[RE-wrenches] Grid tie with BB

[Rich Nicol]

Wrenches,

I'm have a mental block with battery backup systems such as the Outback
Radian. Perhaps someone can help me get over it!

Essentially these systems sell back power off the top of the battery bank
and the array is maintaining the state of charge of the battery bank through
traditional charge controllers. If you have a modest battery bank sized for
limited use on critical circuits and a good size array for the benefit of
net metering I would think it would be necessary to limit the current the
charge controllers are capable of delivering to the battery bank to prevent
damage to the batteries when the controllers are Bulking or Absorbing, but
then it would seem that we limiting the utility of the larger array. If the
current from the controllers was not limited they will self-limit as voltage
rises, plus I suppose they will mostly be in float mode except when the
batteries are cycled but again it seems that we are limiting the capability
of the array compared to a straight grid tied system with a traditional grid
tied only inverter.

An example would be a 8000 watt array using a couple of flexmax80
controllers with a string of 8 - L16 AGMs feeding a  Radian.

What am I missing here?

Thanks 

Rich

 

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