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General Discussion

General discussion & Latest renewable energy news

  1. Topic was moved to forum Solar Power

  2. Started by Scorp007,

    Sad news that @TaliaB has been admitted to the Christian Barnard Netcare with Pulmonary Embolism. He was fine earlier in the day. He has been put on Echmo. Please keep him in your thoughts. 🙏🙏

  3. Started by LandyMan,

    Hi all We are in the lucky position to have won a Sungrow system towards the end of last year. Couldn't contain my excitement, until realising it is excluding installation, and what the installation costs are. So I got 4 quotes (3 of which are certified to install the system), ranging from R20k to R35k. Is this the going rate for installations (most expensive portion is the DB rebuild/split to essential/non-essential)?

  4. Started by Dereck,

    Morning guys hope someone can shed some light for me. I have a single phase ups 3kva connect to a 3 phase system. I have a live and neutral feeding a change over switch with the ups feeding in other side. The output supplies its own earth leakage which supplies 3 x c/b for dedicated plugs. When I simulate a outage by switching of c/b supplying change over everything works perfectly. However if I trip main incoming c/b the ups switches off and if you try to switch the ups on in this condition my lights start flashing. If I switch off the supply to the ups off first and then the main switch it runs as it should. The neutrals from mains and ups are not connected anywhere and…

  5. The wheel is turning. How long then most will be off grid that can afford it. The rest will have free power via illegal connections. Bankrupt South African municipality wants homes with sola...The Gauteng municipality wants residential solar power users to pay a monthly fee of R463, on top of a once-off application charge of R2,400.

  6. Started by Kulumani Mangwana,

    Can someone assist, I am failing to receive email for password reset .I checked spam, nothing .Desperate

  7. Started by Simba Peri,

    A client of mine had someone install 2X 8kW inverters in parallel. The problem is that the slave unit trips after about 5 minutes of the system running, have run through all the connections and communication settings and everything is in order. What could be the issue that I'm missing?

  8. Started by Rory Kilpatrick,

    Hi , I have seen quite a lot here lately regarding limits I have Solis S6 6kw with 3X5 kw e-tower and 10X550 panels and completely off the grid. Solis bluetooth tells me my limits are Charge-285A and Discharge 315A. Dunno if this good or bad I am not clever with electrical terminology . Do I need to get sparky in? Thanks a lot for any advice

    • 3 replies
    • 106 views
  9. Good day I have a Sunsynk 5k and a Greenrich 5k (UP5000) installed in a house I am renting. I purchased them in January 2023 and installed them a few weeks later. There are no solar panels and the system is purely a UPS system. How do I determine a value for them in order for the landlord to buy the system from me so it can stay in the property? The price for them at that time was around R52k. Nowadays you can get the pair for around R29k if on special. Thank you

  10. So I've got a big hybrid solar system on my plot in Kyalami but I'm still using a lot of Eskom power. Has anyone got a recommendation for someone that can do an energy audit for me to find out where the wastage is? I know a few years back there were companies that could do it and they'd install some equipment onto the DB and let it collect data for a few days or weeks but I'm struggling to find anything now. Do you know of companies that do it or have you had one done yourself?

  11. I have installed a system with 2 LuxEnergy inverters. The front display and touch button selections looks similar to Deye units. Any of the members that can suggest the type of WiFi dongle that will successfully integrate with the unit.

  12. Started by Scorp007,

    With Tshwane rolling out prepaid is there anyone that perhaps have the various measurements codes for this meter. Conlog WCIU. Nothing in the box. Cannot find any when I Google.

  13. I am purchasing a new Sunsynk 8 kW inverter and 1 x Dyness 5.12 kW battery to replace a Kodak inverter and 2 x Pylontech batteries on an existing installation. The PV panels, wiring from the panels and into the main DB board, breakers, etc., are already installed as part of my original setup. Can anyone indicate what the typical ballpark cost an installer in the East Rand area will charge to do this, in order that the warranties on the new equipment are valid. The installation is in the main house and no new wiring is required. It should really be a "plug-and-play" type scenario as far as I am concerned.

