[RE-wrenches] sunny island and lithium
scot.arey at solarcentex.com
scot.arey at solarcentex.com
Tue Jul 15 08:46:30 PDT 2025
Lol - funny how we all have no problems kluging together systems for ourselves where we know the quirks. I'd never put in for paying customer what my Texas coastal duck camp has but the $0 price was right for older Outback equipment I had in the shop and adding distilled water to FLA batteries from time to time!
Howard "Scot" Arey
Owner, Solar CenTex
254-300-1228
________________________________
From: RE-wrenches <re-wrenches-bounces at lists.re-wrenches.org> on behalf of Lou Russo via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 15, 2025 10:38 AM
To: william at millersolar.com <william at millersolar.com>; RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org>
Cc: Lou Russo <lou at spreesolarsystems.com>
Subject: Re: [RE-wrenches] sunny island and lithium
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<mailto: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<http://www.millersolar.com>
On Tue, Jul 15, 2025 at 6:43 AM jay via RE-wrenches <re-wrenches at lists.re-wrenches.org<mailto: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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