any one point which is fairly significant over the course of the day.
Switching the ct clamp for a dual pole modbus power meter brought the accuracy up to almost perfect zero import export at any one time.
I was shocked Growatt support couldent answer this on the phone and I had to find out through trial and error.
Starting in October, I disconnected the PV array to test a battery only scenario as an offering to potentially start a business and do this for the people, so I moved to EDF go electric which has a 4.5p night rate, which, combined with the meter, instead of CT clamp has made a big difference to the return on investment.
A few more annoyances when I do run out of the battery power if the Mrs has been running a tumble dryer in the daytime it’s quite annoying that we have all this investment and we still can’t make use of it at the core time in the evening, for this reason, I think I’m going to go to about 20 kWh of energy storage and swap the SPH inverter out for a 8kw victron. The Victron can pump out up to 15 kW for a short period of time which will cover all usage. It also has a significantly shorter ramp up time. For instance, if I turn the kettle on with the growwatt it might be 10 seconds or so before ramp and sync to grid at 3kw output, as a pose to the Victron which is pretty much instantaneous because the entire consumer unit is wired up in parallel as it can transfer 100 A full supply.
I also installed the A/T/S for Offgrid in the event of a power cut but again the output is limited to 3 kW, so you need to be careful what loads you’re pulling in the house in off grid mode and have a local Earth.
Will report back findings in a week or so as the victron is sat waiting to be installed, just need a few hours of peace to do it.
I think the growatt is great value for money and a super entry point into battery storage, but it is by no means perfect.
) I’ll keep an eye on this thread, cheers Nick
