Matthys Koch

Saturday was a hot, sunny day, and we had a kid's party.  That involved people camping on the grounds in a caravan with an AC, as well as a jumping castle thing.  Because a lot of power was drawn the whole day, we actually produced more than 50kW during the day from the panels.  Incredible!

Not sure what you are implying... but lets look at your case specifically, how many are "a few neighbours" and how long is "a long 11kV line" and what does "often damaged" mean, I doubt the line is damaged, I'd imagine the breaker in the distribution location that feeds your 11kV line is not auto resetting and needs manual intervention, I'm fairly certain Eishkom is NOT coming around replacing the 11kV line or too many of the transformers, although if one of these is hit directly by lightning, they could let out "the magic smoke" or release their insulating properties between the windings...
This brings me to the main question, what are the *real* costs in providing the connection to a customer, their assumption seems to be if they had to put in the transmission line from scratch as well as the transformers and have this amortised over 5 years or so, which is nonsense, since the 22kV line here, where I am has been in place for over 30 years and has never been replaced, sure, since we've been here, I believe they have replaced 2 transformers (not our one, which they can now remove and re-use elsewhere), on this line from Kleinbegin, I believe they have around 100 customers paying far more than realistic pricing.
In fact, lets see what preventative maintenance they do do. In January or February 2011 we had a major lightning storm and as per usual, Eishkom soiled its collective shorts and we had no power until next day around 09:00. All of a sudden my noise floor on SW radio was through the roof, I complained to them, 2 days later they sent someone to investigate and even though I could demonstrate and convince they chap, they didn't really take it all that serious... move on with me getting more and more cheesed off with this incompetent lot and 5 weeks later, no thunderstorm, just a power failure... dial on 36 hours and the power was back and all quiet on the SW radio again... the chap that came to attend, but not fix the reason for the complaint initially, came by a few days later to check up and lo and behold, they had an HT pylon burn down to the ground due to the constant arcing between one or more than one of the phases and presumably the tower/earth, this would have:
1. caused a lot of RF interference, which I had
2. wasted a boatload of energy, which is being paid by whom? (Oh yes, the end users that are paying more than is reasonable.)
3. demonstrated to me that their "maintenance fee" at the time was a joke and not spent on what it should have been spent on...

If you have recently replaced your gas cylinder, you may have a vacuum lock. To clear this, remove the gas pipe from the regulator and open the gas cylinder for a few seconds. Switch off the cylinder, reconnect pipe & switch cylinder back on or if the regulator on your gas cylinder is more than 3 years old it may need replacing. A faulty regulator restricts the gas flow and the geyser will not ignite without sufficient gas. It is always best buy a good quality regulator (not the cheapest on the market)

Bought 2 x Am-2s in Nov 2020. Been in for 2 years now coupled to 2 x 5kw Sunsynk's and not a single issue. Seems the old firmware was better. Have sites with 5 x 2022 batch and also no issue. Sunsynk 8kw. Also have some 2023 batches and no issues. Again coupled to Sunsynk inverter. Just wanted to add good feedback too.

But if the rule is disconnection after 3 months of not buying then it's a choice to say buy R50 every 3 months. 

Select load priority so that PV goes to load 1st and what's leff goes to battery. You might have battery priority selected. As you have the whole day to charge rather select load priority when there is sun. During rain periods and high LS you can change to Battery 1st 

Post a picture of your LiBMS page on the inverter ,quite strange that your work mode is using voltages and not SOC.

I have been actively looking into this and found a couple of very interesting things:
https://community.home-assistant.io/t/scale-continuous-or-weight-change-sensor-sick-pet/370488/6 - I thin this is exactly what I need https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B091K9L7C7/ref=ox_sc_act_title_1?smid=A3CX4TQNUXMB0L&psc=1 - This is for 2 sets, which I am going to need to get my (1)stove - 9kg - configured and (2)geyser - 19kg - configured For reference, I also found:
https://www.hackster.io/uncc-megr-3171l-spring-2021-group-16/pet-food-consumption-tracker-bfe6be - pet food weight https://www.instructables.com/Arduino-Bathroom-Scale-With-50-Kg-Load-Cells-and-H/ - another build to reference for a bathroom scale https://community.home-assistant.io/t/weight-scale/306828 - another weight scale reference at HA https://community.home-assistant.io/t/solved-weigh-kingfishers-with-hx711-any-thoughts-on-how-to-store-results/495029 - this guy weighs birds So, with this ammo, I waiting for the Amazon delivery

