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Solar - Giving priority to Solar iBoost to heat water before batteries charge?

  • 03-09-2024 8:07pm
    #1
    zero74
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 1 ✭


    I had 6.14 kw panels, Solis inverter and a Solar iBoost installed last year. I decided not to add a battery at that time as I just didn't feel they give value for money. Very pleased with the result with an instant saving on the monthly bill and tons of piping hot water.
    A year on battery prices have dropped by nearly half and I'm happy to add 2 @ 5kw batteries to my setup. This works well and on bright days both batteries are charged around lunchtime. Unfortunately with this dismal Irish summer, the system struggles to charge the batteries leaving little time to heat the water.
    Is it possible to configure the inverter to give priority to heating the water first and then start charging the batteries?



Comments

  • #2
    Jonathan
    Moderators, Education Moderators, Home & Garden Moderators Posts: 8,217 Mod ✭✭✭✭Jonathan


    You'll no doubt get the comments that it better financially to export the surplus and then heat the water at night on the EV rate, but that aside, what inverter do you have? Some have a Feed In Priority mode which allows you to prioritise export over battery charging. The Eddie/iBoost will then see this as export and start diverting.



  • #3
    bullit_dodger
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,570 ✭✭✭bullit_dodger


    Similar to what Jonathan mentions above, the solution is sort of with the strategy in how your charging the battery. If you are on D/N tariff or an EV rate, as we migrate into autumn, you need/want to change how you charge the battery.

    In summer (even though it's not financially the best) many of us use solar to charge the battery from whatever is left to full. For me, this helps not breaking that €400 FIT limit.

    As we go into winter you want to charge your battery initially (at this time of the year) to say 50% every night on night rate and once Oct comes along probably migrate to 75% or 100%. This means at 9am-10am, your battery will be full and whatever surplus you have will go into the hot water, achieving what you want. But really the solution isn't really isolated to hotwater heating, it's the best thing for all energy usage to minimise cost.

    Additionally, I personally program a boost on the Eddi at 7:30am for 15 minutes initially to help (pre) heat the water as solar excess by itself isnt' enough. Once we get into December I swap that to 30 mins, and let solar heat the rest. Takes about 4kWh to heat my tank roughly. Depends on how much heat is left over from yesterday and the ambient temp of the water in the tank in the attic.



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