My Energy Storage System - DIY ESS - has been running with Solar for 3 Years now and saved me 800 EUR

On July 7, 2016, my home made Energy Storage System, named DIY ESS, has been running fine for 3 full years :)



Link from July 7, 2013 : http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/uni-solar-pvl-sma-inverter-finished.html



After several months of building and testing it back in 2012 & 2013, I finally had my Solar panels connected to a working SMA inverter and I have been storing my Surplus Solar Enegry ever since ...
(Solar panels install had been done several before that http://www.myelifenow.com/2012/10/solar-panels-installation-13-uni-solar.html)

During these last 3 years I had no breakdown what so ever, and absolutely no LiFePO4 Battery pack problem using it 24/7 (8 CALB CA180FI prismatic cells)



Today, few days after, it shows that I saved 577 EUR but you have to add 220 EUR approx. that were not taken into account during the first months (Wattson Anywhere portal data gathering came later)
For more details on my last 500 EUR update in April : http://www.myelifenow.com/2016/04/diy-ess-update-500-eur-of-savings.html
So the total savings as of today is 577 + 220 = 797 EUR, almost 800 EUR :)



I also sold few kits online to people around the world during the same period and it is still available here : http://www.diyesskit.com

I will continue using it until I have a Tesla Energy Powerwall installed later .... and the beauty of it is that all the of the shelf components used in it will be sold and bring me a good part of my money back ;)


Links:
http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/chris75sf

DIY ESS - Already 2 Years of 24/7 Service with Solar at Home !

Yes, it's been 2 years yesterday, since I started producing & storing my Solar surplus at home for re-use whenever necessary, during the day, or in the evening when the sun goes down
http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/starting-first-full-day-of-solar.html



My Energy Storage System was actually working several months before that, and my Solar Panels where installed on the roof almost 9 months before too, but I was waiting for my solar contractor to complete the install with his own special inverter, which was too delayed in the end, so I asked him to installa regular one, and we agreed on an 3kW SMA unit

Once installed, I could finally generate my own solar electricity, and my ESS being ready and tested, it worked right away seamlessly :)
http://www.myelifenow.com/2013/07/uni-solar-pvl-sma-inverter-finished.html



That was two years ago, and it has been doing great over time: No breakdown, no Battery problem (I read so many things about sceptick folks on this), it has been working like a charm



With less solar generation during winter, I used the Forced Charge function to charge from low cost electricity at night, to help push low cost energy back into my home grid to help heating, lighting and cooking



As we can see on the Wattson / EnergyHive portal where my generation & usage data are collected in real time, it is saving around 250 EUR per year (over the last year), and since the price per kWh goes up all the time, it will save evne more in the future
http://wattson.energyhive.com/dashboard/diyesskit



My ESS has been registered on the DOE - Department Of Energy - Global Energy Storage Database back in July 2013, few days after, under PRojet Reference 720
http://www.energystorageexchange.org/projects/720


But wait, there's more ...

A second unit, called Mini ESS, based on 3 Nissan LEAF battery modules, installed in october, has helped store and save even more, at night during winter, and now from 11AM to 4PM, harvesting during the peak production period of sunny days



Also I am in the process of building and testing a second version of this DIY ESS, called DIY ESS V2 with Enphase, because it will use the famous Enphase Micro Inverters - M215 or M250 - for more efficiency
It's design & build should be simpler, but it is not ready yet ...



With the new Tesla PowerWall, Enphase AC Battery coming, it really shows everyone that Energy Storage is a serious business and a perfect complement to solar and/or wind installs, at the residential level !

To Celebrate this 2 years milestone, I decided tho slash the DIY ESS Kit price and remove 100 EUR from it, dropping from 249 to 149 EUR ! (Kit #2 is also reduced by the same amount of course)

Also the Kit Building Documentations are now available to anyone FOR FREE on the DIY ESS Kit website ! "All our Patents are belong to you" ;)
http://www.diyesskit.com/p/documentation.html   (look for the "=> Get the PDF File" links)



To have more info about the Kit and why not build your own, go to:

http://www.diyesskit.com
or
http://www.storeyourenergy.com


Now, you can start building your own DIY Energy Storage System for your Home !

Enphase AC Battery Technical Details - What's in the box & How does itwork ?

Enphase announced "a revolution" in the Energy Storage world with its new AC Battery coming mid 2015, a very exciting announcement ...

