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In this video we asked Keith several questions about Sunsynk and its role in South Africa. Keith is based in China and sent us an excellent and informative video to our request. This video interview offers you a strong insight into Keith’s thinking, design philosophy and the journey he took to create Sunsynk and its development.

Key Takeaways

Kieth is a certified Electrical Engineer


Sunsynk started in marine outfitting mainstream shipping and yachts.


South Africa is marked as a major market


Sunsynk is over 10 years old


Sunsynk is developing large scale inverters up to 100kw with imbalance modes


Parallel up to 15 Sunsynks together

This is my install done by Suidsee Electrical & Solar.
The attached pictures was taken over the 5 days of the install, so this is not the final picture. Those pictures I will take after I did some rounding off work (paint, cover for battery, etc)
Take note, the installation is mostly done by the owner of Suidsee himself, which you can hand your house keys to and go on holiday.

Here we go:

 

Good day Good people, I recently installed an Inverter with lithium ion Battery. I have also already mounted the Mounting brackets and rails for the 4x 365W Canadian PV Panels to be mounted, However I have not yet mounted the Panels, as I still need to submit the application forms and gain the permission from City of Cape Town to do the installation. This is the first time I have done this and I am having a difficult time with the completion of the application forms. Is there please anyone that can assist me with this? I would really appreciate it and I am also willing to pay for the assistance, maybe a regular solar installer that is familiar with this procedure.  

Just installed a Sunsynk 8kw inverter DIY and want to share some info.

We use about 1000kwh (units) per month in our house so about 33 per day with about half in the day and half after PV hours. This is about average for a family home I recon in SA.

Already have 2 Solar geysers, gas plates and all lights LED.

I wanted to be independent from the grid as much as possible which weighed heavier than economics although my return is still acceptable and higher after tax than any risk free investment. The whole house runs through the inverter including oven, the solar geyser AC elements, all plugs etc. Only the 4 Aircons is supplied before the inverter but with the Sunsynk CT which fit over the supply line the inverter will push electricity to them too if sufficient PV and battery power are available. I have one normal plug before inverter for if I have to weld or use heavy machinery.

I Installed:

Sunsynk 8kw  Brilliant inverter easy to do DIY and with help from Powerforum posts.

Jinko Mono Cheetah 400w panels * 18 - Connected in 2 series - 9 each. 9 panels in series match perfectly, max voltage around 410V real life in October (Sunsynk specs max 450V) and producing 97% of rated panel watts (3500w per string) max.  Fitted on aluminium rails on tile roof. Fitting the brackets under tiles is quite a job got my son to do that. 6mm PV cable running in PVC conduit from panels to inverter.

One set is facing West and the other facing North. I think if you can get East and west facing panels that is ideal, as you need PV power early in the morning to charge low batteries and then you want to produce as late as possible in the afternoon to have full batteries going into evening. Although not the ideal orientation PV panels are cheaper than additional batteries.

Pylontech US3000 * 5 These batteries when 100% charged at 5pm run the whole house through the night (have about 20 outside lights 3 pc's etc) and start to charge at 6am from west panels on around 30% SOC in October.

By 11:30 am the batteries are normally 100% charged, then I boost the geysers through Geyserwise on free electricity to increase their temperature so that they are still warm in the morning.

PV protection DB with fuses, surge arrestors and DC isolators.

Fuse and isolator between Batteries and Inverter

Grounding ROD and all earth wiring.

AC CB and change over switch etc in AC DB with relay for earth neutral bond

 

Total cost about R 210 000 (ex own labour) except for heavy overcast days I am not using any power from Tshwane, bill was about R1800-R2000 per month.

The feeling when the kettle and iron etc are on during the day and you know that it is not costing you anything (yes i know it is kinda) is priceless.

 

 

 

I am doing my first install and basically want it setup as per Victron ESS system. it will run on battery / PV expect if it gets to 20% SOC. i have looked at the seetings and manuals but i am a bit puzzled . Can anyone help me ?

Hi

Dreaming about solar... not because of Escom, but because it's cool stuff. Never got so far to make the jump. The >100K always found another place where it was spend (sometimes on very big white elephants).

Today, I made the dive and transferred the payment of my first solar system. (With luck on my side, I will be dead before the panels read their end of life)

Sunsynk 8


6.4 BSL Bull


JA Solar 405 Mono's


and all the other related goodiest
 



A very big thank you to the guys from Power Forum Store for the good prices, good courier costs and excellent service.

I will start a post on my build so that other can see how a newbie tries to figure out all this nice goodies.


