An Proto-Teach Éireannach

[Scruff]

I hada Eureka, I'm crediting the hive mind...you now when you hear an idea...not the same as when you have an idea...maybe I'm mad, sher what about it?

I've added a cooldown period to the genstart contact. It'll hold the genset on until the battery cools down (and that takes hours  )




There's not another front end you could use to manage all of these special snowflake conditions with that I know of. I heart Swiss hardware. I won't ever do another Li-Ion build unless it's a commission or there's a legitimate reason I ought to spend almost an order of magnitude more expense and time resolving the issues to achieve a relatively simple task.

We'll see if it works in a coupla weeks....after the new fans arrive...

[Scruff]

You know what it really needs?

Solar Freakin' Battery Coolers Bro! 

[Scruff]

sigh..



Just the LiFeP0Ooo cell before I factor the electronics heat:
I'm seeing ~10°C rise at C1 charge/discharge
Stabilisation at C3.5
and a passive cooldown of 2°C per hour.

Comparing cost appreciating that the same cost of lead is ~10x larger capacity.
I can charge lead faster.
I can discharge lead faster.
I can have equivalent efficency and service life.
I can use the lead in all weather; heating & cooling are not issues.
Lead is twice as heavy per kWh (before I weigh the BMS)

I built a 20kWh lead powerplant in 3 days.
WuPoG is going into her third year.

The Kinks - Dedicated Follower of Fashion, 1973
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqXrAHuLksU


 

[Scruff]

[clockmanFRA]

Good morning Scruff.

I put this document together, mostly from my Australian colleagues, i thought you might be interested.

It looks like the Double Glazing sales Reps are all piling in on the Solar Battery business area.

BUT the Costs of a system unit, for us small,  is mind baffling outrages expensive.


Renewable Electricity.    Batteries.

Batteries are a hot topic at present across the World. with allot of new tech coming on the market.

However, some are untested for long term use, the only tech that has some testing and non-commercial feedback, ie independent and paid out of their own pockets is LEAD ACID and LIFE/PO LI/ION types. The latter needing very precise charging regimes while Lead Acid is very forgiving.

Below is a list of Commercial Products presently available, (my thanks to 'wattmatters' for the below table) ,as you can see NO WONDER the double Glazing sales reps are jumping on this when you compare the costs.

March 2021.   You can have a look at the prices of most of the batteries currently available in Australia:
https://www.solarquotes.com.au/battery-storage/comparison-table/     Note, Prices below are Au Dollars.
"I've extracted the useable kWh rating and price and calculated the $/kWh in the table below.
The going rate, excluding installation, is around the $1,000/kWh mark. It varies as some come with built in inverters and some don't. But it is pretty much a universal price for commercially installed home batteries in Australia.
For those who have access to localised grants/rebates, then the install cost for them can be lower, but not always by the amount of the rebate as such schemes tend to inflate to local starting price of the product on offer.

