CasualCheetah

HI,
 
I have used Scoop outdoor Cabinets before, not only for batteries but networking equipment as well all outdoors.
 
https://scoop.co.za/products/structured-cabling/outdoor-cabinets/

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From my experience trying to make a GTI run from a generator in the event of a power failure is just looking for problems. In rare instances where we have done it the capacity of the generator was much much larger than that of the PV generator to avoid too much feed back into the genie.
I would also rather recommend the suggestion of just by-passing like JDP described.

Deltec is an official distributor of Lead Crystal batteries in South Africa. Instead of having a Betta Batteries label, they are re-branded to display Deltec's logo as they are an official supplier. Deltec's data sheet is however incorrect if I am not mistaken (they have been notified). Rather get your data sheets from the Lead Crystal website. You will also see Deltec's details under the Africa distribution link.
http://leadcrystalbatteries.com/distribution/distributors-in-africa/

Tesla batteries if i can remember the spec are at 350 -450V DC hence the thinner cables.

The battery cables look extremely thin and are running for quite a distance. What is the nominal battery voltage? What size cable is used, 10mm2?

Have a look at the shading at around 3 minutes 50 seconds on the video. Is it worth it?

Plonkster... they weight 60 kg each. 
Bad news is I HAVE NO STOCK! And will also not have for the next couple of months.

From my experience trying to make a GTI run from a generator in the event of a power failure is just looking for problems. In rare instances where we have done it the capacity of the generator was much much larger than that of the PV generator to avoid too much feed back into the genie.
I would also rather recommend the suggestion of just by-passing like JDP described.

From my experience trying to make a GTI run from a generator in the event of a power failure is just looking for problems. In rare instances where we have done it the capacity of the generator was much much larger than that of the PV generator to avoid too much feed back into the genie.
I would also rather recommend the suggestion of just by-passing like JDP described.

@jdp
GTI inverters are generally used to reduce your Eskom consumption as it is much cheaper to do this than to buy batteries to be able to carry the load.
You see them more often in business environments as they use most power during the day. 

Korn, I own neither of those, but it might be helpful if you can provide a bad/good wiring situation.
You are just saying "don't", but not explaining how it was used/connected... None of us want to make a similar mistake, so can you give us more technical information?
PS: Sorry for your loss/damage.

Haha, it's only a hop skip and a jump from Durbanville to Paarl. 
I will still take the Victron Battery Inverter over the Axpert (if within budget) as it will take better care of your expensive battery bank investment. (Eg. Accurate voltage measurements, temperature compensation on the charging voltage etc.) 
Bushman's Grid Tie Inverter's will be churning out power at about a 97% efficiency and then you can either consume those high efficiency watts or charge your batteries (if you cycle batteries to increase self consumption) or send it to the Utility as the last resort. Every last watt will be utilized. 
Bushman probably has the most efficient system you can get.

So where you get yours? :-)
Seeing as you're in Windhoek... I actually grew up there. My father still farms in the district. He has a Fronius on his roof... :-)

They may seem expensive, but if you consider this.
You'll pay around half that for 200Ah GEL AGM batteries. These you'll only discharge to about 70% SOC occassionally going down as far as 50%
With the lead crystal batteries, you will take them as low as 50% without batting an eyelid and can push them much further on a regular basis without worry of damaging them or shortening their lives.
Basically of the 200Ah in the gel battery, you will use 40 - 60Ah regularly and being capped at 100ah.
With the 200Ah in the lead crystal, you will use 100Ah regularly and even go as far as 160Ah.
In my mind, worth the extra cost, or you could buy 100Ah batteries. I did see them below R4000 the other day, but cant find the link
The link

For some reason not as many people use them in their solar applications in SA. Here in Namibia they are installed in quite a few installations and have been performing well.
In the SA market, as well as the European market, they are quite popular in the telecomms industry where the go to battery is the 12V 170Ah Front Terminal.

For some reason not as many people use them in their solar applications in SA. Here in Namibia they are installed in quite a few installations and have been performing well.
In the SA market, as well as the European market, they are quite popular in the telecomms industry where the go to battery is the 12V 170Ah Front Terminal.

I have just had the time to watch Martin's video with test results and I am glad to see that are perfectly in line with my practical experience.
In practice: since it is possible to discharge a Lead Crystal battery all the way down you get double the watt hours of a standard lead acid battery and it is almost as if you are comparing one battery (Lead Crystal - 9hours capacity consistently) vs 2 batteries (Lead Acid - each 4 hours capacity when new). But at the end of that you still have your  Lead Acid battery performing reasonably (in fact for me it performs better after a full discharge) while the 2 Lead Acid batteries are shot.
In my mind Lead Crystal is well worth the extra cost.
It would be interesting to compare a 70Ah Lead Crystal vs 2x 70Ah Lead Acid batteries in parallel and see what comes out of this.
 

