Johandup

i've heard that a avis is the best 4x4

Done the dashfix - a cure (not successful on the Kgalagadi paths - can’t call them roads) and not addressing the cause which is the front suspension.
only a problem when driving slooowly on corrugations - the best 4x4 in my opkinion.....
This forum is more lively and comtributing than the Pajero one ;-/
Back to solar....

This has been done before by people much smarter than me;
  Fixed Adj. 2 seasons Adj. 4 seasons 2-axis tracker % of optimum 71.1% 75.2% 75.7% 100% The table above shows that there is hardly any value at all in adjusting panel tilt each season over a fixed tilt array, however there is a very real advantage to a 2axis tracker over fixed array.
The above numbers don't really tell the whole story - for a fixed array to theoretically match the annual output of a 2axis array you would need to add 40% panel capacity, but the larger fixed array would still give low output in the morning and evening with a huge output in middle day, whereas the 2axis array would give a much smoother output throughout the day.
This smoother output would deliver significant benefits in real life over the simplistic result of math on a piece of paper showing equal annual output. To have your output pick up quickly in the morning and extend PV output late into the afternoon would have significant benefits in an off grid situation (and most other situations as well).
 
 

You can follow what I’ve have posted and all the replies to it.
Buying equipment is really the last step to do before installation.
You need to determine your power requirements first and also what state your house wiring is in. This has a huge impact on later decisions. You may even find that replacing your home washing machine, dryer, stove, oven, geyser etc with gas or energy efficient items might change the scenario and capital outlay totally.
And when retired our lifespan is too short to worry about how long stuff will last. Provided of course it does not fail in a short time.
You will never make your money back over the years. It really is a question of convenience as Eskom is sure to fail.
I went with a 8,8kw lithium battery setup (very expensive but fiddling free) and a 4kw hybrid (very necessary) inverter and they work well. Gone are the days of power interruptions and inconvenience. I did it myself and the very steep learning curve (and hard work) was worth the pleasure I have now.

You can follow what I’ve have posted and all the replies to it.
Buying equipment is really the last step to do before installation.
You need to determine your power requirements first and also what state your house wiring is in. This has a huge impact on later decisions. You may even find that replacing your home washing machine, dryer, stove, oven, geyser etc with gas or energy efficient items might change the scenario and capital outlay totally.
And when retired our lifespan is too short to worry about how long stuff will last. Provided of course it does not fail in a short time.
You will never make your money back over the years. It really is a question of convenience as Eskom is sure to fail.
I went with a 8,8kw lithium battery setup (very expensive but fiddling free) and a 4kw hybrid (very necessary) inverter and they work well. Gone are the days of power interruptions and inconvenience. I did it myself and the very steep learning curve (and hard work) was worth the pleasure I have now.

You can follow what I’ve have posted and all the replies to it.
Buying equipment is really the last step to do before installation.
You need to determine your power requirements first and also what state your house wiring is in. This has a huge impact on later decisions. You may even find that replacing your home washing machine, dryer, stove, oven, geyser etc with gas or energy efficient items might change the scenario and capital outlay totally.
And when retired our lifespan is too short to worry about how long stuff will last. Provided of course it does not fail in a short time.
You will never make your money back over the years. It really is a question of convenience as Eskom is sure to fail.
I went with a 8,8kw lithium battery setup (very expensive but fiddling free) and a 4kw hybrid (very necessary) inverter and they work well. Gone are the days of power interruptions and inconvenience. I did it myself and the very steep learning curve (and hard work) was worth the pleasure I have now.

Shredders have overload and overtemperature protection.
Google the shredder model to see if other people have asked for advice on it.

I can see the ANC letting the powerstations run empty of coal and die.
And then there will not be electricity to run the mines to restart production.
And the chaos will start.
We’ve been very close to this scenario once before when the power stations nearly tripped.
Many years later and some broken units have still not been repaired - but I am sure the insurance money is long gone.
It is good to read Clem Sunter’s books on different scenarios. 
Fact is that the current lot in guvament only knows the way of fraud and violence - organised, instigated, real, inspired or otherwise.
They could never have foreseen that international money powers could force their hand. Thas is Moody and company for you.
But the previous regime also met their match when the international community turned against them. But at least the ANC inherited and took over a stable economy. Big companies are now divesting to get away from the sh*thole our country has become.
The period up to the next elections will be very volatile and downright dangerous as the politicians manouver around the trough.
And they don’t worry about casualties - the VBS drama illustrates this very well.
Unless many people suddenly develop consciences and steer away from their pickpocket ways this country is in trouble.
And to think I’ve thought that the rand will never weaken to R20 to a $. All the reputable economists are of the opinion that you must convert investments to dollars.

