Hi everyone,
I've been lurking for a few weeks trying to read up on stuff. Now I'm looking for some expert advice on what I'm thinking of accomplishing.
First off, I'm located in Central Ohio. 11x Chilicon CP-720 microinverters connected to a 8.3kw array on the roof of the house facing south/southwest with no tree cover. Two lines come down from the roof, each to a 30A 2P breaker in a small subpanel, that then feeds the main panel through a 45A 2P breaker.
Given some geo-political nonsense that has been brewing for some time, and concern about long-term stability of the grid, I've considered adding battery backup to the solar. I did not realize that our solar would shut down when the grid went down, at first (after thinking about it, I totally understand why it would). So I've been considering ways to not only add battery backup, but something to keep the grid-tie solar turned on safely to run from during the day and charge batteries to be used at night in case of extended grid downtime.
First, I understand that the inverter setup I select has to:
1) support AC coupling to an existing grid-tie system
2) support frequency shifting to manage the Chilicon microinverters
3) support the max power output of the microinverters so as to not blow stuff up
So a couple inverters that I believe can do this, with some possible caveats:
1) Outback Radian GS8048A
The Outback only can support up to 6kW of grid-tie solar. To work with my setup, I would either need to have two of them, or use a GS4048A in parallel with the GS8048A to get me enough capacity. Alternatively, I think I could run one string of the Chilicon inverters (1 30A breaker) with the GS8048A running the critical loads panel, and put the other 30A breaker in the main box. During a grid outage, I'd be running approx half of the solar panels at ~4kW. Not ideal but I think it would work?
2) Victron Quattro 5000VA/48V
It appears from Victron's documentation that the Quattro also supports frequency shifting. I would need two of them to generate split phase, and this would cost roughly $1000 more than a single Outback Radian GS8048A. However, two Quattros would allow for use of all the solar panels I have.
For batteries, I was planning on 16x EVE230 Lifepo4 batteries using a JBD 16s 250A BMS. I could maybe do a second set at a later date to double my battery capacity, but I'm already looking at more money spent than I was originally thinking for this project. Maybe a different BMS would be better (I've seen some chatter about Seplos, for example), but this is my current plan.
Any opinions on which route is more recommended? Or, am I totally missing something and I'm on the wrong track entirely? Or, other ideas/input?
I've been lurking for a few weeks trying to read up on stuff. Now I'm looking for some expert advice on what I'm thinking of accomplishing.
First off, I'm located in Central Ohio. 11x Chilicon CP-720 microinverters connected to a 8.3kw array on the roof of the house facing south/southwest with no tree cover. Two lines come down from the roof, each to a 30A 2P breaker in a small subpanel, that then feeds the main panel through a 45A 2P breaker.
Given some geo-political nonsense that has been brewing for some time, and concern about long-term stability of the grid, I've considered adding battery backup to the solar. I did not realize that our solar would shut down when the grid went down, at first (after thinking about it, I totally understand why it would). So I've been considering ways to not only add battery backup, but something to keep the grid-tie solar turned on safely to run from during the day and charge batteries to be used at night in case of extended grid downtime.
First, I understand that the inverter setup I select has to:
1) support AC coupling to an existing grid-tie system
2) support frequency shifting to manage the Chilicon microinverters
3) support the max power output of the microinverters so as to not blow stuff up
So a couple inverters that I believe can do this, with some possible caveats:
1) Outback Radian GS8048A
The Outback only can support up to 6kW of grid-tie solar. To work with my setup, I would either need to have two of them, or use a GS4048A in parallel with the GS8048A to get me enough capacity. Alternatively, I think I could run one string of the Chilicon inverters (1 30A breaker) with the GS8048A running the critical loads panel, and put the other 30A breaker in the main box. During a grid outage, I'd be running approx half of the solar panels at ~4kW. Not ideal but I think it would work?
2) Victron Quattro 5000VA/48V
It appears from Victron's documentation that the Quattro also supports frequency shifting. I would need two of them to generate split phase, and this would cost roughly $1000 more than a single Outback Radian GS8048A. However, two Quattros would allow for use of all the solar panels I have.
For batteries, I was planning on 16x EVE230 Lifepo4 batteries using a JBD 16s 250A BMS. I could maybe do a second set at a later date to double my battery capacity, but I'm already looking at more money spent than I was originally thinking for this project. Maybe a different BMS would be better (I've seen some chatter about Seplos, for example), but this is my current plan.
Any opinions on which route is more recommended? Or, am I totally missing something and I'm on the wrong track entirely? Or, other ideas/input?
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