Upgrade battery or add pannels..?

[Rasi]

Good day

I have 4x 100ah gel batteries. I bought them in 2022 May. They are running of a 5kw Kodac invertor with 3 x 455W Canadian Solar pannels. 

I am looking into the option of upgrading my battery to a 5kw Lithium battery.  Will there be any immediate benefit in terms of the battery storage or should i rather add more pannels.

My current system lasts us through loadshedding without any problems.  Thanks in advance.

[jumper]

The immediate benefit would be 4x more storage as with lead acid you should do 20%DOD, but with lithium you can do 80-90%DOD.

Just be sure to get a battery that can handle 1C or your inverter will cause the BMS to trip when running heavy loads.

If your system lasts fine during load shedding and the batteries aren't being discharged too low, then panels might be a better investment to reduce your electricity bill and put those savings into a battery when the lead acids die.

[GMAC]

For me lithium was the best move I ever made from gel more solar panels can come later.

 Gels after 3 years can't take much load any more but still could hold a few hours  but I was not willing to wait for them to die as  solar only works in the day at night batterys has to take all the load. 

So for me best move was to go for lithium ,  Next year I will look at more PV panels 

[Eurard]

Absolutely LFP first, without a doubt, and as big as you can go within spendable budget. I had same gels and it is night and day difference.

Myself consume 10kw a day and want to have at least 20kw batts, halfway now.

Then expand solar again.

Edited May 26, 2023 by Eurard

[SolarDIY]

I would advise battery first and solar later. I went through the same process and went with lithium first. You will discover the huge difference.

[GreenFields]

Other way of looking at it. No doubt lithium batteries are superior, but if the immediate loadshedding needs are met, maybe just wait until the batteries finally need to be replaced before upgrading.

In the meantime, buy more of the same panels while they are still available on the market. Increase the available solar, and shift any available loads to the day, eg geysers, etc. Use the savings in electricity towards the batteries later.

[AndrewJdc]

Solar panel prices dropped significantly so could benefit in that regard.  As loadshedding gets worse, scramble for panels will again be experienced as seen in Dec22/Jan 23.  Therefore, prices will increase once again.  

Also, China polysilicon prices have seen dramatic downslides in the past 3 months.  However, this started to steady.  I suspect it will be an upward trend in the short to medium term. 

[Scorp007]

Interesting to see how most of us would go for lithium battery 1st. With the limited ability of the 3 panels that can provide only about 6kWh a day a new lithium of 5kWh will have to be charged from grid also. It thus leaves very little PV to drive loads. 

I will also keep the lead acids if they still supply enough power for LS cycles. Just stick to a maximum of 50% discharge. 

My call thus take advantage of the over 25% drop in panel prices. 

I have to be different