 

Looking for suggestions on someone to install a rainwater system in Deep South, Cape Town.

I'm on a hill, top of the property is about 30m higher than the bottom.

 

House 1 (lower house)

I have a 2500L tank already fed from the roof.  (Probably could do with another tank or a much larger one as it fills to overflowing when it rains!)
Would like to feed the water into the toilet and use the rainwater for flushing, and for it to be fairly hands off.

Any people you can recommend?

 

House 2 (upper house, same plot; still being built)

I have a small stream of water coming down the mountain and ending up in the basement/garage.  Would like to save some of it, instead of using gravity to get rid of it (a hosepipe currently, dripping away day in day out).  It's not much water, but it's continuous, and seems to last a few months into summer, then gone till next winter.
I have plenty of space on the plot, and am not adverse to adding more tanks as needed.

Give me ideas!

 

 

 

Hi Guys I am new to the forum. I need some help here I am based near Alexander Bay. I am on a farmstead on the river my electriciry bill and loadshedding is killing me... my montly usage is average 62400 units of electricity per month I do a little farming but my main power consumption is my hatchery this has to run 24 hours per day I breed Austrolops and Rhode Island white chickens and a couple of quail breeds some are imported and not common in SA my main problem is power consumption and loadshedding I have lost a lot of eggs!! This is costing me a huge amount of money in losses and income... I have been following the forum for a couple of months and decided to join as a member. I have a limited budget of arround 500k I know its not a lot but thats my limit. I need a solar power solution with battery backup to save my farming opperation. I have read a lot about Sunsynk inverters and Victron inverters on the forum also the pylontech batteries. The problem I have is that Iam close to the coast and we have a lot of cloud cover through out the year and I don't want to waste my money I need a sound solution I would even consider wind power some times the wind can blow strong here I have looked at Tessup and EKalahari wind turbines I must say that the Vertical axis turbines by Ekalahari look very tempting to me. So with all this said I need some quotes on solar equipment and wind power and what would be advisable a local company in Alexander bay has quoted me for a system and they seem very expensive so good sound advice would be appreciated. I also need advice if I should try to install the system myself or do you recommend good installers. I have lots of north facing steel roof space available and my eskom power connection is three phase I run the hatchery and a borehole and basic houshold appliances my main power consumption is the hatchery my house only uses 18 units per day the rest is for the farming opperation. Thank you I am a desperate farmer..

I'm liking the new VRM Portal interface.

Do i need to run some updates on my venus, inverters and charger after the portal update?

Been following this forum from the shadows and quietly watching and learning. Finally I took the plunge!

Bought 120kg of laptop batteries ( areal leap of faith!), 3 Liitokalla Battery capacity tester, 4 lithium battery chargers, pliers, soldering gun, solder, PVC piping (initial battery holders), 5x4 18650 holders from china, 7s BMS from china, server cabinet, multimeter, glass fuses and the list goes on and on!

The hardware at hand was, 24V 2400W inline UPS and an unlimited amount of foolhardiness. I will post some pictures of the current temporary setup, was forced to put it in production to keep the lights on! The house has not burnt down just yet so i will push on in getting the system properly assembled and connected to the DB.

After 5 years (yes one of those back burner projects) I am communicating with my Axpert using my own scripts. A Czech Axpert user, Josef Kriegelstein  has a pair of commands MNCHGC1497 and MNCHGC1498 to cause the Axpert to go into standby mode and revert to normal. They look more like charging current commands.

I have used them to no success, getting a NAKss response from the inverter. Anyone had any success getting a inverter to switch off. I have a pair of inverters and after 6pm there is not much sense having both running.

Dear Everyone

I hope my post finds you well. The Powerforum Store is open! Please do find our attached price guide and contact details attached. We are fully able to assist with installations great and small to the highest standards and quality. We would love your support as it very much assists us with the upkeep of this great community. Thank you everyone!

Sincerely

Jason Back (Energy)

Pwer Forum Store Price List (1).pdf

Hi Guys,

Let me start by saying this looks like an awesome forum. Tons of information here. Also the community looks like a bunch of epic people.

 

Now let me also start by saying what system I have installed and how its currently running:

 

330W X15 solar panels.

RCT - Inverter 5kva MK2

Polytech 2000 battery

BMS box - Has not been setup.

 

I want to system to run as follows:

During the day it must run on solar and at night I want it to run on eskom. I only want to battery to be used/run off when we have load shedding.

