Arandoza

@Dougiedanger Haven't seen a crimp free MC4 connector. Share a link? Used to manually try to crimp the MC4 connectors with general connector crimper and the results over time showed with MC4 Connectors melting and the Cable getting a white powdery coating on it for about 2-3 Inches near the MC4 connector, Evidence of the cable singe. Poor contact on electrical cables is definitely a fire risk, I have seen this with the MC4 connectors, and also at a previous company I worked for. Where one of the phases coming into the DB board, over time and due to heating and cooling, caused a cable to not be firmly held in place, on the incoming phase breaker. We smelt what can only be described as a STRONG Urine smell coming for the electrical closet under the stairwell, and it took a while to figure out what the problem was... It could have easily caught fire and burnt the office down. Check you connections are are nice and tightly screwed down and or crimped I guess on lower voltage/amp cables this may not be as noticeable and as much of a problem.

Just got one today at communica, around R700

Any idea who or how any details would be appreciated. I figured one can use the mppt aspect of both units with the new ones, but apparently not the inverter aspect, due to the power factor. i guess if you also split your db board then one could have one set of the inverters powering one dB board, and the other set powering a separate board, probably off the same set of batteries? But this maybe risky, as the two sets of inverters will not know about each other? Anticipated there would be other forumites with same issue, and they may have been considering adding a second or third inverter, either for more capacity and redundancy, that maybe interested in purchasing?

Is it possible that the ICC software time control feature is used and possibly causing the issue? Like in the screenshot below? and maybe the time on the RPi is incorrect?

I wonder if the inverter power saving feature is enabled and maybe causing the spikes? I cant recall what the lowest wattage is for the inverter to go to sleep? when this is enabled. But it maybe a reason? However your graph does not show the load dropping and coming back on? Although if I assume the graphs green line is PV input, and the Blue = Load, it would appear that it drops the PV to under 100watts and then decides to increase the PV again? It maybe that while the PV drops, the battery's Dip slightly and then need the extra 400watts to charge fully? Once fully charged the cycle begins again? Maybe the MPPT charger is not able to finely control the PV requirement as well under 400watts or maybe the MPPT is retraining trying to find the maximum power point, and before it does, the battery's have recharged? I cant say I have seen something like this before with my parallel Axpert 5kva's?

Morning All, For Sale : Two RCT Axpert 5KVA 5000va/4000 Silver and Black units for sale, in good working order, including parallel card, and parallel cables included for both units, with USB and Serial interfaces. Reason for sale : We were unable to get a third unit of the same type to increase capacity. Units work very well and generated 30-35kwwh per day Asking around R8200 Each, based in centurion. Also may consider portion payment Cash/EFT and 3 x 275-300watt JA Solar panels? PM for any further info. Kind Regards, Arandoza