Battery                                             $/kWh
ABB (Fimer) REACT 2 (4 kWh)             $2,195
ABB (Fimer) REACT 2 (8 kWh)             $1,799
ABB (Fimer) REACT 2 (12 kWh)             $1,667
Alpha-ESS Storion SMILE 5 – 5.5kWh     $1,644
Alpha-ESS Storion SMILE 5 -11kWh     $1,272
Alpha-ESS Storion SMILE 5 -16.5kWh     $1,044
Aoboet UHOME NCA                             $1,167
BYD B Box Pro 13.8                             $696
BYD Battery Box LVS 4 kWh             $1,065
BYD Battery Box LVS 8 kWh             $912
BYD Battery Box LVS 12 kWh             $866
Delta BX 6.0                                      $1,250
Dyness Powerbox                             $1,042
Enphase AC Battery                             $1,667
Eguana Evolve                                     $1,189
GenZ 48V 3kWh                                     $1,375
Growatt GBLI6531                             $750
Hansol AIO 10.8                                     $1,393
Hansol AIO 7.2                                     $1,782
Huawei Luna (5 kWh)                             $1,200
Huawei Luna (10 kWh)                     $850
Huawei Luna (15 kWh)                     $867
LG Chem RESU 6.5                             $898
LG Chem RESU 10                             $761
LG Chem RESU 13                             $685
LG Chem RESU HV 7                             $1,136
LG Chem RESU HV 10                     $994
Opal Storage                                     $1,026
PowerPlus Energy LiFe Premium Series     $1,345
Pylontech US2000B                             $925
QCells Q.HOME                                     $1,481
Redback SH5000 + BE13200             $1,513
RedEarth Sunrise 6.5kWh                     $1,851
RedEarth Sunrise 13kWh                     $1,363
Redflow Zcell                                     $1,260
Senec.HOME V3 Hybrid                     $1,556
SimpliPhi PHI3.4 Smart-Tech battery     $1,382
SolarWatt MyReserve Matrix              $833
SolaX Triple Power 4.5                      $691
SolaX Triple Power 6.3                      $705
Soltaro AIO2 5kW / 5kWh                     $1,553
Soltaro AIO2 5kW / 2 x 5kWh             $1,221
Soltaro AIO2 5kW / 3 x 5kWh             $1,110
Soltaro AIO2 5kW / 10kWh                     $1,221
Soltaro AIO2 5kW / 20kWh                     $1,055
Soltaro AIO2 5kW / 30kWh                     $1,000
Sonnenbatterie Eco 9.43                     $1,222
SunGrow SBP4K8                             $768
Tesla Powerwall 2                             $985
Trinabess Powercube                             $1,133
VARTA Pulse 6                                     $1,200
Zenaji Aeon                                     $1,554
.
AVERAGE                       $1,195 "  Au Dollar = 0.65e  = 776 Euros per kWh

Conclusion.
March 2021.  Lowest cost commercially available for ultra deep cycle/Golf cart type,   Lead acid batteries …………………   self install ……………. 57.6kW = 48off 100ah 12v = 4.800 euro.
=  48v x 1200ah = 57.6KW ………      4800/ 57.6  =  LEAD ACID ..... 84 euros per kWh.


Now Scruff, where in Europe can we buy NEW 1200ah 48v FORK LIFT battery packs from, and at a good cost?

  Hmm! put a OzInverter on and its AC Coupling abilities and we can save the Planet at a reasonable cost.

[Scruff]

I think cost is lost on the Irish.

When I offer someone a 300W solar panel for their camper for €100 instead of the 100W they wanted for €150 they complain mine is too big and they'd never use it.
People argue all the time that they'd rather something shyte and "affordable".
I can get 100A from an alternator with a cable...people want me to fit €500 30A current limited battery - battery chargers instead.

As regards the solar + battery industry in Éire I've had to leave forums on the futility of sensibility.
They won't entertain lead at all because it's "old" and big. I would call that proven and useful.
People don't want 60kWh when they can settle for 1kWh and a liberal helping of BS.

The fact of the matter remains that as long as every utility network planetwide is running demand over supply for clean power then the domestic battery has no place on the market other than a system efficiency reduction device.

Aside from having a battery for utility power backup & off-grid we ought to be exporting power onto the network because this is the most inexpensive thing to do with it and also the most beneficial.

For off-grid-tied mentalists like ourselves who would decide to have fingers in all the pies for technical reasons as opposed to financial merits I still maintain that the best thing to do with the battery is to not use it or use it only to buffer export. Which is to say to flatline export to basline consumption or the export threshold or whatever the system capability is. Instead of having diversion loads; export power. Say your maximum export is 3kW and you are producing more than this this is where a battery can step in and export/backfeed at a time of higher demand or lower generation.

For most we'd be better off designing systems that are solely spec-ed to meet power on demand, forget about the battery and spend the saving on insulation/water conservation/heat recovery etc....

As for cheap batteries CM inquire here.

[Scruff]

I'm over Li-Ion...I don't think I was ever really under it...I just wanted to see what the hype was about..

I just want to finish the silly lump and put a lid on the money pit it's turned into.

Meanwhile there's more productive things I can be doing. Like working with less expensive more capable systems.

