[RE-wrenches] sunny island and lithium

[Lou Russo]

Aloha All,

My personal off-grid house system is a single SI 6048, 1 - Classic 150, 1 -
Classic 200, 1 - Kid, 1 - SB3000US (going through a old Trace Autoformer),
3 Discover 42-48-6650 Batteries, a Discover Link II and a Honda EU7000is
(no autostart as of yet). With closed loop comms functioning. We just got
this all working about 2 months ago.

It took me a bit to get it all working but now it functions beautifully.
SMA implementation of AC coupled with their own equipment works very well.
Though Discover is not a listed SMA "Compatible" battery, Discover does
support it and based on data from the Links II  (which is online via
Discover's MyLinkCloud website) charging is working well, with minimal cell
voltage imbalances.
I also got an old WebBox and 2 RS485 piggyback cards to get SMA Coms
(RS485) working well. Though this is not necessary in an off-grid install
for AC coupled to work, it is nice to have access to both inverters through
the WebBox, however bad the interface is. The AC coupled array is about
150ft away from the rest of the system.

I have never been a fan of AC coupled systems but this setup may change my
mind.

Next I need to get gen auto start tweaked and working well.

With all that said, I would probably not install this system for a client.
The lack of an affordable and simple online option from SMA and the general
inflexibility (and complex) programming of SMA inverter makes me hesitant
to sell and service this type of system.

Aloha,
Lou Russo
Spree Solar Systems LLC
C-34322



On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 4:46 AM William Miller via RE-wrenches <
re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:

> If the system is AC coupled I would suggest you dump the Sunny Islands
> immediately.
>
> We are soon going to wreck out 4 SIs and install 2 envy 12s. The SIs just
> would not work AC coupled to e-vault 18s.
>
>
> William Miller
> Miller Solar.com
> 805-438-5600
> www.millersolar.com
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 6:43 AM jay via RE-wrenches <
> re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org> wrote:
>
>> HI All,
>>
>> I might be inheriting a 12 yr old SI off grid system, that has a dying
>> Absolyte battery.
>>
>>
>> I know there have been some discussions on the SI and lithium.
>>
>> I’m just trying to understand what the options are with closed vs open
>> loop, basically can it be done.
>>
>> If I do get the project, I will happily pay someone who’s done all the
>> hard work for the education to tell me what the programming steps are.
>>
>> And at what point does it make sense to just remove the SI and install a
>> AIO?
>>
>> thanks in advance.
>>
>> jay
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