LCG

I converted a pull-start generator to an electric start, and rather than installing a charging system for the battery on the generator I put a 50 watt solar panel on my roof with a solar charge controller to keep the battery charged. It works like a bomb and my generator never has a flat battery. The starter motor has a direct connection to the battery so the massive current doesn't go through the charge controller. The controller just trickle charges the battery.

This might help to give you a little perspective. My house with a cottage uses 55kw a day in winter. The cottage and house are running on the solar system and I bill the cottage every month for electricity via a separate meter. My system is: 2 x 5kw SRNE Inverters 4 x 5.5kw Shoto Batteries 24 x 455watt Mono Panels I like my creature comforts and I consider my aircons an "essential item" I have a heat pump for the house on 2 x 150lt geysers in series which is on a timer from 9:00 - 13:30 The cottage is still on a normal geyser but I have fitted a 2kw element to lower the peak draw, which is on a timer from 11:00 - 15:00 The washing machines and dishwashers may only be used between 9:00 - 14:30 in winter......a little earlier and later in summer. Then I have a 9000BTU inverter aircon in the kid's room and a 12000 in my room. Which I run as and when I please. The cottage does NOT use any heaters at all. Both the house and cottage have standard DEFY stoves and ovens. In summer my system generates between 50kw - 60kw a day and around 15kw - 20kw in very cloudy weather. In summer the batteries are usually charged by 10:30 in the morning and run on solar the rest of the day. We occasionally tickle the mains supply but on average use less than 50kw of mains power a month in summer. In winter with fewer daylight hours we get a max of 45kw per day. The system switches over to mains when the batteries are about 30% in case of load-shedding, which is normally about 2am - 3am. and back to solar around 9:00am. So we use about 300kw of mains a month in winter. My biggest issue has always been the peak draw and your 8kw inverter may not carry the house and the cottage. When the two water heaters' time slots overlap that's already 3.5kw. Then the wife cooks on two stove plates while the washing machine and dishwasher are on and that peak limit of 10kw gets in rage rapidly. Enter mom-in-law with the F*cking kettle and we have 15 minutes of quiet time while the inverters reset themselves. If you can, rather go for more panels (it's a SOLAR system after all), and more panels are always better, then bill the cottage for electricity supplied by your solar system and speed up your payback time. Otherwise, your system is probably only going to be big enough to run your house, and leave the cottage on mains only.

So this is now turning into a bloody joke. I updated to the latest software version which made zero difference. I eventually got a reply from Solar Assist telling me that I needed a different cables for the SRNE inverters, Which I duly purchased for an additional R1100. The cables arrive and I am stuck with the same issues. Numerous un-answered emails later I get told that those are also the wrong cables. They advise they will collect the wrong ones, and have the correct cables to me by close of business today, which was Monday. They have collected the "Wrong" cables and the correct ones have never arrived! Again, my emails are just ignored. If you purchase one of these devices and you ever need support on it you are stuffed! The worst part is they don`t even have a phone number to contact. I am eventually going to have to report this as fraud with my bank and try to have the charge reversed on my card! Honestly disgusting treatment.

I see my software version is 2022-10-30 Any idea how I would go about updating?

I would be willing to wait for updates if they would just have the decency to reply and tell me they are working on an update. Im just getting effed off at the treatment im getting. The only thing the unit does allow me to do is remotely switch between UTI and SBU which has been very useful in avoiding load shedding if we have a cloudy day, but other than that its useless to me. So I need if for switching and cant be without it now. Yes, they are in parallel. Apparently each inverter needs its own USB cable for SNRE but it refuses to connect to the second one.

So I recently purchased the Solar Assistant device as suggested here. Unfortunately it has turned out to be a spectacular waste of money. The device will only connect one of my two SRNE inverters and gives completely different readings to what is actually happening. it constantly says we are using grid power even when we are not. Initially I was getting responses from their support guys but after we had been through all of the generic faults they just started ignoring my emails and now wont even have the manners to reply. I am quite astounded at how disgusting their service has been. Just a heads up for anyone thinking of using the device.

Wow, thanks for that guys. Ill try and get in touch with them.

I have Chinese SRNE inverters, I doubt they will be compatible with that.

So in a perfect world my solar system would run perfectly on its own with no manual input from me. I currently have all of my big loads running from Solar. I run on battery through the night, and in the morning batteries are charging again at 7:00. As a fail safe I keep about 30% of my batteries in reserve should mains fail at night, and should it be cloudy my system taps mains to supplement the shortfall during the day. sounds pretty straight forward......but enter sustained stage 5/6 load shedding, with heavy cloud cover and my system is taking strain. I don`t have particularly fancy inverters and splitting my DB board into essential/non essential loads was not something I had even heard of before joining this group. So essentially when I know we have load-shedding coming (The 4-5 hour slots) and we have had a cloudy day, I need to rush home and change my settings to charge the batteries a bit before the power goes out, or set to UTI to preserve the batteries for that "zero dark thirty" slot. Aside from this minor inconvenience I have not been hit by load-shedding once in the five months that I have had the system. With a certain amount of user interference required, I`m sure ill get it wrong at some point and land up in the dark, but so far so good. How are your systems coping with this stage 6 and are you having to do a bit of thinking for your systems, or does it just do its thing?

So far I have been getting 45 - 50 units a day in September. With 24 x 455watt panels.

Is this figure your total production for the day, or the peak outputs? There are a huge amount of variables involved, but you would normally expect to see a max of 70% - 80% of your panels rated outputs. My 10.9kw array peaks at about 6kw in winter. The system was only installed four months ago, so I dont know the summer output yet, but so far I have seen 7.3kw

Over the last three days I have used absolutely ZERO mains power! 🍾

I Hose my panels down every two weeks or so in Winter and it makes a hugely noticeable difference.

I don't know if you have made a decision yet, but I reckon you could do better for that kind of money. I have 2 x 5kw inverters, 15kw of battery and 10.9kw if panels fully installed cost me R233k incl vat. The guy who did my system is based in Cape Town.

Speak to the guys at Geyserwise, they are incredibly helpful. I ran that PV heating system with great success for a number of years and they always assisted with my questions.