Member Installations Showcase

Hi, I installed this backup system. I need some feedback on the installation to ensure everything is OK. I used: KODAK Solar Off-Grid Inverter King with UPS 5kW 48V (Axpert) 4 x 240Ah omnipower batteries. 50mm2 Battery Cable 80A Fuse on + battery cable Inverter Settings (Axpert): Program 1 : Utility first (default) Program 2 : 20A Program 5 : User Program 11 : 20A Program 26 : 56.4V Program 27 : 56.0V Program 29 : 45V

Hi everyone, My solution to Eskom and the global warming issue goes like this; for hot water; a Geyserwise 900W/2200W AC/DC element powered through a Microcare 40A MPPT from 4, 305W black series Sunpower solar panels and then for electrics a 3kW plus Infini powered from 14, 305W black series solar panels with 8 100Ah Lead Crystal batteries as backup. The system works great, the geyser has been up & running for just over a month and in this time I've only had to add AC power for half an hour on two occasions, otherwise we see 75 degrees almost every day. The inverter is a peach. The Infini has been operational for 3 weeks now and has surprised me with it's …

External grid : Eskom (old Rotating meter store exess power in grid, to avoid cycling batteries at night) Hybrid inverters: 2 X Victron Multiplu 48Volt/5000VA/70Amp, (master slave parallel operation give 10000VA), Victrons Include multistage chargers limited to 60A+60A=120A Battery charging current. Internal Grid: 2 X Eltek THEIA HE-t 4.4 grid-tie inverters providing power directly to load at 97% effeciency. excess is routed back to grid or batteries by victrons. The Victrons also Throttle excess power on Eltek's through frequency shifting when eskom down. Batteries : 24 X 2V @ 500A Lead Crystal Batteries CNF J-500, providing 48V @ 500A 20 …

When I bought my system, it was not possible to put it any of the outbuildings, it had to go in the main house, and I didn't really fancy having the batteries etc as a conversation piece (we don't have a garage that actually adjoins the house). The solution was to install in what used to be the linen cupboard. So here we go - Goodwe inverter and the Revov battery pack. The circuit breakers are mounted in two boxes inside the cupboard to the right.

My father and I are both installing Victron systems in PTA. His is functional, but needs quite a bit of tidying up, while mine will hopefully be connected in an almost tidy state. A few random pics. Decided to mount the charge controller to the battery cabinet - wanted to keep all the DC in there and minimize the number of devices on the wall.

My installation started in June 2019, but the actual process started in February 2019. The installation: Victron Multipuls II 48/5000 1xVictron MPPT 150/85 1x Victron Color Control GX 2 x US3000 Pylontech Li-Ion Batteries 16 x 330w Tier 1 Solar Panels 1 x ET112 Energy Meter 2 x Timers for my geysers 1 x "new" Non-essential DB I chose Victron mostly of what I read here on the forum, and also because I felt the Invertor is the best "value" for money compared to the more expensive "German" makes and cheaper "Chinese" makes and it is extensible if you need it to be. There is probably other make…

I wasn't in the mood to take a generic photo of the 6 x 330w Canadian Solar panels on the roof of the container, but here's the guts of the control gear mounted to one of the container walls. It's all flush with the insulated drywalling so it takes up no space at all. The solar panels flat-mounted on the roof also serve as a 'safari-roof' and keep the container cooler.

This person got hold of a Tesla motor vehicle battery pack and build his own power wall. Some nice stuff in this build. https://secondlifestorage.com/t-60kW-Whole-House-Powerwall-build

I have finally finished installing my Victron system , started by rewiring my old DB , wired from DB to Multiplus with 4mm .Then installed Solar MD 7.4kwh lithium and commissioned with the help of Kalo Yan from solar MD. With all that running smoothly I moved onto the 350w Art solar panels . I decided to go with 10 panels connected in 5 strings fed into fuses then Noarc 63A. I lazer cut my own roof mount brackets from 4.5mm stainless steel and used unistrut for the beams as I wanted a flush look if possible. I plan on running an ESS setup.

Hi everyone, Just sharing my installation thus far as I have learned a lot from you guys here on the forum. Installation consists of: 1x Axpert 5kw Inverter 4x Pylontech US3000 Batteries 15x 275watt JA Solar panels 3s x 5p (North at 25 degrees from horizontal) 160A Keto Battery Fuses / Disconnect 16A fuses on each PV string with a 63A DC Beny Isolator Have redone the complete main DB as it contained some very old circuit breakers and space was a problem. The whole house runs off solar except for the stove and hob (for now). I have a EV tube solar geyser, but have it on between 13:30 and 14:30 to heat up to 60 degrees with excess PV.…

Decided to try using a RHOMBERG SP510 to monitor RPF, and hopefully prevent the LANDIS+GYR prepaid meter from tripping. A 100A ct will be fitted to the live grid supply cable. The SP510, will control a 40A 4-pole N/O mechanical contactor, where my incoming grid load will be bridged across 2 contacts each. I know electrical engineering design, requires double contacts, decreasing the failure factor. As I am not in the COCT area, and don't have any local requirements to adhere too, I wanted to see how effective this will be. I do not intend exporting to the grid, so just wanted to add an extra level of safety in respect of ISLANDING, and the chance that these requireme…

Over the past couple months I've been in the process of getting a small property I bought in the Midlands livable and off-grid. The choice to go solar became a lot easier after seeing what Eskom charges for line rental and the general uncertainty WRT power supply. My initial plan was to install a Goodwe inverter but after posting my plan here a couple months back, @Chris Hobson suggested the Goodwe wasn't ideal for an off-grid set-up. Chris also gave up some of his time by letting me contact him via telephone to give some further info, for which I'm very appreciative. The system consists of 12 x 355w Canadian Solar Panels, mounted as two 6 panel strings. The pan…

