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Comment by toomuchtodo

20 hours ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50198882

I am desperate to find a battery inverter that can be used to supplement my existing grid-tied home solar setup. I only need about 5kW and 10kWh of batteries, but everything I can find is geared towards whole-home power at like 12kW. Way way more than I need. I understand I’m in the minority and there’s probably not a market, but I’d love to find something

  • Transparency: I live in a 240v land, I have a Siggen.[0]

    Not sure whether other brands could be better but there seem to be various options that would suit. If you are in 120v land you may need to check if there are models to suit.

    Its largely modular, inverter sits on top of modular batteries in 8-9kw chunks.

    But they are app-infested. IE wants a wifi connection, app on your phone to their servers... etc etc.

    I hate it, but the wife likes it. This is a recent thing so I am still working out if there are possible solutions for privacy and control over my own objects.

    [0]https://solarbatterysupermarket.com.au/products/sigenergy-ba...

    • > IE wants a wifi connection

      Their car charger was doing my head in.

      I pulled it apart and found an Ethernet plug and it was a complete game changer.

      But: the app and their servers remain.

  • Unfortunately, the market is somewhat bifurcated between what Anker, Jackery, Ecopower provide and stepping up to Base Power, Powerwalls, and other bigger system components.

    My recommendation would be to see if Ecopower storage and inverters are a good fit for your use case. If you're feeling adventurous, you could build your own battery pack, but I only recommend if you are knowledgeable and confident. This comes with substantial property and life safety risk, only proceed if you know what you're doing and understand the risk (I'll work on my high voltage EV battery packs, but only with a helper nearby holding a 2x4, for example).

    https://hackaday.com/tag/battery-pack/