Is a growatt inverter and battery any good?

[beregoed]

I was quoted by a firm to go with Growatt inverter and battery. Is this not a good combination (inverter can go up to 6000 and battery 9.3kwh)? Not much info around for Growatt.

Split from hi-jacked thread

 

[johnb2713]

Growatt inverter and battery are a nice combination with a couple of caveats that I found annoying.
1) Although my inverter (SPH6000) is rated at 6kW it can only supply 3 kW when running on battery
2) At around sunrise and sunset the inverter (allegedly) goes into a self test / calibration mode. For about 15 minutes grid power is imported even though there plenty of energy in the battery.
3) The Growatt app at times can be unreliable, not really a problem more an annoyance.

 

[beregoed]

Thank you for your answer. I can see that you are helping a lot of people, which must be time consuming.
So this combination will not work if the long term goal would be independent from the grid as the max output of battery is 3kW. is this due to the inverter or battery?
Is it easy to add other brands component to this setup?

 

[johnb2713]

Thank you for your answer. I can see that you are helping a lot of people, which must be time consuming.
So this combination will not work if the long term goal would be independent from the grid as the max output of battery is 3kW. is this due to the inverter or battery?

Thats a limitation of the SPH series of inverters, it's what made me look into adding more inverter power and battery storage.

Is it easy to add other brands component to this setup?

Adding another inverter and battery in addition to the Growatt worked for me, after quite a bit of research and a lot of heartache I went for a Victron Inverter and a DIY battery made up from EVE LifeP04 cells. The Victron inverter was in a completely different league from the Growatt, many more variables to set up and a massive support forum out on the net. Both Victron and the forum members were very helpful and my project has run successfully from 24th December, 2022 we used the first charge to cook the Christmas dinner!
The Growatt inverter does seem to play nicely with the Victron, they both share the grid load very well, a slight issue of the Growatt inverter and battery being used to charge the Victron setup but this is easily minimised by adjusting the charge voltage of the Victron inverter. The Victron system also covers the Growatt inverter during it's annoying self test.

This is how a typical month looked before the Victron system was added:-


The yellow line at the bottom very much reduced due to solar and overnight battery charging but still resulted in 65 kWh of peak consumption at the height of the good weather, it got much worse in the winter time, November used 263 kWh of peak rate electricity.

The Victron system was added, the same month this year looks like:-



The small bump on the 28th is in fact off peak use with Octopus Intelligent charging my car during peak times at off peak rates. Total peak energy is very low month on month.

As you can see, minimal peak use and it stays like this winter and summer, the winter time increases the off peak due to overnight charging but thats at 7.5p kWh.

 

[beregoed]

Thanks, I am probably not as tech savvy to do this.
I should not go ahead with the Growatt inverter perhaps and wait for the other quotes. Is the Growatt battery good investment compared to other available brands?

 

[johnb2713]

Thanks, I am probably not as tech savvy to do this.
I should not go ahead with the Growatt inverter perhaps and wait for the other quotes. Is the Growatt battery good investment compared to other available brands?

Have a look at Fogstar rack batteries, a few people on here have used them, great price, good quality and seem to work with loads of inverters. Circa £1400 per 5 kW and several batteries can be mounted together to make 10, 15, 20 kWh etc

Like this:-

https://www.fogstar.co.uk/products/...ck-battery-bundle?_pos=1&_sid=cc2561f15&_ss=r

 

[Oldman22]

Or even like this.

 

[johnb2713]

Yep like that as well, perfect.

 

[beregoed]

Thank you, but I am not much DIYer, so it will depends on the three quotes companies to check what they are happy to install.

Or back to my quote with solar panels+ growatt inverter and small growatt battery (I first thought to do 9.4kwh battery, but given the limitation a smaller dc battery will be enough) , but combined with an AC battery.

 

[beregoed]

Hi John,
the quote is for
- 16 Longi Hi Mo5 panels
- Growatt Min 6000 TL-XH inverter
- Growatt Ark HV 10.2 battery
- bird protection
- EPS function box with 2 sockets
with a pricetag of 12511

Really considering this unless someone tells me this is not a good setup price quality wise.

 

[Steviesparkie]

Cheaper rhan my smaller growatt system.only issue i have is problem with getting dongle to communicate with new network otherwise no issues

 

[beregoed]

thanks Steviesparkie. Do you know the max output (discharge rate) in kWof the
Growatt Min 6000 TL-XH inverter and Growatt Ark HV 10.2 battery . I am getting confusing info from the company (probably the admin but still).

 

[Steviesparkie]

Sorry i dont know

 

[beregoed]

Update after long period.

I have gone with following
18 panels Longi Hi Mo 5 415w, total 7470w
Growat Min 6000 TL-XH inverter
Growatt ARK HV 10.2 battery (9.2 effective)
No limit of 3kW charging/discharging

Still looking into EPS options and this is also moving quickly as I understand.

I am happy with the setup. Shine is SH** but I have found wonderwatt very good to setup programs (free online tool).

 

[johnb2713]

Update after long period.

I have gone with following
18 panels Longi Hi Mo 5 415w, total 7470w
Growat Min 6000 TL-XH inverter
Growatt ARK HV 10.2 battery (9.2 effective)
No limit of 3kW charging/discharging

Still looking into EPS options and this is also moving quickly as I understand.

I am happy with the setup. Shine is SH** but I have found wonderwatt very good to setup programs (free online tool).

You may like to have another word with the installer with regards to your last point no limit of 3kW charging/discharging.

Growatt data sheets:

Inverter


Note the DC input from the storage battery 350v to 480v, 10 amps max which suggests the maximum wattage on battery is 2500 to 4800w.
There is another issue though with the specified battery



The operating voltage is 188 to 227v, way below the 350v minimum of the inverter, assuming it will run on this lower voltage (doubtful), the max output on battery would be 1880 to 2270w.
Maybe I've read the data wrong, maybe the data sheets are wrong but it may just be worth having a conversation with the installer / supplier.

 

[beregoed]

thanks John,

on the app I have regular charging/discharging above 3kW. The inverter can handle load and battery at the same time and I think the number 6kWh will be correct. I also have a different datasheet, and I am not sure why there is a difference.

 

[johnb2713]

thanks John,

on the app I have regular charging/discharging above 3kW. The inverter can handle load and battery at the same time and I think the number 6kWh will be correct. I also have a different datasheet, and I am not sure why there is a difference.

How odd, battery voltage too is way out of spec. If it's working and youre happy thats great.

J