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Hi All, I’ve had a 4kw solar system for 8 years now and benefiting from the feed in tariff in the UK. I recently took my first steps to making more of my solar power an built a DIY power diverter, using a Shelly EM to monitor when i’m exporting power and a shelly uni to control the settings on a PWM controller feeding my immersion heater. Really pleased with the result, but i’m now looking at the next step towards making the most of my solar power and that’s battery storage. Like i said i get FIT payments so any system would have to be AC coupled.
Option 1 – Buy a retrofit system:
While money isn’t the only factor here, it has to make some sort of sense. Purchasing an ac coupled system will probably never pay back.
Option 2 – Buy a retrofit AC coupled inverter/controller and build the battery and BMS myself
I’ve read and watched so much about DIY powerwalls and can see that DIY batteries can save huge amounts and seem straightforward enough, my problem is the control that goes around it.
The battery packs are the real cost right, so, why not buy something like the SOLAX X1 RETROFIT AC COUPLED BATTERY INVERTER and build the battery and BMS myself? I think all of the off the shelf controllers/inverters like this will only work with their own batteries. Is this right? Does this option exist with any manufacturer?
Option 3 – Full DIY
For all the videos i’ve watched about DIY powerwalls, 99% of the focus seems to be on the batteries, there doesn’t seem to be much about of AC coupled control equipment (maybe i’ve just been looking in the wrong places). I recently found “Mikes DIY Tesla Powerwall” and the Grid Tie Inverter with Power Limiter he’s using seems like it would fit the bill.
For charging, i have seen how you can use a solar charge controller (not an option for me). I’ve seen how to charge using the mains (i will do this in the winter months). What i haven’t seen is how i can charge from the mains but only using what would be exported. Has anyone done this? If so how?
Has anyone built a DIY AC coupled system? Or are there information sources out there already on this? Do options 2 and 3 both fall foul of building regs?
Any thoughts/experiences welcome. Thanks in advance
Option 1 – Buy a retrofit system:
While money isn’t the only factor here, it has to make some sort of sense. Purchasing an ac coupled system will probably never pay back.
Option 2 – Buy a retrofit AC coupled inverter/controller and build the battery and BMS myself
I’ve read and watched so much about DIY powerwalls and can see that DIY batteries can save huge amounts and seem straightforward enough, my problem is the control that goes around it.
The battery packs are the real cost right, so, why not buy something like the SOLAX X1 RETROFIT AC COUPLED BATTERY INVERTER and build the battery and BMS myself? I think all of the off the shelf controllers/inverters like this will only work with their own batteries. Is this right? Does this option exist with any manufacturer?
Option 3 – Full DIY
For all the videos i’ve watched about DIY powerwalls, 99% of the focus seems to be on the batteries, there doesn’t seem to be much about of AC coupled control equipment (maybe i’ve just been looking in the wrong places). I recently found “Mikes DIY Tesla Powerwall” and the Grid Tie Inverter with Power Limiter he’s using seems like it would fit the bill.
For charging, i have seen how you can use a solar charge controller (not an option for me). I’ve seen how to charge using the mains (i will do this in the winter months). What i haven’t seen is how i can charge from the mains but only using what would be exported. Has anyone done this? If so how?
Has anyone built a DIY AC coupled system? Or are there information sources out there already on this? Do options 2 and 3 both fall foul of building regs?
Any thoughts/experiences welcome. Thanks in advance
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