Arandoza

My take on geysers is that the thicker the polyurethane in the geyser the better, 60mm, preferred or more, but have not found geysers with more. And then pipe lagging, on all the pipes, cold inlet, hot outlet (for at least 2-4 meters, maybe even better, if it can be almost to the tap and overflow/TP valve and pipe to reduce losses. One problem I have with lagging to the tap is the pipes are not lagged in the walls and hot water pipe loses a large amount of heat to the walls in winter.
Timers make no difference, has been my experience, or so little it's negligible. However if you are going to be away for for few days, turn the geyser off, it will save some power, as the geyser will not have try and maintain the geyser temp.
The amount of energy used to heat the geyser from, is pretty consistent, but obviously variable based on the starting temp and resultant temperature.
So all a timer allows for is remote control or a way to load shift, not really reduce the energy required?
One larger geyser is better than many, but can cause more water wastage? due to initial cold water in the pipes? unless you are draining the water into grey water tanks and using it in the garden? or if you have a diverter valve under the counter with each tap that drains the cold water to an alternative pipe which go's to a JOJO tank which can then be used for other uses, once the water heats up the valve allows the hot water out the tap rather than diverting it. Can't recall what the diverter valve is called but saw them some years back. as a water saving otion. Downside Is one has to have a third pip for the initial cold water diversion, at each tap, and or bathroom etc. so best if you are planning to build or do renovations / upgrades.

Last thought is to charge batteries first, keep load low, until fully charged, especially in winter, and then only start heating the geyser with "excess / available" pv power :)

I think @Virwat has it. My geyser is insulated with a layer of isothem (not an actual blanket that you buy from a shop), and the hot pipes are insulated from the geyser to the wall with the same material. The hot pipes radiate heat, so there is a gain to be had by reducing those losses.
Do timers on a geyser save money? This is an old and inconclusive debate. But we can cut our losses from the geyser once it is heated. Or we can heat it more efficiently.

I don't think that timers save you money, but you can control when it heats so mine only heats when the sun comes up so probably costs the same but my solar is heating most of it. Is this the type of "lagging" you guys are using on your pipes?

Heater blankets for geysers may be efficient if you have one that's mounted on an outside wall. I am not convinced it makes much of a difference inside the roof .
Pipe insulation on the other hand will make a bigger difference as the pipes themselves will heat up quicker whilst eliminating radiative losses to the surrounding cooler air.

This means that you have an inverter with a '2809 DSP chip.
Unfortunately, 81.xx firmwares are only for inverters with the '28066 DSP chip. The 81.xx firmwares will call a calibrate function in the firmware very early on, in the first few milliseconds of operation. Unfortunately, the '2809 is an older chip, which does not have ROM memory at the address that the firmware calls. The result is that the DSP crashes.
The only hope is to load a 54.xx Max II firmware (54.06 is still the latest available for your model) and start the upload at just the right instant so that the bootloader detects the start of the reflash before it runs the main firmware. See the If you Think Your Inverter is Bricked for clues on how to do this. Or use a JTAG device to flash the firmware, but that has its own issues as the firmware is password protected. Or buy a new control board for your inverter, but the hassle is getting the exact right card with suitable firmware on it, when there are so many variants that look nearly the same. If you buy it from whoever sold you the inverter, they should get the exact model number from you and hopefully supply the right card.
I try to make this difference clear in my firmware posts, but I get that the whole thing gets confusing. Voltronic don't help themselves much with this; they could do a simple test before calling the calibrate function. Sorry for your difficulty, and I hope you can get it resolved soon.

Last thought is, are both inverters showing for menu 28 - PAL (for parallel use) ?? if you need to change this turn off the inverting of BOTH inverters before changing.

When paralleled, if settings changes are made, on either inverter, they should reflect to be the same on both master and slave, But i would manually check and verify this, as well.

Also assume you have one battery bank ( 2 x volta's) connected to both inverters so the inverters share the bank. Also that you are using the user defined battery setting on both the inverters ? or do the inverters understand the comms (canbus or serial data) from the battery bank? If your inverters have a lithium option they may not understand the battery bank, but this would cause issues more with charging than with one of the units not inverting? I would expect?

Have you turned on the second inverter ?
Usually the small switch under the unit on the right hand side? This turns on the inverting mode?
Otherwise if the inverter is connected to batteries and or mains, and has PV power it will turn on and only charge the battery, and night when the PV is off it will turn off completely if no mains supply, to the second unit.

