Huawei Luna2000 S0 Battery Review | Instyle Solar (2023)

The Huawei Luna2000 SO is a lithium-ion battery with a modular design, allowing you to stack up to three 5 kWh battery modules to create a 15 kWh powerhouse battery. You can further connect two of these for a 30 kWh battery system.

It features a 95% round trip efficiency and 100% depth of discharge, so you can use a more significant percentage of the battery’s capacity.

If you already have a solar system or are planning to purchase one, adding a solar battery may be wise if you aim to maximise self-consumption. It stores excess energy produced from the solar panel, which you can use to power your home when your solar panel cannot generate electricity during nighttime, power outages, and overcast days.

All you need is a high-quality battery system that’s both efficient and reliable. However, choosing one can be overwhelming with so many solar batteries and manufacturers on the market.

This thorough review of the Huawei Luna2000 SO battery aims to make your choice a lot more manageable. Launched in May 2021, the Luna2000 SO battery is barely a year old, but it’s already seizing a substantial market share.

This post will examine the Huawei Luna2000 solar battery’s technical specifications, features, and warranty.

What is the Huawei Luna2000 SO Battery?

Huawei Luna2000 SO is a range of high-voltage lithium solar batteries manufactured by Huawei Technology Co. Ltd applicable to residential solar systems mounted on the roof. It’s a stackable 5 kWh module with output power reaching up to 2.5kW, which can achieve a maximum possible capacity of 30 kWh.

It has a smart string energy storage system (ESS) that lets you place solar batteries in a string, similar to solar panels, with a maximum of three battery modules. Its power module on the top is connected by a DC coupling to an ESS, with a maximum of three battery modules to store excess electricity from your solar panels.

Each module has a built-in energy optimiser that prevents unwanted balancing of currents by regulating the charging and discharging processes inside the module.

Additionally, it ensures that risks of deep charging, overcharging, and overheating are avoided.

It is manufactured by the Chinese corporation Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. In 1987, Huawei was founded as a telecommunication equipment company and became popular for producing and selling consumer electronics product lines and telecommunications gadgets.

They soon became the second-largest manufacturer of smartphones in the world, second only to Samsung.

However, Huawei ceased selling in the US market because of the tensions between China and the U.S. administration at the time. They relocated to Canada because the restrictions in the US would block their interaction with employees.

Although Huawei and ZTE are prohibited from supplying technology to Australia’s 5G network mainly due to the government concerns about unauthorised access, their solar products have a strong presence in Australia in the country.

Huawei is relatively new in the solar industry, but it has designed some excellent solar products, such as its solar inverters. In fact, their Sun2000 inverters are already some of the best solar inverters on the market.

Huawei soon dominated the global market share of solar inverters, becoming the largest inverter supplier since 2015 and one of the leading solar inverter manufacturers worldwide.

Chart of Global Shipments from Wood Mackenzie.

Following the success of these inverters, Huawei launched the Luna2000 battery for solar energy storage.

Is the Huawei Luna2000 SO Solar Battery Worth it?

With a sleek design, sophisticated technology, and other useful features, the Luna2000 SO solar battery is definitely worth it. With high electrical costs, it’s a practical choice for minimising your electrical bills, storing, and using the excess energy generated by the solar panels.

Generally, batteries store any excess energy for use during night time or on cloudy days when solar panels cannot generate electricity. With the addition of solar batteries, you can double the amount of self-generated electricity consumption as well as save yourself from paying power bills.

The maximum amount you can save from a solar battery will vary on several factors. This includes the feed-in tariff available in the state, total installed cost after subsidy, battery’s usable capacity, sable capacity, and the capacity factor you will use it at, among others.

If you use your solar battery at a capacity factor of 50%, it is less likely to pay for itself, even with the subsidised prices.

To calculate the possible savings you can get from a solar battery, we will take a look at first the most competitive retail electricity plans available in each city in Australia. These are Flat Tariffs (the same charge for every kilowatt-hour of grid electricity) and Time-of-use Tariff (charge per kilowatt-hour depends on time used).

These rates are inclusive already of retailer discounts.

We will then present the estimated payback period and savings per year of a family with an average daily energy use of 20 kWh.

The Payback Period Battery in the table refers to the time it takes for the savings earned by the battery to pay and recover the upfront battery costs.

Meanwhile, the Total Year 1 Savings refers to the amount reduced in the bill in the first year.

This shows that a 5 kWh Luna2000 can pay for itself because of its ease of storage and charging with solar electricity during the day. You can use the stored excess power at night or during peak periods on a time-of-use tariff.

