FAQ's, Support & Downloads

Each premises (home or business) is different and the equipment you require will depend on your individual requirements. We strongly recommend you speak to a qualified electrician for advise and to arrange installation of your solar / battery system. To connect your battery to your home / grid you will need a suitable hybrid/off-grid battery inverter. A range of inverters are available on the market however some of the popular brands include: - Victron - Solis (5G Hybrid Range) - Sol-Ark - SolaX - MegaRevo - Luxpower - Growatt - Goodwe - Deye

Currently, e4LiFe is predominantly a Battery supplier, helping support the Solar industry with the every growing demand for energy storage solutions. We are currently considering our position on this and may look at working with major reputable Inverter distributors / manufacturers to provide a range of high quality, reputable Inverter models alongside our battery products. In the meantime, whilst this list is not exhaustive and will be constantly updated, high end, reputable Inverter brands compatible with our batteries include: Victron, Voltronic Power, MPP Solar, Sol-Ark, Solis, Megarevo, Luxpower, Growatt, Goodwe, Deye You can purchase some of these Inverter brands from all good Solar Distributors and Professional Solar Installers.

On the sides of the E4L512100 Server Rack Battery, there are detachable Wings (with mounting holes) for securing the battering into a 19" Rack. Next, to these we have the foldable handles for moving the battery around and can be conveniently folded away once the battery is located in its final position. The RED (LIVE) and BLACK (NEUTRAL) Dual Terminals are size M8 with protective safety covers. There is a separate switch for the BMS so you can check the battery status even when the battery output breaker is off. The 125A Breaker is for isolating the battery Positive output terminal. There are 4 Ports, CAN Comms, RS485 Comms, 2x Battery Comm Ports. Should you need to recover the battery from a BMS shutdown, there is a recessed BMS Reset Switch. LED Indicators: ALM (Alarm LED) - Indicates there’s an issue with the battery . RUN (BMS Run LED) - Indicates the BMS is running. SOC (State of Charge LED’s) - Indicates the SOC in 25% increments. The DIP Switch is to uniquely identify each battery. The LCD Display will allow you to quickly and easily check the status and statistics of the battery.

Warning: Connecting a Battery Bank to an Inverter can cause damage if done incorrectly. Fortunately, the E4L512100 has a built in pre-charge resistor, to prevent such damage and allow the capacitors in the Inverter to energise safely. In order to ensure this feature works properly though, you should follow this start-up procedure. Make sure any isolation switches between the battery and the inverter are already in the ON position before you Power on the Battery. If the isolation breaker between the battery and the inverter is OFF when you power up the batteries, the pre-charge process is not going to be able to work! Start-up Process (assuming everything is starting from an OFF situation) Turn on the isolation breaker between the battery and the Inverter. Power ON the battery(s), staring with the Master battery using the breaker on the front of the battery. (The lights on the Battery will cycle through the startup process. You should hear a clicking sound whilst the Pre-Charge circuit passes power to the capacitors in the Inverter. When compete, you should see the SOC State of Charge lights illuminate and the Run LED should be blinking to indicate the battery is ready to accept a load) Turn on the Inverter (inverter power up procedure typically takes 10-20 seconds)

The E4L512100 battery includes CAN and RS485 Communications that will allow the battery to communicate with your computer and many of the Inverters on the market today but it is not necessary for the safe operation of the battery! Our e4LiFe batteries are built with the highest quality and standards to operate safely and manage themselves independently. The BMS (Battery Management System) will handle all situations with features such as: Voltage Protection The BMS monitors the voltage of every cell in the battery to protect against over or undercharge situations when both charging and discharging the battery. Current Protection The BMS monitors the current at all times, during charging and discharging. The battery will allow higher rates of current for short periods of time but will automatically shut off should these conditions exceed a safe level and in order to protect the health of the battery. BMS PCB Temperature Protection The BMS has its own Temperature Protection Sensor that will turn the unit off in an event of overheating. Cell Temperature Protection The BMS will constantly monitor the temperature of the cells in the battery with multiple temperature sensors spread across the pack. This includes LOW and HIGH temperature protection to ensure the cells do not exceed safe temperatures that could damage the battery. Cell Balance Protection The BMS will constantly monitor all the cells in the battery and keep them in balance to ensure the longevity and health of your battery for many years to come!

