[RE-wrenches] sol ark battery

Wed Oct 9 16:38:22 PDT 2024

Jay,

I should mention I have a couple of customers with big EG4 LifePower
battery banks (i.e. 120kWh+, 80kWh, etc) and Sol-Arks. The clients
purchased the batteries directly, so I didn't have a choice. I will say
that the systems are performing flawlessly, but forget about closed loop
comms and SOC management. Everything is voltage based, which is suboptimal.
But we're making it work. The Sol-Ark app still reports their version of
SOC, which is handy for clients, but charge setpoints are done with
voltage.

Signature Solar has provided pretty good support, but I didn't need much
help.

I strongly suggest the Communication Hub to get SOC data from the battery
BMSs. It's pretty handy and very easy to install.

With that said, I don't sell EG4 and don't necessarily recommend it, but to
be fair, I haven't had any problems and the capacity claims seem
legitimate. The value proposition can't be ignored.

Jason Szumlanski
Florida Solar Design Group

On Wed, Oct 9, 2024, 7:29 PM jay <jay.peltz at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thats all super helpful, appreciate the advice everyone.
>
> I’ve not used the sol ark 15 and just wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing
> anything about battery options.
>
> And specifically the ones that don’t seem to play well.
>
> Jay
>
>
>
>
>
> On Oct 9, 2024, at 2:56 PM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
> HomeGrid works great with Sol-Ark. Closed loop comms reports battery SOC
> from BMS. Parallel stacks install easily. Customer support is competent and
> patient, in my experience.
>
> The best part is the ability to easily add batteries. On Sunday I had a
> client with two stacks of five batteries each call me in a panic ahead of
> Hurricane Milton. He wanted more capacity. We had them in stock. On Monday
> my team added three batteries to each stack on the fly since we couldn't do
> a roof install that day due to rain. We had it done in about 2 hours, and
> that included moving the stacks due to a height conflict with a piece of
> equipment.
>
> And now, 48 hours later, I'm looking out my home office window at the
> trees bent over. A tornado passed close by a few hours ago, debris pelting
> my windows, and a neighbor lost their lanai ceiling. Too close for comfort!
> But I have power, at least. :)
>
> Wish us luck.
>
> Jason Szumlanski
> Principal Solar Designer | Florida Solar Design Group
> NABCEP Certified Solar Professional (PVIP)
> Florida State Certified Solar Contractor CVC56956
> Florida Certified Electrical Contractor EC13013208
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 9, 2024 at 4:44 PM MDElectricSolar via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> We’ve been installing the Tesla power wall 3 and have had zero issues, a
>> very robust product, downside is no generator support.
>>
>> Michael D Nelson
>> MD Electric & Solar, Inc.
>> 707-684-0064 mobile
>> 707-884-1862 office
>> www.mdelectricsolar.com
>> www.facebook.com/mdelectricandsolar
>>
>>
>> On Oct 9, 2024, at 1:24 PM, Dana Orzel via RE-wrenches <
>> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>>
>> 
>>
>> 2 – Homegrid both required quite a bit of programming assistance not
>> everyone who answered the phone was knowledgeable enough to get the fixes
>> installed.
>>
>> 2 – Pytes fired up fine no issues.
>>
>> 2 – Solar Edge both required assistance, quick & simple fixes with Tech
>> staff.
>>
>>
>>
>> I have a client who has started off with “I want Tesla batteries” how has
>> Tesla batteries faired on installation?
>>
>>
>>
>> _________________________________________________________
>>
>> Dana Orzel                GREAT SOLAR WORKS!
>>
>> C – 208.721.7003      E – dana at solarwork.com
>>
>> W - www. greatsolarworks.com     www.solarwork.com
>>
>> *“Responsible Technologies for Responsible People since 1988!”*
>>
>>
>> <mime-attachment>
>> _______________________________________________
>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>>
>> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>>
>> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>
>> Change listserver email address & settings:
>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the
>> other:
>> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>> List rules & etiquette:
>> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>>
>> Check out or update participant bios:
>> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>>
>> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>>
>> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>>
>> Change listserver email address & settings:
>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the
>> other:
>> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
>> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>>
>> List rules & etiquette:
>> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>>
>> Check out or update participant bios:
>> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>>
>> _______________________________________________
> List sponsored by Redwood Alliance
>
> Pay optional member dues here: http://re-wrenches.org
>
> List Address: RE-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org
>
> Change listserver email address & settings:
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/options.cgi/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> There are two list archives for searching. When one doesn't work, try the
> other:
> https://www.mail-archive.com/re-wrenches@lists.re-wrenches.org/
> http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org
>
> List rules & etiquette:
> http://www.re-wrenches.org/etiquette.htm
>
> Check out or update participant bios:
> http://www.members.re-wrenches.org
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.re-wrenches.org/pipermail/re-wrenches-re-wrenches.org/attachments/20241009/eb4a5706/attachment.htm>