Advice on adding a battery to hybrid inverter

[Martyn Leigh]

Hi All,

Last year I had 4kw south facing solar PV system installed in the Oldham area. At the time my budget couldn't quite stretch to having a battery installed, however, knowing this is what I wanted to do in the future I deliberately opted for a hybrid inverter. I now therefore have a Sofar Solar Hyd-3600ES mounted in the garage with space beneath for a battery and it's all certified and installed by a MCS fitter with G98 certificate etc.

I now want to add a Pylontech US3000C battery which I have seen online for circa £1,250 inc VAT. However, having had several quotes for supplying and installing such a battery, the cost is far higher (circa £3,000 inv VAT) which, for me at least, is unviable and not really worth doing.

Given I have all the hardware (i.e. hybrid inverter) I was under the impression a battery would just need mounting to the wall and then just connecting up direct to it with positive, negative, earth and comms cables. I obviously want to do things properly but trying to find a 'fitter' who would install a brand new battery that I supply is proving difficult.

Any advice would be appreciated. Also, would I have to submit a new G98 etc? In hindsight I should have had it all done at the same time but never mind.

 

[johnb2713]

Given I have all the hardware (i.e. hybrid inverter) I was under the impression a battery would just need mounting to the wall and then just connecting up direct to it with positive, negative, earth and comms cables.

That seems to be correct, nothing much more needed.

I obviously want to do things properly but trying to find a 'fitter' who would install a brand new battery that I supply is proving difficult.

It does seem to be the way, the MCS members are seemingly a closed shop and insist on supplying the items at full retail price and charge a good rate for installing it too, win - win for them, lose - lose for you. They usually quote that they're responsible for the items installed, if they haven't supplied them, they don't know the history blah, blah, blah as justification for charging full retail (just wait for the fallout from this )

Any advice would be appreciated. Also, would I have to submit a new G98 etc? In hindsight I should have had it all done at the same time but never mind.

Contact the DNO directly, explain the situation, you may get a very favourable outcome. The G98 / 99 are relatively straight forward process and you dont need to be MCS to submit one.

 

[binky]

That seems to be correct, nothing much more needed.

Fuses for battery leads and isolator, plus CT clamp

It does seem to be the way, the MCS members are seemingly a closed shop and insist on supplying the items at full retail price and charge a good rate for installing it too, win - win for them, lose - lose for you. They usually quote that they're responsible for the items installed, if they haven't supplied them, they don't know the history blah, blah, blah as justification for charging full retail (just wait for the fallout from this )

MCS does require 6 year warranty/customer support, so there's some truth in that, but mostly they are taking advantage of high demand.

Contact the DNO directly, explain the situation, you may get a very favourable outcome. The G98 / 99 are relatively straight forward process and you dont need to be MCS to submit one.

If they were notified of a hybrid inverter, I would think there's no need to contact again.

 

[johnb2713]

If they were notified of a hybrid inverter, I would think there's no need to contact again.

I was only thinking from a load point of view when charging?

 

[binky]

I was only thinking from a load point of view when charging?

As it's contained within a single 3.6kw inverter I'm not sure they would be very interested as they should have allowed for that. But it would be polite to inform them