 

Currently its using the battery and solar during the day and thats fine with me as long as the battery does not go below 60%.

I have yet to setup the BMS box as I have no clue on how to do this.

 

Would any of you mind the recommend settings for my inverter giving the above scenario.

Currently my house uses about 2000w constantly during the day and at night time 1300w. There is the odd jump to 4000w when we turn on the kettle or vacuum machine.

I did order a pi from icc with the software.

 

Anyway any help would be awesome.,

 

Firstly hello to everyone on the forum i'm really glad to have found a lot of oke's willing to share their knowledge with everyone. I have been looking into doing my own solar setup for some time now for even though the diy route seems daunting . I'm looking into a system to firstly help me combat load shedding and run as an UPS. I do not want to feed power into the grid or go full off grid. For now i only want to power an essential load of a 1000w that needs to run for 4-5 hours in the event of grid failure. The initial system will be without solar only drawing power from the grid. I will install solar at a later date.

I've made the jump from buying an growatt inverter to rather getting a hybrid inverter as well as  choosing Li-on batteries instead of AGM and because of this my budget is wrecked!

My first choice is the Deye 5kw inverter but after reading very good reviews of the Goodwe ES 4.6kw inverter i'm wondering if it is not worth the extra cost? What are the main differences between the 2 and is the Goodwe the more reliable inverter at the end of the day? Can either inverter when solar is installed be set to switch from the solar directly to grid and not use the battery except when the grid is down?

My second conundrum is choosing between the Dyness 3.6kwh and the Pylon tech us3000 3.5kwh. I see most forum members use the pylon tech and that the dyness is a newly established company (2017) So i guess the pylon is the best choice? Will 2 of these be enough for at least 4 hours at a 1000w draw?

Thanks 

George 

 

 

     

I have two US3000 Pylontechs (3.5kw each).  My Deye 8kw inverter was default programmed to run down to 80% DOD then moves to grid power.  I get maybe 2/3 hours of battery use after sunset before switching to grid.  Questions:

- What DoD can I safely set the system to without damaging the Pylontech batteries - would like it to last 10 years!

- Lowest DOD that is recommended for these batteries?

- The Deye BMS is configured for Pylon Li batteries - does it automatically choose the rate of charge at the optimum level - the inverter settings only ask for the max charging amps

 

 

i would like the alarm system to switch on the outside lights if an alarm is triggered. The alarm system (Paradox) has programmable PGM outputs (12V 700mA) i could use to generate the required "on" signal. How do i use this signal to switch on the lights? The system would have to operate wireless. 

Good evening everyone,

My finger is hovering over the button to buy my home solar system and I'd really appreciate some informed opinions. The basics consist of 12 x 340W JA panels and 2 x 2.4 kWh Pylons, with a hybrid inverter - and I've narrowed the choice to either the Deye (Sunsynk) 5kW or the Kodak 4.6kW Hybrid.

The Kodak would seem to be a South African product, appearing nowhere else in the world... That's not comforting. I believe that it is a rebadged Solis; should that calm my nerves?

What about their relative reliability? Supplier / manufacturer support? If anyone has experience to share I'd be very grateful.

Whilst I'm here, any thoughts on installation costs? It is a fairly simple install, panels on a single pitched corrugated roof with clear access to the main db and plenty of space for the inverter and batteries within 3m.

Your thoughts, ladies and gentlemen, would be valued.

We have a porch in the backyard that is covered with 18 260 Wp solar panels. They are connected to a SMA grid tied inverter and do their job quite well. Still I want to make changes to the system and slowly but surely changes are taking place. Here is why:

The solar is producing enough power for us the year round but that is only because we use the grid as a battery. In summer we have a lot of excess power that we draw out from the grid in wintertime. That is just how net metering works.


From 2023 net metering will be phased out gradually so using the grid as a battery comes to an end at a certain time.


The porch is a old steel construction with the panels bolted on to it and made (well they tried to make it) waterproof by using tonnes of silicone sealant. It's leaking all over the place.



So roughly the plan is to build a new wooden porch with room for the old 18 panels and an extra 18 340 Wp Trina's. New inverter and DIY a 30 kWh battery.

Here is the old porch:


Only the steel under cunstruction will remain because that's strong. Here are some pics of the build:


Next post will be the building of the new porch. To be continued...

So after much debate and conversations with people,  my CFP said he did tons of research into his solar system and gave me advise which lead to decision to go for the following:

Either the alpha smile 10.1kwh system with its inverter and 3.5kw solar array from JASolar mono panels. Or a goodwe 4.6kw with the same batteries/pylontech batteries measuring the same power storage. My query is the following:

The goodwe can't be done in parallel from what I see, so does this mean i need to replicate the system again if I need more in the future?