Well, it might be common sense to us but not every end user is technical. Some people are 100% clueless in terms of solar and for all they know and care, panels should face upwards towards the sky (180 degree angle)
 
I personally always like to know and have at least a basic understanding before proceeding with something, but majority of people are not like that and majority (if not all) of the people on this forum are also not like that.
 
The person installing your solar should be an "expert" and it is their job to know these things and do things right, unfortunately we know this is not the case. Short cuts and a lack of care and knowledge are common place and I think the active members on this forum see it quite frequently with threads like this or other threads with people coming to the forum for advice and assistance as their installer was unable to help.
Even electricians who are trained and qualified take short cuts or get lazy and do not do a proper job. Use incorrectly sized cable, incorrect circuit breaker etc. etc.
The sad thing is that it is not limited to just solar or electrical works but just about everything - sprinkler systems, car services or repairs, home theatre installs, plumbing etc.
At work we have a rather new building, took occupation just over a year ago and the doors for our server rooms were meant to be fire rated doors and frames - although we got normal timber doors and frames without the fire rating plaques on them - so now that needs to be resolved.
 
I do not feel it is fair to put the blame on the end user. Not everyone wants to have to do research and learn about all these things to try ensure things are done correctly.
Although if you do not take it upon yourself to learn, then you are at risk of being taken for a ride.

Nice one @iiznh looks like it might make the whole process a lot easier, will have to try it out. 
Will put imaking a video for it on my to do list 🙂 

Hello everyone! 

I am a Masters student at the Nordakademie University in Germany and I am looking for participants for my dissertation survey and ALL of you who are in this forum are exactly the right people! It's about people who are interested in renewable energies. I am interested in anyone who uses the available technologies - or maybe has even had an idea how to improve the set-up or played around a bit with it. As long as you care just a tiny bit about renewable energies, you are perfect for my survey! 
If you have already read this far, please take part  
https://forms.office.com/e/9Q0z7r21W8

The survey is of course anonymous and the results will only be used in the context of my master thesis. You only need 5-10 minutes of your time. You get loads of good karma for taking part and the additional good feeling of knowing that you helped out a student.  

Sunny greetings from Hamburg, Germany
Freya 

PS: this post is authorised and I am extremely grateful for being allowed to post my survey here and I hope lots of you will take the chance and take part!

The physical install is easy as long as you follow correct protocol to pass the coc which you need afterwards.
Brackets under roof tiles, easy.
Rails to brackets, easy.
Panels to rails, easy.
Conduit from panels all the way to DB, through roofspace, easy.
Mounts of all equipment and DBs, easy.
Electrical work, get a qualified person.
Coc, get a qualified person.

Ok sure. Here goes. This assumes you know some basic linux. If not maybe this is not for you but perhaps I can help if needed:
1) Make sure your Sunsynk connect App is working and you know your username/password.
2) Make sure your Sonoff switches are working in the Ewelink app and you know your username/password.
3) Fire up an Ubuntu VM on AWS/Azure/GCP or even on a Pi or home PC. It can be really small like 512MB RAM and needs internet access
4) Install docker in the linux vm. Follow something like this: https://kinsta.com/blog/install-docker-ubuntu/
5) Someone wrote a nodejs gateway to mimic the calls done by the Ewelink App see: https://github.com/DoganM95/Ewelink-Rest-Api-Server I leverage this as a way to control the Sonoff Switches. To run this listening on port 8089 run this. It needs your Ewelink username/password you registered in the App so it can call into Ewelink servers: 
docker run -d --restart=always -p 8089:3000 -e "EWELINK_USERNAME=yourusername" -e "EWELINK_PASSWORD=yourpassword" -e "EWELINK_REGION=eu" -e "PASSWORD_HASHING_ALGORITHM=sha512" -e "SERVER_MODE=prod" doganm95/ewelink-rest-api-server 6) Test you can turn a switch on like this (Replace "Your Switch Name" with the switch name as it appears in the Ewelink App):
curl -m20 -sX POST "http://localhost:8089" -H "content-type: application/json" -d"{\"devicenameincludes\":[\"Your Switch Name\"],\"params\":{\"switch\":\"on\"}}" 7) Install a json parser utility:
sudo apt install jq 8. In your home folder add the attached script.sh and make it executable with chmod +x ./script.sh
9) In the script set your Sunsynk connect username and password on rows 4 & 5 for SUNSYNK_USER and SUNSYNK_PASS. Then set SUNSYNK_PLANT on row 6 with the plant ID you see if you login to sunsynk connect in your browser. E.g. mine is 88663:

