virge

Thanks superdiy. So you have an Infini 3KW inverter and can program it to import part power if needed and in case you need say 5.5kw, the 3KW inverter will give you 2.5 kw from PV, 0.5 KW from battery and 2.5 Kw from the grid with no problems? Can you program it not to export to the grid? If your inverter can do this why then the Imeon 3.6 is a better inverter? Is it just marketing?

Is this not an Infini inverter? If not, what is the difference? http://powermode.co.za/soltra-gtb3000-3kw-hybrid-solar-inverter/?gclid=CjwKEAiA6rrBBRDsrLGM4uTPkWASJADnWZQ4tX_G7aleLwLmeMfII0pqywuyGy2NqJJMmIQ-lLzzyxoCxEnw_wcB

Why is the Infini V series black? Next time the municipality will inspect to see if I am not stealing electricity will blame me for exploitation also.

Thanks Chris. Can you set export to zero on it? Why Jaco thinks this is a crappy inverter?

Thanks guys for help. You are really great. It is difficult to make a decision. I have to make up my mind in 2 weeks. the insurance will pay just part of the damage because they said I was underinsured. be sure to call a broker or ask the insurance to send someone every year to check if your property is properly insured. the building has to be insured on the replacement value not on the market value. i was insured with 30% over the market value and I thought i was ok.

Thanks. 3kw is too little for me and the Infini 5KW is out of my price range. I would buy the 3KW if I could connect 2 in parallel. More tempting is the Imeon 3.6 which is in the 35 gees range and can combine 3Kw solar with other 3KW from the grid so if needed it gives you 6kw I would be rally great if the Infini 3 kw could give you 3 kw from the inverter and combine it with other 3 from the grid.

So which one will combine solar, battery and grid and not export to the grid?

This guy was talking about an Axpert, not Infini. There is an Axpert V series on the Voltronic web page, have to download the manual and see if it can combine power sources. I do not want to export. The Axpert 5Kva worked like a charm till the lightning melted half of it but did not combine with grid when more power was needed, just switched to full grid supply.

I just had a chat with a guy from Powerstore.co.za. I told him I need an inverter able to combine solar, battery and grid and not to export to the grid. He told me that a new model of Axpert can do that but he does not have it and maybe he will have it in January next year. Does anybody know what model it is?

Can someone with knowledge about the insurance industry advise us what cover should we get for our Solar power systems and which will be the best insurance company for this?

When I phoned them in January to take extra cover for the solar power system they told me I should not bother because is part of the building. So at least they should pay for the solar power system. I do not think I have cover for the contents because they told me it is for theft and I live in a very secure neighborhood. I do have lightning cover I think unlimited..

I doubt anything can protect the system if you have a direct strike and in my case was a direct spark to he roof which lasted for more than 5 seconds. I had the assessor inspect the site and he wanted to know how much the house content was insured for. I told him that i have lightning protection and has nothing to do with the house content. He asked for a lot of documents which I just finished emailing him, he said he will send forms for a house content inventory which I think has nothing to do with my claim unless he plans to rob me.

Hi Chris, It was a hell of a strike, the roof was like an Edison bulb because of the sparks. Now it makes me laugh when I think of it, my wife wanted me to go out and check if the house was on fire. Wives tend to be naughty sometimes. Finally the mobile assessor contacted me today, two weeks and one day after the incident, he will inspect the site tomorrow. It is difficult to repair the system if the insurance does not pay. All I can say is that I was so happy watching how mostly no power was drawn from ESKOM. Since January when I had the PVs installed I had 2 visits from the municipality, they sent someone to check if I do not steal electricity as I bought very little from them. In summer with only 2KW available from the battery bank, the system was switching to ESKOM only at 5 in the morning because the energy draw is very low (replaced all appliances to energy efficient ones, the fridge draws only 90W and I replaced all the lights to LED)

You might be right but first thing when I finished the installation I called the insurance to get extra cover but they told me it was not necessary because it was part of the house.. I do have unlimited lightning damage cover also. I never experienced before this kind of indifference from an insurer. It is very sad. To send someone to assess the damage after a month is very bad. I had to fix the gate operator in the meantime.

I had to get quotations from 2 different installers, both came with +- R75.000,00. As I said I still have to hear from the mobile assessor. The insurance was upset with the high value claim. My point was that this is the reason we get insurance. We can pay for a lifetime without claiming. The thing is that because millions of people keep paying only it is difficult for them to payback. They are used only to take money. I can not tell you the color but I can tell that the color is not the base color for color TV. Three days before this incident, I had to replace a geyser and the solar pump which was destroyed because the water was cut off for a day. I did not claim for that, the invoice was for R6500.00 and was dated 3 days before the lightning incident. I hate to claim. The installers who quoted me had to give reports about the installation and the cause of damage. They gave good reports because the installation is excellent.

Hello all, I would like to share my experience about earthing. My install has 12x 300W Yingli panels fitted on the roof on an aluminium mounting system. The panel earthing is done in one point on a huge rectangular copper bars network spread allover in my backyard and buried at 1 meter depth. The combiner box is almost the same with the one Chris has only better, having fuses on the - side of the strings also and a DC circuit breaker on the supply line to the house. When disaster strikes nothing helps. I had a direct lightning strike on the roof where the panels are. It was a continuous lightning strike which lasted more than 10 seconds. The roof looked like it was on fire. The surge arrester in the combiner box simply exploded, all 8 fuses for the 4 x strings were blown, the circuit breaker in the combiner box was tripped. The result: all panels damaged, combiner box blown, the 100A fuse on the battery supply blown, inverter (Axpert 5KVA) beyond repairs. This is for the Solar Power system, in rest a lot of other stuff: energiser, gate motor controller, router, 2 computers and so on. Total damage all in all R 115,000.00. As about having peace of mind for being insured you will find out that it is not quite so. I have lightning cover with a big name company but after the first assessor was busy with my case for a week and a half and after being chased to get fault reports for all the damaged goods (it took me a week), with specifications of the reason of the damage being lightning, the claims manager takes the case away from the initial assessor and appoints a mobile assessor to the case. I still have to be contacted by this mobile assessor. I keep phoning the insurance and complaining but nothing happens. Thanks for reading Virgil

In this case I will not even have to bridge the neutral in and out from the inverter because they are bridged anyway.

Ok, it gets complicated. I have a double pole CB in the main DB and then a double pole isolator on the supply to the inverter. But what f I take a neutral cable from the main DB just before ELR to the neutral bar or ELR of the sub DB and I bypass all these issues?

Hi SuperDIY, Legal or not it seems safer for me if I get rid of the floating Neutral. Will the Axpert suffer if I bridge the input and output neutrals together? As far as I understood it is not legal to earth the neutral after the main DB if you are on grid and legal to do it before the main sw. in the main DB. Cheers Virgil

Hi all, I did a DIY install and I have 1 x Axpert 5KVA on it. I decided to install a sub DB for the inverter output. I have a few questions: 1. The inverter is powered from mains via a dual pole circuit breaker connected before the ELR on the main board. If it is to respect the advice in the above post can I just bridge the neutral on the circuit breaker or I have to disconnect the neutral wire from the circuit breaker and use a ferrule to connect it? 2. The input and output on the inverter are very closed, can I join the neutrals there? 3. Until now the sub DB had a separate neutral bar from the main DB. If I do all this mods then I will have the same neutral in the sub DB and will it be necessary to move in the new DB neutrals for each circuit? Cheers Virgil