I can see the ANC letting the powerstations run empty of coal and die.
And then there will not be electricity to run the mines to restart production.
And the chaos will start.
We’ve been very close to this scenario once before when the power stations nearly tripped.
Many years later and some broken units have still not been repaired - but I am sure the insurance money is long gone.
It is good to read Clem Sunter’s books on different scenarios. 
Fact is that the current lot in guvament only knows the way of fraud and violence - organised, instigated, real, inspired or otherwise.
They could never have foreseen that international money powers could force their hand. Thas is Moody and company for you.
But the previous regime also met their match when the international community turned against them. But at least the ANC inherited and took over a stable economy. Big companies are now divesting to get away from the sh*thole our country has become.
The period up to the next elections will be very volatile and downright dangerous as the politicians manouver around the trough.
And they don’t worry about casualties - the VBS drama illustrates this very well.
Unless many people suddenly develop consciences and steer away from their pickpocket ways this country is in trouble.
And to think I’ve thought that the rand will never weaken to R20 to a $. All the reputable economists are of the opinion that you must convert investments to dollars.

I can see the ANC letting the powerstations run empty of coal and die.
And then there will not be electricity to run the mines to restart production.
And the chaos will start.
We’ve been very close to this scenario once before when the power stations nearly tripped.
Many years later and some broken units have still not been repaired - but I am sure the insurance money is long gone.
It is good to read Clem Sunter’s books on different scenarios. 
Fact is that the current lot in guvament only knows the way of fraud and violence - organised, instigated, real, inspired or otherwise.
They could never have foreseen that international money powers could force their hand. Thas is Moody and company for you.
But the previous regime also met their match when the international community turned against them. But at least the ANC inherited and took over a stable economy. Big companies are now divesting to get away from the sh*thole our country has become.
The period up to the next elections will be very volatile and downright dangerous as the politicians manouver around the trough.
And they don’t worry about casualties - the VBS drama illustrates this very well.
Unless many people suddenly develop consciences and steer away from their pickpocket ways this country is in trouble.
And to think I’ve thought that the rand will never weaken to R20 to a $. All the reputable economists are of the opinion that you must convert investments to dollars.

For some people who have been following Eskom discussions.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-04-16-inside-the-coal-supply-emergency-at-eskom/#.WtQrO5mxWhA
The real Eskom story has finally been spotlighted - but please don’t expect miracles.
No mine can be kickstarted into production and neglect takes a looonng time to fix. I should know as I worked on them for 40 odd years.
This is a very good motivation to get the alternative electrical supply in order guys.
Time to become a solar seller. Lots of money to be made from everybody.

For some people who have been following Eskom discussions.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2018-04-16-inside-the-coal-supply-emergency-at-eskom/#.WtQrO5mxWhA
The real Eskom story has finally been spotlighted - but please don’t expect miracles.
No mine can be kickstarted into production and neglect takes a looonng time to fix. I should know as I worked on them for 40 odd years.
This is a very good motivation to get the alternative electrical supply in order guys.
Time to become a solar seller. Lots of money to be made from everybody.

I started out on this journey as my town suffers from repeated blackouts for various reasons. 
I am retired and only wanted it for convenience sake and as a backup system.
Costs were an issue.
I finally settled on a infinisolar 4kw hybrid with 4 pylontech batteries and a cabinet. All supplied by Full Circle Solar.
I love the way the pylontechs manage themselves. They charge at 49 amps irrespective of how much they have been depleted.
My house runs on two circuits - one for the high amp side directly from the municipality (or 7kw generator via change over switch) and the convenience low amp side via the inverter (which also cleans up the power). This side runs idling at 6% but can go up to 95% when the borehole pump runs to fill the 10kl tanks. It handles the booster pump comfortably as it is an energy efficient model. The rest is on computers, router, lights, fridges, tv and a gas hot water system for two main bathrooms. I still haven’t run a trial to see how long it can sustain the output before shutting down. The low amp side can also be diverted to run from mains only via a seperate change over switch.
You can follow my posts. 
Advice from me is the following:
Start thinking in amps. 
Measuere all the currents - startup, running and maximum per device. I bought a true rms clamp meter for this purpose. This exercise will show you what your real needs are.
Consider splitting your db into a low amp and a high amp part. I did this at great expense but it was worth all the sweat and costs. It sorted out several issues I never even knew about as I have an old farm house. This also gave me the opportunity to modernise everything. Bear in mind that surfix wiring allows you to make really quick wiring changes inside your roof. This will also ensure that you can look at your earthing systems. I used 10mm wire between the db and the inverter as I could buy it per metre, 6mm would work easier but then you need to buy 100m rolls. I also used bootlace ferrels everywhere which make for good connections.
My system has been running well for a few months now. I don’t know about power failures anymore. When it happens in the morning we simply make breakfast on a gasbraai on the stoep. Same for coffee. Swambo dislikes gas in the kitchen.
When you are young you might recoup the costs over a loonng lifetime of usage of 30 years. Don’t trust the calcs by other people as you need to add lifetime costs per item. And this is far from clear.
I made my system swambo friendly as she is not technically inclined. On a recent trip to the Kgalagadi (we were out of cell phone range and could not receive alarm warnings or give advice) my system tripped and two men who tried to help could not id a tripped earth leakage. Fortunately they powered the fridges, gates etc from leads. The pylontechs have shut down but I reckoned the power was out for a week.  This taught me more lessons. This fault I traced to an outside db which was done by town electricians - still to be fixed but isolated now as I am busy painting the house. Oh, and the house is on shutdown the next break we take as I still cannot fathom how this has happened.
Low amp (energy efficient new generation) washing machine, fridges, dryers and solar geysers etc can change your amperage requirements drastically. With the obvious benefit in lowering capital costs and running on a less stressed system (low amps is better by far). Hot water systems can be tied into a gas heater for convenience. Plenty of posts on this.

