OddLion
Member
First thanks to everyone on this forum. I'm a newbie here (please forgive any glaring mistakes) and have learned a lot from all the discussions.
I'm in the middle of a home solar installation - 19 Eurener 400W panels, Solax X1 G4 7.5kW hybrid inverter, Zappi, Eddi, and a 15kWh Fogstar battery array (batteries still not installed).
Fogstar was slow delivering the batteries, and in the meantime I double-checked compatibility only to find that the 51V batteries are apparently not compatible with the Solax inverter, which demands >60V input.
Obviously the installers should have seen this, and they claim they were told by both Solax and Fogstar that it would work. Hard to know, but it seems like human error.
They raised the option of installing an AC coupled inverter for the batteries, at their expense of course, but I fear this will introduce inefficiencies both in AC-DC-AC conversion (some energy is lost each time) and in monitoring and controlling the two inverters (we intend to get Octopus Agile), and also be another big box taking up space on the wall.
The other option is to reject the Fogstars and put in a bit of extra money to get Solax batteries. More expensive, but they seem good and will definitely play nicely with the inverter.
So, a couple questions if anyone has a minute:
1) Is the energy loss from the AC Coupled inverter workaround significant?
2) Will it be difficult to monitor and coordinate the energy flows to/from inverters, panels, EV, grid?
3) Are there advantages to having two inverters, such as if we get a power-hungry heat pump in the near future?
Any advice would be most appreciated, as we want to get this right the first (or second) time.
Thanks!
I'm in the middle of a home solar installation - 19 Eurener 400W panels, Solax X1 G4 7.5kW hybrid inverter, Zappi, Eddi, and a 15kWh Fogstar battery array (batteries still not installed).
Fogstar was slow delivering the batteries, and in the meantime I double-checked compatibility only to find that the 51V batteries are apparently not compatible with the Solax inverter, which demands >60V input.
Obviously the installers should have seen this, and they claim they were told by both Solax and Fogstar that it would work. Hard to know, but it seems like human error.
They raised the option of installing an AC coupled inverter for the batteries, at their expense of course, but I fear this will introduce inefficiencies both in AC-DC-AC conversion (some energy is lost each time) and in monitoring and controlling the two inverters (we intend to get Octopus Agile), and also be another big box taking up space on the wall.
The other option is to reject the Fogstars and put in a bit of extra money to get Solax batteries. More expensive, but they seem good and will definitely play nicely with the inverter.
So, a couple questions if anyone has a minute:
1) Is the energy loss from the AC Coupled inverter workaround significant?
2) Will it be difficult to monitor and coordinate the energy flows to/from inverters, panels, EV, grid?
3) Are there advantages to having two inverters, such as if we get a power-hungry heat pump in the near future?
Any advice would be most appreciated, as we want to get this right the first (or second) time.
Thanks!