According to the photo, slave inverter is not turned on. It's in solar charger mode aka Standby:


You have to turn it on, using the switch located on the bottom of the box:

If there is no trees that can cast shadows, how can the orientation make a difference? it is not as if the panel knows it is horizontal or vertical :)
I think your panels will work exactly the same in either orientation or mixed.

Thanks again Arandoza,
ECO was set to test, but same behaviour in auto, which I reverted to last night again.
Pylontech's are still connected directly to the master. It throws an error when the cable is unplugged.
Last night I reverted to user on the master as well, allowing SA to change settings as needed. So far it hasn't made a difference, solar still sitting at the 65/70w mark on the master, while slave producing expected power.
Cheers

My Thoughts:
You have a leaking hot tap in the house, and the geyser is being flushed/refilled with cold water continuously.
(is the water hot enough to use when it says "25" on the Geyserwise?) If the water is hot, then faulty temp sensor, if the water is cold, see point 1.

I am using the Axpert type inverters without a BMS port and make use of the USE - user defined battery setting on the axperts, with lithium cv / fv / max charge etc settings appropriate for the 12 x Pylontech UP5000 batteries, as per pylontech :)

When I used lead acid, about 4 years ago (Trojan TE35's x 8 (6v) also about 230ah), I used 25mm2 squared cable from the inverters to the battery bank and between the batteries, connected to positive on the first battery and then the negative on the last battery. I kept the cables to the each inverter the same thickness 25mm2 but connected all the inverters to bus bars, and then connected the up5000's in pairs of 3 to the same busbars, each pair of 3 up5000's with a suitably fused connection max160amp, although 3 x up5000's could give recommended max 50amps x 3 continuously, or 80amp x 3 for a few seconds.

To monitor the axperts and Lithium batteries I use a free software called multisib, ( http://www.multisibcontrol.net )which can read the pylontech BMS and the info from the inverters. As the Axpert battery info is totally incorrect regardless of what battery type you use, as it does not make use of a shunt to accurately measure the power used, but rather it uses the voltage it detects as a representation of charge level, and when one puts on a big load, especially with lead acid, the voltage can drop suddenly, then the inverter thinks the batteries are fully discharged and it can drop the load. Which is why as they aged I had to adjust my maximum load at night during load shedding. However during the day while the solar was pumping it was not really a problem.
So currently my axperts flash a 04 code when they think the lithium batteries are low, however with the reporting on the Multisib software from pylontech BMS info, one can see SOC and SOH etc which is operating normally, so I totally disregard the axperts battery reporting as it is incorrect, however the axperts still flash 04 - battery low on the display :)
Other suggestions, one could check your batteries for hot spots? touch them on the sides, they maybe cooler than your hand but not warm, when charging, if they seem a bit warmer this maybe normal but may also suggest overcharging, equalizing too often? should only be done occasionally, maybe at most once a month (lead acid) or every 6-8 weeks etc. not daily. Equalisation does not always apply to lithium banks? And It seems one would keep it off, unless specified by the lithium to turn to it on?
Have you done voltage measurements of the bank when its charging? and/ or, once it appears full? Again the Spec sheets for the battery make/model will include C-rates in other words the expected run time at a certain amp loading for the model of battery? The lower the load the longer the run time, and its not a straight line discharge rate ( Peukerts Law - for lead acid).

Last thought is that Mixing old and new lead acid batteries does not work, at all. A bit like having a one flat battery and one good battery in a TV remote? :) and it will likely to damage the new batteries as they will dicharge continuously trying to balance or charge the other 2 seemingly ok batteries.

I trust you replaced a 4 batteries at the same time did not use any of them with the 2 older seemingly ok batteries?
I think if one did this and left them for 12 or 24 hours there's a good chance of damaging the 2 new ones?

Running out of ideas :0

Final thoughts, if the inverter(s) are supplying a charge, but the bank is not holding the charge, it typically points to bad batteries or higher loads than the bank can not support?
For lead acid, folks used to use the Victron BMV700 / BMV702 / BMV712 battery monitor which used a shunt and could accurately measure lead acid, agm, sla or lithium, and you can calibrate them as well. See the link below they have some videos as well for more info on how they work, how to connect etc. very good products.

https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors

I am using the Axpert type inverters without a BMS port and make use of the USE - user defined battery setting on the axperts, with lithium cv / fv / max charge etc settings appropriate for the 12 x Pylontech UP5000 batteries, as per pylontech :)

When I used lead acid, about 4 years ago (Trojan TE35's x 8 (6v) also about 230ah), I used 25mm2 squared cable from the inverters to the battery bank and between the batteries, connected to positive on the first battery and then the negative on the last battery. I kept the cables to the each inverter the same thickness 25mm2 but connected all the inverters to bus bars, and then connected the up5000's in pairs of 3 to the same busbars, each pair of 3 up5000's with a suitably fused connection max160amp, although 3 x up5000's could give recommended max 50amps x 3 continuously, or 80amp x 3 for a few seconds.

