Tag11 Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Good morning, What's the consensus on mixing battery brands/models on an existing installation? I want to upgrade my storage, but once committed to a specific brand/model, am I obligated to stick with the same units, even if more efficient options are now available? Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalahari Meerkat Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 3 minutes ago, Tag11 said: I want to upgrade my storage, but once committed to a specific brand/model, am I obligated to stick with the same units, even if more efficient options are now available? You can mix, however for Lithium type batteries, you would have to stick to the same chemistry, thus if you have LiFePO4 based batteries, then that would have to be the same for the new batter(y/ies), also the amount of cells need to be the same, thus if you have a 15S (15 series cell) LiFePO4 battery, 48Volt nominal, then the new ones also need to be the same and if its 16S LiFePO4 batteries, 51.2Volt nominal, again, you need to stick to what you have chemistry and series cell count wise. If you are using BMS comms to your inverter, the different brands may not happily co-exist from that perspective, but that should not be a problem, charging and discharging they will track each other fairly closely, I for instance have a 8k2Wh 16S LiFePO4 battery which talks to my inverter, I have added a 16S 300-odd Ah LiFePO4 battery without comms from its JK BMS, but it all works well, the 300Ah is usually within less than 5% of the SoC of the smaller battery. zsde 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tag11 Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 Thanks... so if I have 2x Shoto 5.12kWh 16S batteries, can I install a 10.34kWh Volta Stage 3 battery to the mix? they're both 51.2V, but they have different Ah Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalahari Meerkat Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 (edited) 22 minutes ago, Tag11 said: Thanks... so if I have 2x Shoto 5.12kWh 16S batteries, can I install a 10.34kWh Volta Stage 3 battery to the mix? they're both 51.2V, but they have different Ah As long as the Volta is also 16S, then that should be no problem, the comms may not work, in which case just let either the Shotos do the talking, or the Volta, but different capacities is no problem, the charge and discharge power will be split 25% each for each of the Shotos and 50% for the Volta, give or take a percent or two either way. So in effect the power will be spread over the 3 batteries roughly evenly based on the power capability. Edited February 29 by Kalahari Meerkat spelling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tag11 Posted February 29 Author Share Posted February 29 Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vrystaat Posted February 29 Share Posted February 29 Hi If the different batteries have different c rating's, would that make any difference? Cheers Sean Unity 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalahari Meerkat Posted March 1 Share Posted March 1 20 hours ago, vrystaat said: If the different batteries have different c rating's, would that make any difference? Does not matter, I'd think, since presumable the existing one could supply 1C to the inverter, now they would be C2 or 0.5C and the new battery being twice the size of each of the two existing ones would then sit at C4 or 0.25C thus really idling along... and I doubt its specs would only be 0.25C... zsde 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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