Member Installations Showcase

Hi All Its taken a year but this is my system as it stands... easy upgrade opportunities for the next few years (finance available of course) given the expandability/overkill built in. Initially 2x Renesolar Virtus II 300W panels. Newly installed Axpert 5kv 48V Inverter/Charger/MPPT. PV Combiner Box (1 string used) PV Cutoff Switch New DB Board (for all lights, including outside floods (LED 10W)) Note yellow tape to stop fiddling fingers Extra plugs off new board for: - Security/Alarm System - Wireless AP/Router - TV/DSTV - Laptop/Weather Station - 2x Extra's for Phone charging, etc Currently 48V 200ah battery bank (2 4x102ah dee…

Hello all I have installed my 12v 100Ah Royal batteries - two parallel banks of 4 in series. At the beginning of the battery banks I have a 100Amp DC fuse - one for each. Is this too big, should it be 50amps each? Then I see from general chat that these RCT 5000VA Axperts hybrids, some people have installed an isolator switch between the batteries and the inverter. I just disconnect the batteries - but what switch should I be looking for? A make and model would be perfect then I can go to Current Automation or AC/DC and ask for a compatible.

Finally, I've almost completed my installation. It is running already, but I still need to tidy up a few things and install the 12th PV panel. I decided half-way through the installation to space the panels further apart and ended up with 5 rows instead of the planned 6 rows. I'm going to mount the 12th panel in line with the single panel in the middle row, but first I need to paint that section of the roof. The initial switch on was just after 15:00 on Saturday and I was amazed with the amount of energy still generated till early evening when the sun was hitting the panels at an almost 0

Hi Guys I got directed to the forum by Mike. So I will start my thread here as I'm on the mission to get a PV system up. My house currently has solar panel on the roof for heating the pool as well a vacuum tube solar hot water system with a geyser wise controller. Solar hot water: The geyser sits inside and has a circulation pump which switches on when the tube temp is 7 deg higher that the geyser temp. Currently in summer it's not needed to switch the geyser on at all, except for when we get guests... but for now all is good. I might consider enlarging the tube array towards the winter to get a bit more from the sun. Pool system: The pool has a standa…

Hi Guys, Here is a pick of my solar water heater. The first 2 years it was installed incorrectly. You can see the space between the pool heaters where the solar collector was mounted. It worked well in summer but in winter it was useless. I built the new frame myself and changed all the pluming over. I have now also insulated the pipework and it works well to date. I would love to perhaps add a 2nd flat collector, but not yet sure of how and where. My latest project I am working on is not so much energy saving, but rather money saving. My garden is irrigated with clean water, but the monthly bills is krippling. So now I have invested in a 5000L tank,…

I decided in November 2012 to start a little project of learning and installing my own little Solar PV system with the aim of upgrading as finances would allow. I started out firstly with 2 x 180w Solarworld PV panels and a 1000w bi-directional inverter going via a 30A MPPT controller with 10 x 102ah High cycle Deltek batteries ( secondhand ). After about a month i realised that by going and buying secondhand batteries i had just shot myself in the foot as i could not add to the old bank with new batteries. So my first word of warning would be --- NEVER buy second hand batteries, rather wait until you can afford new. So there i went and started again, i bought myself …

Hi all, Here's a couple of projects we have done for clients as of late: University of the North West Running a hydrogen generator from solar. Vodacom Emfhilweni Powering the school and the local Vodacom base station, with generator back-up Undisclosed Everything had to be flown up by helicopter Solar telecom sites - North Moz

2 x 45Ah Ritar 1 x Steca PRS2020 2 x 150W Panels. The high site services farming network with 12 links. Bit too much power up there 1 x 150W would of been fine I think. E