    • 1 reply
    • 95 views
  14. Hi all I have a 5kW Sunsynk inverter, 10 × 535W JA panels and 2 Hubble AM2 batteries. On the SS I can select under the Battery Setup setting, the maximum charging current. What would the max charging A I can safely go to? The batteries are 1C's so I understand I can go max 105A per battery so on the inverter it means 210A? But my inverter will limit it to about 100A Currently mine is set on 50A charging. Can I safely take it to 75A or more? Thanks in advance. Please advise

  15. Hi All I want to " Remote in" to my batteries as I suspect a bad cell. Is there a program I can download to hook up to the batteries via the laptop. My laptop does not have an RS232 port , just USB and an a network ( Ethernet) port. Any ideas please.

    • 1 reply
    • 101 views
  16. Started by Andrew Kouga,

    Hi All We have recently upgraded a system for a client and removed 2 x Dyness 48100 If anyone is interested

  17. Started by Johandup,

    I was informed by a Telkom tech that my town will change over to LTE this month as copper wires are history now. And he made it sound so easy and affordable - which I don’t believe for a moment. Has anyone done this change over with Telkom ? The people in my town are not forthcoming on this topic. And how has it worked out for them? They are supposed to to contact customers with options but are quiet so far. And I am visiting my favorite KNP from mid month so won’t be around when they do this. Please share your experiences.

  18. Started by Danny,

    Hi community, Anyone with experience with Photon Lithium iron batteries especially model PTN-BAT-05K-WM- LFP. I installed 2 of the above batteries to a 6kw Growatt inverter but no guidance on how to set these batteries on the Growatt inverter. Any help or pointers will be appreciated Thank you

  19. I wanted to read data from my Deye Inverter (Model SUN-5K-SG03LP1-EU) but my model do not have the RS486 plug fitted as shown in the Deye manual that mention it is "available on SOME models". So RS232 is the only option. I downloaded 3 programs for ESP32 that claim to read RS232 data, but none worked on my inverter. The Modbus address they use are not valid/available on my inverter RS232 port. I could not find any documentation on the Internet on Deye RS232 Modbus protocol. (If you have it please send to "EunomiaSolar" at gmail.) So with a ESP32 Dev board I wrote some investigative programs and found addresses for 12 important data registers. Then I wrote my own Deye…

    • 0 replies
    • 46 views
  20. Started by Boela,

    Good morning, I have a Solis S6-EH1P5K-L-PLUS currently paired with a Shoto battery. Communication seems to be problem so changing battery to a Greenrich WM5000 (AW7500). Please advise on the battery settings as I don't see any but I know PF selling it as a pair as well. Also please advise on the cable needed for BMS comms - will the battery pack include this - will be running 2 x Greenrich batteries. Thanks Johan

  21. I am looking for the latest (B63.19.0) firmware for the Pylontech Force L2 batterry. Please could someone help? Many thanks in advance! Regards,

    • 0 replies
    • 73 views
  22. It looks like higher import tariffs on renewable energy equipment are being planned, in the name of "stimulating local production of components in the renewable energy supply chain". "One of South Africa’s largest electrical product distributors warned that planned import tariffs on renewable energy equipment could keep solar self-generation out of reach for lower-income households. The International Trade Administration Commission (ITAC) recently published its preliminary determinations after a year-long review of import tariffs for solar, wind, and battery components. ITAC recommended that the trade minister align South Africa’s import duties on renewable components to…

    • 0 replies
    • 180 views
  23. i have an Ellies 1440 watt trolley and i was told when there is no power outage and the unit is turned on i cannot draw more than 1440 watts ive just bought a Navasolar trolley 1kw . does the same apply ? i assume yes ?

  24. its a 24 volt system . 1440 watt . Modifed Sinewave . it has two 100ah lead acid batteries . the batteries are dying . when there is no power i can run a laptop , 2 wifi routers , a large flatscreen tv ( im guessing 120 watts ) and a few lights for around 2 hours .

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