Richard Viljoen

The system is not in yet, so not sure what meter it would be. I am also struggling to get info about the process. In a test we ran on a meter, the meter recorded the net energy flow across the three phases. I am hoping this is the way the COCT applies it.

Intresting.. and any sign of a change in efficiency? Not sure how you would see that, maybe energy consumption if you measure it

Nice demo. Do you notice a difference in heatpump performance in winter and summer? Alot less ambient heat for the pump on highveld winters morning. I am thinking we have an advantage here along the coast... the temperature remains above 10 the whole year through. It does not get as hot, but it never goes to 0!

Agreed. If you have the PV anyway, reducing your power bill, but have some excess solar power or a mismatch between solar production and the load, then this system probably makes sense.

Anybody have any experience with 3 phase meters and the SSEG tarrif? I am looking at a 3-phase installation and want to understand how the 3 phase power meter works. If I am generating 3 kW, it would be distributed across the three phases. If there is a 2 kW load on one of the phases, that phase will be pulling in 1kW while the other two phases are registering and export of 2kW. The question is : How will this be read by the city of cape town? Will they record this as 1kW export or as 1kW import (at import tarrif) and 2kW export (at export tariff)?

I think the advantage with the SolarImmersion and PV is that once the geyser is at temperature, you can use the rest of the power generated to save on your power bill. Something you cant do with a solar geyser. Also, if you already have a solar system (PV), the SI is significantly cheaper than a solar geyser. One of the issues with a typical grid-tied solar PV Installation is that you can have a lot of unused solar power. The SolarImmersion is supposed to increase self consumption.

Here is my graph of the SolarImmersion performance. The graph shows the power flow to the geyser element. I have set it up to run for an hour in the morning and evenings, for rainy days etc and to make sure my wife has a hot shower in the morning... (dont get this wrong... I learnt the hard way). Most of the time, with the geyser blanket and the hot days, it runs for much less than an hour, especially the evening run. The energy flow from just after 8 is the excess power going to the geyser, you can see it ramping up with the sun. I checked on the smart meter on my main incomer and it, like Cobus, shows a slight export while the SI is pushing to the geyser. The dips in power shows that the unit is only pushing the excess power. I can see that it stops whenever the kettle is put on for instance. Just after 12, the geyser hit temperature and the power was pushed back to the grid. The spike before 15H00 is when someone used the hot water in the kitchen and the geyser kicked in again. By my calculations, the unit pushed 3.12 kWh of solar power into my geyser for the day. Would be more if I could convince everyone to shower in the evening... no chance there.

Mike, I have just installed my infini 3kW, but need the factory password to set it to NRS097. Can you send it to me? Thanks in advance

Thanks Cobus, Going to install next week.

Just bought the RenPlus from Bonanza tech...haven't installed yet, but so far so good.