Having a solar battery bank can significantly boost your power bill savings and your energy independence. If you’ve already added a solar battery bank to your system, but you feel like it’s not quite meeting your needs, you might be wondering if you can expand it and add more storage to your system. The good news is, expanding a solar battery system is usually quite simple. Keep reading to learn more about expanding it a safe, efficient, and effective manner.

Assess Compatibility

First and foremost, before you even purchase new batteries for your bank, you need to evaluate the specifications of your existing batteries. To ensure compatibility and optimal efficiency, any new batteries you find should match the existing ones in voltage, capacity (amp-hours), chemistry, and age. This last factor can be a bit of a hang-up for some people. After all, why would you want to search for batteries that are already a year or 2 old?

Mixing battery types or adding new batteries to an older battery bank can cause performance issues or shorten the lifespan of all the batteries in the system. So, if your current batteries are near the end of their life (particularly if they’ve exceeded their warranty), consider replacing the entire bank instead for uniformity.

Determine the Size You Need

You already know that your current bank isn’t meeting your needs, but have you calculated just how much it’s falling short? You need to calculate your daily energy consumption again and consider how many extra hours of backup energy you want. Once you have a good idea of the additional hours needed, calculate how many additional batteries are required, based on the storage offered by your current ones. Don’t forget to factor depth of discharge into your calculations.

Plan for Space and Ventilation

You’ll also need to consider how much physical space you actually have for the battery bank. Can you fit the number of batteries that you need into the space available? Ventilation also matters for certain battery types, like lead-acid batteries. With these chemistries, gas buildup can occur, increasing the risk of overheating. Make sure you have enough space to allow for both the storage and the ventilation of any batteries that you’ll add.

Reconfigure the Wiring and Connections

Once you have your batteries, you’ll need to adjust your system’s wiring to fit them in. Reconfigure the wiring layout to avoid imbalanced charging or discharging, which can damage the batteries. Make sure you’re using wires with an appropriate gauge for the additional current and ensure secure connections on the battery terminals to reduce resistance and heat.

Upgrade Your Inverter and Charge Controller

With an expanded battery bank, you’ll need to verify that your inverter and charge controller can handle the additional load. Some charge controllers have maximum current limits, and adding too may batteries will overwhelm the system. If necessary, upgrade the charge controller to one with a higher amp rating. You might also need to upgrade the inverter to accommodate the additional stored DC power, and converting it to AC power.

If you follow these steps, your Pylontech Pelio battery bank can be expanded to meet your growing energy needs.