I have had 2 x 150Ah for a few years ... (5?) for my indian UPS (24V pure sine with AVR 1200W - I think - maybe more... name is "Trusty" or something of the kind) for my server and I am EXTREMELY happy.
They were a replacement for the third sets of cheap batteries (although batteries are never cheap) of same size I had since the early days of load shedding: the firs two sets lasted only one year per set and the third I replaced after 2 years). In all cases these cheap batteries lasted ~4hrs when new and I replaced each set when went under the 2 hours mark.
I did not use any type of battery monitoring device and the charger is built into the UPS.
First of all I was astonished that the Lead Crystal lasted >8.5 hours with exactly the same load. Secondly that after a full discharge they last even longer (I went over 9hrs and they still kept server going).
My load: my server has a 750W PS  with 22 disks (11 x 3Tb + 11 x 2Tb) but to that I have connected a SAS expander (900W PS) with 24 x 2Tb disks which I normally shut down shortly afterwards if I know I will not need it again (if I power it on it while on batteries it will trip my ups) and that load shedding will last the full 4.5hrs.
oops: forgot to mention on ups i also have my PC
In the 5 years I had the batteries I only had run them to UPS shutdown 5 or 6 times precisely because they last so much longer than any previous set I had before. On the other hand because I have no fear to run them too flat I just don't care to look after them.
My verdict: they costed double anything else I had before but they were money very well spent, I even purchased them for my alarm back up, garage door, gate, etc because I know that when I will need them they will be there for me.
I tried to buy them in China when I imported my solar kit but Betta would not sell for export destination SA.
So I purchased an analogous product by another factory (Oliter): specs say they are almost as good as the Deltec/Betta lead Crystal ... but I don't think so. Still price was 3 x  any other Chinese battery so they must be a little better than usual. Oliter talks of 15 years life with 5 year guarantee (but then I am not going to China to complain if I have a problem) and supplied the high altitude version for Johannesburg (apparently the standard valve is only ok up to 1000m).
I have very little clue of what parameters I should use for my hybrid inverter + Oliter batteries but I will find out next week at the Solar Show when I meet my contact at Oliter.

Very interesting video here: 
 

Nice I see aicc.org.za announced it's is now open source, this is the way to go in my opinion, open source collaboration is always the best.

Hi Terrible Triplett,
 
Would you mind giving the UPS suppliers name? You can send me a PM is you'd like
 
Cheers.

After looking at my pharmacies growing electicity bill and cost of diesel for our standby generator I knew I had to do something. A good friend of mine had recently opened a game lodge and gone full solar and assured me that solar had come of age and was cost effective in the medium term.
 
I first changed 120 x 4ft fluorescent tubes to 16w led tubes as well as changing 20 x 50w down lights to 6w led. I put a time clock on my external signs as well as a light switch and ran them from 6pm to 10pm only.
 
As my business only operates from 8am to 5pm a battery free grid-tie system was the obvious choice. I decided to install a larger inverter than needed initially so that I have capacity for expansion.
 
Phase one installation was as follows:-
1 x Socomec Sunsys B20 three phase 21kva grid-tie inverter
45 x 250 watt panel array

I like the quality of your equipment, not many can afford to buy Victron off the bat.
 
However, I am a bit concerned regarding your battery set-up.
Currently you have 3 strings, but no fusing (protection) between any of the strings.
You did install fuses for each MPPT, but not each battery bank
 
I would suggest you install a seperate fused connection for each battery bank.
Also make 100% sure you keep each cable length the same on each bank.
You really should also do that for the MPPT controllers.
 
It would be interesting to find out why you have gone with 3 banks, rather than a single large one?
Multiple banks normally have multiple problems...

We did this installation on sunday. Installation took 6 hours from start to finish. About 120 km west of Windhoek on a very nice farm.
 
System consists of
Axpert 5 K inverter
8 x 260 Watt poly panels
4 x 200 ah lead crystal batteries
Aluminium mounting system
100 A DC battery fuse
Ready board
 
Client runs a cold room of the system and does some washing and even ironing during the day. Had to go for such a big inverter to handle the starting amps of the cold room compressor. About 38 Amps for a second.\
 
I love these Axperts and Lead crystals working together.