I put in a few proposals as requested for passive solar hot water for Froya. I advised my clients against it in the end. €1.5k system before the plumbing and calorifiers already present....I advised a tankless propane water heater instead.

[Scruff]

I started on this beasty.



I was extracting the gas fridge to flog it to somebody naive and unsuspecting who'd want it. That quickly escalated to me deleting everything between the factory seats and the back doors.

I'm still going to finish the hovervan first but I'm not crawling under a chassis with grinders and welders until at least the official start of sandal season.

Here's how I bought the Vario.

Originally it was a library. It had a rough and ready conversion bodged inside.









3-way boat anchor (3-way fridge) setup to operate from mains only.




Sink installed for registration (log book change from commercial to camper) purposes




Mains installation. No 24volt..




Extending Step..not operational..



Wooden step above needs rebuilding


2kW Eber diesel air heater. All controls and wiring hacked and discarded.



That'll be handy for the recirculating shower methinks..
I have a 5kW hydronic in a box in storage for the heavy lifting.

It's mostly stripped to the ply lining now.

Steering needs tracking and probably 2 new tyres although I might get away with swapping some from the rear dualies.
Side marker lights need renewal.
Reversing Camera refurbish.
Replace wing mirrors (too vibratey and wide-angle missing on one side)
Delete double passenger seat and fit a single on a swivel.
Relocate air hand-brake lever and put driver seat on a swivel.
100k Mile service.
Reseal gearbox,
Weld in tow bar supporting mounts.
Extract windscreen, seal and treat aperture then reinstate glass.
Replace sliding door lower bearing.
Regap all hinged doors and recondition locks.
Full-length roof rack with awning + 1.5kW solar array.
Rebuild rear wheel arches and flooring.
Relocate Rear seats.
Upspec insulation and wiring.
Restore factory harness and remove janky bodge wiring.
Source and remove parasitic battery drain.
Rebuild spare wheel under-chassis carrier.
Underbody rattle and respray.
Replace tail light shrouds.


....after that I'll start the conversion...

[SparWeb]

What an undertaking!
I thought you already had a camper. 
Am I wrong or should I scan back through your last few postings?

[Scruff]

Haha

I forgot to mention I've to reinstate my C-pillar with an angle iron frame after my predecessor thought cutting a load bar for a window was kosher.



She's a T2 SparWeb 7.5ton GVM

I also have a T1 3.5ton GVM that is five years passed when any sane person woulda put a bullet in her. The chassis is dissolving. I've been practicing necromancy on it for two years now and the next tour will be her last.


...undertaking...
So er provisional spec..

2 - 3 berth.
20kWh > 50kWh of Lead Freakin' Acid Bro
Twin Alternators Paralleled tweaked regulators.
1.5kW of Solar DC Coupled TriStar MPPT, AC coupled through Xtender inverter.

Three-phase 3 x 3.5kVA or 12kVA single phase configurable.
300VA Onboard supply for low load conditions.
16A 230V Inlet grid tied and backfeed enableable.
16A 230V Outlet
32A  230V Outlet
16A(3) 230V Outlet

Electric Induction Hobs
24V 60L Fridge
Diesel hydronic space & water heating. 5kW.
40L Calorifier: hydronic coil, engine coolant coil, mains element and 24V solar diversion element.
Domestic Radiators on flexible hoses.
Diesel air heater redundancy 2kW.

Recirculating 2 gallon shower. Heat and water recovery with filtration.
Toilet.

Grey Water Tank 200L
Fresh Water Tank 200L
Solids Tank TBD

24V Lighting Dimmable, 2700°C, CRI >95


Trying to not have buthane/propane...TBD.
No Apps.
No Clouds.
No Voice Activation.


...this might take a while....Still haven't got a driving license for it because Covid. Not that that stops me.

[clockmanFRA]

Hi Scruff,

Thanks for that link to the Polish BATER Batteries.      I have known about that company for some time.   Interesting looking on the Satellite pics and street view.  There depot is a few packing units.  But the Manufacturing plant is interesting, but not sure who owns what. I have a Polish chap here that has a house in our village here in France that is a van courier for a Polish company so will have a chat with him to go look see, before any possible cash goes anywhere.

