All in One Solar Battery Systems
All in one solar battery systems are designed to provide your home with backup power during a grid outage. The key consideration when choosing a system is its energy storage capacity (in kWh) and power rating.
It’s also important to consider the ambient working temperature of your batteries and the warranty offered by the manufacturer.
Power Management System
A power management system (PMS) is a central component that allows the battery storage to communicate with all the other elements of the solar energy system. The PMS controls and monitors your energy storage, gensets and the grid connection to provide you with the best possible off-grid energy solution.
The PMS is connected to all the controllers for each of your power sources over a communication network. The controllers are constantly communicating to each other, sharing information about the power demand, and the current capacity of the power source (genset, batteries, etc). The PMS then decides which power sources to use, and in what order, to ensure that you are able to meet your electricity needs.
Typically, an all in one solar battery system uses a PWM charge controller for managing the power that is coming from the panels. A PWM charge controller is able to lifepo4 solar battery deliver up to the nominal voltage of your solar panels, but they offer limited input compared to an MPPT controller.
All of our integrated solar battery systems come with a Tesla Powerwall battery, which helps you lower your carbon footprint and reduce your reliance on the grid. It also provides backup protection in the event of a power outage, so you can continue to run your essential appliances and tools for days until the grid is restored.
Battery Management System
An all in one solar battery system is capable of monitoring your homes usage of electricity. If it detects that more power is being used than your PV system is generating it will divert the excess energy to the batteries, rather than putting it back into the grid. It then distributes the battery generated power to your home, unless it is lower than the PV system output at which point it switches back to the grid.
The basic BMS limits the operation of the batteries in order to protect them: the minimum and maximum state-of-charge limits are not exceeded and fast charge/discharge cycles are not permitted to avoid fast degradation [5]. A more advanced BMS connected to a photovoltaic generator can also perform an active peak reduction by forecasting consumption and production profiles to calculate a provisional energy balance. This requires accurate information about PV generation profiles, however, which is not easy to obtain for free.
The choice of battery chemistry has a considerable impact on the performance and cost of an all in one solar battery system. The two most common are flooded lead acid and lithium batteries. We are seeing a lot of interest in self-managed lithium systems such as those offered by Powerplus Energy in Melbourne, which can be directly connected to the leading off-grid inverter-chargers without the need for a communication connection (CAN-bus). These types of batteries have a much longer lifespan and less risk of thermal runaway than flooded lead acid.
Battery Charger
Whether you’re camping, driving an electric car or powering your home, solar energy is a great way to save money and reduce your carbon footprint. A solar battery system consists of the same components as any other power supply: a solar cell/panel that generates energy, a battery that stores the electricity, and supporting electronic hardware to make the whole process safe, optimal, and efficient.
Solar battery chargers come in all shapes and sizes. Some are portable and can be used on the go while others can be permanently installed in a backyard or at home. Some can even become your primary power source when the grid goes down.
Most solar chargers have a boost converter that steps up the battery voltage from 3.6 V to 5 V, so they can be charged using standard phone or tablet chargers. Some also include circuitry that protects the battery from potentially damaging spikes in current.
This model from Battery Tender is waterproof, spark-proof and has temperature compensation so that it can be left outside in all conditions without fear of damage. Customers continue to rave about how easy it is to use and how well it performs. The only downside is that it doesn’t provide enough backup power for most people if the grid goes down and they need to run a lot of appliances or tools at once.
Inverter
The inverter is the heart of an all-in-one solar battery system. It converts DC electricity from the battery to AC for use LiFePO4 Solar Battery Manufacturer by your appliances and home, or back to the grid. It also helps your solar power system provide grid services like automatic generation control. The inverter responds to signals from the operator to change the power output of the system, based on supply and demand, in order to balance the load on the electric grid.
The solar inverter will need to be compatible with your chosen battery chemistry and capacity, such as the Goodwe Lynx, which uses lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cells, which can be stacked up to three times for up to 15 kWh of storage. The ecoLinx is another option and can be sized up in 2 kWh power increments, up to 30 kWh total.
An important feature of an inverter is its continuous rating, or average power it can deliver on a continuous basis. This is typically far less than its peak or surge power.
Many all-in-one solar battery systems have a special backup inverter that can be used to safely switch over to solar and the battery during a grid outage. This is particularly useful for those looking to add an electric vehicle charger, or other heavy-duty equipment that requires a lot of energy to operate. These inverters generally require their own dedicated charge controller, but are otherwise similar to a standard solar inverter.