To monitor the axperts and Lithium batteries I use a free software called multisib, ( http://www.multisibcontrol.net )which can read the pylontech BMS and the info from the inverters. As the Axpert battery info is totally incorrect regardless of what battery type you use, as it does not make use of a shunt to accurately measure the power used, but rather it uses the voltage it detects as a representation of charge level, and when one puts on a big load, especially with lead acid, the voltage can drop suddenly, then the inverter thinks the batteries are fully discharged and it can drop the load. Which is why as they aged I had to adjust my maximum load at night during load shedding. However during the day while the solar was pumping it was not really a problem.
So currently my axperts flash a 04 code when they think the lithium batteries are low, however with the reporting on the Multisib software from pylontech BMS info, one can see SOC and SOH etc which is operating normally, so I totally disregard the axperts battery reporting as it is incorrect, however the axperts still flash 04 - battery low on the display :)
Other suggestions, one could check your batteries for hot spots? touch them on the sides, they maybe cooler than your hand but not warm, when charging, if they seem a bit warmer this maybe normal but may also suggest overcharging, equalizing too often? should only be done occasionally, maybe at most once a month (lead acid) or every 6-8 weeks etc. not daily. Equalisation does not always apply to lithium banks? And It seems one would keep it off, unless specified by the lithium to turn to it on?
Have you done voltage measurements of the bank when its charging? and/ or, once it appears full? Again the Spec sheets for the battery make/model will include C-rates in other words the expected run time at a certain amp loading for the model of battery? The lower the load the longer the run time, and its not a straight line discharge rate ( Peukerts Law - for lead acid).

Last thought is that Mixing old and new lead acid batteries does not work, at all. A bit like having a one flat battery and one good battery in a TV remote? :) and it will likely to damage the new batteries as they will dicharge continuously trying to balance or charge the other 2 seemingly ok batteries.

I trust you replaced a 4 batteries at the same time did not use any of them with the 2 older seemingly ok batteries?
I think if one did this and left them for 12 or 24 hours there's a good chance of damaging the 2 new ones?

Running out of ideas :0

Final thoughts, if the inverter(s) are supplying a charge, but the bank is not holding the charge, it typically points to bad batteries or higher loads than the bank can not support?
For lead acid, folks used to use the Victron BMV700 / BMV702 / BMV712 battery monitor which used a shunt and could accurately measure lead acid, agm, sla or lithium, and you can calibrate them as well. See the link below they have some videos as well for more info on how they work, how to connect etc. very good products.

https://www.victronenergy.com/battery-monitors

Thanks for the reply. The battery capacity is 230ah, Charge Amps are set at 30A when using grid power and 60A when on solar. Bulk charging voltage is set to 58.4V and float charging voltage is set at 54V and Battery balancers aren't installed.
I would have loved to do the same to replace lead acid batteries with lithium ones but unfortunately the inverter I am using doesn't have appropriate comms ports for BMS.

Good comments/suggestions from Arandoza. Here's a few more thoughts:
1 - Were the batteries all fully charged (checked with a battery hydrometer, and not just voltage...) before they were connected? If not, you would have stared with an imbalance, that would just get worse as time passes.
2 - Are the wires connecting the inverter to the batteries of the correct thickness (rating). One would need in the order of 25 square millimeter cable to connect a 100 Ah battery (depending on the length of cable...). Also, are all the interconnecting cables the same length? If not, the resistance in the cables could result in some batteries being under-charged, and again, over time, this would become worse.
3 - Is the inverter supplying sufficient power to the battery bank? If you have (say) 4 batteries connected in parallel, the inverter should provide 4 times the current required by one battery. Check if it is supplying around 1/10th to 1/20th of the battery rated ampere/hour capacity multiplied by the number of batteries in the bank.
Please provide details on the above, and also on dates for the first install, 2 battery replacement, and full replacement.
Looking forward to the additional information requested, then we could perhaps zoom in on the possible cause.

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Regards
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What type of premises are we talking about here? The typical household has a 60A single-phase supply, ie. around 14kW power output before the mains switch trips. And uses around 1000kWh per month. Give or take.
From that perspective I reckon most homes should be able to go off-grid with 12-15kW inverter power, 15-20kW of panels, 20-30kWh of batteries, some efficient appliances and water heating equipment, and just a little bit of intelligent power management.

