Do any members know if you can or have any members swapped an AC3 inverter for a HY5.0 inverter.
My current setup is 2 x 9.5kW batteries with 1 x AC3 inverter
Everything works great BUT we still import from the grid at times due to the inverters Max output of approx 3000w and us having a 10.5kW electric shower (I'm often able to run this at half power during summer months)
I initially thought of adding a 2nd AC3 inverter (I have a space on the wall directly below my current inverter) but recently noticed that I can pick up a Hybrid HY5.0 inverter for less than £500 quite easily and I'm assuming it would pretty much be a straight swap
I would only want the hybrid inverter to do the battery in & out converting and NOT any solar in converting as my solar arrays all have their own inverters (5 small arrays totalling 8.3kW).
Is it possible?
Does anyone see any major issues of doing this?
Does anyone have a better suggestion?
G
#2geoffreycoan
Graham_Harrison Presume your solution would be to move one of the batteries to the new 5kW hybrid inverter to increase the battery discharge rate?
One thing to highlight is that the headline ‘5kW’ is the solar DC to AC max conversion throughput, the battery discharge is limited to 2.6kW or 3.6kW depending on what gen hybrid inverter you get.
It would work but what you are likely to see periodically is the two inverters (your AC and the new hybrid) cross charging each other as the two inverters have no knowledge of each other and one sensing load will start discharging and the other seeing excess supply will start charging.
You’d have the same with two AC inverters. The CEMS device when it is eventually launched by GivEnergy is supposed to resolve this. I think the GE testing has been on multiple AC devices as the first release, the effectiveness of AC and hybrid (which is probably an edge case) could be further down the product priority list.
But there are other ways around this. You can use scripts in Home Assistant to manage this, or what I do (because I have two hybrid gen 1’s on the fast switch firmware and have this problem) is I set one of the inverters to pause charge overnight.
Whilst the import is undesirable you might want to look at the economics of this though. £500 for the inverter plus say £300 for the installation and recommissioning. You will increase your combined discharge rate by say 3kW, so saving 3 * 27p * (10/60) [10 minute shower] * number of showers/cooker loads
G
#3Graham_Harrison
geoffreycoan One thing to highlight is that the headline ‘5kW’ is the solar DC to AC max conversion throughput, the battery discharge is limited to 2.6kW or 3.6kW depending on what gen hybrid inverter you get.
Ah! I was thinking that the DC to AC of 5kW was converting from the batteries DC to mains AC and so was thinking of replacing my current AC3 with the HY5.0 (then keeping the AC3 as a spare) giving me an increase of 2kW.
What is the highest inverter output currently achievable using 1 inverter (battery to mains)
I was thinking of doing the installation myself, I didn't think anything would need recommissioning
G
#4geoffreycoan
Graham_Harrison What is the highest inverter output currently achievable using 1 inverter (battery to mains)
I was thinking of doing the installation myself, I didn't think anything would need recommissioning
If you add or remove inverters or batteries you’ll have to get the system recommissioned by a GivEnergy installer (or do the training yourself 😉) otherwise the portal won’t recognise the new kit and the warranty won’t be honoured.
For simple things like adding an extra battery I personally think this is too much of a lock-in by GE, but it is what we have
