- Have you considered integrating a home energy storage system into your life? What motivates your interest?
- Are you thinking of investing in a home energy storage system? Tell us your reasons. Is it for energy independence, preparedness for outages, or more efficient cost management?
- What energy storage info do you seek? New tech can raise questions. Whether about capabilities, installation, or more, we’ve got your answers.
Join the conversation! Your participation improves offerings and builds a learning community. We’re excited to hear from you!
Start by replying to this post with your perspective.
Are you thinking of investing in a home energy storage system? Tell us your reasons. Is it for energy independence, preparedness for outages, or more efficient cost management?
Right now, i check the possibilities to integrate such a system into everthing i already have build in terms of solar. The main reason for this is to better manage and use the incoming Solar Power. Other factors like the UPS are also really welcome, but not that much necassary in germany. Our Grid is really stable.
What energy storage info do you seek? New tech can raise questions. Whether about capabilities, installation, or more, we’ve got your answers.
Some really interesting question that maybe a lot of people are asking are things like:
What can this system handle? - Like can it run my Wasching Machine, or heat plate. EP760 for example only can run a 1 Phase output, in this case things like a induction cooking plate cant run by this unit because it needs 3 Phases.
What about systems that already run? For example: In germany there are a lot of balcony Solar Systems which already run. How does this system effect the EP Systems? Can it run together etc. There might be a problem when the grid is failing!
Questions about the installation: Which companys are officially “supported” to install such a system and what is the estimated price to install a EP System? - Maybe something like a list would be great, per Country and State.
Yes. I got a Victron/Pylontech home installation last summer. Main items that motivated me:
Accountability: given the global energy/climate crisis, it’s a personal responsibility to reduce our grid usage and generate our own energy, to the extent of what we can do.
Market independence: With energy prices playing rollercoasters, it makes sense to have a one-time purchase cover 100% of energy needs 6 month a year, and reducing grid dependency to a strict minimum.
Stability. Grid going down due to its age, and lack of scalability, and exponential rise in EVs & grid-coupled solar installations make blackouts & brownouts more and more frequent. Grid-coupled PV systems shut down during summer days as the grid is saturated. Just wow.
Geek-ness. Bluetti got me hooked on solar power, so now I can’t think of using energy that’s not solar, or at least renewable.
Same as above. Independence, accountability.
.
Moreover, the grid is ageing, and in terrible state here in Belgium. Taxpayers are literally funding its necessary upgrades so it complies with the next EU standards. For instance, half of the price you pay for your electric consumption is “transport & network”.
On top of that, solar “prosumers” are to pay a tax on the excess energy they inject in the network. Belgium, land of copromises and absurdity strikes again: transport costs are so high that they offset the resell of your excess energy, so dumping your production in the network actually costs you money. Go wonder. It made sense to invest in half a ton of batteries. Maybe I didn’t buy the right brand given the problem my installation just started facing.
Criteria that I think outperform competition in brands like Victron should be at the heart of these fine Bluetti products:
Is it VDE 0.126-1-1 2014 or 2019 compliant? It’s the dreaded EU norm about anti-islanding. A must have.
Is there parallel operation capabilities? Can I mount one unit per phase and have them communicate? My house runs a 3-phase system, and need automatic phase balancing.
What about peak shaving?
Is there an automatic transfer switch?
With Multiplus-II in mind, and its capability to pull up to 50 amps from the grid to supplement the inverter’s capability… does EP800 have something similar? Being 100% electric (water, cooking, heating), I need 2 Multiplus 5000 per phase to prevent overloads in off-grid mode, or the automatic transfer to pull from the grid.
Adding my two cents now and a sob story. Having both Pylontech & Victron in the same bed was amazing. They did great, until Wednesday. A battery made a loud pop, and the whole system went dark.
The system is still under warranty until 2032 (batteries, at least). Pylontech wants all the logs to look for a “power surge from a non-Pylontech component” … why? Probably to void the warranty and leave me with 56kWh of dead batteries suggesting it’s not their fault.
.
These all-in-one solutions from Bluetti seem to address this kind of possible issue. Moreover, the wiring looks infinitely more simple. Provided EP800 & the likes have all 3 features I listed above, they’re probably a Victron/Pylontech killer.
. @BLUETTI - hope this standpoint helps, especially since it compares hopes vs a bad experience (with competition…) oh and if you feel like donating a few EP800 as “demonstration material”, I’ll gladly ditch the Victron setup and replace it with a heroic Bluetti success story
Ok, I think my question or suggestion is more global and also for EP800, EP700 and EP600.
In my home country (Austria) are some power supplier which provide a hourly electricity price. That mean at midday (much PV feed) is the price near negativ, later on evening (everybody at home, havy load on grid) is the price high.
How can we manage those calculated power price with our BLUETTI system? How can we interact with the system on demand, not by scheduled tasks for charching/discharging?
You use a bluetooth modbus protocol to interact with the app and change the parameters. It is posible to open the interface on EP600, EP750, … to interact with other devices, for example a wall box for e-car or some heat pump for house heating/cooling.
