deonholt

Thanks very much. Exactly what I need. 👍

Hi and thanks again for your help. Busy with my planning to fit the solar panels during the coming week. I've read some posts here with excellent advice. My challenge is that oor roof's tiles cannot lift. I was thinking of drilling the holes with a masonry drill bit. But what do I put between the rails and the tiles? I don't feel comfortable by just fixing the rails directly onto the tiles. Your advice will will be very welcome. Thanks.

An absolutely fantastic post. I thoroughly enjoyed the journey ... that lays in front of me.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Thank you for your patience & time you took in answering every single one of my questions. Salute! I have learned a lot from you. I am going to buy the 5500W Esener. I checked everything you said against it's specs and it will do the job 100%. Thanks again so much.

Thanks so much. I will definitely consider it. I am trying to find a Growatt at a good price and will take the Esener as 2nd choice. Thanks again.

Hi. I'm in the market for a 5kVA hybrid inverter. Is there anything similar to a Growatt but a little bit cheaper or are they absolutely worth forking out the money? Thanks. Deon

Thanks. I appreciate your help.

Hi and thank you very much for your help & patience. I have a 3kVA hybrid inverter which I am going to replace by a 5kVA with much better provision for solar. I bought 6 x 480W panels. I've read somewhere dat panels loose Volts & wattage. It looks like even the best solar panels are only ± 27% efficient. Do I work on Panel Wattage x 27% to calculate. This is at the back of my panels. Peak Power (Pmax): 480 V Open Circuit Voltage: 49.92 V Max Power Voltage: 41.76 V Short Circuit current: 12.87 A Max Power Current: 11.52 A VOC: By how much does it drop when connected/in use? Is there a formula I can use? Max Power Voltage: Is this the voltage I use when making calculations? Max Power Current: By how much does it drop when charging/in use? My current inverter Specs (and they are terrible) Rated Power: 1 000 W PV Charge Current: 40 A Max PV Array Open Circuit Voltage: 75 VDC Max PV Array MPPT Voltage Range: 30-66 VDC An installer told me, based on this, that I can, with this current inverter, only use 2 panels connected in series. His explanation was that even though, with Watts law when panel voltage doubles to 83,52 VDC, the drop in voltage when connected will be below the 75 VDV Max of the inverter. The Max Power Current of the panels, 11.52 A will be below the 40 A for the panel. Also I will really appreciate your help with this. Thanks.

Hi. Is this still available?

Good afternoon everyone. I am going to buy a 5kVA hybrid inverter. I already have 6 x 480W panels, Voc: 49.92; Vmp: 41.76 Imp: 11.52 per panel. Does any of you have knowledge of the LVTOPSUN 5kVA inverter? I am on a budget of no mor than R12 000 and I can get this inverter for R10 000. Will appreciate your thought and experience. LVTOPSUN HF4850S80-H Datasheet.pdf

Thanks very much for the reply. I do not know much about all the inverters. Can any of the ons I mentioned do what you say it must? Un fortunately my budget is around R10 000.

Hi and thank you all for your advice. I currently have a Five-Star 3000W, 24VDC MPPT inverter ... I should have bought a 5kVA. I've browsed for a couple now and will appreciate your thoughts: Sacolar - WiFi compatible- 5KVA / 5KW Pure Sine Wave Axpert Type Inverter / 100A High Voltage MPPT / Parallel FiveStar-Sunmagic 8KVA 48v Pure Sine Hybrid Solar MPPT Inverter (I know it is 8kVA but a bit cheaper than above). Felicity Thanks for your advice. Deon

Linda, alles het te doen met hoe groot die las is. Ek neem aan jy het een 12V battery. Hoeveel persent van die inverter se kapasiteit gebruik jy wanneer die krag af is? Uiteindelik het alles te doen met hoe groot die las is.

Most definitely. I have a couple of friends using different sizes of the FiveStar and they are all very happy with it.

Yes, I also saw that. 🤔

Wow, thank you SO much for your help & time. I REALLY appreciate it. Your explanation it clear and easy to follow. Just for myself ... Do I understand correctly that you run everything that runs through the inverter through the ELD? Thanks again.

... and just for my own clarity. The neutrals of everything running through the inverter must be carried over to the sub-db's neutral bar? Thanks.

The inverter's neutral is going to the neutral bar in the sub-db for all the loads.

Good morning. I installed our 3kVA via a sub-DB to our main DB. We don't have solar panels. Everything works perfect ... but Yesterday I started planning to add a manual changeover in the line feeding mains to the sub-db. While we had load shedding, I disconnected the wires from the main-db to the mains incoming to the sub-db. The moment I removed them the inverter switched off. Why? (I have about 15 years of wiring AMF panels to generators but this one is beating me.) This is what I have done: I connected a Live & Neutral directly from the MAIN isolator's outgoing (bottom). The Live wire goes to a circuit breaker (top) and outgoing to the inverter's AC incoming Live. The Neutral from the MAIN isolator's outgoing (bottom) goes to the sub-db's neutral bar. From there (the same neutral bar) another wire (neutral) goes to the inverter's AC incoming Neutral. The above neutral bar is for the lights, meaning without earth leakage protection. What happens then is the following: If I remove the neutral coming from the main DB, the lights go off. (This is when the mains isolator is switched off and with load shedding.) The same thing happens when I have the 2-pole manual changeover switch completely connect and on "0", meaning not main and not gen. I am sure that it has something to do with a neutral. I mean, why do the lights go off when removing the neutral coming from the main-db. Based on my observations, my questions: Must I not rather connect the inverter's AC incoming directly from the main DB without the Live and neutral being broken in the sub-DB? Or, take the Neutral only from the main-db and have Live running through a circuit breaker in the sub-DB? Thanks for your time & suggestions.

Thanks for your reply. Yes, it is off-grid panel. I will download the software and give it a go. Thanks again.

Hi and thanks for your help. I bought a 3kVA Fivestar inverter. In the book it mentions the monitoring software and supplies a cable. There was no CD with software in the box. Can anyone here please advise on where to download the software from? Thanks. Deon

Hi all and thanks for your help. This is what I have: 1. Mains DB with own Earth leakage, sub-db with earth leakage for essentials & inverter. 2. Where does the AC INPUT to my inverter come from to charge? Can I just take it from the bottom of the main DB Isolator directly to the DB Incoming AC or how would you do it? I was thinking of "charging" the batteries from a CB in the main DB. 3. The sub DB will be wired as a normal DB, with plugs on earth leakage and lights no earth leakage? 4. From what I have learned so was, the sub DB has to have two seperate neutral bars; one for circuits without earth leakage and one for circuits with earth leakage? I will appreciate it if someone can confirm this for me. 5. The "mains incoming" for this sub db wil then be the AC output of the inverter. Thanks very much for your help.