Because the Luna2000 SO is a modular type, you can purchase a 5 kWh for starters and later on expand to 10 kWh if you wish to. The great aspect about its modules is that each has its own warranty and that the performance of one module will not affect the performance of the other modules.

So, you can expand the battery capacity whenever you want to.

How Much Storage does Huawei Luna2000 SO Have?

The Huawei Luna2000 S0 battery storage contains one power module and at least one battery module.

The battery modules have an individual energy capacity of 5 kilowatts-hour (kWh). You can stack two or three modules for 10 kWh or 15 kWh total output, respectively.

There are three models of Huawei Luna2000 S0 batteries.

• Luna2000-5-S0: It features one power module and one 5 kWh battery module. It provides 2.5 kW of power output.
• Luna2000-10-S0: It includes one power module and two stacked 5 kWh battery modules. It delivers 5 kW of power output.
• Luna2000-15-S0: It has one power module and three stacked 5 kWh battery modules. It generates 5 kW of power output.

You can get even more battery storage capacity by connecting two battery towers in parallel. You simply connect two Luna2000-15-S0 batteries in tandem for a combined capacity of 30 kWh.

How Long will the Huawei Luna2000 SO Solar Battery Run My Home?

Typically, a single-phase connection with the Huawei Luna2000 SO solar battery can make it possible for a small house to operate completely off-grid as long as it’s not running more than 5 kW of continuous power. That being said, how long a solar battery can last depends on what you are powering on it.

The Luna2000 SO has a capacity of 5 kWh up to 30 kWh. This means that with a minimum of 5 kWh of stored power, the Luna2000 SO could theoretically run your microwave for five hours straight. However, you can only use it for 30 minutes if other appliances and lights are simultaneously activated at once.

The solar battery can last for a day as long as you do not add a big power consumer, like an air-conditioning unit, because these appliances quickly drain the battery. You also have to watch out for peak loads. For instance, air conditioners draw high peak currents when the heat pumps and the compressor starts up.

Huawei Luna2000 S0 Technical Specifications

The Luna2000 S0 batteries datasheet shows that they are great solar energy storage systems.

Take a look at their technical specifications, based on performance, communication infrastructure, and general specifications:

Huawei Luna2000 SO Key Features

The Huawei Luna2000 S0 batteries boast some fantastic features, including modular design, energy optimiser with Smart String technology, IP 66 protection rating, cooling by natural convection, and more.

• Modular System

These Huawei solar batteries have a modular design. You can stack them to increase your solar battery capacity.

You’ll find the modular design invaluable on a budget because it allows you to start small and grow your solar energy storage unit over time.

For example, buying the costly 13.5 kWh Tesla Powerwall may be too much for some. Instead, you can choose the lower capacity Huawei Luna2000-5k-S0 battery and later add one or two modules, taking your battery system to 10kWh or 15kWh capacity, depending on your needs.

The modular design of the Huawei batteries offers customers flexibility when purchasing an energy storage system. You can add up to three extra modules to expand storage capacity.

• Smart String Technology

Each Huawei Luna2000 battery module of the Huawei Luna2000 is equipped with an energy optimiser. Huawei dubs this “smart string technology.”

The performance of a battery storage unit deteriorates with age. Let’s say you begin with the Luna2000-5-S0 (which has one module) and later add another module to the system. The performance of the older battery module will be lower than the newer model.

And similar to what happens in a string of solar panels with different power outputs, the new battery module will not function optimally. Instead, it’ll be forced to operate at the low-performance level of the older module.

The built-in energy optimisers of the Huawei batteries function like solar panel optimisers in a string of solar panels. The optimisers ensure that the newly added battery module performs optimally irrespective of the performance of the older modules.

• Battery Chemistry

The Huawei Luna2000 S0 batteries are lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4). When the battery charges, lithium ions move from the positive electrodes to the negative electrode, and when it discharges, the ions go in the opposite direction.

Simply put, these LiFePO4 batteries are a recent innovation in solar battery technology. They are generally more efficient than lead-acid batteries because they have a higher depth of discharge (DoD) and round trip efficiency.

This makes the Huawei Luna2000 highly efficient batteries. The LiFePO4 chemistry also means that they are easy to maintain.

• IP 66 Protection Rating

The Huawei Luna2000 battery has a high degree of protection. It has an Ingress Protection rating of IP66.

Ingress Protection is a rating standard that indicates the level of protection an enclosure for electrical equipment has against liquids and solids. For Luna2000 SO, they have an IP66 protection rating is the highest for an electrical enclosure. The batteries are completely secure against dust and strong water jets.

• Cooling by Natural Convection

A notable feature of the Huawei Luna2000 S0 batteries is that they don’t have cooling fans. Instead, they use natural convection to regulate temperature.

