A month into the install and I’m fairly…
A month into the install and I’m fairly happy, though a few things have been a bit disappointing. The good SPH 6000 and Ark batteries look and feel like well made products. No cheap feel and the panel on the front is useful of real time data monitoring. Fabless inverter is silent, which is great given other models have been known to get noisy. Unlike others, I’ve had zero issues with the app or website. Shows everything I would want and allows me to set up schedules for battery charge and discharge to take advantage of Octopus offerings. Battery appears to be the size claimed and works pretty well, but see things to improve below. Having it installed in November means we are seeing it at the worst possible time of the year. Low sun, short day, more shading (especially while leaves cling on), but it seems to perform well went the sun is out. Thick rain cloud and a token amount is produced. Maybe Exiom Mono half panels have part to play. But still getting some useful contribution and battery comes into its own with overnight rates. Things to improve Support don’t respond to questions via app. Don’t offer the facility if you aren’t going to do it. Battery charge is limited to 3Kwh despite the Inverter supposedly being able to pump out 6kwh. The fact I have Growatt batteries that are supposed to take 25 amps EACH, makes this limit highly annoying. It means you can lose vital Wh during brief good periods in winter but also makes it harder to maximise cheap grid periods too, as the rate is too slow. This rate is also for discharge which is also bad as you may want more than 3K and you will have to use grid if there is no solar to supplement. To compound things further, temperature has a big affect. We were told to install in the garage and was told heat was more of an issue than cold. But cold will limit you charge rates in particular. Less than 15 degrees C and it lowers the rate to 2.15kwh, which is a disaster if you need to get those batteries charged during key periods. Shame this isn’t made clear in data sheets and also there is no info on temperature on the app or website. So you can’t take any action. I also have had a period where the inverter seem to be struggling with dusk setting in. This lead to the battery really charging at random fluctuating levels, which left me short for the expensive peak period. If Growatt could improve that battery rates for multi batteries installations as many other brands do, this would really kill my main beef with the set up. A few more options wouldn’t hurt either, such as weekday schedules and weekend schedules instead of just daily schedules. Overall I’m happy, but to get the 5 the charge/discharge needs to be improved.