Ek bewe te veel...
Drink ook nie baie nie want ek mors te veel. 
Lol

Ek bewe te veel...
Drink ook nie baie nie want ek mors te veel. 
Lol

Mike, 
Your settings was to cut out at 42v for the pv side. As per the above settings it means it passed 100% dod.
A deep cycle battery is not a solar battery. My experience with them doing camping is they have a very short life time and they must not be discharged below 20% dod.
My 8.8kw Pylontech batteries cost 3x as much as my inverter and I could choose between having 4 of them or two batteries plus solar panels for their prize. They are managed by a built in bms which manages everything from safeties, temps, voltages, charging etc. As far as I am concerned it is a set and forget about it system.
Many contributors on the forum reckon this is the way to go as you must compare a 1000+ a bit life cycle solar battery to a 6000 life cycle lithium battery.
A deep cycle might give you 250 cycles - open for discussion on this.
Johan

Ok, it took me 10 days of hard (?) work to change the db to split one, get the inverter going, have it repaired once and sort out a multiple problems.
So the infini is doing its job as it was supposed to be doing for a while now. But better late than never is also ok I suppose.
The problems that I came across were:
Infini that blew all its boards
A new rcd that went faulty - maybe a victim of spikes? 
A new changeover swith that went faulty
A faulty lead which was working ok with the previous db
Two ellies plugs which also worked ok previously.
Then off course the neutral I lead I left in when I took a shortcut to give us power whilst the inverter was away for repairs (red face..)
And I installed three earth spikes today to ensure it can’t come back to bite me (I live in an old farm house which I love)
Then off course all the funny volt readings the inverter caused between the neutral and earth.
All is well and I can get some me-time again ;-)
A big thank you to all the guys who penned their experiences down - it helped a lot to learn from other people’s experiences.
I am very impressed with the 8,8kw Pylontech batteries which is performing fault free through the whole installation episode.

Ok, it took me 10 days of hard (?) work to change the db to split one, get the inverter going, have it repaired once and sort out a multiple problems.
So the infini is doing its job as it was supposed to be doing for a while now. But better late than never is also ok I suppose.
The problems that I came across were:
Infini that blew all its boards
A new rcd that went faulty - maybe a victim of spikes? 
A new changeover swith that went faulty
A faulty lead which was working ok with the previous db
Two ellies plugs which also worked ok previously.
Then off course the neutral I lead I left in when I took a shortcut to give us power whilst the inverter was away for repairs (red face..)
And I installed three earth spikes today to ensure it can’t come back to bite me (I live in an old farm house which I love)
Then off course all the funny volt readings the inverter caused between the neutral and earth.
All is well and I can get some me-time again ;-)
A big thank you to all the guys who penned their experiences down - it helped a lot to learn from other people’s experiences.
I am very impressed with the 8,8kw Pylontech batteries which is performing fault free through the whole installation episode.

So Full Circle Solar repaired the Infinisolar in ONE day.
I take my hat off to Heintz who is the technical guy there. He also set it up so I can just install it. Feedback from him is that there is 100% support from the factory :-)
He replaced three boards (Heintz said it was the first time he had seen a failure like this). At least the inverter has the latest updated boards and the latest 2 week old firmware in it now. The inverter was up and running when I got there. He also showed me the pc board where the neutral and earth connects.
So today is installation time for me - ironically we won't have power today as the main substation will have repairs done on it for the WHOLE day. So testing will be done with the generator running.
There is still a few technical items to sort out but with the assistance of a retired Eskom electrician it should be easy. Apparently Eskom is busy training their techs on solar in a big way. Go figure.
The idea is to have the split db (with its own neutral) up and running today - this turned out to be 4x more expensive than I thought it would be! Lots of interesting lessons learnt there with very little information from the internet and the local sparkies.

