I recently moved into a house with 3 x 5kw Luxpowertek and 3 x Hubble AM2 5kwh batteries, the installer set the inverter to lead acid, I managed to get the firmware updated on the inverters and set it to lithium but think the damage has been done as the batteries with a ±1000w load drain at around 15% per hour.
I was thinking of just replacing the Hubble’s with Freedom Won 5kwh batteries as these seem to have a very good name in the industry and are well priced now at around R15K per battery but I really don’t like these Luxpowertek inverters.
I love Victron but the problem with them is that the system is modular which makes it expensive, if I ran 3 x 5KVA Multi’s the inverters would set me back around R40K but then with the extra MMPT’s, Cervo I’d be close to R55K and then only have a 12kw system.
I’ve seen that I can get a Deye / Sunsynk 20kw inverter for around R45K so do think this would be the better way to go, the current setup charges my batteries to 100% by around 12:30 each day so I can definitely add to the battery storage and would like to run something like 3 x 8kwh batteries, the extra power from the inverter and storage would then mean I can move 2 of my aircon’s onto the inverter and then essentially run these for free…
Any advise on the above? Does anyone have a similar system or have a bigger than usual Deye / Sunsynk install?
I’m trying to limit my losses as much as possible, I’ve had a lot of unforseen costs with the house move and now having to replace an inverter system that looked great on paper will sting a bit.
PS Solar panels are N facing and start producing max power of around 7000w at 10:30am, would love to add some E facing panels so that I can start producing more power from earlier on in the morning.
I have installed the Deye 12 kW 3 phase inverter quite a few times, with no issues, the 20 kW is a new release ( assume you are talking about the low voltage, not the high voltage )
For me, the bold part, makes it an emotional decision. I try and avert them at all costs.
Hubbles, Lifepo4, cannot be “damaged” by charging at too low or too high volts. BMS will protect the cells.
On the right charge settings, give them a week or more to re-balance.
If the system is otherwise working, CoC’ed, focus on bigger issues on the house, my 2 cents, get back to this later if you still need to.
Hubble AM-2 is NMC. The AM-5 is LFP. When you see an AM-2 on the wall, you know a lot of money was saved
So theoretically 15kWh, 1/15 per hour then, which should be about 7% per hour (not 15%). So it does feel like about half the capacity is gone, from that observation.
Some googling says the battery has a reserve capacity, so while it is a 110Ah module, only 100Ah is usable. At a nominal voltage of 51V, that still gives you a good 5kWh per module.Some piggies definitely left the pen here.
I tried to see if I can fudge the numbers to make it say “one module might be bad”, but no luck there.
The fact that I don’t like them is more of an aside, its not the main reason for me wanting to do this but if I am going to change the setup I’d prefer to make sure its a system I’m 100% satisfied with and leaving the Luxpowertek’s in is not going to get me there.
I’ve been running in lithium mode for about 2 weeks and draw down is still about the same, perhaps the batteries weren’t damaged and they’re older than I was told but the fact remains I’m not getting the storage capacity out of them that I should and with the amount of money I’m spending on electricity I’m better off replacing the batteries and getting the extra capacity.
Is the Luxpower inverters compatible with Freedom Won batteries, will the FW warranty stay valid when running them with your current Luxpower inverters?
If it is the case, then I’d start with the batteries only, if the inverters still do the job, then leave them in place.
Yup sort of the same as my estimation should be drawing down at about half that. Also comparing it to my previous house with similar battery storage and power consumption its dropping down much faster.
Yes they’re on the compatability list, first thing I checked
I was thinking to replace only the batteries first but the consumption at this house is pretty high so I’d need to increase the size of the inverter anyway and it would probably add an extra 30-40% to the cost so would probably rather just get it done correctly, would also mean I could shift things like aircon’s onto the inverter.
