Helios Eco Lab

Helios Eco Lab The page chronicles the quest for developing new technologies and behaviours for everyday living that are affordable, fun and sustainable.

Anyone interested in a couple of SMA Sunny Island Inverters? (The yellow boxes) my pride and joy for 12 years charging ...
08/08/2026

Anyone interested in a couple of SMA Sunny Island Inverters? (The yellow boxes) my pride and joy for 12 years charging my lead batteries and providing an AC grid for the house, no problems at all, until my lead batteries finally gave up the ghost and I switched to Lithium, which as I discovered my SMAs are not set up for. Believe me I tried everything to reset them but to no avail. SMA were number 1 globally for off grid inverters when I bought them in 2014. Sadly SMA departed the Greek market and provide very minimal back up. Very disappointing to see this from a top German brand. So I kept the 3 SMA Sunny Boy PV inverters and purchased a 15kW Victron Inverter to replace the 2 Sunny Islands, So far so good. I chose Victron because they are a top off grid Dutch brand supported here. I could have gone for one of the many cheaper Chinese hybrid inverters but I need support to be around for 10-20 years as technology changes.

When you have had just too much of geopolitics then get out and plant vegetables and build a dome with a bunch of bright...
29/03/2026

When you have had just too much of geopolitics then get out and plant vegetables and build a dome with a bunch of bright eyed schoolkids and reignite that sense of optimism and purpose from deep within. Many thanks to Elena Pappas, Troop Leader and all the other helpers mums and dads and children for an uplifting day last 15th of March.

Micro wind has taken a back seat in the renewables story whilst photovoltaics have gone crazy, so too mega wind and offs...
14/02/2026

Micro wind has taken a back seat in the renewables story whilst photovoltaics have gone crazy, so too mega wind and offshore wind, all for good reason, they just work so well. But micro wind has a special place in my heart, it was my first venture into sustainability age 15 when I attached some balsa wood blades on to a bicycle wheel and attached it to a pole, and it went around. The joy of that moment never left me and is why I still have one spinning away doing not so much apart from making me smile. Last weekend was windy and I managed to get 1kW out of my turbine for a few brief moments but that’s pretty good, equal to 3 solar PV panels, and it works at night too, but in reality it’s only viable in super strong winds. As a rule of thumb if the trees around you are permanently bent from the wind like you see on mountain tops or remote exposed locations then it’s a great choice.

After 11,5 years we finally replaced our lead batteries with 7 x 7.2 kWh Leoch Lithium LifePO4 batteries. As an illustra...
17/01/2026

After 11,5 years we finally replaced our lead batteries with 7 x 7.2 kWh Leoch Lithium LifePO4 batteries. As an illustration of how the industry has moved and in particular reduced size and cost, the original lead AGM batteries cost a little over 7k euros for 28 KWh. Because lead batteries degrade sharply if you deep discharge I was very careful and very rarely went below 50% meaning I would obtain twice the amount of cycles. I was told 5 years life, 7 if you are lucky or in my case 11,5 years if you are super careful. So the 28 kWh battery lead battery was in effect just half that 14kWh. It was fine if you did your big loads like EV car charging when it was sunny and just light loads like lighting at night, plus perhaps a quick toast or warming of soup. We now have 50kWh, almost x4 the effective size for roughly the same price with 2/3 the physical footprint and hopefully 6000 cycles, let’s see in 10-20 years! PS the last months have been quite a struggle as the old lead battery was really dead, if a cloud went over with a big load, off it would go unless I switched on the 22kWh auxiliary battery rebuilt from a salvaged Peugeot. It was kind of fun improvising for a while and even going down to 31 volts which I thought impossible for a 48 volt battery, an education you might say getting every last electron out. Lead is a toxic material of course and should not be prematurely discarded and has gone for recycling. Lithium too does have an environmental footprint but rest assured this piece of kit will also be milked to the maximum Over the next 20 years the comparative carbon, environmental and financial cost of fossil fuels would be astronomically high compared to my solar / battery system and without hesitating is the right way to go. And who knows the technological advances around the corner with sodium batteries and alike?

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