The battery casing sports a heat sink at the back, with unique indentations that allow the inflow and outflow of air. The battery cools as hot air flows out of it and cool air flows in.

The heat sink is unconventional, but it works very well. Huawei perfected this feature in its mobile phones. The company introduced these special cooling indentations to residential solar products in the SUN2000 Huawei solar inverters that convert DC power to AC in solar systems.

The heat sink was highly effective in cooling the inverters because a number of the Huawei solar inverters outperformed other inverters in temperature tests.

• Sleek and Portable Design

The Huawei Luna2000 batteries replicate the sleek and compact design of the Sun2000 Huawei inverters.

The all-white battery has a small interface on the front of the power module that features a SOC (state of charge) indicator.

The power module on top of the unit measures 26.4 W x 5.9 D x 9.4 H inches, while the battery module measures 26.4 W x 5.9 D x 14.0 H inches. So, even if you choose the maximum (3-battery module), the battery tower measures only 26.4 x 5.9 x 60 inches. The Huawei Luna2000 can be installed virtually anywhere with such a minimal footprint.

• Backup Box Included for Backup Power

The Huawei battery includes a backup box. This unit controls the inverter’s grid-tied or off-grid state. If the grid fails and there’s a blackout, the solar inverter will switch to the off-grid state and provide power from the battery to loads in the backup panel.

Batteries cannot provide backup power except when installed with a backup box. Since these Huawei batteries come equipped with them, you avoid the additional expense of installing a backup box.

• 100% Depth of Discharge (DoD)

The depth of discharge is how much of a battery’s power you can use without affecting its future performance.

Draining a battery before fully charging it will negatively affect its future performance. This story is true for most batteries but not for the Huawei Luna2000.

The 100% DoD of the Huawei Luna2000 means that you can deplete all its charges without damaging it. This makes the Huawei Luna2000 batteries quite special. Even the most highly regarded solar batteries can’t reach 100% DoD. For example, the LG Chem RESU DoD is 95%.

• 95% Round Trip Efficiency

With 95% round trip efficiency, the Huawei Luna2000 batteries are some of the most competent batteries in the market for discharging stored energy as usable electricity.

Ordinarily, a solar battery can’t discharge all its energy because of electrical losses. So, when looking at solar batteries, one important parameter is the round trip efficiency, which is the amount of stored electricity that a battery can discharge.

A high round trip efficiency is a strong selling point. It shows that more of the battery’s stored energy can be discharged as usable energy. The 95% efficiency of these Huawei batteries is some of the highest in the industry.

However, for reasons unknown, Huawei does not state the round trip efficiency of the battery in its datasheet.

• Near-Noiseless Operation

One advantage of not having internal cooling fans is that the Huawei battery is almost silent.

The noise level of the battery system is only 29 dB. To put this into perspective, we can imaginatively rate a whisper as 30 dB. The noise level of solar products with cooling fans is usually around 50 dB.

The almost-noiseless operation of the Huawei Luna2000 inverters makes them suited for environments where absolute silence is desired, such as hospitals and libraries.

Is Huawei Luna2000 SO Solar Battery Easy to Install?

Yes, Huawei Luna2000 SO solar battery is easy to install. You can install it anywhere, whether in an upright position against a wall or sitting on the ground. You can install it either indoors or outdoor – thanks to its ingress protection rating and operating temperature and humidity ratings.

The Ingress Protection rating of the Huawei Luna2000 S0 battery is 66. This score means they are dust-proof and water-proof (even to strong jets of water from any direction).

The operating temperature rating is -20℃ – 55℃ (-4℉ – 131℉), while the humidity rating is 5% – 95%. If you install your Huawei units outside, neither the winter cold nor summer heat will affect their performance.

However, this doesn’t mean that you should install them under direct sunlight, rain, or snow. The batteries should be installed in the shade.

Is the Huawei Luna2000 SO Solar Battery Reliable? Does it Include a Warranty?

The Huawei Luna2000 S0 battery is an extremely efficient solar battery with high round trip efficiency and depth of discharge. It’s also very reliable and backed with a solid warranty.

The Huawei batteries come with a 10-year warranty which you can claim in their Australian office and avail their services.

For the solar module, the guarantee is ten years. Huawei will be responsible if the battery develops any fault within ten years of purchase.

For the battery modules, the warranty is also ten years. However, they also include a life cycle discharge of 16.45 MWh. This inclusion means that the warranty period is ten years or when the battery has discharged 16.45 MWh of electricity (whichever comes first).

Individual battery modules have their own warranty. So, if you add a new battery module to your battery system, the 10-year warranty period on the new module starts from the moment you purchased it.