Keyword for me is smart home, I’d like to connect power supplier (EPxxx) and consumer (wall box, …) together. Just load the e-car if EP is full, but how to know when …
@SigiKa
The communication protocol for BLUETTI home storage system and smart home is not open, which means it cannot be controlled through smart devices. At the moment, time control management is only available in the scheduled mode. If there are any software updates in the future, I will let youknow once.
Depends on the regulations in your home country. In my country we have to use a transfer switch to disconnect the grid side from the battery-backup.
I suggest, if your EV can act as a backup for the home supply, you should also have to have a transfer switch to prevent reverse powering the grid with your EV, instead of powering your house.
In that case, your EP760 sits at the dead end (grid side) and is not connected to your EV. A second transfer switch would be necessary to disconnect the grid side from the EP760 to the backup side of the EV.
After the grid is on again, you ned to switch all in reverse, bring your EP760 back to grid and disconnect your EV discharge port.
- Have you considered integrating a home energy storage system into your life? What motivates your interest?
For quite a long time. Years. But these devices are expensive so it took me long to get to the point that I purchased one.
I rent my apartment so I cannot change anything to the electrical system. A whole house energy storage system is out of the question unless my housing association would offer it to me.
A year ago I saved enough money to invest in the next best thing: A standalone battery power station. It just plugs into a regular AC power outlet and allows me to power my lights, computer equipment and freezer during a power outage. My choice went with the Bluetti AC300 + B300. I liked that the power station and battery are separated and expandable. When one of the two fails, I can replace just the power station or just the battery. With integrated solutions like the AC200Max this is not possible.
- Are you thinking of investing in a home energy storage system? Tell us your reasons. Is it for energy independence, preparedness for outages, or more efficient cost management?
I’m happy with my AC300+B300. I do not plan to buy a whole new power station. But I may sooner or later buy a second B300 to uncrease the runtime of the unit.
Features important to me are:
Battery Chemistry. I went for a LiFePO4 system because it can last a long time, can have 3000 charge/discharge cycles and is one of the safest battery chemistries.
I mostly want to be protected from power outages. I live in The Netherlands and we have a reliable power grid. So the unit is not getting used a lot. Still, having a big battery to power my needs when the grid fails gives me great peace of mind.
Battery runtime. I already had an APC 1500VA Smart-UPS. It will power my load for around 20 minutes. My Bluetti powers my load for over 8 hours.
Reliably. I want my power station to last. My unit does not get a lot of use, but it should be ready when I need it. For years and years to come.
Fast and energy efficient UPS functionality. This is where I am unhappy with my AC300+B300 system. I originally planned to use it in UPS mode. With my Bluetti always connected to AC and my computer equipment always plugged in to my Bluetti. While this works, it also works very inefficient. The internal electronics of the AC300 always take battery power. Which means that the battery is continuously getting small discharge and recharge cycles. This slowly ages the battery. The AC300+B300 also has a lot of internal power consumption when used as UPS. Around 45 watts. My APC UPS only uses 15 watts.
I decided to charge my Bluetti and turn it off and keep it as offline power station. My computer equipment is still protected my my old APC UPS and when the power fails, I can just turn on my Bluetti and plug my UPS into it for a superb runtime.
- What energy storage info do you seek? New tech can raise questions. Whether about capabilities, installation, or more, we’ve got your answers.
My country, The Netherlands, just like most of West Europe is going to an energy transition. Less use of fossil fuels, more renewables. (Home) energy storage solutions like Tesla’s Power Wall or Bluetti’s many offerings can be a great solution. Because we can build all the solar and wind power generation but there will always be moments when there is no wind and no sun. We will need solutions to store excess solar energy on the midday and use it during the evening and night. Home owners can make their own investments but people who rent cannot. In my country most people who rent rent from large social housing associations. These can be a major customer during the coming energy transition. If you can make a certified safe and reliable and relatively affordable home energy storage system. If you can offer local, on-site installation and a worry-free maintenance contract then you may find our social housing associations as large customers. They can buy your energy storage systems and offer them paired with solar panels for a (optional) monthly increase to their renters.
It will take some years for the demand to be there. The energy transition is just starting. But you can start to make sure they know your name and build a network of local installation and maintenance partners. Remember, just shipping a box will not be enough for these customers.
I would like to know if it’s possible to monitor the APP on my PC as well as my phone. Is anyone doing that and if so how is that done?
I have an AC500 and one B300S that I charge with an array of 6 200w panels on a solar tracker as well as 3 PV200 portable panels. I am only using this to run my refrigerator as I climb this solar learning curve, and I am in South Central Texas.
- Have you considered integrating a home energy storage system into your life? What motivates your interest?
- Are you thinking of investing in a home energy storage system? Tell us your reasons. Is it for energy independence, preparedness for outages, or more efficient cost management?
- What energy storage info do you seek? New tech can raise questions. Whether about capabilities, installation, or more, we’ve got your answers.
Start by replying to this post with your perspective.
