Kavesh

Yes thanks man. My main reason for going small was just to keep essentials running, however, these days I am concerned of an extended period, i.,e days without power. There has been so much speculation of grid collapse. Its getting to me! I do not intend living on this property in 3 years.

Please explain further, I am no electrician, however, I like to do my research before chatting to an installer.

OK then 3 panels in parallel is all that I can install. Any thoughts on panel brand?

Thanks for the feedback. Would installing in series make a difference to the number of panels I can fit? Which way would be most efficient? I have been looking at solar panels. Locally it seems that the 2 brands available are JA and Canadian solar. is one better than the other or are they about the same? Canadian 450W can get for R4 100 and the JA 545W R4 250. Cant compare but that is what is available on the market.

Hi guys, would appreciate some input. Thank you

model SPF 3000TL HVM-24 Solar charge mode 102VDC MPPT 30 - 80VDC Input strings 1 Max charge current 50A Hope this helps

Hello all So last year I installed a 3kw Growatt inverter with 2 x 100amp gel batteries. This is a small system to keep my critical stuff on, like wifi lights and certain plugs for laptops. System has been working good and am happy. I have decided to add some panels as the risk of extended outages over winter and not being able to charge the batteries. I want to also run my fridges on this setup if possible on the days that there is sunshine. My installer advised me that I can only add 2 panels to this inverter, i.e. 2 x 450w canadian solar panels. I always believed that one could add more than that as it will enable faster charge of the batteries. I would appreciate any advice on this please. Thank you Kavesh

What are you guys using to protect the invertor from power surges? I was talking to my electrician and he said that I could install a surge protector on the invertor DB but said that even though surge protector would blow it will not break the power. This sounds strange to me as I would assume the surge protector is like a fuse that would blow first and protect everything connected to it. Would appreciate any thoughts on this please.

Hi Yes, it did come with the cable. I have not tried connecting it to my laptop though, just been lazy. Is the Watchpower software free to download?

Ok so load shedding did not happen as planned. I had a look at the settings and they were not set per above. We have now set the charging at 28.2v, with the float at 27v. Also some settings needed to be changed which I can report has allowed the charge light to go from constant blinking to steady green, which I believe indicates fully charged. I need to study the manual and familiarise myself with how it works. In the box came an additional cable, one end is a USB and I assume the other will fit somewhere on the inverter. Is this something that would make setting up the inverter easier or to obtain reports or graphs?

Hi all My recently installed Growatt 3kva inverter which has 2 x 100ah gel batteries. Power is from the grid and not solar. I have noticed that it is constantly charging, even though in theory the batteries should not have drained as we have not had load shedding as yet. I sometimes hear the fan running as well. When I checked the battery voltage it seems to be at a constant 25.3v, which is what it was when first installed. I would like to know whether this is normal or do I need to be concerned. Need to make sure everything is working correctly with load shedding coming tonight possibly. Thanks in advance. Kavesh

OK so the inverter is now installed, Can you believe that I am waiting for load shedding now:-) To test the system. I have connected all lights to the inverter and key plug points that do not draw much power, to power wifi, laptops and cellphones. I will be replacing the last few of my florescent tubes to LED soon, to make my lights load lighter. These normal long tubes actually are a heavy draw, 2 x 5 foot double tubes in my garage draws 1amp of power. We did a test on some LED downlights, 16 downlights draws 0.5amps. Obviously during load shedding I will not keep everything on, will manage that myself. I will update once I have had load shedding.

Hello There has been a delay due to lack of stock of the inverters. I have now managed to purchase a 3kva Growatt inverter and 2 100ah gel batteries. Hoping my sparky is available this weekend to complete the job. I have already sorted my essential load and will be converting the some florescent tubes to LED which will lighten my essential load further. I will update once its done.

So that has given me perspective, thanks Clivevan. My investment is not going to yield much help in terms on ROI. For now my priority is to ensure continued power when Eskom goes off, hopefully for not more than 5 hours. With that in mind, I have decided I will get a Growatt 3kva unit with 2 X 100ah gel batteries. I will just need to make sure that I do not discharge them below 40%. Bundu Power has it for about R7 100 and the batteries are R2 800 each. Hopefully they have stock tomorrow. Then I will need to get some accessories to do the install. My sparky asked for battery fuse and holder plus 35mm cable. He said 4m but that in my opinion is too much. The inverter and batteries will be close to each other. 2m should do it I think. We already have the additional DB and breakers, change over switch. Hopefully we can get this done on the weekend. Thanks for all the advice.

Thank you all for the valuable advice given, really appreciate it. You have helped me with staying away from the cheaper inverters which I have to admit is very tempting. I do not want to over invest at this time as mentioned at the beginning of this thread is that I am not sure how long I will be in this house, I'd say 5 years max, maybe less. I guess if I wanted I could uninstall my inverter take it along to the next house easily. The solar panels may be another story I think. How many panels would one need to power a 200l geyser? I have already decided to reduce this to 150l once its sell by date arrives and insurance covers that cost. I would look at the 5kva system if maybe 1 or 2 panels can run my geyser and other appliances during the day. With the cooler weather I only power my geyser for 2 hours and in summer for an hour, so will continue to do the same, the rest of the time I guess solar could feed back to power my needs, if I understand how these things work. OK who are the recommended suppliers who offer decent service I should be looking at?