Nicholas Strachan

It was not me who made the second statement 👍 it was Jamila

The problem with your technique is that you have to smack yourself against the head if the level control doesn't work.

Nice one.You guys are way too technical for me.I just smack the side of my 5000l jojo and I can tell where the level is but of course not as accurately as you .

That is exactly the size of my system and your numbers are 100% correct.

I think @Steve87 is, at least in part, defending the smaller companies. I have seen a few articles in local papers that seem to be saying "deal with the big companies. They have the expertise." I don't think it is beyond the realms of possibility that there may be collusion to plant such stories, or that the journalist writing the report has phoned some big company - they're easier to find - and asked one of their managers for some input. And so that manager is quick to point out that you shouldn't deal with those small businesses because you don't know what they don't know. And since the name of his company has already been mentioned ("We asked the chief technical officer of SuperSolarBob...") this helps his business in particular and big companies in general. 

But it is not the case that a smaller company doesn't have standards and expertise. Anybody who has dealt with Steve will know that he has both, that's why he's one of the highest ranked and most appreciated contributors to this forum.

hi Bobster 
thanks for the reply to your point on that koi pond pump - point taken that it needs to be on a timer and can't chow half my batteries at night (I mean I wouldn't want it to) - so those koi have been without electricity for a day many a times so I believe they can stay without filteration for 12 hours and use the pump via solar during the day (little bit of grid spillover maybe but nothing that breaks the bank in terms of units consumed).
to your point of 1C battery (and thanks for the lookout of ads) - what is the downside of a 0.5c battery here in this configuration- 14.3kwh can be drained at 10kwh (probably only for a brief while I guess) and even if it is 0.5c you get discharge at 7kw for 2 hours - my inverter is 8kw and with some efficiency loss here and there might be able to handle only 7.5kw - so to me I like the bigger backup with not too bad of a bottleneck
Nicholas - totally get your point on redundancy- one goes off and other one can still work - 15kw in 5kw batteries is around 60k and for 70k one can get two 14.3kw batteries - that's like 28kw backup - I mean even if i were to think of redundancy I would add 14.3 and have backup for days - almost like be off grid (very hypothetical indeed) - but get your point absolutely - many thanks for pointing it out 
I see no one has a view on mono bs bifacial panels 
 
 
 

I live in Hillcrest which is about 25 km inland from Durban and its 2200 ft above sea level.We get tons of mist and drizzle in summer so sometimes I scratch but its workable.
Yes winter days are shorter and sun is weaker BUT we have guaranteed sun so my output in winter is often more than summer.
I have 1x 8kw sunsynk, 3 x hubble am2 and 7.25 kw of panels.
I have a geyserwise system and with management in summer I "give" ethekweni about R120 pm of electricity just to keep them quiet.
On hot days i use my lounge aircon off the panels without blinking and in winter use the ac to heat the lounge if i am too lazy to make a fire.
Interesting how everyone has a different story/ need on solar. 

If you don't have power-hungry heaters the winter PV (is normally more consistent day to day) should be able to cover your daily consumption... As above you'll most likely best off with electric and gas  geyser in series. I also have borehole and pressure pump on my load and can run dishwasher twice during evening if required.

I live in Hillcrest which is about 25 km inland from Durban and its 2200 ft above sea level.We get tons of mist and drizzle in summer so sometimes I scratch but its workable.
Yes winter days are shorter and sun is weaker BUT we have guaranteed sun so my output in winter is often more than summer.
I have 1x 8kw sunsynk, 3 x hubble am2 and 7.25 kw of panels.
I have a geyserwise system and with management in summer I "give" ethekweni about R120 pm of electricity just to keep them quiet.
On hot days i use my lounge aircon off the panels without blinking and in winter use the ac to heat the lounge if i am too lazy to make a fire.
Interesting how everyone has a different story/ need on solar. 

I live in Hillcrest which is about 25 km inland from Durban and its 2200 ft above sea level.We get tons of mist and drizzle in summer so sometimes I scratch but its workable.
Yes winter days are shorter and sun is weaker BUT we have guaranteed sun so my output in winter is often more than summer.
I have 1x 8kw sunsynk, 3 x hubble am2 and 7.25 kw of panels.
I have a geyserwise system and with management in summer I "give" ethekweni about R120 pm of electricity just to keep them quiet.
On hot days i use my lounge aircon off the panels without blinking and in winter use the ac to heat the lounge if i am too lazy to make a fire.
Interesting how everyone has a different story/ need on solar. 

I don't live in the last outpost. But I am fairly confident in saying that in fact all municipalities have regulations in place. Often it is not well publicised nor enforced. 

In Johannesburg the regulations have been on the books for at least 7 years, but there was little publicity about this. In the meantime there are stories doing the rounds about people who log a fault with City Power only for the technician to come along, see your solar and promptly remove your meter because the system is not registered. This hasn't happened to me or to any of my neighbours in my street. I think some of these cases are contractors looking for a back hander, but there are so many of these reports that I find it hard to dismiss all of this as some sort of misinformation that is doing the rounds. Having seen how some people feel entitled to talk to City Power employees, I also think there are some cases where tempers flare and the technician decides he doesn't have to be nice about anything. 

TLDR: There almost certainly are regulations for eThekweni, but they are not publicised and probably not very well enforced.

My system is registered now, and I have a nice letter from City Power to say that it's registered and thanking me for being concientious about power useage. So in the event that some technician who is having a bad day wants to start threatening me (this has never happened) I can prove that my system has been inspected by and is registered with the municipality. (And they did inspect - mostly safety aspects, and how the system behaves when the power goes down and when power is restored).

