Lithium Ion Batteries : we only install Lithium Ion
The Hubble range of Lithium batteries integrates with a wide range of inverters through CAN bus, alternatively the Hubble range of lithium batteries can be used without communications if your inverter supports settings by voltage.
RSA Electrical installs mainly Hubble Lithium Ion Batteries, followed by Pylontech Lithium Ion Batteries. Both are excellent batteries.
We have a wide range of Lithium batteries available and supply lithium products ranging from 12V to 51V. These configurations come in rackmount, Wallmount and Standalone types. This gives installers more flexibility to either rack mount in a standard server cabinet or wallmount the batteries.
Our lithium batteries have full communications available through CAN Bus for inverters and are Hubble-Riot Cloudlink ready.
AM2 Series
| AM5 Series (latest)
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The AM-2 is the new 5.5KWh 51Volt Lithium pack designed to be easily wall-mounted or shelf installed in a standard rack.
Specification: 51V 5.5KWh
Rating: 1C
Parallel: up to 15 units per string
Extras: Battery Link & DC cables included
Internal Fire Suppression System: Yes
CAN Bus: Yes
Hubble Cloudlink Ready: Yes
Note: The AM-5 model is NOT compatible with the AM-2 model as such they should never be connected together
Sunsynk / Hubble Settings | Hubble Lithium's AM5 model is a low voltage (51V), 5.12kWh battery made up of superior prismatic lithium-ion (LFP) cells.
These battery cells have more energy density and a longer cycle life compared to standard lithium cells.
Delivers unlimited charge-discharge cycles within the warranty period.
Capable of paralleling up to 8 x units in a single string giving a total storage capacity of 40.96kWh.
1C battery capable of providing a continuous charge/discharge power of 5.12kW.
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Pylontech Lithium Batteries
At RSA Electrical we also sell and install the Pylontech range of batteries on all our Inverters.
They are a fantastic make of batteries.
Pylon Technologies, Co. Ltd was founded in October 2009 and is the pioneer for lithium iron phosphate batteries deployed in energy storage systems. With self-developed core technologies in the cathode material, battery cell and battery management system, Pylontech is one among very few companies to vertically integrate the whole lithium battery industrial chain.
Lithium batteries come in all shapes and sizes, but for some applications such as the larger residential and commercial energy storage market it can make sense to have a modular, stackable 19″ format battery system. This often makes putting together and working on a system much easier.
Such a format is available from Pylon Technologies, and these modular battery systems are now deemed to be compatible with all Victron Energy’s 48V MultiPlus and Quattro range of inverter/chargers, including the new MultiGrid.
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Li-ion storage capacity vs C-rating
The C rating of a battery is a measure of how fast the battery can be charged and/or discharged.
The storage capacity of a battery is measured in kWh
A rating of 1C means that the battery can completely discharge its stored energy (from fully charged) over a period of 1 hour.
A rating of 0.5C means that the battery will need two hours to completely discharge its stored energy from fully charged.
In practice, this means that if you have a battery like the well-regarded Pylontech US3000C, which has 3.5 kWh of storage capacity and is a 0.5C battery, the most power you can draw from it continuously will be 1.75kW. This is because the 0.5C rating will not allow you to discharge it any faster.
Limiting the discharge power like this is generally done to protect the battery cells and ensure a longer battery lifespan.
The downside of this situation is that if this battery is paired with an inverter capable of delivering say, 5kW output to the load, the inverter will effectively be limited to the 1.75kW that the battery can offer, when the system is operating under battery power alone.
This may not be a problem if your load never exceeds 1.75kW, but if it does, you will need another of the same battery in parallel with your first battery in order to boost the output power to 3.5kW and then a 3rd battery to get the total to a theoretical 5.25kW of output power if you need the full 5kW on the load side. Only when you have 3 of these batteries in parallel, will the inverter be able to deliver its full 5kW of rated power.
At this point your stored energy in the battery will have gone up from 3.5 kWh to three times that amount, 10.5 kWh
In the case of a 1C battery, for example our Hubble AM-2 battery, the discharge power is higher. Since the battery stores 5 kWh of energy and is rated at 1C, a single battery can discharge at 5kW continuously, so it will work very nicely with a typical 5kW residential inverter. There is no need to add additional batteries just to up the power delivery. In the case of the Hubble AM-2, you would add more batteries purely for the energy storage capacity, not because of the C rating limitation. | Installation in Tamboeskloof Cape Town: 1 x 12Kw 3phase Inverter
3 x AM2 Hubble Lithium Ion 5.5Kw Batteries |
So, when sizing a system for yourself, you need to take both the number of hours you want the battery to run the load for, and the highest continuous (more than 1 minute for example) power draw of the load.
Example 1:
I just want to run my TV and a few lights for 3 hours during load shedding, plus say another 3 hours just in case there are longer lasting blackouts. I have calculated that my TV draws 350W and the lights total 50W. In terms of storage capacity, I therefore need (350W +50W)for 6 hours, which is 400W x 6 = 2400Wh, or 2.4 kWh of storage capacity.
This means that a 0.5C Pylontech US2000C is pretty much ideal since the storage capacity of this battery is 2.4 kWh (actually only 0.95 x 2.4 kWh, since it discharges to a depth of only 95%, but close enough).
But will one battery have enough discharge power to run. Since the US2000C is rated at 0.5C, the inverter can continuously pull 0.5 x 2.4kW - 1.2kW from the battery. The load only requires a constant 350W + 50W in this case, which is only 400W, so we are we'll within the C rating limit.
Example 2:
I want to run a large coffee machine and a microwave at my coffee shop, but I have calculated that altogether, they will only operate for about an hour during load shedding, since they are not on all the time.
The coffee machine needs 2.5kW of power to run, and the microwave needs another 1.5W's for a total of 4kW continuous power draw.
Over one hour of use, this means that I need a battery that stores at least 4 kWh of energy.
The Pylontech UP5000 battery looks like a contender as it stores 4.8 kWh of energy, so that will do the job.
But what about the continuous power draw required? Will this battery be able to handle it? The UP5000 is a 0.5C battery, so it maximum continuous power delivery is then 0.5C x 4.8kW = 2.4kW. This is too low to run both my coffee machine and my microwave! I can add another UP5000 to get the power delivery of the 2 batteries up to 4.8kW which will cover both appliances, but then I am actually paying for a lot of additional storage capacity that I don't need.
| 8kw Single Phase Sunsynk Inverter with a 10.65Kw Sunsynk Lithium 200Ah Battery |
So, in this case, I would be better off looking at the 1C Hubble AM-2 which has a storage capacity of 5 kWh's and a continuous power delivery of 5kW (5 kWh x 1C). The AM-2 in this example meets both my capacity and power draw requirements on its own, and I do not need an additional battery in this scenario.
Any questions email rob : rob@rsa-electrical.co.za
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