[RE-wrenches] Issues with HomeGrid

Bill Battagin frenergy at psln.com
Tue Feb 11 21:56:21 PST 2025 

Ray,

             Just finished a couple Midnite's Powerflo16's with a Rosie 
and Barcelona.  Two weeks now all seems to be working well, including 
closed loop with the Rosie and CC.  A few small hiccups during install 
mostly due to lack of experience with this equipment but tech support 
was (always has been) excellent.  If we can't trust Midnite with this 
new rollout of equipment, we're all going to hell in a hand basket.  
Fortuitous timing with Outback on the ropes.

RIP boB,

Bill

Feather River Solar Electric
Bill Battagin, owner
4291 Nelson St. (Shipping)
5575 Genesee Rd. (USPS, UPS)
Taylorsville, CA  95983
530-284-7849, 258-1641(cell)
CA. C10 Lic # 874049
Solar Powered since 1982
Home of the Sunny Side Up

On 2/11/2025 3:54 PM, Ray Walters via RE-wrenches wrote:
> I had a similar situation with Homegrid, where upon commissioning the 
> system wouldn't even work, because one battery was lower than the 
> others.  After doing the diagnostics (a 2nd trip) I got the system 
> operational minus a battery.  Then on a third trip, after buying a PC 
> lap top, and getting their special dongle, I went back, and had to sit 
> on site for 3 hours charging the one weak battery with the rest shut 
> off.  I didn't have to take it a part though.  It seems to be working 
> now, and this is a stand alone off grid, sitting in a field.
>
> Tech support was decent, I like that they have a built in heater, and 
> that its closer to actual 48 v nominal, (one less cell than others).  
> However, I have not speced any more since.
>
> To be fair, I've had trouble with most of the LiPO4 offerings so far.
> Simpliphi: complete 4 battery failure, customer out of commission for 
> 2 months.  Probably due to an XW over voltage.
>
> Fortress: shutdowns n the middle of the day at 100% SOC due to a 
> firmware issue.  Rotten meat in the freezer. Customer gave up and sold 
> the ranch.
>
> Homegrid: as stated
>
> EG4: complete failure of 2 battery system after a grid outage of 2 
> hours.  System down for months before getting replacements.
>
> Rubix: so far so good, but instructions not very clear. 24 v offering, 
> but no heater.
>
> Midnite Powerflo: I'm about to install 2 systems next week in Puerto 
> Rico, so we'll see.
>
> I'm still doing HUP lead acid for off grid, because I know what its 
> going to do.  LiPO4 is just not quite ready for off grid, until all 
> these manus can get their firmware together, get heating systems built 
> in, and get the price lower.
>
> Ray Walters
> Remote Solar
>
> On 2/11/2025 4:35 PM, Jason Szumlanski via RE-wrenches wrote:
>> Hi Wrenches,
>>
>> I am regretting some HomeGrid Stack'd off-grid installations right 
>> now. There is a major flaw in the way these function in an error 
>> state. For those of you that don't know, these 48V batteries are 
>> stacked with a single BMS on top, covering up to 8 batteries below. 
>> Each battery module has a circuit breaker and dip switches to 
>> identify the battery communication number and location in the stack. 
>> Each BMS can be paralleled to additional stacks with communication 
>> cabling.
>>
>> The issue is when one battery module goes into an error state. What 
>> will happen is that battery stack's BMS will recognize the error, and 
>> then shut down the whole stack. This cascades to the other stacks and 
>> the system shuts down - fails to deliver 48V at the output terminals 
>> on the BMS of any stack.
>>
>> That is annoying, but what's even more problematic is you can't just 
>> shut off the offending battery to bypass it. You need to physically 
>> change all of the dip switches to bypass it and then reprogram the 
>> BMS to re-recognize the new module count (after taking it out of 
>> parallel). This is all very time consuming and requires the inverter 
>> system to be shut down. Even if a battery is not in an error state, 
>> you can't just turn it off. The whole system goes haywire.
>> Once you have it bypassed, you can hook up a RS-232 cable (Mac users 
>> need not apply) and use their software to gather diagnostics. 
>> Customer service will then want to do additional diagnostics with the 
>> battery in the stock, but that is not reasonable in and off-grid 
>> system where uptime is critical. One of the faulty modules I am 
>> dealing with was diagnosed as one of 15 cells with low voltage. The 
>> "solution" is to take it out of the stack and charge it to 100% with 
>> an external charger.
>>
>> By the time I'm done with all of the diagnostic nonsense, I can 
>> almost pay for a new battery with the lost labor. Isn't the whole 
>> idea for this not to happen with balancing done automatically? It was 
>> suggested to me that it didn't get charged to 100% often enough, and 
>> that is why it happened. That isn't an acceptable reason for failure 
>> in an off-grid system.
>>
>> I hate to say this, but EG4 has a far better 5kWh solution in this 
>> respect. Each module has it's own BMS. When one fails, you can simply 
>> turn off the circuit breaker and everything else continues to work. 
>> In fact, a fault in one BMS doesn't take out the whole stack or 
>> stacks of battery modules.
>>
>> Back to HomeGrid. When this happens, in my mind this is an automatic 
>> RMA. They should be replacing these, no questions asked. Especially 
>> at almost twice the price of EG4. They actually want me to 
>> disassemble the case of the battery and charge it with an external 
>> charger (which I don't have) directly from the terminals that are 
>> internal to the battery case. Totally unacceptable. Whatever is 
>> inside that case is their problem in my opinion.
>>
>> I am not selling anymore HomeGrid until I get satisfactory resolution 
>> to these issues. EG4 isn't perfect, but I have actually had pretty 
>> good success installing some that I sold and quite a few that 
>> consumers purchased directly. And at almost half the price, it's 
>> easier to eat the cost of a battery here and there for customer 
>> satisfaction.
>>
>> Anyone have similar issues with HomeGrid?
>>
>> Jason Szumlanski
>> Florida Solar Design Group
>>
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