Single Phase 14.4kW Kodak Power Plant, 15.3kWh Lithium modular batteries & 10x Canadian Solar 545W Mono. 

Example of the Current & Load sharing from Grafana logging. Must admit Voltronics has really nailed when it comes to Parallel operations. 3 phase or Single phase, seemless. 

Very neat. 14kw plant should be enough to power everything with no worries about tripping.

Care to share the price? I'd say this makes so much sense for most residential installations. 

Yeah, this is to me the ultimate match for a family home with a single phase supply. Because you can draw 63A out of this system with comfort. No tripping & I don't know anyone who has everything on all at the same time. So this installation still has Astutes controlling the 2 geysers & this particular home has a small cottage that the main DB feeds to a sub DB. 

Having 15.3kWh Lithium battery bank also provides a big buffer especially even now in loadshedding. 

@BuyeyeI will PM you the pricing of such. 

13 hours ago, Steve87 said:

Single Phase 14.4kW Kodak Power Plant, 15.3kWh Lithium modular batteries & 10x Canadian Solar 545W Mono. 

Example of the Current & Load sharing from Grafana logging. Must admit Voltronics has really nailed when it comes to Parallel operations. 3 phase or Single phase, seemless. 

Stunning work as always Steve

Thanks @Leshen,@Buyeye

Looks incredibly neat

Where is the battery disconnect located?

How do you keep the sprag in place, it is just loose and cant move much as you cut it to the right size, or can one glue it with pvc glue?

Hi Lee, there are DC isolators located on each battery nicely hidden under the black top section of each battery. If by sprag you mean the trunking we use Fischer plugs & nail screws. This is a parallel battery test I was carrying out in my workshop. The BMS has an on switch & there are DC isolators for each 5.1kWh battery. These are housed securely inside the top of the battery for easy access. 

So these batteries come with a DC isolator built in? No need for a "master" isolator to disconnect the entire lot at once?

I saw on another forum a sparkie "scoffing" at people with batteries that have the isolators directly above them and they said that is not useful if a fire breaks out etc, so I have been paying attention to where the pros are installing their isolators.

The sprag is that flexible conduit stuff that I see used to link up the trunking to the inverter. I have been wondering what keeps it in place...

On 2022/10/10 at 9:16 AM, Lee2 said:

another forum a sparkie "scoffing" at people with batteries that have the isolators directly above them and they said that is not useful if a fire breaks out etc, so I have been paying attention to where the pros are installing their isolators.

Let's start by asking why would a fire break out? Also can an Isolator stop a fire? Lithium Iron Phosphate does not cause fires & having an isolator won't stop one that's for sure 😂😂

 

Further on the subject let's dig deeper: What is required? Is a Single pole Isolator that breaks either the negative or the positive pole acceptable? Is a DC 2 pole Isolator adequate? Can you have smaller isolators that match the total DC current value or must you have a massive isolator rated at 300A? 

Now this is were the juicy bits of answers lay...

@Steve87May I ask about your personal experience with these Livoltek Batteries,
Have you used them before, and as an installer, have you had long term monitoring at one of your installations to determine their performance/deterioration over time? 

@zsdeas an installer it's particularly important to install a monitoring device & to be able to have proven track records of a product. I washed my hands clean of another local supplier due to business ethics after I had a fault on a Battery unit. 

I turned to Livoltek more than a year ago & I have exposed the Livoltek to a whole host of different inverters mainly Voltronics family of inverters with great results. I have exposed them to all sorts of sites & user requirements & again I cannot say I have had any poor outcomes except one that had a faulty LED that was replaced without a question being raised. Out of +-30 units only 1 replacement unit. 

From my humble point of view, having the ability to connect directly to the BMS & establish Comms & then network this via Grafana has allowed me to keep a very close eye on realtime battery metrics & I haven't seen anything abnormal yet. The Cycle count is actually accurate not like the Seplos & some other BMSs. The BMS is really robust & I have exposed it to a short circuited damaged inverter that blew a stack of Pylontechs & it just protected itself very gracefully. 