Us Too. 40.788kw for the day https://pvoutput.org/list.jsp?id=46371&sid=42296

One thing I found is that a lot of folks start off with the idea that the solar system will be for backup purposes.... and the Batteries for carrying the night time load. However once you find how well solar works, one typically wants to grow the system, so that you can use as much solar as possible and reduce your Eskom spend and also have the backup functionality, with limited batteries for night time use, as batteries are very expensive, and typically need replacement, after a few years depending on use starting from 16 months to maybe 8 years? My own ideal would be to have solar with the ability to blend in Eskom as needed during the day to cover excess requirements on occasion, or when it's cloudy, so ideally the panels are giving their maximum output all the time and Eskom adds to what you need, and to have a small fail-over battery backup as an option, which one could install when you have the funds for it, and a System that would run during daylights hours without batteries or Eskom? This way you maximize your savings For this reason I started to consider the Infini Inverters, but have not yet migrated this way yet. And it seems that the Inifini has also had a few reliability issues as per comments seen on the forum? I would also be interested to get some recommendations on other brands / systems that could achieve the blended approach and have found to reliable, possibly including the Victron kit, and i have no interest in feeding back to the grid either at this point. Currently I have 2 x 5KVA RCT Axpert inverters and just over 6kw of panels connected, with Trojan Batteries 245ah (c20) that are currently going on for 3 years old. And am considering add a Third one mostly for the MPPT aspect, not so much for the inverting ability, so I can add more panels to mitigate bad weather and winter days. The only problem I Have with the Axpert is trying to get them to follow the maximum power curve, automatically - in other words loads turn on when there is enough solar to run them, and on the other side if there is not enough solar, the ability to add in the missing power from eskom, rather than using the batteries and then switching completely over to Eskom, and then a while later switching back to solar. My thinking would be to definitely invest in the correct inverter / Charge Controller etc, that has room to add batteries and Panels as you have the budget. In your scenario above things to consider from a sizing perspective would be You mention peak loads of 8KW? You will need around 2 but probably 3 Axperts in parallel to run this type of load? The Peak Solar output of the RCT Axperts is 3000w 60a MPPT (For the silver and Black units) and for the newer RCT Axperts (Green and Black units) 4400w 80a MPPT. Allow for the losses of the panels, and conversions from dc-ac-dc, as well as inverter Self consumption - I allow for about 100w self consumption per axpert as I find the system needs to typically generate from solar, at least 200-400w more than I am using, dependent on load, otherwise the batteries start to discharge. Winter months where the days are shorter, and cloudy days, less time to recharge the battery's for night use, and less power due to the suns position. Consider if you have to run on batteries overnight and then have to charge the batteries and run your 270w load, ensure that you have enough panels. The Axperts battery management is voltage based and not accurate at all, so with smaller battery packs the voltage will drop when a large load is added, and then the solar will catch-up to the load, or on cloudy days the solar will dip severely and the battery's need to carry the load for about 2-3 minutes, before the MPPT's kick in and start trying to track again, this typically causes the system to switch to eskom, especially when running 2Kw upwards and we have a cloud pass. To solve the DOD issue with the axperts many folks on the forum have added a BMW702 to monitor battery discharge, and the ICCSOFTWARE (https://iccsoftware.co.za/) to montior the system, which seems to work fairly well? Consider a larger ah rating for your battery pack. In my RCT Axpert (2016) manual they recommended a Minimum 200ah battery for the 5kva units? So the 100ah may take more punishment and perish sooner, depending on battery type? My own feeling is that if my own battery pack was 400-500ah, it would endure better and I would get less switching between Solar and Eskom during the day, on Cloudy days. Good Luck and enjoy the solar journey.

If the intention is to use the hot water for washing up dishes? 15 Liters may not be enough? I find that typically the Domestic uses around 30 Liters to wash dishes? Given that's its coming from the geyser and so a bit of extra water has to drain the pipes before she gets hot water? What I found was that the dishwasher even though its an older LG2040 (+/-9 years old) uses around 13 Liters per wash, so definitely more water efficient, but its heating element requires around 2kw, which runs for about 10 minutes and then a further 10 minutes near the end of the cycle. Cycle is 1h56m ( for the 70 Deg C cycle). I would possibly lean towards the Heat Tech, due to the lower power requirement and larger capacity, and would put it on a timer for daytime heating. Heat Tech is based in Raslouw, Centurion.

Check the pylon tech dipswitch documentation? It looks like they are both set to the same setting?

Hello All, ICC "got stuck" overnight and had to reboot it this morning to get it working again. After the reboot, the Daily Totals for Grid KWH used and PV power generated are still showing yesterdays values. Is there a way to manually run the process that resets the daily totals to zero for the new day? Running version 2.8.8 and it seems to hand quite a lot lately.

I suspect the battery’s voltage dips to below the threshold you have set for back to mains? A larger battery pack may lessen the effect or if one lowers the back to grid voltage, just enough so it won’t switch, being careful not to go too low and damage the batteries? i also have some of the Bosch A++ fridges and freezers, two of each, cant say I have seen the large spikes you mentioned? Models are 2 x KSV33NW30 fridges - both set the 2 deg C 2 x GSV33VW30 freezers - 26 deg C I tend to find pumps are the real problem, where is see spikes, only long enough for ICC to display briefly and then they subside, for water pumps, pool pumps, jetted bath pump etc, but with the 5kw Axpert no issues as long as one has enough solar I am not sure where one can buy a soft start device? Not even sure if they are device specific? Hopefully someone else On the forum can advise?