The e4LiFe E4L512100 Battery has an Industry leading exceptional build quality and we are more than happy to show off the Internals! Inside, the battery compartment is assembled with only the highest Grade A+ rated Lithium Iron Phosphate Cells. The individual cells are housed in a custom hardened plastic housing to protect the cells, this housing allows proper compression and routing of the cable management wires and sensors. Cells and Bus-Bars are Laser Welded for a superior connection. The internal cable management is wrapped, tagged, labelled and secured against movement, including all BMS, Voltage, and Temperature Sensor connections. The Battery compartment is isolated from the front BMS compartment with a metal divider. The battery also has a Built-in Pre-charge Resistor to allow safe connection to the Inverter.

If you have any questions about a product you have purchased form e4Life please contact us at support@e4Life.uk Our friendly team will be happy to help ------------------------------------ You can find manuals for all our products in the Downloads category.

Whilst the BMS will protect the battery against exceeding charging parameters, your Inverter, Charger or Charge Controller should be configured with the following parameters: Bulk/Absorption: 56.4 Float: 54V Battery Temperature Range (Charging): 0°C to 45°C Battery Temperature Range (Discharging): -20°C to 55°C Cell Temperature Protection (Charging & Discharging): <0°C or >70°C

There is a bank of 4 DIP Switches on the front of the battery that uniquely identify each battery to the system. In a multiple Battery setup, there can be only one Master Battery and all batteries must have a unique address. DIP SW settings for communications from (Master) Battery to Inverter = 1 (DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, UP) DIP SW settings should be made when the Battery is Powered OFF. You can change the DIP SW settings whilst the battery is on but they won’t take effect without power cycling the battery. The Master Battery should be connected to the Inverter by connecting one end of a longer RJ45 lead to the RS485 port on the battery to the BMS port on the Inverter. All the other batteries should be daisy chained together with the short RJ45 leads. Here is an example of the DIP SW settings of a 6 battery stack (with the batteries having addresses 1 to 6 with 1 being the master battery): 4 WAY DIP SW VALUES = 8, 4, 2, 1 ADDRESS 1 - DOWN, DOWN, DOWN, UP (MASTER BATTERY) ADDRESS 2 - DOWN, DOWN, UP, DOWN ADDRESS 3 - DOWN, DOWN, UP, UP ADDRESS 4 - DOWN, UP, DOWN, DOWN ADDRESS 5 - DOWN, UP, DOWN, UP ADDRESS 6 - DOWN, UP, UP, DOWN

Normally we would recommend your solar professional installer configure these settings but below is an example for Growatt (and various brands made by Voltronic Power e.g. MPP Solar etc.) Many inverters share the same menu system and structure: Growatt: Press and hold the ENTER button for 3 seconds to enter the configuration menu Press the DOWN button to get to Menu 5 (Battery Mode) Press the ENTER button to enter Menu 5 (US2 should be blinking) Press the DOWN button until the option LI (for Lithium) appears Press the ENTER button to select this option Sub-Menu 36 should now appear for the Inverter Protocol (default value will probably be L00 if this has not been changed before) Press the ENTER button to change the Protocol and the first digit should flash Press the ENTER button again to move onto the second digit which should flash Press the UP button to increase the last digit from 0 to 1 (It should now read Protocol L01) When Sub-Menu 36 flashes again, you can now hit the ESCAPE button to save and exit the configuration menu Voltronic (MPP Solar, Voltacon etc. 5kW models): Terminology Utility = Grid Press and hold the ENTER button for 3 seconds to enter the configuration menu Setting 01: SBU (Solar, Battery, Utility) Setting 03: Ups Setting 05: LI b (Lithium Battery Protocol) Setting 06: Ltd (Auto restart after overload) Setting 07: Ttd (Auto restart after over temperature) Setting 08: 50 Herts (Output frequency for UK) Setting 10: 230V (Output Voltage for UK) Setting 11: 30A (Maximum charging current from Utility) Setting 12: 46V (Voltage point switch back to the Utility) Setting 13: 54V (Voltage point switch back to Battery) Setting 16: Cso (Charging Source Solar Priority, Utility if no Solar available) Setting 23: Bye (Enable Bypass so if the system is overloaded, it switches to use the Utility) Setting 21: (Related to Setting 12) Setting 26: 56.4 (Bulk CV setting), (Set to 58V for first charge to charge battery to 100%, then change back) Setting 27: 54.0V (Float Setting, we do not want to float LiFePO4) Setting 29: 42.0V (Low DC cut off voltage setting)