I have taken the task to develop Voltronics Lib inverter Comms because it's my chosen Equipment. I have also communicated to the Livoltek Management the importance of integration with Sunsynk & Deye to which they have completed the task to get the integration study & testing done. The next shipped batches will have this box ticked. Their inverters work with their Batteries as well as Pylontechs. 

To answer your full question, the longest term specimen I have in service is a little over 15 months old & here are it's details along with a 15kWh pair in parallel & this is the info derived from the BMSs. So far it's been pure quality & a pleasure to deal with a company that backs the product & has a tangible local support & HQ deployed engineers from China here in SA. 

Your detailed response is really appreciated. Thank you.
It's great to hear that there are still suppliers left that stand out above the rest. Good to hear your first hand feedback.
Perhaps others will also benefit from your response 👍

16 hours ago, Steve87 said:

Let's start by asking why would a fire break out? Also can an Isolator stop a fire? Lithium Iron Phosphate does not cause fires & having an isolator won't stop one that's for sure 😂😂

 

I have no idea why a fire would break out, apart from no over current protection and under sized wires etc, I have seen some suggestion that batteries should be stored in a garage behind a fire door etc. implying they are somehow more hazardous than other items that are known hazards like portable gas heaters. Unless they spontaneously combust I don't know why they are considered more of a hazard than a linen cupboard. That is why I am asking around to see if there is any merit to their claims.

16 hours ago, Steve87 said:

Further on the subject let's dig deeper: What is required? Is a Single pole Isolator that breaks either the negative or the positive pole acceptable? Is a DC 2 pole Isolator adequate? Can you have smaller isolators that match the total DC current value or must you have a massive isolator rated at 300A? 

Now this is were the juicy bits of answers lay...

I would love to know why you need to fuse both conductors apart from SANS10142 stipulating that. I would assume as long as the circuit breaks somewhere if there is overcurrent it is fine. I also wonder why the advice is always fuse the positive if the electron flow theory of current is actually the correct flow, which would imply current actually flows from negative to positive.

Hi Steve, really very neat indeed, my compliments.

This might be off-topic but is any of your installations completely of grid without a grid connection at all, and if so, did you connect a generator for backup to a Kodak/axpert inverter?

Hi Bert, sorry I only see this message now. Yes I have an installation in Pretoria with such. What are your challenges?? 

Hi Steve.

I don't have a challenge yet because I didn't buy a generator yet, but it seems as if it is a challenge to get a Voltronic to accept the charge from a generator.

So what generator did you connect and what inverter is used?

Hi Bert, the inverter in question was an OG7.2 & I will try to get a snapshot of the Generator. It works well & the OG7.2 takes its power very well. It sees the Gene as the Grid, bypasses the power & even charges the batteries. Let me look for a pic of the Gene. 

Hi Bert it looked like this & it's output was 6.5kva same as these two. Looks to be a Chinese made machine that looks to be generic but rebranded. His was a Yellow one, he bought it on Gumtree so I can even tell you which retailer to get this from...

Hi Steve, thanks for the feedback.

In hindsight I should have started a new topic about this.

I had a look at this generator already before but what worried me is their own statement:

 This generator is not suitable for use as a backup to a solar inverter due to harmonic feedback. Learn More

https://mzansipower.co.za/product/6-5kva-1-phase-diesel-generator-bp6500s/

If you go to the "learn more" you get an article from Bundupower explaining the problematic harmonics between the inverter and generator, especially Voltronic and clones thereof inverters, also a list of inverters known to work and not to work.

But as you experienced the Kodak OG7.2 to work well my, Kodak OG10kw might/should also work? I send them an email to check this.

We are still connected to the grid and used this grid for only 7kw in total the last 5 months but obviously this will increase during the rainy season, the grid is still by far the cheapest and convenient backup at the moment as we currently don't pay a connection fee , but if they come with a ridiculous connection fee of R900 a month as rumored for the couple of kw's we use then I want to go off grid and need a generator for back-up.