It has been a while since my last post... I keep saying this all the time. This time, I was held up by a tragedy in my minute family.
Between my previous post and today, I ordered and received another power storage unit, an Ecoflow Stream Pro. Gladly I went for this one, which got 3 PV input ports. This one was supposed to serve in my kitchen to provide power to 1kW kitchen appliances. And it worked fine, being charged from the PV installation via my home's power grid. It kept working fine, however, the Stream Ultra unit, which was collecting all the solar energy, decided to go to sleep forever.
A few times back and forth with Ecoflow, which took some weeks, I was sent a shipping label to return the unit. Yet some more weeks, a new Stream Ultra arrived at my doorstep last Friday evening.
So, we are back to having extra storage. The Stream Pro, on its own, did a great job meanwhile. I guess, I was just unlucky with the Ultra... Never mind!
While I intended to use the setup in island mode, since those Ecoflow units allow for that, I did hook them up to my grid. And yes, I did register the installation with the authorities. Of course I am aiming for a zero grid feed-in. I set the system to 0W base feed and installed smart-plugs for the main power drains. Of course there will still be some consumption from the grid... no problem. However, the majority of my domestic electricity is now served by the Ecoflow storage units.
As soon as I am out of the mourning period, I will start experimenting with one of the storages serving the ham radio station. This is the return of the idea of an island supply for my radio toys.
It appears important to note that the software update to the storage units were essential. When I operated both in unison, before the new firmware, one was draining very fast, while the other unit kept charging up. With the present firmware and my settings, the one unit connected to the solar panels, charges up to 80%. Once charged to this point, this unit "sends" energy to the other unit, until discharged to 78%. Thereby, slowly but surely charging the non-PV unit. I am running my system in and SOC range of 20-80%, as advised by Ecoflow.
Next test would be to actually run the system as an island. I would think that having all (or at least one od the) inverters running all the time, rather than on demand, will probably lead to some losses. I have yet to find out about that however.