Do you really have temperatures below 0°C in the room where your equipment is located? Not sure where you are located, but I would expect that even if outside temps drop below 0°C, the temps inside would remain above that. Or do you really have ice formed inside the room where your equipment is?
Otherwise I fully agree with @Tinbum. Lead acid or GEL are absolutely the wrong investment for a solar system.

Forget about lead acid and go for LiPo.

Most likely because the mating connectors weren't compatible, or badly crimped. This is the biggest risk with poor installations. Ideally all mating connectors should be of the same manufacturer and same series. Rule of thumb is that if it has a red oring, it's not genuine Staubli (most likely what the Canadian solar panels came with) - if it has a black oring it might be. It's worth paying the exorbitant prices for Staubli connectors and proper crimping tools if it means your house won't burn down.

Probably best to take it up wih your local ward councilor? 
Single phase or Three Phase?
Did you have a positive unit balance on the meter(s)? roughly how any units? and when did you last load units?
Just Curious?
What happens if you are away for 3 months and you preload enough units for the period ? will they also just decide to disconenct you?  It also sounds suspect. Also what happens to the credit on the meter? it cant just be stolen?
Only if your rates, taxes, water and or refuse are in arrears can they diconnect your electricity and then charge a fees usually around the notice / disconnection and reconnection? typically.

There are other reasons to consider solar :
1) Cable theft
2) Old infrastructure failing.
3) eskom increases of 12% per annum out pacing inflation.
and so on.
 
If you have the space and budget and it your consumption fits into a reasonable costed solar solution, I think its worthwhile moving in the solar direction for the following reasons:
1) lock in the cost of power.
2) Reduces your consumption from eskom at higher rates every year. So effectively any costs you would have had for eskom power can now be allocated to your solar system.
3) cable theft and eskom failures, load shedding   are not as much of a problem, you can typically get thru them, and recharge the following day?
4: Electric Vehicle charging if thats something you are considering?
 
Overall I think most folks who implemented solar will never go back and would rather try and move as far off grid as possible over time.
However it does cost, and if you have limited space like in an apartment or simplex unit or live in a complex, or residential estate, there maybe space and aesthetics issues consider as well, which may limit the effectiveness of implementing solar.
 
 

There are other reasons to consider solar :
1) Cable theft
2) Old infrastructure failing.
3) eskom increases of 12% per annum out pacing inflation.
and so on.
 
If you have the space and budget and it your consumption fits into a reasonable costed solar solution, I think its worthwhile moving in the solar direction for the following reasons:
1) lock in the cost of power.
2) Reduces your consumption from eskom at higher rates every year. So effectively any costs you would have had for eskom power can now be allocated to your solar system.
3) cable theft and eskom failures, load shedding   are not as much of a problem, you can typically get thru them, and recharge the following day?
4: Electric Vehicle charging if thats something you are considering?
 
Overall I think most folks who implemented solar will never go back and would rather try and move as far off grid as possible over time.
However it does cost, and if you have limited space like in an apartment or simplex unit or live in a complex, or residential estate, there maybe space and aesthetics issues consider as well, which may limit the effectiveness of implementing solar.
 
 

It can within a reasonable amount, the Amps above 22 will just be clipped, i.e. you will loose some of the potential energy on sunny days, but you will have higher yield on days that are cloudy.
My 2 parallel strings add up to ~26Amps and I have the same Inverter and it just flatlines at 22A. Although my panels are potentially 6400W, the max I can draw from them is around 5600W due to the 22A limit and the 6S giving me a VOC of ~300V but under load they are always around 230-250 and in idle around 270V.
So it's a trade off. Stay within the max voltage range. Excess voltage is the killer. Oversizing on the Amps (within limits) improves potential yield on less stellar days.

 

There are other reasons to consider solar :
1) Cable theft
2) Old infrastructure failing.
3) eskom increases of 12% per annum out pacing inflation.
and so on.
 
If you have the space and budget and it your consumption fits into a reasonable costed solar solution, I think its worthwhile moving in the solar direction for the following reasons:
1) lock in the cost of power.
2) Reduces your consumption from eskom at higher rates every year. So effectively any costs you would have had for eskom power can now be allocated to your solar system.
3) cable theft and eskom failures, load shedding   are not as much of a problem, you can typically get thru them, and recharge the following day?
4: Electric Vehicle charging if thats something you are considering?
 
Overall I think most folks who implemented solar will never go back and would rather try and move as far off grid as possible over time.
However it does cost, and if you have limited space like in an apartment or simplex unit or live in a complex, or residential estate, there maybe space and aesthetics issues consider as well, which may limit the effectiveness of implementing solar.