But what's in it exactly ? Let's take a look at the spec sheet provided by Enphase and try to identify its components

   

Specs tell us:

- Capacity: 1.2kWh  of storage in LiFePO4 batteries
- Power: 275 / 550 W
- Weight: 40lbs

That's not much, but enough to start guessing; I think :

{Update}
Through GreenTech Media, Enphase unveiled their LiFePO4 cells source: A Japanese maker which should be actually cheaper than the Chinese (!) and have been providing residential storage systems (UPS): Eliiy Power Co., Ltd

Japanese Eliiy Power 50Ah LiFePO4 cell

- Capacity: the Battery pack could be composed of 7 50Ah LiFePO4 cells wired in series because 7 x 50Ah x 3.32V = 1,162Wh, which can be considered 1.2kWh, and would give a pack voltage of 7 x 3.32 = 23.24V in the range of the Enphase M250 operating voltage below

- New S275 Micro Inverter : This New Special Bi-Directional Grid Tie Inverter, Enphase's 5th generation inverter, is capable of 25W more at 275W; Here it will be charging (from AC) and discharging (into AC) the pack at 275W and this 550W probably means that 2 S275 inverters could be running in one AC Battery units to double power ouput (?)

- Weight: The rather small unit is light enough to be mounted on any wall, since it is actually lighter than some existing inverters and this could be more important than you think because people do not want to waste space in their garage or basement as seen already with Tesla / SolarCity backup only storage systems installed in California (even if this could be mounted anywhere in the house or apartment)

The AC Battery can be added any existing Solar installation, not only Enphase based ones of course; That means that the Bi-Directional Inverter is using AC only, and from what we can see on the drawing below, the Enphase Storage Solution would require Load Controllers (on the every outlet ...) like seen in the SMA Smart Manager Solution

The AC Battery units will communicate with the Enphase Energy Management System (EMS) Control called Enphase Envoy-S using power line (PLC), like it is with the existing M* Grid Tie Inverters of the brand, via their Engage AC Cables, but we also see a WiFi sign near the Load Controllers meaning they will use this to report appliances Power Use to the EMS through a new Envoy Communication Gateway (the Envoy-S that is)

This Envoy-S would know how much Power is in use at home, how much is Generated by the PV array, calculate the difference and tell the AC Battery to Charge or Discharge, to keep the Home Net Usage equal or close to 0W, by Storing surplus PV Power or Using Power from the AC Battery units, to help the PV array power appliances at home during the day and at night when the sun is down
I also think it will be capable of powering on and off these AC outlets through WiFi, triggering loads when surplus PV Power can be used directly by appliances instead of being stored in the AC Battery units

Simply mounted on the wall, these AC Battery units can be added one by one and provide more Storage Capacity and also more Power Output to cover your Home loads, in the end more savings because lower Energy bills from your utility company :)



We do not know the retail price of one unit yet, but I guess it could be around 1,000 USD (?), based on the price of the cells and existing Enphase inverters






For Report, Follow up and Analysis, the Enphase Enlighten Portal will be used, like it is already for a regular Enphase Micro Inverter install; You will be able to see how much Power is beeing stored into each AC Battery unit, how much is drawn from it, its State of Charge and all kinds of interesting graphs from any smartphone, tablet or PC, which is pretty cool :)




So, I think Enphase will indeed deliver a great solution, because it will be scalable, able to integrate to any existing PV install, using a very efficient proven inverter to Charge and Discharge the BAttery Pack, and safe because based on the LiFePO4 Lithium-ion chemistry

I guess it should be a hit !!

Cooking Beef in the oven using Solar + 2 ESS

3000W almost covered by Solar + ESS 1 + ESS 2

I now have 2 Energy Storage Systems at home:

- My LiFePO4 DIY ESS, which has be running for a year a half

- The AESC / LEAF Modules based one, which is in test for now but very promising - I may build a new ESS with these Modules only, independent from the LiFePO4 one, but using the same Wattson Transmitter info -

EVTV Friday Show - May 30, 2014

- Ed's excellent battery box adventure with the electric BMW 328i

- EVTV.EU takes on a battery upgrade on a Beetle, using AESC / LEAF Battery Modules from Better Place Renault Fluence Liquidation, along with their Jeep Wrangler Electric project 

- John Hardy describes soft shorts in prismatic LiFePo4 battery cells and how to detect and deal with them

- Jack myopically focuses on a brass bolt while Brain continues to try to get blinkers to work on his Karman Ghia project

- Solar Roads hits 1.65million and 38,000 contributors thank you







This fin solar panel is selling very well Jack says - I want to get some later -


Solar RoadWays is getting twice more than they expected for their great idea



John Hardy about Bottom Balancing and detecting - rare - internal shorts in LiFePO4 cells

A new current sensor, CAN enabled, should be available in the online store



Ed Clausen never stops ! his BMW conversion project is at the battery boxes step







Karman Ghia update : today fuses


Anne Kloppenbord from New Electric  / EVtv Europe is unboxing a Renault Fluence battery pack to get to the 48 AESC Modules to replace old GBS LiFePO4 cells in an already converted Beetle



One of his customers got 3 Better Place packs when they finally arrived the week before and has already performed this task; The Modules are waiting to be transferred into a Tourist Boat to cruise onto Amsterdam's canals :-)


After doing the maths, the Delta Flyer is 30% more efficient with its new drive train - rubber belt version - !! Bravo Anne !