Johandup

The replacement costs of a solar system should be included in your selling price. Don’t assume that every installation would be the same.

When looking at solar it is wise to look into the future. I have a gasgeyser and is considering to add an electric geyser in front of it as the price of gas is becoming too high. Supply will become an issue as the refineries have closed down. I have 6370 watts of solar pabels installed split between east west installations. At 07h00 I get 1000 watt already. Now in Oct I get maximum 75% from the installed solar capacity - which is fine for running my equipment seperately. Intelligent db’s are still not available so it is up to a human to do the switching. With 9600w pylontechs installed it compensates for increased demands during the day. I am using 6000w loads comfortably as long as I know the batteries will be fully charged by sundown. I have a 8kw inverter. At night I have a constant load of 300w for security lights, electric fencing and alarm. In the morning I end up with batteries at 43% soc. There is no such thing as overinvesting in solar with the way Eskom is going. In 10 years time you will be grateful for the extra money you’ve spent initially. Solar panel prices have increased by 50% over the last two years. A recent quote for 7 x 455 panels installed was R35000 😕

Mine draws straight 3000w (displayed on a Sunsynk 8kW) upon starting. Check the amp draw with a clamp meter.

Just another way of state capture - it will come back to haunt us all as soon as the poor quality mine opencast mines have been depleted. I am pretty sure all the “minipits” and trucking companies have a cadre hand in them.

Nothing on their website.

Power station mines do not export coal.

Nothing is said about the coal supply. The ANC has stopped capital expansion finance at the power station mines many years ago. They WILL run out of coal …

I have 7 Sonoff devices doing all sorts of work. I need a system to control a 3kW geyser including a temperature probe. Please advise on what is required and how to do it. I plan to replace a Geyserwise with it.

My system is really working hard during the current heat wave. It is now set up to use the output from the solar panels with battery backup when the current requirement exceeds the solar output. But my current setting for the batteries is 30% to prevent the system from importing from the grid. However, with the coming rainy and thus cloudy days my batteries will be exhausted quickly. I will need to adjust the battery % up to prevent me from ending up with flat batteries - especially at night time. And of course load shedding adds to this I am currently powering a 2.2kw borehole pump and one 3 kw geyser during daytime. I intend to add another 2kw geyser (thanks to the ever increasing lpg price) but the borehole pump must stay. I will be adding another 7 x 455w panels to increase my strings to East, West and North. Is anybody adjusting their battery settings to suit the season and the power consumption?

Correct - also way to cope with overloading. Then 💥

With my previous Infinisolar 4kw hybrid the output was kept to a constant figure. With the current 8kw Sunsynk the output varies and is not kept to the set figure. I don’t mind as it is within acceptable parameters - would be interesting to see what it does when I switch the incoming power off.

We sit in Witbank this morning with a varying supply of around 170v. This is the 3rd time in a week this has happened - a sign of the season? Feedback is that it is an Eskom problem. I’ve set my Sunsynk for a min - max volt supply. But this was not a factor then. Any advice or comments will be welcome.

Battery technology and research is driven by the EV manufacturers. These people do not have limited resources and they each want to sell millions of their vehicles per year. The household inverter + batteries industry is not coming to the party currently. Expect big changes in the future.

I need an installer to install 14 panels on a corrugated roof. They have to go in as a 6 panels facing west and 8 panels facing east. I already have a Sunsynk in as a battery backup system. Everything necessary is already on site. I am in Witbank. The one local company I have approached is not interested in installations only if they have not sold the panels to you. I am retired and is fulltime at home. Any recommendations will be welcome guys. Feel free to pm me with info and people to contact.

Tx for the reply. Much appreciated.

Have tested mine and it is within spec. But it a gray area.

Thanks Gerrrie. Did you install it inside the inverter?Photos are welcome.

Can anyone please supply me with the information regarding the earth neutral bond relay they’ve installed. Also where you’ve sourced it from We had a millisecond municipal trip tonight which caused my 8kw Sunsynk to trip the earth leakage. I need to do this mod asap as I am going to the KNP in 3 weeks time.

No idea

On my Infinisolar it stipulated its own seperate neutral. Not to be shared with the incoming connection. It never had a leak from neutral to earth. I suppose its got to do with the design - I know some makes earth their own neutrals. Anyhow, the circuit after the inverter must trip its own earth leakage.

Search “Sunsynk” and you’ll find a similiar problem and the posted solution. On the Sunsynk there is a special connection for a relay.

Please bear in mind that an inverter generates power that can kill. So test your plugs with an earth leakage tester. A 16a plug can only carry 3,5kw +- Like all overloaded electric devices an inverter can fail in a spectacular fashion. If you can push it to beyond its design output it indicates that your overload mcb connecting it to the db is an incorrect size. For my 4kw Infinisolar it was only 20a - I kept it like that with my Sunsynk 8kw as it manages my low amp db. For a 3kw device it should be 15amp.

Dc surge suppression goes to pv panels. The inverter & battery earth wires go to the db earth. The main isolator must be two poles for neutral and live.

“No need to separate essential and non essential loads.” Dependant on your model and amps you’ll draw. I had the 4kw hybrid replaced now with a 8kw Sunsynk) and it would go to 5kw amps overload with mains backup. The Infinisolar performed faultlessly for three years as a backup on a low amp db setup m It is better (my opinion) to look at the amps you pull from the db. I had to create its own neutral to earth connection on its delivery side when I installed it. This gave me lots of problems as my house is old with connections going everywhere and I had to sort all the neutrals out. At the time I used the opportunity to replace my 60 year old board with new equipment. It was worth it as it has performed faultlessly since. Keep to the isolator sizes prescribed by your inverter manual. Photos of your db will help.

Get yourself an earth leakage tester and do the tests after all the wiring is completed. It is interesting to see at what ma the rcd trips. It will work if the second one has its own earth (tip from Aus).