Another element of the warranty on the Huawei battery is that it allows the battery capacity to drop to 60%.

The more you charge and discharge a solar battery, the more it deteriorates. A clause is usually added to product warranties of batteries to state how much the capacity will drop before the guarantee becomes invalid. So, the lower the figure, the better.

A Luna2000 battery capacity will drop to 60% before its coverage expires. By comparison, Tesla Powerwall battery warranties only permit capacity to drop to 70%.

Is the Huawei Luna2000 SO Solar Battery Safe?

Yes, Huawei Luna2000 SO solar battery is safe. Huawei tested and secured certifications of the Luna2000 SO to prove that the product met the safety standards and requirements.

The Luna2000 battery itself is made from lithium iron phosphate (LiFePO4), which is the safest cathode material of all lithium-ion batteries.

It’s even included in the list of batteries approved by the Australian Clean Energy Council (CEC), a nonprofit and membership-based organisation that collaborates with the leading renewable energy, energy storage businesses, and solar installers in the country for the development of clean energy in the country.

They also work with different Commonwealth agencies and other regulatory bodies to continuously improve the standards in the solar industry.

A product approved by the CEC, such as the Huawei Luna2000 SO, certifies that it has been independently tested and meets the electrical safety and quality standards of the Clean Energy Council’s Battery Assurance Program.

Aside from that, the LUNA 2000SO also has a VDE2510-50 from VDE Prüf- und Zertifizierungsinstitut GmbH, which is a neutral and independent institution accredited nationally and internationally. They contribute to product safety, consumer protection, and the development of electrical standards for testing and certification of electrical components, equipment, and systems.

The VDE certification guarantees that the Luna2000 has been tested and proven to meet its requirements and standards.

Other certifications that Huawei received from following the standard compliance include CE, RCM, CEC, IEC62619, IEC 60730, and UN38.3.

For further assurance, Huawei has a great research and development facility. It has a 53.4% workforce dedicated solely to its research and development centre and even ranks third on the EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard. It even has a training centre in Sydney and a research and development centre in Melbourne.

Which Inverters are Compatible with the Huawei Luna2000 SO Battery?

The Huawei Luna2000 SO batteries are compatible with selected Huawei inverters. They are best compatible with single-phase or three-phase hybrid inverters, which makes the solar battery suitable for solar system owners who have a battery-ready setup.

These include:

• Sun2000-KTL-L1,
• Sun2000-KTL-M0,
• Sun2000-KTL-M1, and
• Huawei Sun2000-KTL-L1.

The Huawei Sun2000-KTL-L1 inverters are single phase inverters. The solar inverter models that the Luna2000 battery is compatible with are:

• Sun2000-2KTL-L1,
• Sun2000-3KTL-L1,
• Sun2000-3.68KTL-L1,
• Sun2000-4KTL-L1,
• Sun2000-4.6KTL-L1,
• Sun2000-5KTL-L1, and
• Sun2000-6KTL-L1.

Each version of these inverters is capable of off-grid operation when you connect them with the Luna2000 battery.

• Huawei Sun2000-KTL-M0

The Huawei Sun2000-KTL-MO are grid-tied three-phase inverters. The solar inverter models that work with the Luna2000 battery are:

• Sun2000-3KTL-M0,
• Sun2000-4KTL-M0,
• Sun2000-5KTL-M0,
• Sun2000-6KTL-M0,
• Sun2000-8KTL-M0, and
• Sun2000-10KTL-M0.

These three-phase hybrid inverters aren’t compatible with the backup box. They cannot provide backup power if the grid fails. Being hybrid inverters, you can directly connect to the battery storage system.

• Huawei SUN2000-KTL-M1

The Huawei Sun2000-KTL-M1 are also three-phase hybrid inverters. However, these can provide backup power during a blackout because they’re compatible with the backup box. These hybrid inverters even include an off-grid mode that makes them suitable for complete off-grid use.

The different versions of these inverters compatible with the Luna2000 batteries are:

• Sun2000-3KTL-M1,
• Sun2000-4KTL-M1,
• Sun2000-5KTL-M1,
• Sun2000-6KTL-M1,
• Sun2000-8KTL-M1, and
• Sun2000-10KTL-M1.

Although the Luna2000 is a DC-coupled battery, it’s possible for a Huawei inverter to AC couple the Luna2000 to your home if you already have an existing solar system without a compatible inverter.

If AC coupling is done, the inverter will not have a direct connection to the solar panels. The solar inverter may operate as a battery inverter for Luna2000 instead of functioning as a solar inverter.

This approach will require an additional cost for an inverter and additional installation work. The cost will likely be over $2,000. However, this kind of installation approach is uncommon in Australia.

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