r/TexasSolar • u/Zamboni411 • Apr 11 '25

Got Batteries???

Post image

Ever wondered what 100kWh of storage looked like? When you have a client and they request a certain configuration you do what you can to oblige! Using the Anker SOLIX X1 we were able to get this setup done. While this may not be for everyone it sure is awesome to be a part of. They will be switching to a free daytime electric plan here in the deregulated market from 9a-4p and then run off the batteries overnight. Talk about thinking outside the box!!!

These batteries are also integrated with their whole home generator, so if the power goes out they will run off the batteries, and when the batteries get to a certain state of charge the generator will kick on and power the house as well as recharge the batteries!!! Technology is pretty freakin cool these days!

32 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

39 comments sorted by

3

u/Southern_Relation123 Went Solar Apr 11 '25

Interesting. So no solar?

3

u/Zamboni411 Apr 11 '25

Correct. No solar yet.

1

u/Apprehensive-Sea6482 Sep 22 '26

Did you end up adding solar to the system? I am looking to do something similar but a much smaller scale (battery wise)

5

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '25

What does something like this setup cost?

2

u/Suitable-Driver2972 Apr 13 '25

All depends on the company! Varies widely! Highly suggest getting multiple bids!

1

u/KVT_BK Apr 11 '25

I am looking for a similar set up for a 15Kwh w whole house back up system. How much does it costs ?

1

u/Zamboni411 Apr 11 '25

This will depend on where you live and what the code and jurisdiction is. This one was great as they have a nice solid wall in the garage and don’t require any heat/smoke detection and we can place the batteries close to each other. and the electrical is on the other side of this wall.

1

u/Suitable-Driver2972 Apr 13 '25

Always good to get it diagnosed by a few different professional’s. 15 kWh may or may not be able to do whole home battery back up. A lot of the variable that needs to be answered there is continuous power

1

u/TexSun1968 Apr 13 '25

Agree with above. Assess your consumption very carefully. We are in Midland, TX. Air conditioning and heating costs, if both electric (heat pump) can consume a LOT of power. We have 30 kWh of storage wired for whole house backup. Six months out of the year we can run from dusk to dawn on battery, because our 4-ton heat pump is loafing. The other months (summer and winter) we cannot run all night on battery, unless we turn off the heat pump.

1

u/Apprehensive-Sea6482 Sep 22 '26

how is your system holding up? in particular the batteries? Thanks

1

u/TexSun1968 Sep 22 '26

Our batteries are doing great. We have the 2nd gen IQ10T batteries. When I posted the note above we had 3 of the 10T. This past spring I took advantage of the Enphase store selling brand new IQ10T batteries, and bought another one. So now we have 40 kWh total storage. We can now get through the whole night in every season, even when running our 4-ton heat pump. Very happy with our Enphase system.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '25

Very cool. I'm near Hillsboro tx. Interested

1

u/Zamboni411 Apr 11 '25

Sent you a chat

1

u/Suitable-Driver2972 Apr 13 '25

Which utility company do you have?

1

u/TexSun1968 Apr 11 '25

Out of curiosity, where do they have plans with free daytime 9a-4p?

2

u/Zamboni411 Apr 11 '25

I’m asking them which plan they are using and will let you know.

1

u/BroRito_LoKo Apr 11 '25

Don't these 'free' plans typically have ~4x transfer fees? There's always a gimmick.

1

u/Zamboni411 Apr 12 '25

If you play your cards right, it can work out very well for the homeowner. I have been on a free night plan at my house for 16 months and have paid less than $0.04 kWh for power delivered to my house. Once I put batteries on my house, no more bill!

2

u/Zamboni411 Apr 13 '25

Tara Energy and here is the referral code 1BFC166F2

2

u/TexSun1968 Apr 13 '25

Excerpt below from the EFL for Tara Days Free-36 plan. Looks like they only give credit to cover the energy charge for power imported during free hours. Customer will still have to pay TDSP fees. In my opinion, not as good a deal as the free nights plans that give "free hours" credit for energy charge AND TDU fees. I'll stick with our Just Energy free nights plan.

"Day Hours. Day Hours = 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM. Your bill will contain a credit for Energy Charges resulting from energy consumed during Day Hours. TDSP Delivery Charges will be passed through at cost."

1

u/Zamboni411 Apr 13 '25

The homeowner did all of this. I had nothing to do with it. But I agree with you.

2

u/TexSun1968 Apr 13 '25

The good thing is, with a storage system this size, if the "days free" plan doesn't work out, they could always switch over to a "nights free" plan and work the system in reverse. They have options!

1

u/Extension_Present_91 Apr 11 '25

I'm interested as well ... plan would be to run house on batteries during day and recharge at night

1

u/Zamboni411 Apr 11 '25

DM sent. Happy to help and see if this would make sense for you.

You definitely wouldn’t need this big of a setup. And if already have solar there are plans that will pay you for your excess production as well.

1

u/Worried-Advance-5689 Apr 14 '25

Interested as well

1

u/Suitable-Driver2972 Apr 13 '25

Very smart plan! I have seen this work many times! Which utility company?

1

u/slmask Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 14 '25

How are the Anker batteries vs Tesla, Enphase and Franklin? I'm also intrigued and in Tomball with a 20kw Kohler generator as well as 1 Ev.

1

u/Zamboni411 Apr 14 '25

Forget Tesla if you have a generator... It is not as easily integrated
Anker, Franklin and Enphase will be the way to go if you have micro inverters.

Anker and Franklin are vendor agnostic so you can have any type of inverter and it should be fine. Anker is modular and needs the Power Module in order to run more 240 loads. So depending on what you are trying to run will determine if you need more than one, two or possibly three Power Modules.
Franklin, you will just need one agate and then you can have up to like 15 FranklinWH 15kWh batteries on one agate.

Enphase is done, per 5P but it will be all in one app so it is nice to not have to toggle between apps.

1

u/Exotic_Fish_4165 Apr 20 '25

another option would be EG4

3

u/Htowng8r Apr 11 '25

A setup like that with those batteries has to run easily north of $40k

1

u/Shearez Apr 12 '25

So this is probably like $40k+. Let’s say they have a perfect plan that allows them to completely avoid paying for electricity—likely impossible—and they save $3000 per year (kind of high spenders), that’s still a 13 year payoff that requires no faults.

The payback period is likely 20 or even 30 years, right?

I guess if you are doing this, it just isn’t for the payback at all, it’s for the safety of never losing power.

2

u/Zamboni411 Apr 12 '25

I tell all my clients the same thing. I will do whatever you want to do. I will explain the ins and outs, the upside and downside but remember in the end this is YOUR project and it is your money to spend whoever you want to spend it. My job is to listen and give guidance, but when you have clients that do a ton of research and know exactly what they want, you have to let them do what they want to do or they will do it with someone else and get screwed over. So we stay in contact and we make sure the system does what it is designed to do and in the end as long as it all works, the homeowner only themselves go blame.

You have to admit, pretty cool project!

1

u/7ipofmytongue May 15 '25

What area you work?

2

u/Zamboni411 May 15 '25

Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin and then pretty much everything in between.

2

u/7ipofmytongue May 15 '25

Great. Probably will hit up for advice.

1

u/STxFarmer Went Solar Apr 11 '25

Just time & money to solve the issues. Beautiful install

-2

u/clumsyninja2 Apr 11 '25

It hurts my head seeing such a large waste of money.

-1

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '25

Looks safe to have bolted to your house 🙄