I would like to increase my battery storage but not sure how best to go about it. My existing setup is as follows.
Gen2 Hy5 inverter
9.5 battery
Just under 8kw of PV panels
Export limit of 6kw
G99
Would an all in one work with my setup? This is my preferred option as we often draw more load than the 3.6 discharge limit on the existing battery.
It might work, but take a look at this for supported configurations. I'm not sure how the export/home consumption limits work either - i.e. is it possible to limit the export of the AIO to the grid to keep within your current limit, whilst allowing for full export potential for home consumption
CW thank you for this. I am pretty sure my DNO would increase my export limit if needed. Would be nice to be able to discharge at full 6kw
RHardie Would be nice to be able to discharge at full 6kw
The inverter will limit the discharge amount. Adding a second battery won't increase the inverter capability.
Zakalwe Not if is were DC coupled but I think the OP is looking at adding an AIO to the set-up
Yes you can have your system and an AIO. Have a look at Speak to the Geek on YouTube.
RHardie
The “official” answer as the link above is you have to use HA to prevent cross charging with our variant which is AC plus 9.5kWh. But eventually on my previous enquiry with the help desk I was told it wasn’t supported. My potential installer was eventually also told not supported and only HA was viable to prevent cross charging.
Your hybrid +9.5 reads even more potential compatibility issues and they’re not even saying use Home Assistant for this.
It seems that they offered a new product without thinking about compatibility with the existing product range that customers have. Sadly.
RHardie If you just want more battery storage then the easiest and cheapest way is to add a second battery eg another 9.5 to your existing setup. You will as others have said be limited by your inverter charge/discharge rate so you’re still only going to get 3.6kW max discharge, but more storage.
For a faster discharge rate you could swap your inverter and battery for an AIO, but the second hand value of your kit wouldn’t be much.
Alternatively you can add an AIO or a second hybrid inverter but you will run the risk that they cross charge as the two inverters don’t know anything about each other.
There is an EMS box coming that will one day sit as a bridge across the multiple inverters, but I believe the first release is focussed on multiple AC coupled inverters, and multiple hybrids and hybrid+AIO is maybe down the line.
You can use Home Assistant to manage the cross charging, or just live with it. I have two Gen 1 hybrid inverters (so they are slower to respond than the Gen 2) and whilst I use HA, I don’t have to intervene on cross charging all that often. Both inverters share the house load so I get max 5.2kW discharge rate. What I do see overnight is one inverter will discharge to fill the other one up, and only when the first battery is empty does the second keep discharging.
Multiple hybrid inverters ARE supported, but not recommended by GivEnergy.
Thank you all for the replies. I’ll weigh up my options and decide which one to go for.