Do you know anybody that has those Polish made batteries, feedback is always good?

Its a big battle at present around the World regards the big utilities companies and the governments trying to balance CO2 emissions, green credentials etc.   But yes, if small domestic producers can self consume and send surplus back to their batteries and then feed in when necessary   ie, Micro Grids, then it would take the liability from the utilities having expensive idle generation constantly on standby... 

Lets see how the future spans out.

Scruff, i love looking at your pics/photos.   Sparweb, his original van is the Yellow one, i play spot the yellow Van.

 

[Scruff]

Billi from Navi, used them quite a bit.

I haven't but the price and spec sheet is impressive. Most of my lead is of the freecycled variety.
I have battery Voodoo down to; plug it into the hospital for a month or two if it's not rightways after that it goes back to the lead foundry. I recover most of what I rescue, obviously when energy density is an issue I splash out on new lead.

I think the biggest battle we face in RE is that profit is a terrible way to assess suitability.
If everyone spent the battery budget on solar instead there'd be lots less coal burning as a result (double solar & higher efficiency) and as a factor of producing less pointless rack mount token batteries....that don't work in powercuts.




...so i have this delay relay...but that's not solid state...I could make it solid state...hrmmm..NPN..rummage...blimey..Why do I have that still?!...oh yurp, need one of them too...booger now where'd I leave the key for that other thing.....

[Mary B]

The electronic parts drawer sidetrack... LOL been there done that just yesterday. Friends grandson popped his 100 amp car stereo fuse(he runs like 2kw of amplifiers, peak power not rms) so I was digging for one. He saw the nice shiny gold fuse holder and asked if he could have it(he will mow or till garden to pay me back for parts) so I dug down to it, handed it to him with a brand new fuse then noticed a kit for an SWR meter I need to assemble for my 6 meter amplifier... I was looking for that thing! Oh shiny whats this? Oh the RF relay I need for the 1.2ghz antennas... wait what was I looking for? LOL

I need to empty that drawer out and sort it again into the parts cabinets. It is a catch all for stuff I want off the workbench/desk.

And if anyone wants a good solid workbench this is the way to go. Pair of steel bench legs, a 6 foot by 3 foot piece of butcher block counter top, piece of 2x6 across the back for a stabilizer. Just put this together to add to a corner of my office. Needs a riser for test equipment/power supplies, needs high amperage 12 volt DC wiring for working on the RF stuff I fix...

Pardon the mess, it was called get a bunch of stuff off the floor time...

[Scruff]

I like the idea of a butcher's block bench alright. My litmus test of a good bench is does all the junk you pushed to the back vibrate and walk off it while you're whaling on a lump of metal with a 2kg lump hammer.

...most fail, believe it or not..

I think if i splash out on a bench it'll haveta be steel plate so it can stand up to the abuse, act as a ground plane and add some fireproofing.
I've been igniting my wooden work benches with the welder lately.

I copper-coated a corner of one,



with the leftovers of my wheelbarrow restoration.

[Scruff]

Truck / 7.5ton van...if you folks are calling 2wd pick-up utility vehicles trucks then I'm calling a 7.5ton van a truck too!



Absorption fridge delete successful. 
Already sold and gone...

[Scruff]

WuPog state of affairs.

Might as well take a moment to acknowledge the fallen.
xpensive habit, killing inverters...



That's the shell of the latest fallen.
Boards are en-route to the homeland for autopsy.
It's a case and a transformer.



LHS is a Studer 6kVA XTH Xtender, I bought it defective and fixed it until it was broken.
RHS Low Apprenticevolt Crass Combi 2.4kVA (derated*): Charger & transfer relay not operational, can't seem to last longer than a 20-30 hours on my test bench. Had a motherboard transplant after blowing the H-bridge first time out. Mastervolt spent 4 months "fixing" it and sent it back manhandled, bent, battered and cross-threaded. Their warranty means you have to ship it to your seller (Spain for me) then they ship it to diagnostics (Scandinavia) then to parts (Holland) then to the original seller (Spain) then to user (Ireland)...so efficient..

