That same study supported the decision for Pylontech, but so different now few years later, when it actually failed.
If you’re considering a temporary solution, in other words, you anticipate that you will succeed in getting the pylontech units replaced (and really, it is a lot of money, it makes sense to chase it a bit), you could look at a Hubble battery. It’s a bit contentious, I’m sure many forumites are currently doing that sucking-air-through-the-teeth thing, but I know at least one prominent installer Eastern Cape side who has a couple of these running traffic lights. It is not the most high end battery, but could do the trick.
There is another battery we tend to forget about. LBSA. They’ve also grown up from a guy assembling them in his garage to full compatibility.
I am looking at an alternative solution of either Hubble AM-5 or Freedom Won e-tower batteries. I’m not sure if I will win with the pylontech battery issue.
Any recommendations for reliable places to buy your batteries from, to ensure one is not ripped off. Do not want to overpay, want to try buy them direct and get approved installer to set it up.
I bought from Solar and Inverter Warehouse.
Current price of an E-Tower is R14 600.00 which in my opinion is fantastic.
I wish I was able to buy all my batteries for this price.
The cheapest one I bought from them at the time was R22 500.00 and the most expensive one (bought elsewhere) was R36 000.00
I would not recommend Hubble or FW e-towers. BSL has very good support locally, and they rarely need it (mostly only the 125Ah variant that was problematic).
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Thanks for this info!
The battery manufacturers are only the assemblers of the battery but do not manufacture the cells. Isn’t this the most significant component?
The AM-5 is at least LFP. The AM-2 is the cheapie using NMC cells, which is best avoided. But since this is not temporary, forget I said that.
I agree with @_a_a_a that I’d take a BSL over a eTower. It is essentially the same battery (they both use a Pace BMS).
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Livstainable currently have a special on the BlueNova RacPower DU series for around R19k. This is their more premium battery designed for daily use. 10yr warranty and >7500 cycle life. Worth a look.
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Thanks, will do some homework on this.
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I have the Lithium SA batteries and they still going strong.