My two RCT AXPERTS 5KVA (4KW) came with both the USB-b port (it looks like a usb printer cable - usb-a to usb-b connectors) and Serial port connectors underneath the unit. I run ICC on a Rpi with the Usb port option, one cannot use both ports simultaneously, unfortunately. So if you have the separate Axpert control panel which uses the serial (rj45) connector then you have to choose Rpi or serial remote control panel. (they Run serial over Cat5 -Rj45 to give more cable length / range to the control panel

Have a look at ICC Software, it runs on a Raspberry Pi and is better than watch power. https://iccsoftware.co.za/

On the open energy monitor there is this item that maybe similar - An Energy Diverter https://learn.openenergymonitor.org/pv-diversion/introduction/choosing-an-energy-diverter.md https://mk2pvrouter.co.uk/ But it appears to be Grid Tied as well?

Use a Geyserwise with 2kw element connected to my first online evacuated tube geyser to heat water to 65 deg c from 9:30-14:00. Usually from 9am we are generating around 3kw plus, so can safely spare the power. We use sonoff basics via timers to max out the solar without switching back to grid. On cloudy days one simply turns of the Geyserwise, and powers it back on once the clouds have dissipated.

Hello All, I would like to learn how to correctly build a PV Array combiner box. Obviously they differ dependant on the array configuration and amp / voltages of the array. We use Axpert 5kw inverters and would like to have 6 strings per combiner box, each string with 3 x 275w panels. (50% Oversizing for bad weather, and to compensate for winter.) I understand that the combiner box plays the following roles. 1.) Protection : Fuses for both Positive and Negative feeds from each string. 2.) Protection : Lightning and or Surge protection, which would go to a separate ground/earth spike. 3.) Disconnect : So that one can disable a individual string if needed, I assume MCBs are used. 4.) Output to inverter would use 6mm or better cable, to reduce losses and endure the combined currents onwards to the inverter. What I would like to find out is how one should go about specifying the Fuses and Disconnects (MCBs) as well as the Lightning / Surge suppression and any other considerations. The 5kva Axpert operates on 60-145v(Max Rating) per array, but typically is 65-110v, and the 275w Panel values are as below Open Circuit Voltage (Voc) 38.38v Max Power Voltage (Vmp) 31.34v Short Circuit Current (Isc) 9.29a Max Power Current (Imp) 8.77a How does one then calculate the correct components for the combiner box? I am sure many folks are interested in this topic and I expect it would be great if we had a Tutorial / Guide on how to design and spec combiner boxes If there already is such a guide please point me in its direction.

Interested. Have sent you a PM via forum.

From everything I have read about batteries and charging regimens, it don’t think it would be a good idea. Even batteries that are of the same type and brand vary in their abilities to charge / discharge, and it’s not recommended typically to add a battery bank of the same type to a bank that is the same but more than 6 months older than the existing bank. If you have two different types of batteries calcium and deep cycle they will most likely have different charging and discharging characteristics. And when the calcium’s fail, probably before the deep cycles then the deep cycles will not be correctly charged and potentially could get damaged as the calcium’s probably start to create more resistance in the two battery banks. I think either way you will shorten the lives of both banks, in the long run. Rather sell the calcium’s and get a larger bank of the same model / brand / age batteries for a reliable solution, and without risking replacing your batteries prematurely, they are expensive to replace.

I sourced these relays from AC/DC for use with my sonofs. Not sure if applicable of suitable to your application, but depending on which connector you use 1-2 or 2-3 they can be connected to be either normally open or normally closed. The two red wires at the bottom are going onto the 220v relay coil.

For my RCT Axpert’s 5kva units the manual recommends a minimum of 200ah for the battery pack. I expect due to discharge rate, when under load.

Not sure if there is a Linux version of watchpower. For monitoring and control have a look at https://iccsoftware.co.za/ works with quite a few invertors.

If you are looking at monitoring your a axpert maybe have a look at this. http://iccsoftware.co.za/ it’s locally grown

Try Zettys centurion

Usually the axperts have a serial and usb output, mine came supplied with the necessary cables as well. If you want to use the serial you will also need a serial to usb port cable. You should find the ports at the bottom of the axpert where all the other cables enter / exit the unit.