Battery temperature
Is that something that can be read from growatt batteries? And if so where?
End of last week my charging rate was completely in the toilet, was getting 0.6kw and lower at one point whilst in the summer I was getting 3+kw
My batteries are in the loft and I really didn't think it would get that cold up there!
Ifgow
Make a cover out of 50mm Kingspan. Foil tape, tape measure and a sharp knife is all you need. It will only take an hour or so. Small thermostatic heat pad optional.
Crazysquares I wondered about that but wasn’t sure about ventilation requirements for the battery.
I figured it wasn't an air tight fit as such and has some holes cut for the cabling etc so likely drafty enough. There are no ventilation holes on the battery itself so nothing being blocked in that respect. Worth checking yours for any.
Ifgow mine are inside, so not an issue for me. Also, I have 2x9.5 and a Gen2 5kW inverter, which effectively eliminates the reduced discharge issue anyway.
Ifgow there's no ventilation requirement for the batteries, only the inverter. If you had an AIO, the batteries are at the bottom and inverter at the top, so just insulate the bottom 2/3 of the unit.
admin I have now found a way to get this information (although me it at least is a little convoluted!) There is a field BatteryCellMaxTemp(℃) in the historical data.
To get to this I had to share the plant to myself (different email address to the one Growatt have for me!) and then I get the option to view the "history data" in my photovoltaic devices. (Also had to open the link in incognito mode!)
You've got to wonder why Growatt are making this so difficult to find/see!
Anyways, I have now boxed my battery in with Kingspan and the battery temp has gone from being 10/11degrees to a healthy 26/27 degrees and now charging a hellava lot better.
Loadsa posts on the Growatt Uk fb page have concerned me and I have also ordered a smoke detector to install alongside it!
- Edited
JayC
Before retirement one of the lads at work built a remote alarm system that used the mobile network to alert if anyone broke into a quarry / stone crushing plant ( loads of heavy copper cables to nick )
Everything tested ok so he moved it from a glass reinforced plastic box into a more sturdy steel one. It took a while for the penny to drop as when he took of the lid check the circuitry and connections it started working again....
- Edited
You can also lose signal if you have too much metal of a similar length to your antennae nearby. I have 2 smart meters and if they are too close to each other they both lose the signal as they each contain a metal antennae of the same length. This is down to the way electric fields work and if nearby bits of metal are of a similar size to your antennae (the aerial within the mobile phone for example) the fields get distorted.
This effect is exploited in high gain TV aerials where there are directors which are the slightly shorter bits of metal than the dipole (the bit where the cable actually connects) precisely spaced on the side nearest the transmitter and reflectors which are the slightly longer bits of metal precisely spaced on the side away from the transmitter. These alter the electric field to focus the signal into the dipole. How well they do this is the aerial gain which is shown in dB. Have a look at a TV aerial to see how it is assembled and look at the adverts as to how much gain they have (which might be linked to the number of directors and reflectors they have).
So it is worth considering any metal that is near to the antennae of whatever piece of equipment you are using (particularly short lengths near the half wavelength of the frequency you're using).
Kind of obsessed now with the battery temp now I've found out where to check on it! In the last 24 hours it has ranged from 24 - 37 degrees.
Wondering now if should drill a few air holes into my box to lower it a little! 
Have I insulated it too well? 