The trinket on top is an ApprentiveVolt Soladin GTI. It's working but has a high parasitic load at idle, the cooling circuit is hacked for better performance but I've still derated it to 550W which is as much as it will push.

I'd another Studer XPC 2200 I turned into a charger only, that never came back from the A&E, I XO'd turning off the life support.

[Scruff]

I have a plan to eventually install PWM (not filthy harmonic generating TRIAC) hot water diversion control on my PV.
The problem is the controllers are very expensive, my array is too small for the added load to have significant input and utility power is so very inexpensive.

Even factoring a second-hand controller I'm expecting to pay about €200 to install such a setup ex-labour. Assuming that can meet all my Summer hot water requirements (which it won't) that's equivalent to 415 hours of running the existing system from utility...so maybe 3 years payback (glossing over another 2kW required on the roof to drive it and a hot feed central "tankless" post-heater to make it reliable).

Were I to buy a new Eddi thing it'd be double to triple that payback given that that controller is megabucks...Diversion controllers have exceedingly hard lives by power electronic device standards, I think expecting it to survive a decade is ambitious.

In the meantime, while I wait for something to pop up for the right price, this I forgot to turn it off the 3kW water heater thing is very annoying. Especially for the agro. it generates in a household.

The whole system is a farce. I've usually got two cold taps in the house because it's too expensive to feed the losses in the water heating system. The taps aren't mixing because that'd be sensible. The water tank has no feedback so you know it's about the right temperature after it's been bubbling for 30mins. The controls are manual latching letting the human be the automation...and frankly, that's just ridiculously unreliable.
So rather than respond to statements like "You left the immersion on again" with comments like "That whole system is a joke! Stop killing the messenger and sort out the root issue!"...I installed one of these...technically that's a light switch...a 16A light switch...



Seems like every new contrivance I'm designing these days is delay relay based.

It'll pay for itself after offsetting me forgetting to turn off the element for 3 days continuously on high.
Not hearing "Did you leave the immersion on?" ..priceless.

Much like I stopped the leaving the 50w led lights on during the day admonishings with a 2500Wp solar array.
Now they're art.

Is it green? Meh...

[Scruff]

Understatement of the feckin' year.

[DamonHD]

But for all that you don't like the price of the Eddi, do you have a view on its engineering and likely lifetime?

I'm moderately likely to go ahead and try one to see how well Eddi+Sunmap work as a combi technically, and for usability by the rest of  the family.

Rgds

Damon

[Scruff]

I just don't like the Eddi because it's trendy, feature poor and expensive.
I missed an immersun went for £90 thuther week. I reckon if I got one of those in half decent shape I could bolster the power traces, change the FET thermal grease & improve the cooling then I oughta get at least 5 years outta one. Especially seeing as my max input is 1700W minus base load at the moment.

I can't speak to the Eddi's build quality, I haven't opened one. I'm not hearing of them fail much but the immersuns took 4 years to start dropping.
It's a newish product anyway so most out there are probably warrantied and people tend to not mention when those go down as much.

[DamonHD]

I liked the look of the Eddi when I was researching diverters because from my POV it seemed to be feature rich, and indeed the only one likely to play nicely alongside my Enphase battery.

Including the ability to control two loads (eg DHW divert then space-heat thermal store), override settings dynamically (eg from my central RPi in response to carbon intensity, etc) and poll throughput to the controlled loads to monitor what energy goes where.

Also the UX looked as if my family would be able to operate it manually if I or my RPi were incapacitated, especially important if I ditch gas entirely!

Also, their tech support and CTO were responsive by email and in their forums, even knowing that I wasn't a customer.

Rgds

Damon

[Scruff]

  I just RTFM'd.

Okay it's got two sequential outputs that's better than what I thought it had which was one.

The Immersun has two sequential and a relay.

I don't especially care about clouds and pis and things. I just want it to work and be reliable.
half a kiloEuro price tag? How long will it take you to use 3MW of solar power heating water?

If it's setup to sense export it ought to play equally well with or without a battery.

