PurePower

I have a brand new HA-02 from @Chris-R which i purchased just before deciding to go the LifePO4 route. So if you interested please PM me.

Its this case that was enough for me to go Lithium. I hope i get 10 years out of them as well.

Connect the inverters together by means of the parallel board and the supplied communication cables.

I think a single instance of ICC will only show both inverters if there are connected in parallel. If you want to use ICC on the other inverter in your current setup, make a copy of the entire application including the database and use a seperate cable to the other inverter. Ensure com ports on Windows/Pi are different for each inverter. Ever consider coupling the inverters together? You are afterall using the same battery bank. Instructions below as per the manual. Then a single ICC application will see both inverters using a single cable.

PM sent.

Yip, I'll give a full write up on installing the Pylontech batteries with the Axpert MKS 5K inverter. I love how these units look in the cabinet, below is my install

I'll advise to ensure that your usb-to-serial cable com port is changed to COM1. Always check in the Device manager.

Yip, i've been using it for almost a week and it seems to be working great. I do have one issue but i'm starting to think its not related to the firmware.... I'm still investigating on my side, i suspect the ICC software has a bug.

Yip, adjusted as per the manual that came with my BMV-702. Charge effeciency set to 99% and Peukert's exponent to 1.10 but i just noticed with the latest online manual that the Peukert's exponent must now be set to 1.05 What have you set your Peukerts exponent to? Yip, i'm noticing that as well. Is there a BMS monitoring tool that i can plug into the Pylontech's to check what is going on every cell? Nope, not for the Axpert inverter.

Here is my new bank... those beauties are busy charging up now. I may decide to add another in the new year. Pic taken around 9:30am today. I am also using the ICC software and in addition to the inverter program 12 setting, i also use both SOC and time to switch to grid. Currently, it switches between 5pm - 9pm to grid (evening peak hours), thereafter its on batteries for the remainder of the day. If a 25% SOC is reached it will switch back to grid. Battery trend for today... You will notice that the battery voltage only touched 48v in the morning...it was actually 48.22v, SOC was around 40%. This most likely happened when i used the kettle. These readings are from the BMV-702 battery monitor. I don't trust the reading from the inverter itself. The inverter would have switched over to grid at that point (at 48.5v) but i'm testing prog 12 = 47v and so far its working for me. The Pylontech batteries also has several protection systems built in as part of its BMS. So if it goes below its min voltage threshold, then it will shutdown to protect itself. I am quite happy with the setup at the moment. I could never do this with my previous set of Narada 200ah AGM's.

Ok great thanks... I'm up and running with my Pylontech Batteries, thus far i am impressed. First time i've seen a DOD of 70% on 100ah batteries! And it charges up nicely, by 10:30am in the morning the batteries are full again. I do feel that the recommended program setting 12 = 48v is a bit high... Axperts do not have dynamic cut off values like Victron does... so during high load, a drop in voltage is normal and it hits 48v so easily and switches to grid... it happens at least 2 or 3 times a day for me. I don't see why we can't drop this a little, like 47v (47.5v would be ideal, but prog 12 does not allow 0.5v increments) as the Pylontech data sheet allows for a discharge voltage between 45 ~ 54v... @Coulomb , do you think prog 12 can be changed to allow for 0.5v increments? So if we change prog 12 = 47v, then i would also change prog 29 = 46.5v. So effectively, it will switch to grid and momentarily give you a low battery warning at 47v. Those are my thoughts so far... I've also looked at other inverter manufacturer settings and they to seem to set it at 47v. I know the cut off values do not work exactly the same as the Axpert but this is just a thought to stop switching to grid for no real reason, in my opinion. Below are other inverter manufacturer parameters that i have found thus far: Victron - https://www.victronenergy.com/live/battery_compatibility:pylontech_phantom Sofar Solar ME3000SP - http://www.homeswitch.co.uk/battery-storage-installation-guide SOLAX - http://www.nuvisionenergy.co.uk/index.php?route=pavblog/blog&id=101 These are for the older version of the Pylontech batteries, so i'd take these values with a pinch of salt Any comments?

@Coulomb How is the Beta testing going?