As much as I've tried to support the local guys doing installations I have failed miserably. I have tried 6 installers and I've either had no response or an initial response and then silence. The one even chided me for buying the equipment directly from his wholesaler and 'cutting' him out, something that is not possible as the wholesaler does not sell directly to the public. In any case, even if it was true that I could buy directly and cut him out what is wrong with me trying to get the best value for my money. How is he entitled to my support? It's proven to be one of the most frustrating things I've ever had to do and something I'm struggling to understand. I am…

Turns out @The Terrible Triplett lives 2 streets down from me and is a nice guy willing to help 😎 So I kicked off this project. The kit: Victron MultiPlus II Inverter 48/3000/35-32 Victron Smart Solar MPPT 150/100 Victron Venus GX 6 x KuMax 350 panels. The existing DB board. A sad state of affairs. After the sparky pulled and labeled all the cables. Because of the uneven state of the wall we decided to mount everything on a plywood board. Board mounted on the wall with 2 new Hager DB's! To be continued...

After 2 months I started with my installation and will post progress here as I proceed. After reading a few books and websites I actually decided to do everything myself although I will need some-one to assist in lifting the solar panels onto the roof. This a quick post (while I wait for meeting to start) highlighting a few lessons learned to date: Get more than 3 quotes and buy the components where you can find the cheapest, even if you can buy from 5 different people. I selected to buy the bulk from one supplier thinking that the supplier will assist with a nice design and advice. Wrong. I will not go into that. There are numerous websites and forums that will as…

My build has kicked off today after weeks of trying to get a reputable installer for my panels a good friend came to the rescue and helped me with the installer he used for his system. Here are the first Pics 12 JA Panels, will update once the inverter is installed and supercap arrives

So this is the DB, the before and after.

Hi All, After some time planning and getting most of the stuff ready I got my panels and inverter up and running. Over the last few days, I prepared for the installation with hanging the inverter and installing the conduit and cables in the roof for a quick install. Electrician and the panels guys installed the rest the past weekend. Spec: Inverter : KSTAR KSG-4k Grid Tied Panel : 4 x 350w Canadian Solar Setup was in the garage as there is not space anywhere else. Panels is mounted NW as this is the only space that is available on the roof. Monitoring, moved my home power usage monitor to the inve…

Today in Cape Town it started misty but cleared up nicely. With @plonkster's help and after fixing a config problem on my inverter my "Grid-tie without feed-in" is working properly. This is where I used a python program on a Raspberry Pi to convert the measurements from my Carlo Gavazzi ET112 meter so it looks like the Eastron SDM630 that the inverter modbus card expects. I'll share this code sometime since the idea could be used to feed the modbus card data from anywhere - like EmonCMS for example. We had a high consumption day. My batteries also started the day quite empty and were fully charged about 16h30. Today the main consumers so far …

I have been reading quite a bit on this forum and found it very helpful. My main line of work is new Electrical installations in new houses but I do a few solar install in between. Included are a few pics, I am still learning and try to make each system better than the previous.

Our photovoltaic research installation was created in 2017 as part of the HYTTE experiment ( http://scanthesun.com/hytte/experiment.php?lan=EN ). After two years, we've collected enough data and soon we'll publish more information about the HYTTE experiment. Two rows of six PV panels each were placed according to the results of the ScanTheSun app calculations. The four panels in the middle were installed in a standard way (in the plane of the roof surface). The difference in energy yield is 20% in favor of ScanTheSun optimized panels. Here you will see our research installation from a drone camera https://youtu.be/iHMQuGmtM18.

So I have been operational for a week or so. But only rewired DB on saturday.. Multiplus II Venus GX MPPT 150/100 2x Pylontech US3000 ET112 Runs like a charm. If you look at the DB. from left to right. Mains Breaker, ET112, Geyser (Mains), Some plugs(mains), Timer (geyser) and then the load form the inverter. Lights and plugs. ps: yes still need to close busbar... waiting for a piece of plexiglass... Nice little hidden busbars for PV inputs I have one issues though.. I was running without the ET112 for a week. It would feed in to my mains load the excess MPPT without a problem. Now with the ET112 installed and hooked up it e…

This is my attempt to be free from load shedding and power failures. My home db. has been divided into 3 zones. (main house, granny flat and garage with small room) The granny flat is also connected to Axpert KS 3k inverter without pv panels. I will post this later. The parallel inverters are connected to the main house. The main house has a solar geyser which feeds a variable gas geyser. The stove is also run from gas. The inverters and db's are installed under the carport attached to the main house. The installation and drawings except installation of the pv. panels were done by myself. Connected two Axpert inverters in parallel…

Well I'm aching from climbing around in my roof space putting in conduit right to under the eaves, heaving through cable and fitting all the various boards etc. But it's a sweet feeling when the inverter lights up with that "free" power from the sun... Thanks to @Mike who did the physical install of the panels on my roof, and to @Jaco de Jongh who supplied the panels and the combiner box etc, and to all of you here who patiently answered my dozens of questions.

So will be doing some upgrades and moving my current system next week. Here is the plan: Main system: 3X300W panels on the roof - Connected through a 3 into 1 MC4 connector with a 30 Amp fuse. (Currently only have 2 panels) 4*T105 Trojan Batteries 1X Axpert 3kva 24V Inverter (had for the last 3 years) DB Board with 220V in and out trip switches, 125A Fuses for the batteries and DC Disconnect for the panels. 1X HA02 Balancer 220V Power will be run to plugs (Not going through main DB Board) and some Sonoff switches used to remotely monitor power usage and switch off high use power items if needed at night [Freezer] if there is a power…