[Mary B]

Gas is so much better for heating water... that said I am currently using electric. Next time this tank fails I am swapping to gas. I have looked at on demand and none have enough temp rise for a MN winter unless I pay through the nose for a top end product. I January my water temp was 46 degrees... by mid summer 56... I like a HOT shower, not tepid/cold.

[DamonHD]

half a kiloEuro price tag? How long will it take you to use 3MW of solar power heating water?

If it's setup to sense export it ought to play equally well with or without a battery.

We use ~1MWh of DHW per year total: I expect to get maybe 50% covered by diversion, maybe the rest will follow.  And 2MWh/y of space heat, if I remove gas entirely from the premises.

There is no guarantee that a battery system won't fight with a diverter over which gets how much power.  The Eddi has a settable spill to grid before stepping in, which I think will be enough.

Rgds

Damon

[Scruff]

Indeed gas is better at heating water because it's half the price of lecky and lecky is often gas, that was made heat. then steam, then mechanical force, then a magnetic field, then lecky, then transported 100s of kilometers through various transformers, then heat.

These are an interesting unit Mary B. They take a hot feed so you can send tepid solar water to the input and get a regulated fixed point output. Ideal for solar applications where reliability takes precedence.

I think they do 115V penny farthingheight versions for the two-phase copper fanciers amongst us.

Blimey Damon MegaWattYears! I almost don't wanna add up my consumption to see where I'm at.
So assuming 1MWY = 83.3kWh per month, 3kWh per day...ok pretty low actually..ouchies...I bet I use more...
Solar being useful ~7 months a year our latitude.  So you'd be looking at in and around your 50% offset with a 1kWp abundance of PV over your baseload requirements. Which is entirely reasonable and means it's there for surge intermediate loads too.
That's all fairly reasonable on the back of my cigarette packet but I'd rather the same functionality from a €200 device than a €500.

As regards the battery and the diverter squabbling over watts...does it matter? We're dealing with kiloWatts and your battery would be better cycling the middle of it's SOC rather than the upper portion.
The immersun has the same settable threshold adjustment.

I fancy no gas in my Truck because that's hard but tidy and I already have liquid dinos in a tank. 3 fuels onboard is not necessary (may eat those words...most likely), my Mk-1 camper has 4 fuels...

[mab]

Don't know much about the Eddi, but I have had a couple of immersuns in for repair: one was a failed cap which caused the varistor overvoltage protection cct to self destruct, the other - still testing to see if it's actually fixed - seems to have suffered an insulation failure in the 0.5va transformer* that supplied the IGBT gate drive ccts -leading to the destruction of the IGBT's and some of the gate drive components.

* seemed to be a design flaw in the earlier version:- using a single 0.5va transformer with 2*15v outputs to supply the low and high side gate drives; the transformer uses a split bobbin to isolate primary from secondaries, but the two secondaries are on the same side of the bobbin and running up to 264v ac between them is asking a lot of the insulation layer. The other immersun (a later one) has two 0.5va transformers on a little sub-PCB to give two - properly isolated - gate drive psu's. I suggest if you buy a 2nd hand immersun get the later version or mod it with two trannies: the later one i've got is V3.08.2 manuf 19/5/15; the earlier one is V2.50.2 manuf 5/9/14.

I'm having some issues during testing as the immersuns don't seem to like my SMA 4000tl GTI - at least not in common with my Powerjack inverter - and at ~700w backfeed tends to send the immersun (either of them) into oscillation. Seem to work OK with the sunnyboy 1200 but then I've only had that running ~400w (hydro running flat out).

the immersuns min export can be set from 0 to 4kw in 50w steps IIRC.

Just another observation: The immersuns have quite a lot of a.c. capacitance in them - not surprising as it's sort of an a.c. buck converter - so at idle (i.e. all night) it's drawing ~0.5A @230v at near zero power factor - about 1.5w but does make the inverter consumption increase noticeably - i can only assume the eddi would be similar?

[Scruff]

Very interesting Mab, cheers.