Are there any regulations I need to be aware of when connecting all this to a prepaid meter In joburg?

 

Greetings all!  It's been a long time since I've been lured out of the shadows into signing up on a new forum.  What a great place this is - hats off to all the community leaders!

While I'm new to solar energy, I'm a long time petrol generator user.  In my previous city, it was commonplace to use a generator when the grid choked.  In the land of wine and fynbos, however, I hear no generators and I'm loathe to disturb the peace - not to mention that I no longer have a dedicated generator circuit.  So, I've decided to part ways with my Honda 6.5kVA genny to pave the way for some Vicron goodness.  Things appear to be worse than they've ever been so going green and sustainable seems inevitable.

Until recently, I decided I would "settle" with Goodwe due to the integrated MPPT charge controller, cost saving and NRS approval. My first love was always a Victron though and I'm leaning more towards this brand once more.  I'm particularly sold on the rave reviews, flexibility and their app.  The VictronConnect app has to be the best there is!  I'm an IoT guy and this sorta thing is super important to me.  I don't only want to consult a small LCD screen on the wall or do battle with an app that doesn't update properly.

My casual obsession and nightly research has led me to plan a system around the Victron MP II 48/3000.  While I'd love to spring for the 48/5000, it's not possible right now.  In order to get a "foot in the door", I figured I'd start with the 3kW now and then add another 6 months later.  Good or bad idea?  

In terms of solar panels, I'm not really sold on anything right now.  Battery-wise, I started off being 100% sold on PylonTech US2000B but I'm now intrigued by the UFO 5kWh.  I don't have a ton of garage floor space but have some great wall space that is already next to a mini-DB.

Fire away, gents!

Hey guys,

Been doing a lot of reading here - some brilliant advice and posts.

I'm looking at installing a hybrid system - around 4.5kW Inverter, 3.6kWp PV and probably 2 Pylontech 3000s, largely DIY.

So here's the question - what brand inverter?

Leaning towards the Goodwe as a brilliant little all-rounder. Seems to include all function we require in one unit, good quality, easy install, and all at a pretty reasonable price.

But what would we be missing out on compared to the competition? 

Thinking specifically Victron and/or SMA - what extra features and enhancements do these offer over the Goodwe? I hear the Goodwe is a little limited in the setup / programming one can do - this'd be a serious drawback for me. Are the others worth the extra expense and complexity? (As I understand both these other systems one would need seperate modular units as opposed to Goodwe all-in-one)

 

Would really appreciate your guys' reasons for preferring one over the other...

Hey all, 

As with everyone in this country; I am done with Eskom's BS. 

I'd like to design a system for my house to initially start out providing the house with power during load shedding periods. I'd like to then upscale the system to the point where Eskom is just a backup. I believe this is the Hybrid system (Grid-tied)?

The requirements I have for such a system is this: 

1. I All plugs in the house should be on inverter power 

2. All lights should be on inverter power (80% are LED - will be changing the remaining to LED) 

3. Should be able to run the ceiling fan / light 

Current power consumption is on average 30Kw a day (Have one ion those smart meters that gives readings; not sure on accuracy ?) 

We won't need to run the follow for the moment: Pool pump, geyser, stove A/C. Eventually the system should be able to run all that except the stove as we will move that to gas. 

I'v done some research and unfortunately I just have more questions than answers; hoping this helpful forum will be able to assist. 

1. Will a 5Kva inverter be enough? What brands should I be looking at (And staying away from) 

2. Batteries - Would it be better to go with 105ah batteries for now or use 200ah batteries - need to keep the house running for 4.5h min 

3. Do I need to have a manual change over switch by the DB? (I know the inverter will do it; but not sure on the law / regulations) 

4. Do I need a second DB according to regulations / law? (I am probably going to install one regardless, but would like to know) 

5. Do I need to have a certified installer; or can I get someone knowledgable to install and then get someone to certify the system for me? 

6. Do I need to register NERSA / COJ for the system to be 'legal' 

 

Finally, let's say I want to upscale to solar - besides the PV panels / roof mounting kit - what else would I need to add to the system?

Budget wise; what should I be looking at to spend here for the short term (Just getting relief from load shedding) I am thinking in the 25 - 30k mark? excluding anything related to solar

 

Appreciate any feedback; I am completely new to all this and might not understand it all 100%.