Hello everyone and thank you very much for your time.
we are in the early planning stages for a hybrid system but cannot find a particular brand of equipment that fits my needs, everything keeps falling back to Enphase however they don't quite fit the bill.
Our current goal is to install a small 2.8kw system consisting of 8 panels rated at 350 watts. We will use this small installation to get our homes infrastructure in place and ready for future upgrades to the total system size as well as recuperate funds for this next round of upgrades. The idea is to use this system for around 6 months then add another 2.8kw worth of 350 watt panels. Using this strategy we can save money for the next round of upgrades and each period of 12 months can result in faster savings due to an ever decreasing utility bill. This cycle would continue until the entire system reaches a "Net Positive" state somewhere in the 20-30kw range.
The current issue is selecting the proper equipment to fit our needs, as this entire installation will take place over the course of 4 years we want to make sure everything is planned properly from the beginning. Current brands of equipment available seem to provide an entire ecosystem of products which doesn't allow interoperability between other brands so this makes it even more difficult to select equipment, for example you wouldn't want to end up with having two different web portals to manage one system after using one brand of inverters with another brands charge controllers.
Our ideal system has the following features:
1. Connected to the grid to export excess energy.
2. Allow AC-Coupling of a *CUSTOM* designed battery banks.
3. Support Peak-Shaving to offset grid usage whenever our demand is higher than the panels are capable of putting out.
4. Micro-Inverters or DC-Optimizers would be a major selling point however using multiple smaller strings of 4 panels should eliminate this need almost completely
5. Backup power when the grid is down would be nice but it's not essential.
We would love to go with Magnum however it doesn't seem like they offer any sort of advanced power management such as Peak-Shaving and this is a deal breaker.
Solar Edge would almost fit the bill however they only appear to support LG or Tesla batteries.
Enphase would be the best route simply due to their smaller upfront cost for each micro-inverter and the simplistic installation, but they too only support their own proprietary batteries.
Schneider Electric looks promising, they appear to do everything we require, except maybe point #5 but again that's not essential. We don't like not having micro's or optimizers nor can we find any documentation on how many individual strings can connect to a single inverter.
The best course of action may to drop the fantasy of a custom battery bank and just go with Enphase, all roads seem to lead to this destination.
Can anyone suggest other brands that might fit our wants and needs? Maybe someone can educate us on other routes that can be taken to add Peak-Shaving to a system that doesn't directly support it? We want to explore every option available so we can plan and install the best system we can.
Thank you again for your time and I hope you all have a wonderful day!
we are in the early planning stages for a hybrid system but cannot find a particular brand of equipment that fits my needs, everything keeps falling back to Enphase however they don't quite fit the bill.
Our current goal is to install a small 2.8kw system consisting of 8 panels rated at 350 watts. We will use this small installation to get our homes infrastructure in place and ready for future upgrades to the total system size as well as recuperate funds for this next round of upgrades. The idea is to use this system for around 6 months then add another 2.8kw worth of 350 watt panels. Using this strategy we can save money for the next round of upgrades and each period of 12 months can result in faster savings due to an ever decreasing utility bill. This cycle would continue until the entire system reaches a "Net Positive" state somewhere in the 20-30kw range.
The current issue is selecting the proper equipment to fit our needs, as this entire installation will take place over the course of 4 years we want to make sure everything is planned properly from the beginning. Current brands of equipment available seem to provide an entire ecosystem of products which doesn't allow interoperability between other brands so this makes it even more difficult to select equipment, for example you wouldn't want to end up with having two different web portals to manage one system after using one brand of inverters with another brands charge controllers.
Our ideal system has the following features:
1. Connected to the grid to export excess energy.
2. Allow AC-Coupling of a *CUSTOM* designed battery banks.
3. Support Peak-Shaving to offset grid usage whenever our demand is higher than the panels are capable of putting out.
4. Micro-Inverters or DC-Optimizers would be a major selling point however using multiple smaller strings of 4 panels should eliminate this need almost completely
5. Backup power when the grid is down would be nice but it's not essential.
We would love to go with Magnum however it doesn't seem like they offer any sort of advanced power management such as Peak-Shaving and this is a deal breaker.
Solar Edge would almost fit the bill however they only appear to support LG or Tesla batteries.
Enphase would be the best route simply due to their smaller upfront cost for each micro-inverter and the simplistic installation, but they too only support their own proprietary batteries.
Schneider Electric looks promising, they appear to do everything we require, except maybe point #5 but again that's not essential. We don't like not having micro's or optimizers nor can we find any documentation on how many individual strings can connect to a single inverter.
The best course of action may to drop the fantasy of a custom battery bank and just go with Enphase, all roads seem to lead to this destination.
Can anyone suggest other brands that might fit our wants and needs? Maybe someone can educate us on other routes that can be taken to add Peak-Shaving to a system that doesn't directly support it? We want to explore every option available so we can plan and install the best system we can.
Thank you again for your time and I hope you all have a wonderful day!
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