The spares repairs immersuns I've seen fail were scorched traces at the input and output terminal blocks, sometimes totally fried or what looked like overworked under-cooled power transistors.

I'm banking on running 50% duty on them and improving the cooling and current-carrying to get my money's worth. They're still selling for a pretty penny though. Used to be a steady flow of refurbed units on Eblague.
Used to be a steady flow of broken Victrons too for that matter, I think Victron started buying them to hide them..I doubt they got more reliable.

Hrmmm I despair at high baseloads. My camper idles at less than 0.5W. My house is about 200W. ...you oughta see some theatres.
I found myself designing a circuit today with an added €50 of switchgear and enclosures to mitigate a 3W perma-load*...it didn't make the cut...I've a better idea, it's called the anti-islanding double banger....


*I'm totally aware I argue viability and then ignore my own advice and go for technical merit and super efficient to the point of beyond economic sense...

[Scruff]

I'm having some issues during testing as the immersuns don't seem to like my SMA 4000tl GTI - at least not in common with my Powerjack inverter - and at ~700w backfeed tends to send the immersun (either of them) into oscillation. Seem to work OK with the sunnyboy 1200 but then I've only had that running ~400w (hydro running flat out).

I wonder if that's an issue with hf switching. The old sunny boy withthe mahuasif traffo and a running hydro turnip would stabilise the frequency immensely.

Try running a single phase motor no-load and see if they play nice...just a hunch...

[Mary B]

Indeed gas is better at heating water because it's half the price of lecky and lecky is often gas, that was made heat. then steam, then mechanical force, then a magnetic field, then lecky, then transported 100s of kilometers through various transformers, then heat.

These are an interesting unit Mary B. They take a hot feed so you can send tepid solar water to the input and get a regulated fixed point output. Ideal for solar applications where reliability takes precedence.

I think they do 115V penny farthingheight versions for the two-phase copper fanciers amongst us.

Blimey Damon MegaWattYears! I almost don't wanna add up my consumption to see where I'm at.
So assuming 1MWY = 83.3kWh per month, 3kWh per day...ok pretty low actually..ouchies...I bet I use more...
Solar being useful ~7 months a year our latitude.  So you'd be looking at in and around your 50% offset with a 1kWp abundance of PV over your baseload requirements. Which is entirely reasonable and means it's there for surge intermediate loads too.
That's all fairly reasonable on the back of my cigarette packet but I'd rather the same functionality from a €200 device than a €500.

As regards the battery and the diverter squabbling over watts...does it matter? We're dealing with kiloWatts and your battery would be better cycling the middle of it's SOC rather than the upper portion.
The immersun has the same settable threshold adjustment.

I fancy no gas in my Truck because that's hard but tidy and I already have liquid dinos in a tank. 3 fuels onboard is not necessary (may eat those words...most likely), my Mk-1 camper has 4 fuels...

Look to be the typical on demand electric water heater. I am not currently doing solar hot water, in MN it is a seasonal thing, winter output is very little with only 2-3 hours of peak sun a day and 3-4 hours off peak(steep angle) to your solar heater. The soft water part kills it for here, I have very hard water, 455 for the number they use on the water report(I brew beer, I needed to know what was in my water!) so on demand really isn't an option unless I install a softener and they waste a lot of very expensive water, my water comes in via pipeline from wells 70 miles away in the opposite end of the county.

[Scruff]

No it's a hot feed unit meaning it only heats the delta between the input and the load. So it can be a thru pass solar hot water or a boosting unit or a stand-alone. Most On-demand heaters regulate temperature with flow and will sh1t the bed if you attempt to give them a preheated feed.

PV is seasonal here too 5 months a year we burn dino fossils that heat the water as a by product. When I was growing up the hot taps worked in November to January only, that's standard in Ireland.

I may have underestimated the capability of a 2.5kW array. I elected to be a diversion controller today and put 7kWh in the hot water tank I would have otherwise donated to the network..

I rearranged the consumer unit. The police will be along to apprehend me shortly.
I elected to isolate the workshop on it's own RCBO so when I trip the supply I don't take out the entire house and Mrs Scruff's beloved Macinposh and ethereal intellectual property residing in the RAM...because that doesn' half cheer her up no end...not that I trip the house often at all...ahem....err..