So Full Circle Solar repaired the Infinisolar in ONE day.
I take my hat off to Heintz who is the technical guy there. He also set it up so I can just install it. Feedback from him is that there is 100% support from the factory :-)
He replaced three boards (Heintz said it was the first time he had seen a failure like this). At least the inverter has the latest updated boards and the latest 2 week old firmware in it now. The inverter was up and running when I got there. He also showed me the pc board where the neutral and earth connects.
So today is installation time for me - ironically we won't have power today as the main substation will have repairs done on it for the WHOLE day. So testing will be done with the generator running.
There is still a few technical items to sort out but with the assistance of a retired Eskom electrician it should be easy. Apparently Eskom is busy training their techs on solar in a big way. Go figure.
The idea is to have the split db (with its own neutral) up and running today - this turned out to be 4x more expensive than I thought it would be! Lots of interesting lessons learnt there with very little information from the internet and the local sparkies.

So Full Circle Solar repaired the Infinisolar in ONE day.
I take my hat off to Heintz who is the technical guy there. He also set it up so I can just install it. Feedback from him is that there is 100% support from the factory :-)
He replaced three boards (Heintz said it was the first time he had seen a failure like this). At least the inverter has the latest updated boards and the latest 2 week old firmware in it now. The inverter was up and running when I got there. He also showed me the pc board where the neutral and earth connects.
So today is installation time for me - ironically we won't have power today as the main substation will have repairs done on it for the WHOLE day. So testing will be done with the generator running.
There is still a few technical items to sort out but with the assistance of a retired Eskom electrician it should be easy. Apparently Eskom is busy training their techs on solar in a big way. Go figure.
The idea is to have the split db (with its own neutral) up and running today - this turned out to be 4x more expensive than I thought it would be! Lots of interesting lessons learnt there with very little information from the internet and the local sparkies.

So Full Circle Solar repaired the Infinisolar in ONE day.
I take my hat off to Heintz who is the technical guy there. He also set it up so I can just install it. Feedback from him is that there is 100% support from the factory :-)
He replaced three boards (Heintz said it was the first time he had seen a failure like this). At least the inverter has the latest updated boards and the latest 2 week old firmware in it now. The inverter was up and running when I got there. He also showed me the pc board where the neutral and earth connects.
So today is installation time for me - ironically we won't have power today as the main substation will have repairs done on it for the WHOLE day. So testing will be done with the generator running.
There is still a few technical items to sort out but with the assistance of a retired Eskom electrician it should be easy. Apparently Eskom is busy training their techs on solar in a big way. Go figure.
The idea is to have the split db (with its own neutral) up and running today - this turned out to be 4x more expensive than I thought it would be! Lots of interesting lessons learnt there with very little information from the internet and the local sparkies.

So it seems as I am the next user with a faulty Infinisolar 4 kw. 
I commissioned mine today. It ran normal for a few minutes charging at 30a and then promptly blew something at the back. 
I am gobsmacked. So many fault reports and still this?
I was informed that 5 out of 38 units sold went faulty. Of those only 1 installed by certified installers. 
It is difficult to see how mistakes can be made with an incoming and outgoing wires as well as 2 battery connections. 
My view only. 
I have tried unsuccesfully to install their software on a macbook. Just does not work even though they claim its fine. First hint is that they supply the file in a zip format. 
This I still need to sort out as well. 
Discussions on this post will be appreciated. 

Please post more details of your installations guys.
For example, how many solar panels and how were they routed and what volts were you putting in?
Also what it was doing when it started malfunctioning.
I am busy setting mine up as a backup for power failures with 9,6kw Pylontech batteries.
I am going for a split db with Hager 6ka breakers with proper isolators etc.
If I need to do anything different now is the time to tell me.
I want to be up and running by Monday.
 

I used to run battery haulers on the mine with huge batteries and had to deal with all the issues.
Ventilation was supplied by a 37kW fan for cooling and gas dilution - we also had an electronic detection system for ventilation speed and gas concentrations.
We had an automatic level system for the filling of the cells - interestingly we had a machine to make our own battery water as we used a lot.
I remember the weight was 5 tonnes per battery but cannot remember the number of cells - we had permanent battery attendants 24/7 doing the maintenance and the data recording.
The one section till today holds the record production of 161 500 tons coal for a board and pillar section running three battery haulers and one continuous miner.
It is amazing to look at the damage surrounding the battery in the area in the photo when you calculate the minute volume of hydrogen in a battery's cavities.
Btw, you need special flameproof equipment when dealing with electric equipment that comes into contact with flammable gases.
Here is a point to ponder: When hydrogen is inhaled and then ignited it will burn into your lungs.
(I tried to copy and paste from my MacBook Pro but it does not do it in High Sierra)