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fredhen

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About fredhen

  • Birthday 26/11/1990

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  1. We've got a solar geyser at our place and I made it quite simple by adding a TDDGT timer in the DB board which turns the geyser on at 5pm and off at 6pm and again from 5am until 6am, but with a low-ish temperature set on the thermostat of 55 degrees. This is simply to ensure that there is warm water in the evenings and in the mornings. If the sun was out in full force and the water temperature is higher than 55 degrees already then the thermostat simply won't switch on the element. I think that's the most basic of basic and cheap configurations to ensure there's warm water, but you can obviously then start looking at Sonoff's with relays and temperature sensors etc. which a lot of people are doing to feed excess solar into the geyser if the batteries are fully charged etc.
  2. I'm not 100% sure, but I doubt it as it's only a GUI change in VRM with how information is displayed to you. From what I can see from the release notes for v2.60 of Venus OS there's nothing specific related to the VRM changes.
  3. The Powerwall comes with a 13.5 kWh battery that can be 100% discharged and an inverter that can do 5kW continuous and 7kW peak output. By default you can only charge the battery from the grid. If you would like to be able to charge using solar power you will need to also add a separate 5kW PV inverter. In my opinion you can sort of compare it as 4-5 Pylontech US3000 batteries with a Victron Multiplus-II GX 48/5000/70-50. Adding the GX as it also give you the monitoring that you get with the Powerwall although you need to buy a Powerwall Gateway 2 for that if I remember correctly), so it can be similar to a Multi without a GX device, but most people want monitoring. The difference would be that if you would like to charge using solar power then you only need to add MPPT/s which works out quite less than having to add a PV inverter (like the Fronius Primo 5.0-1), but you can also add it as it is supported by the Multi.
  4. An additional point is also that what is generated needs somewhere to go. Do you have any loads on at that time / have batteries charging / allow feedback to the grid? Otherwise it may be possible that it's only generating what is required.
  5. I'm just going to ping @plonkster for this one, but if I remember correctly the 'consensus' was that if the price for the Multi & separate GX compared to the Multi GX is about the same it's worth going for the GX-model. I think he also mentioned the GX in the Multi being the best GX device and even better than the Cebro GX. This I'm not 100% sure on that. But I guess that it's much of a muchness except that if the GX in the Multi fails that it's not as easy as just swapping out the GX. Similar to a EasySolar where a MPPT fails compared to a standalone MPPT failing. To be honest though, yes, there's a chance of that happening, but if you're going blue I think it's a small chance of it happening. From my side I would just go with the Multi with the GX included if the price is similar.
  6. No need to apologize! I just quickly copy pasted it as I happened to have it open. As far as I know the apps are in fact simply displaying the website through the app, so the app is actually just loading up the website.
  7. Ah, that changes it. How long does your current batteries last for when used for self consumption? I'm guessing they already easily last through a loadshedding stint? I doubt you'll get a quick ROI if that is what you are after (you definitely won't if it's financed) and your goal doesn't seem to be going as off grid as possible. For you I would say it will most likely not be worth it. Even if you factor in a very conservative 6% Eskom increase a year along with a 3% loss in capacity in the battery (to get to the ~85% SOH after ~1675 cycles mentioned in the report) you'll only reach R15k worth of battery usage after 9 years at 80% DOD on a US2000 (if my quick math is correct). And that's if you run them down to a 20% SOC daily. I think a potential factor to consider would be determining how long your 2x US2000's lasts you when being used for self consumption and if it'll be worth adding another. And like Louis mentioned you can always change the self consumption to not go lower than the percentage needed to easily get you through a loadshedding stint and when we potentially have weeks of non-stop loadshedding next year you can change that to a much higher value or even set it to keep batteries charged which will then cope with an evening and morning loadshedding stint. Yes, it's not exactly part of the question, but that's something that is normally in the back of your mind when figuring out battery capacity (at least for me). It's a nice to have, definitely, but I think most people are after something that will easily cope with a stint of loadshedding along with the added benefit of using it during the evenings and getting more value out of your PV by charging the batteries with it the next day.
  8. Can you please share that once done? That's something I've been meaning to look into.
  9. I think it's best to play it safe and get 2x US3000's. It's about the batteries that should be able to accommodate the peak load of the inverter which is 5500 W / ~115A for that model. The US3000 can peak at 100A and this may void your warranty if that happens. You can pick 2x of them up for R40k from a couple of places although I'm not too sure about shipping costs.
  10. If I remember correctly and based on what I've read before you can't really get away with it as you won't have a warranty on the battery and/or inverter. The reason being that you need a battery that can accommodate for the peak load of the inverter which is 5500W / ~115A. And with an expensive battery you wouldn't really want to play with not having a warranty. Just for the batteries or including the inverter? Because I'm sure you can pick up 2x US3000's for R40k, but if it's along with the Multi I'd suggest extending that hard cap a little bit and getting 2x US2000's then. It looks like you can get the Multi and 2x US2000's for ~R50k. Only another R10k but if you're planning on extending the bank it's not like you'll sit with too much capacity that'll go to waste. I don't think you can go wrong there. It's well known and supported by the Multi and relatively cheap in comparison to other options out there.
  11. Well I guess an option would be to have a big bank that won't be able to charge from 20% SoC to 100% SoC with the PV available in which case Victron's BatteryLife (if enabled) will kick in. The way I understand it (pretty much pasting from there) is that it will raise the Low SOC limit by 5% each day until it reaches a 85% SoC. It will then stay on that level, but if it reaches 95% then it will lower the Low SOC limit by 5% again. It's not exactly the "ensure 100% once a week" state, but it ensures that it reaches 85% to 100% each day.
  12. Others are also able to blend, but just confirm it as there are some claiming to be Hybrid or whatever the exact term should be, but that definition has lost its meaning and it is now also seen as being able to power from either grid OR PV and not mix grid AND PV. But the Victron inverters like the MultiPlus-II does blend. Is the plan to have all 3x units connected up to the Inverter? I'm guessing that everything will then be on AC Out 1 seeing how each unit has their own meter, DB etc. so it won't be possible to have something like the ovens, geysers etc. on AC Out 2? Although you could of course have yourself on AC Out 1 and then put Skoonma and Tony on AC Out 2 which means that they'll go down when the grid goes down and you'll carry on from the batteries (or just cut Tony as it seems like Skoonma doesn't really have big loads). That's sneaky, but something I'd do as it's most likely not possible to have everyone running off batteries. I think so too, yes. If I have it correctly the MultiPlus-II 5000VA unit can use ~4000W from PV / battery and also blend in another 50A from the grid which is 11 000W at 220V - 12 000W at 240V. You will have to keep in mind that the inverter can only do ~4000W when the grid has failed. Yes, it can spike to 9000W for a second or so, but will generally only handle a maximum constant 4000W or less depending on the temperature. (Which is why I mentioned still giving Tony loadshedding) Just make sure that the batteries that you have are able to reach the 9000W peak of the inverter. The MultiPlus-II can peak at 9000W for example which is 187.5A at 48V. I think the more technically inclined folk like @plonkster & @Jaco de Jongh will be able to answer in more detail and confirm or deny my statements.
  13. That I'm not sure of. The way that I understand it is that it should work similar to how it works now with the LV-Hub becoming the master similar to how it's working at the moment as you can connect to the hub using CAN / RS485. I'm just not sure how exactly it will look and if you will see 12x batteries, 2x groups of batteries or just 1x bank. I think the best would be to ask ICC as I'm sure they would have had installations using the LV-Hub.
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