So will the Axpert still be able to apply the Dynamic current control on the Pylontech batteries if run in the "Simple" way ?

The Dynamic current control feature is pretty awesome but how does the Axpert and BMS communicate? Is it via the RS232 port? And if yes, I'm guessing that the BMS needs to support the Axpert inverter? I ask the above as the Pylontech lithiums don't mention any communication cable to be installed between the inverter and the battery...

Nicely done...your work is always appreciated and i certainly look forward in this development. Just a clarification... are Lithium Ferrous Phosphate and Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) the same type of battery?

After doing more and more reading on these Pylontech lithiums... a few questions came to mind. The Pylontech inverter setup manual that installers use has no mention of the LifePO4 firmware that needs to be installed on the Axpert... It just has the following settings that need to be set: 2 questions that i have: 1. Do we need to install the LifePO4 firmware? and if yes, are there any benefits? 2. What float voltage needs to be set?

Thanks for the response. Its clear that we should never pair only one of these units with an Axpert, I was looking at 2 initially and later expanding if required. I intend switching to Eskom during the peak evening periods then switching back to batteries after that. I'm still toying with the idea of lithium but it does seem to be the way to go from a longer term perspective. We also not sure when super capacitors will be available at a retail level.... So need something for the interim.

These Pylontech batteries look pretty decent and priced quite well... What i wanna know is, lets say you only get 1 of these bad boys, that's about 2.2kwh. Now pair that up with a 5kva\4kw Axpert... is my understanding correct when the battery specs says it can deliver 5kw for 1min, so in the 5kva\4kw Axpert, assuming you were to have a load of 4kw, then a single 2.2kwh battery will only give you roughly 1min 20 secs of power before shutting down?

That was very well articulated. Thank you!

One more thing.... i understand that the cables lengths per string must be equal up to the busbar... what about the cable between the busbar and the inverter? I'm guessing that it should also be equal?

Thanks, this is perfectly clear. I agree the 2 fuses do not add up to 250A as its a parallel setup. This was my thinking since the last post i made. I'll get the 100A fuse per string. I liked the Mersen as well as it served 2 purposes... fuse and disconnect Like this

Hmm...maybe i wasn't clear enough. I am following the guidelines from the document made available by @superdiy , thanks @superdiy I currently have a Mersen 125A Fused Battery disconnect between the inverter and the single bank. With my plans of adding another string, i want to follow the diagram below. When adding another string it recommends that you fuse (circled in green above) each string as per the snippet from the doc below. It is those fuses in question. I have the Axpert 5kva/4kw inverter. The max inverter current is 83.33A. My calculation as per above works out to 104A based on 2 strings. We don't get a 104A fuse, so we settle for a higher one that is available, 125A. So my understanding based on this info, the fuses i need to add to each string on the positive side should be 125A. What is confusing me is that it also mentions in the above paragraph that the fuse per string should be lower than the rating of the main battery fuse.... So if the calculation earlier works out to 125A per fuse, does this mean i need to get a higher rated fuse for the Mersen battery disconnect? So to protect the inverter its better to use the fast ones. I'll keep some spares in case it blows, then i don't need to use a blou draad to temporarily keep it connected. As for the busbars, i'll check the price first then decide if i'll opt for the earth bars or not. Just a question, where should the BMV shunt be placed on the diagram above? Between the Mersen and the negative busbar? Please comments on the above.

So i called ACDC Express.... they have these available. Fuse 24585-125A is R61 ex VAT Fuse UF24585-125A is R216 ex Vat (Ultra fast, not sure what it means in real terms?) Fuse Holder NL24585 - CT-00FB 1 Pole is R103 ex VAT... Pricing is not too bad... I'm guessing the Ultra Fast are the ones i need to get? What do the experts reckon? Then in terms of Busbars... would the below work?

So i'm gonna resurrect this thread I'm really struggling to find inline DC Fuses... I want to add another string to my battery bank and lots of info on this forum is recommending that i fuse each string. I'm looking for a wall mountable fuse holder that can take 2 fuses. Any recommendations on products or a place i can contact?

This is also how fake news come about... its quite sickening.