There is s a potential down side. Because it ties my property, the City's meter, and my inverter together. So, in theory, I can't change the inverter nor remove it from the property. This is not likely to be an issue for the next couple of years at least.

Maybe those peeps you have spoken to are being a bit too cautious?

A heater is simply another appliance pulling current, like those of us who run electric geysers for hours per day of the system or pool pumps etc, seems like there is no difference so to speak.

Manage your loads so you dont trip your system, which can be hard or not hard to do...also your time of use settings will determine your battery level you want to consume.
I'm running 2 x households of the system so that just means double of everything basically, have had no issues and no trips to date (touch wood).
Remember these devices - Inverters and Batteries are purpose built for this to supply/charge/discharge as and when the load requires it to.
A friend of mine also has 2 x 5kVa Deye's...they have a constant load of like +5000w at any point in time almost 2yrs now...albeit he only uses his 2 x batteries if the grid fails.

I run an 18000 BTU inverter aircon on a 5 kW Sunsynk, with no issues at all. with 15 kWh's of battery charged by solar panels, run it practically all night.

At the end of the day its up to the client if they want to rent a unit so that the lights stay on in loadshedding and up to the installer  to explain the possible limitations of having a rental unit for a month or so that isnt exactly the same as what they are having fixed.

I dropped in 2 x s100 into my girlfriends mecer inverter system as the lead acids were stuffed plus I added a balancer and they work a treat.

Hi Guys 
So to clear a few things up.
So yes we are Inundated with quote requests telephone calls every day stage 6 Loadshedding is not helping we have dedicated staff handling phone calls on the land line and is also responsible for handling queries on stock she has to phone every missed call that was made to the land line and cell phone number.
So please anyone that has slipped through the cracks please communicate with me Via what's app 0742189845 or send us an email [email protected] or log onto the online store www.powerforum-store.co.za 
I will personally make sure everyone will get the attention they deserve you can also send a personal message on the power forum.
We are currently 150 quote requests behind at any time so there is a day or two delay on quotes however everyone of the staff are doing them as fast and as thoroughly as possible.
We are a reputable company we have over 20 000 members keeping us honest.
So the legitimacy of our company is unquestionable. We give the best prices possible with the added value of support and free advice we also have a group of trusted installers we can put you in contact with.
The information my staff gave you is correct 2 of our main suppliers were hit last week with armed men ready with trucks and cleared the warehouses out due to requests from the suppliers I cannot name them.
This is not the first time this has happened this year.
Stock is in short supply not nearly enough for demand.
These attacks on our suppliers make things worse.
The only way you can secure stock at the moment is by way of back order.
Thank you for you patience and understanding in these matters and Don't Hesitate to contact and I will try to assist where I can. What's app 0742189845 calling me won't work because I am always in a call.

Its interesting following these posts from here in Dbn because at the moment we dont have to register our systems with the municipality.
That will change as they are so far behind here on all fronts.If they want this whole song and dance as discussed above then I shall disconnect from the grid.
I suspect with revenues dropping off dramatically that a special tariff for solar owners will come and that would also make me go off grid which i can do already.

I dropped in 2 x s100 into my girlfriends mecer inverter system as the lead acids were stuffed plus I added a balancer and they work a treat.

One of the problems in Jhb is that there is a registration process, and they do want systems registered, but they have been very bad at spreading the word. COCT made a huge hooha about it, so even if you think it's an outrageous policy at least you know it's policy.

Honestly this seems more hassle than anything else

At the end of the day its up to the client if they want to rent a unit so that the lights stay on in loadshedding and up to the installer  to explain the possible limitations of having a rental unit for a month or so that isnt exactly the same as what they are having fixed.

Yes. I'm just feeling left out because I have a Goodwe. I have an electrician coming today who has done a lot of work with PV systems and has installed a few. And I already know what's going to happen: He'll take one look at the Goodwe and screw his face up. "Ugh! What's THAT?" He doesn't have to do any work on the inverter or it's installation, but I am used to people arriving here and pulling faces at my inverter.

Victron, Sunsynk, Voltronic... everybody is in their comfort zone.

Thanks for the replies.
Obviously one cannot mix up batteries and have to stick to the same type.
Regarding the invertor ,I replaced my 5kw Luxpower with an 8kw Sunsynk and it was non event regarding wiring.
I was thinking of getting a few 5k Luxpowers, a couple of 5 and 8 kw sunsynks.
I would assume the risk of lightning strike and any damage to the inverter.It would be a risk I would take.
I would like to hear your thoughts on what you think a client would pay for a month of renting an inverter in order to keep having their system while repairs are being done and the same goes for a battery.

Morning all.
I am based in the greater Durban area and wanted to pick the brains of installers and suppliers.
It seems that the repair time on batteries/ invertors can be quite long and then a client is left without one of those components.
I was wondering how much of a market there would be if i bought a range of invertors and batteries and rented them out to the end user via the installer so that the end user could still be covered while the unit was being repaired.We dont have a quick repair chain here in Dbn as mostly stuff has to go to JHB or CPT.
If there was a market then I would happily do that and installers can contact me for a rental unit.
We all have our different comfort levels and to work out how much would i pay to rent an invertor or battery for a month (either shorter or longer) depends on the individual.
It would be a nice service for the installers to have as it seems that the retailers/wholesalers of these often dont have loan units.
Any feedback would be great.
I was thinking of getting 5 and 8 kw invertors and and range of different batteries.Obviously if a client only has1 battery then we dont have the mix and match issue.
There is zero risk for the installer as all the cost would be from my side and then a reasonable weekly/monthly rental price would need to be calculated.