Not a regulation by the way. Outbuildings require no protection at the supply just at the outbuilding itself so you can legitimately suicide with a mini-digger if ya want.
Lighting circuits also don't require RCDs by regulation but I put one in too because metal switches.

I'm gonna stop buying Hager...they're just a bit too Victron for me. First issue was nuisance tripping WuPoG Output, swapping to Schneider fixt that. That Workshop RCBO won't accept 10mm² ferruled cable...ok it's a 20A RCBO...but the input is unbridled...ya know..?!...or do you?

[Scruff]

Introducing the Anti-Islanding Bang Banger²

It's an Xtender AC coupling controller.
I'm using the grid as my dump load and there's no anti-islanding on these machines because that's a decision that ought to be in the hands of the installer thank you Studer (I mean it)!



It's using the "genstart" 12v aux relay and



The Xtender maintains the 12v coil while theres a phase on the input (PowerCons) the grid tied inverter is also wired through the relay and plugged into the 13A sockets backfeeding the inverter output via the 16A ceeform. If my dump load eff's off then the GTI is shut down too so my battery doesn't ignite.


  How dya start it if it's only on when there's mains??! so.
Prize for anyone who guessed!





































Test Lever! 

That's also where I hide the earth lift switch in other applications. 



It's also a solo banger so I can make the GTI anti-island on voltage thresholds too.

Top tip when making devices never use the same connectors for two different things....you can tell yourself it won't ever happen but it will...humans...not reliable..
You can plug Xtenders and Crass Combis into themselves and not brick them by the way...it usually takes out the RCD though....er.....my mate told me....

I could claim some clever reason for mixing PowerCon True and PowerCon like nobody else has one so it won't get robbed, or plugged in the wrong way, or the female TrueCon is cheaper than the male TrueCon while the male PowerCon is cheaper than the female PowerCon, or TrueCon is disconnect rated and more expensive but you only need to disconnect one end...pick any you want....er...it's not that they were the last two complete panel mount sets I had lying around.

...you know that thing where your invention does this quirrk or anomaly that's outside of design parameters but it's accidentally beneficial or useful....I call those features.
....like that "test lever" I spent hours trying to figure out how to make work without needing an inverter remote control unit on site..

[Scruff]

Anti-Islanding Bang Banger² Evo.



The secondary mains circuit now has Normal Closed and Normal Open throughputs.

NO is for GTIs for anti-islanding

As a piece of testgear:

NC is for Inverter to dump load
NO is so mains is powering charger 100% and not the dumpload in thru mode on genstart threshold.

WuPoG is now automated: charger - inverter 0% - 100% - 0%cycle testing @ 100% duty to watch the thermal stability...er...100% duty after the special snowflake gets up to a happy operating temperature to deliver the C-rates I was promised by the marketing without harming themselves that is....

[Scruff]

Test - adjust - poke - observe - compensate - sniff sniff - poke....arah lets kick off about this again...

So this mega-bucks-expensomatic FLIR thermal imagining camera....I've been noticing it's always pancaked, and did some digging...they've embedded a parasitic load into the device in fact all of their devices.

Let's recap:

Device (FLIR C2) costs the same as a Fluke 87V, an industry-leading piece of professional testgear.
Device has a "non-replaceable battery"
In order to change the battery you are advised by the manufacturer to return it to the manufacturer.
Device has an embedded parasitic load that pancakes the non-replaceable battery in days.
Device has low voltage battery protection meaning it won't charge a pancaked battery nor operate from one.
Device does not have low voltage discharge protection meaning it will drain the battery below it's charger cutout threshold.
Device while having a USB port only operates from battery and cannot be externally powered.



Here's how you jump-start a Flir C2. Notice the last battery I had in there didn't have time to make it to the bin before it bricked it's successor...



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SPARWEB:  Had to put my Moderator hat on. Much as I get the joke and the sentiment, we can't publish that.  I tried to come up with a replacement that captures all the "nuances" of your original.