Lifelynk in the Real World, AC Coupling

I’m back in Hong Kong and, for once, the weather is behaving. More importantly, we’ve been running a live demonstration of Lifelynk, and it’s one of those setups that really shows what the system can do when it’s pushed properly, not just on a datasheet.

In front of us we had two Lifelynk 3.6 units, each paired with 3.8 kWh batteries, plus an additional 5.3 kWh battery. Everything was wired in parallel – inverters in parallel, batteries in parallel – giving us around 13 kWh of usable storage on a very compact system.

The interesting part of this demo wasn’t the batteries though, it was how we AC-coupled a micro-inverter directly on the load side. Not on the grid side, but on the load output of the Lifelynk. That’s where things usually get complicated with most systems.

We connected the micro-inverter to the load terminals and ran a bank of lamps as a controllable load. At the start, the system was supplying around 800 W. That power was doing three things at once: feeding the load, charging the batteries, and doing all of it without importing a single watt from the grid. The AC supply was connected, but there was zero import. All the energy was coming purely from the micro-inverter on the load side.

Then we disconnected the grid entirely.

Lifelynk switched to full off-grid operation with a changeover time of about 10 milliseconds. On incandescent lamps you might just notice it. On TVs, computers, routers – you won’t see anything at all. That’s proper UPS-level performance, without any external boxes or gateways.

This is where Lifelynk being a true all-in-one hybrid really matters. MPPTs are built in. Off-grid capability is built in. Bidirectional power flow is native. There are no extra gadgets, no bolt-ons, no special gateways needed to make it behave.

As we increased the load, you could see the system thinking in real time. With a moderate load, the micro-inverter still supplied the power and the batteries simply charged more slowly. Increase the load further and, once demand exceeded what the micro-inverter could deliver, Lifelynk automatically flipped direction. The batteries stopped charging and began discharging to make up the difference. No delay, no manual setting, no drama. It just worked.

At one point the load reached around 860 W while the micro-inverter was producing about 800 W. The remaining power came seamlessly from the batteries. When we removed the load again, the system instantly reversed, sending energy back into the batteries. That is exactly what a proper bidirectional inverter should do.

One important detail is how the system behaves when the batteries approach full charge. Lifelynk manages this using frequency shifting. As the batteries fill, the output frequency rises slightly, up towards around 53 Hz. Micro-inverters and string inverters see this frequency shift and automatically reduce output, eventually switching off if needed. It’s simple, effective, and proven. No communications cables, no software handshake, just solid electrical control.

This means you can AC-couple generation on the load side or the grid side, on-grid or completely off-grid. If you’re off-grid and want to expand later, you can simply add a micro-inverter or another inverter on the load side. The system manages itself.

All of this was done with a single setting enabled in the menu for AC coupling. That’s it. No complicated commissioning process, no hidden tricks.

The big takeaway is this: Lifelynk really is a true all-in-one unit. Mount it, connect it, and it works. If you want more capacity, add batteries. If you want more power, add another Lifelynk. Two units double the output. One unit keeps things simple. You choose what fits the job.

This wasn’t a lab test or a polished marketing demo. It was a live system, switching between grid-connected and fully off-grid, handling changing loads, charging and discharging batteries automatically, and doing exactly what an engineer would expect it to do.

We’ll keep sharing more real-world demonstrations like this. Thanks for following us, and thanks for watching.