As you may know as a returning customer,  we have made the adjustment with a "plug in" to the shop which adjusts the prices depending how you pay. We had to them update the terms and conditions to reflect that the payment administration costs were a separate service. but we have also now had to align the "cash prices" as they were reduced from the "standard price" shown on the website.

Now for the batteries

RenewSolar last year put to tender the supply of battery packs, we do this now and them to ensure completion and lower the cost of batteries. The tenders are not just lowering prices but retaining quality and having what YOU want at the best price possible.
This means that your battery selection gets updated and we slot them into 3 categories, Budget, Mid range and top.

Budget would be your mid range batteries available from reputable suppliers. The idea here for us, is to cut as many corners as possible while retaining safety and functionality. all the frills are not there, but you get the essentials, capacity and reliability.

Our Mid range batteries are what you would find as the flag ship batteries from other companies. These have blue tooth wifi, brand names hardware and a little bit more on quality here as well as warranty and support.

The top range have more. Here we look at flag ship operation and over engineered solutions. A better managed battery and system which design and conformance as well as performance are considered. So you get extra. There would be higher capacity than stated, the setting will prolong the battery life and there is more hardware in the battery to ensure its operation and life span.

Warranty.
Budget battery will be basic, it will have 1 year manufacture warranty. no collect or return, and for faults past this period you may not be able to effect repair yourself, but you can send in hardware for repair and testing.

Mid range batteries often come with a  5 year warranty which includes capacity performance and collect and return service. Faults and testing are included in the warranty, but do check that they have the collect and return warranty as we have a bit of a wider range of batteries in the mid range section.

Top tier batteries come with a lot of support from us and the manufactures, we work together to ensure you don't have issues and can always rely on us both if you have any issues and questions for up to 10 years following your purchase.

No Warranty.
If you buy a battery that has no warranty, it does not mean you are buying at a big risk. RenewSolar is a ethical business; should your battery break or have an issue, you can contact us about it and you may find that you have a small easy, and cost effective repair. we offer diagnostic's and replacement parts as well as upgrades. and can fit them for you if required. This will be a charged service, but its wont be like taking a care to a garage ;)

Battery capacity.
All batteries should have the stated capacity as well our cells. should you find you do not, then contact us. Most of our battery supply chain offer a full refund. but before anyone says they capacity tested it and it was under, ensure that you know how to test and that you have calibrated testing equipment --- not some ebay / temu special.--

We do have test data and a lot of it when it comes to battery packs, they are pre tested by the manufacture and then tested before the build and then after. Cells are also matched in the process and so the likelihood that you have not got capacity is near zero. Budget tends to hit capacity, mid range is capacity and just over, and then premium is usually over capacity. in the premium battery range we may limit capacity in larger systems in order to retain life cycles of the battery, but you would still see the "stated capacity".

- Capacity drops
We are called out to test battery packs and problems from where fly by night solar companies install solar and batteries and then there are a lot of problems to fix. A common problem is a capacity drop.
And while I bash other companies, there are DIYers and special people who like to play around with settings and think they know best because they read on line...
The most common capacity fault is due to under charging or over charging. - Low voltage high current.

The second most fault is crap batteries and the wrong size.
Over using the batteries due to them being too small. reducing the life of the battery.
There are many "brands" that have got hyped, but are in fact terrible batteries, most people are now finding out how bad they were to listen to the "internet people".

There is of course cheap crap, which are usually ebay special or some one buying rubbish and selling it on ebay.  They often have used cells or faulty cells that work for a short time and as they are thrown together with a cheap BMS that cannot cope with the "problems" meaning that they have a short life.

There is of course a developed fault that can occur - balancer, lead circuit or even internal cell issues, they are fairly rare, but when shipping, they can happen.

In short.
All our batteries are a good quality and we price them fairly. we have a decent warranty process and we test and check everything. Problems let us know. You will wait around 30 days for a battery. buy with direct transfer and it cost less.

We have been getting more enquires about the growatt alt and I believe the page for the device is on back order as we had issues with the control software update (the software used to make the device)

we have all had issues with the growatt shinex which tends to work some of the time or lacks control and when there servers go down, your down too.

Status  - As of posting date.

We have updated the box that has the hardware, its now smaller!

it should now work, but.

I have not put my time into this as growatt is farily popular as they are cheap, but they are not considered the best inverters to use, as we all know SunSynk  or Deye are used and they also have a price tag ---- See our 6kw for best price. and to be fair you may want to reconsider how you use solar in your home. look up "grid attached" on the website.

If you want to order, then order or contact me for an update.
While it is important that I test that things work, it is for you to provide feedback either way.

BEST USE.
If you want big data, and control, then you should look at having HA  - we have a pre configured HA system, this allows you to almost "plug and play" which gives you all the essential parts. You can then use HA to complete automations to best use your solar power with control over charge and discharge as well as power rates (output). The system uses MQQT as a back bone. which is how I made the other devices (remote display)  with the HA the data is stored there and its not a limited system, its just the raw system which you can upgrade and update as your own.

SHINES 
The shine S is the serial device as some inverters use this. I made one and did not get feedback as to if it worked or not and how easy it was, I would assume that it works as people complain if it doesn't. ;)
SO this may be a gamble, I don't know.

The shinex and the ShineS are different as they use different control chips and the decoder is different, so the S has a secondary cable and decoder to read and write to your inverter. ( power and data - RS485)

RELIABILITY
Mine has been working non stop for 2 or 3 years now without any issues.
Software is maintained. for most you can remote update (you will be emailed updates) But if its not broke dont fix it.
The device is tested before being made available, but I dont have every inverter here to ensure that there are no problems or bugs. ( hence why feed back is important)

Rotation - Electronics 

I am having a hard time with considering the pack with them, it is simply because the movement can be more than 180 degrees. this would require a double arm ratchet movement, which also has to be strong enough to cope with wind. so it has to have moving power and stopping power.

Without this, the option is simply a pinch bolt that secures the rotation. this would be a friction part, but have considered adding bearings to make this more easy to move.

The Arms.
One of the more complex maths areas, as the weight and load has to be accounted for. 
Dropping the "face" for snow loads, opens up more problems for wind loads. as well as this you have a starting point of 3.4 meter full span, or half this on the pivot point. *1.65meters.

C channel (uni strut) I feel is too weak even at 41mm. Box would be more idea, and rails we have had a limit of 1.2 meters which falls a little short.

Well whats your thoughts?

IMPORTANT LESSION

In defense I have wired in inverters the wrong way. but  when we do the install we have to "prove" and "test" and also check, while most will do a double test, I do three before we even power up and then a follow test has to take place.

The plugs have tiny marks as to what wire they take and it can be easy to miss them or lose your place when wiring them.

And to make this even more of a chore, I once was trying to find a fault with the wrong polarity.. I spent about 2 hours trying to find the problem. - Meter wires were in the wrong ports.