Charl Yazbek

Save your PV's and Battery for doing what they were MEANT to do, generate Electricity, not so much Heat MUCH cheaper to heat the Geyser with Solar Heat Collectors, more efficient (unless overcast days!!!). Got 10 Heat collectors heating 900l Geysers and 10 PV's using Micro Inverters (Grid Tied). A 200l Geyser IS ALREADY basically a 8kW-10kWa battery - storing Energy, but in the form of HEAT! Not worth heating water with PV's, especially in South Africa, at least not until PV's reach 65% conversion (vs. current 21% for good panels...slowly rising, in anticipation of Perovskites!) Look at Israel, 94% of all Household/ roofs/flats have Heat COLLECTORS for Hot Water - talk about a country that knows how to use resources efficiently - next topic -water!

Anybody got an idea if possible to plug the ChaDemo into eg Sunsync Hybrid Inverter ? Not worth importing other inverters yet - dying to go the V2H route - original reason for buying the Leaf's. Carl, the car looks beautiful - have you not considered putting in a 40kW battery pack, and keeping the car - will last you another 10 years at least!! Nissan only brought in 94 of these "SA experimental" if I recall correctly? Our one has 95k Km on 8 bar and the other 120k km 10 bar, but this being the second battery pack - learnt the hard way never run below 20% and never charge above 80%!!

Battery is shot, R200k for new battery? - have 2 Leaf's, am looking for parts - i.e. to cannibalise- cheaper than to import parts! Fast charger, and 100% charge kills these batteries!! Got latest one with 10 bars for R50k, and spent another R30k to fix! Kids LOVE the "Golf Carts"! To date best zippiest car we have had

I see Hoymiles also have a 3 phase 1800/2250, recently launched - not available in SA yet? I have installed APSystems 1.1kw 3 phase balancing Micro inverters - but sadly no agents in SA anymore/currently. I do like the move towards 3 phase Micro inverters, much simpler - pro's and cons vs. the considerably more versatile hybrid String inverters. Also wondering whether it will not be cheaper in long run - replacing smaller Inverters as they fail vs changing a big inverter?

Am in the process of renovating, thanx for the tip - will definitely put that into the equation! Was also looking at larger Rain harvesting, thanks for the Thintanks site - currently have 15k/L, and heaps scope for more storage capacity after this past rain season!

DIY Geyser RetroFit system to be super efficient and cheap, killing 2 birds with one stone, 10kW storage the (amount of energy INSIDE a 200L geyser hot water and can "discharge 100% without any fears of damage - thanx to a member gave much appreciated calculation - batteries are not the only means of storage!) + 10kW generation, all in a simple 200L Geyser - a solution, add more geysers!? I am going big with Solar water - 1000L currently - and adding another 800L - (we use LOTS hot water in the Birthing Centre with all the water deliveries) - my rule of thumb calc - will effectively mean 90kW storage (and 90 kW/pd Generation) - shudder to think what the cost in batteries would be!

BRILLIANT, will keep that formulae for sure - so my "rule of thumb was slightly out!!!! Thanx, was seriously also considering Heat Pump - unfortunately more working parts and possible problems. Combining Heat Pump (possibly even gas) WITH the Solar heat collectors by far best way to go agreed!! I managed to buy 40 X 2m2 flat panel Heat collectors (on auction for R1000/m2!!) so made full sense to use those initially, and even oversizing slightly - only run out of hot water when overcast/rainy for 3 days or more, only then go over to good old Eskom!!

I was looking at an earlier post of yours re "Geysers/hot water". I found it considerably more effective to heat water with "Heat collectors" rather than with PV's - I have a combination of 1200L geysers, and in process of adding another 500L-800L (we use ALOT of hot water being a Birthing Centre) and don't even want to imagine the number of PV's needed to heat so much water. VERY EASY to install some or other kind of RetroFit onto existing geysers. Vacuum Tubes more effective at higher temperature35C-80C, and flat panels more effective from 25C- 65C Correct me if I am wrong, but calculated each 200L stores +- 12kW-16kW of energy. Batteries or Super Caps are not the "only" way of storing "household" energy! Should be a drive to install bigger geysers, rather than small geysers which "warm faster"....almost like saying we should not build bigger dams so that they can fill faster!!!

Barry, I was looking at an earlier post of yours re "Geysers/hot water". I found it considerably more effective to heat water with Heat collectors rather than with PV's - I have a combination of 1200L geysers, and in process of adding another 500L-800L (we use ALOT of hot water being a Birthing Centre) and don't even want to imagine the number of PV's needed to heat so much water. Correct me if I am wrong, but calculated each 200L stores +- 12kW-16kW of energy. Batteries or Super Caps are not the "only" way of storing "household" energy! Should be a drive to install bigger geysers, rather than small geysers which "warm faster"....almost like saying we should not build bigger dams so that they can fill faster!!!

Thanx a million, I was not aware the Micro Inverter would "downscale". My biggest concern was during peak of day when the panels are on "Max Production". Would that mean if one had eg 2000w panels feeding a 1200w inverter, the Inverter would simply discard the excess the panels produce, i.e. does the Inverter "draw" only as much power from the panels as it needs? As with overcast days, having more panels would one then not also get "better production" earlier in the morning and later afternoon as well? I'm still new to the workings and on a learning curve! I was thinking of putting eg 405w panel on East roof and 405w panel on west and the 800w on the North facing to get a "longer peak production" curve (have capacity of 10kW roof space - first doing a bit of experimenting). Does this make sense?

I was also wondering?, the panels are never 100% clean the entire period either, so doubt very much will reach the 405w stated - am really tempted to connect all 4X 405w - Have not purchased the Hoymiles 1200 to replace the APSystems yet - thought of waiting for the 1500w to land in SA and play safe - but that might be many months!! Will let you know what the outcome of connecting 4 X 405w (with the current very light "dust" on the panels....!).

Brilliant, thanx Barry. Would the Hoymiles not get excessively hot or possibly burn out if such high Wattage is fed into the Micro Inverter, eg 2000w pannels into a 1200w inverter - what happens to the excess 800w being generated at peak daytime sunlight? Your a true source of knowledge! Thanx

Brilliant, thanx Barry. Would the Hoymiles not get excessively hot or possibly burn out if such high Wattage is fed into the Micro Inverter, eg 2000w pannels into a 1200w inverter - what happens to the excess 800w being generated at peak daytime sunlight?

My current 3 Phase APSystems got hit by lightning, and am wanting to go over to 3 separate Hoymiles 1200 per phase. My Solar panels are 405w each, and the recommended is max 380w. Is it possible to connect 3 X 405w to the Hoymiles 1200? and if so, does it matter/is there any preference as to which of the DC input conectors I connect the 3 panels to?