9) Create a cron schedule to run the script every 5 minutes: crontab -e -> then add a row like this: */5 * * * * /home/ubuntu/script.sh >> /home/ubuntu/solar.log
10) Edit the script to suit your needs and refer to your Sonoff switch names. I've got a simple example of a switch called "My Switch" that will turn on if we have excess power and Off if we don't. If you don't know what going on, ping me with your switch names and basic rules and I can help. You have a huge amount of control. I have some fairly complex rules around hour of day etc.
11) To see what the script is doing, run tail -f /home/ubuntu/solar.log
 
I'd love it if this is useful to anyone so let me know if you need help and add any things I might have missed to make the instructions foolproof. My script generates a basic HTML page of the current status but I deleted that part as it just makes the script more complex than necessary. Anyone with basic bash scripting can go wild. If you comfortable with python or something else then use that - its really just some HTTP GET and POST commands surrounded with JSON parsing.
script.sh

Generally are returned rate is extremely low. The  problem is our sales, extremely high even 0.004% results in a lot of returns.
As we really appreciate your support of our brand we have made a decision with all our major distributors. Any customer who has returned an inverter and it has not been repaired or looked at for over two weeks they have proof of the item being returned to our service centre our distributor will offer a brand-new replacement. subject to Ts and Cs 
No customer should wait more than two weeks to have an inverter, repaired or replaced. That is my commitment.
 
Keith Gough
ceo 
 
 
 

Spare a thought for the folks who spent money on panels prior to the new tax year. At least it's worth now considering extra panels.

Sunsynk even if it was R8000 more expensive

I am a bit confused... my Hubble AM2 was installed mid December last year.  I checked the Voltages when I saw the threads with the SOC probelems.  I asked my installer why my settings differ from the Hubble website.  He said that the BMS configures those voltages.  My current Voltages are as follows:
Float V: 55.2V
Absorption V: 57.6V
Equalization V: 57.6V
Discharge Amps: 120A
 
State of charge has been stable since first installed and the SOH is also still at 100%, so I hope it stays there!  Sorry if this is a bit of a hijack...
Regards,
Matthys

@Matthys Koch, thank you, I'll try it, but the Inverter Manual says it should be disabled (not much reason why though)
 
Thanks I'll try and let you know?

Ok, my Sunsynk has a fan and runs a bit cooler than yours, pre your adding the external fan, but either way, since this seems to not have had any effect on your end, keep up the cooling, but rewire your six panels into one serial string on one of the two MPPTs and I suspect this should make things work more correctly. I think the higher temperatures at the moment (on the panels), together with the marginal Voltage on the 3S strings is causing things to not quite work as wanted.

Yesterday I finally got my repaired Hubble am 2 back.
My installer connected it and did all the necessary.
Much to our horror both mppt indications on the 8 kw sunsynk showed zero.We switched the repaired am 2 off and and pv started flowing.
After doing some troubleshooting with switching ac off etc there was no change.
My installer called the sunsynk helpline in JHB and it was patched through to the UK.
A very helpful man there logged onto my inverter, he did an online upgrade on the refresh rate of the dongle and assured us that it needed a bit of time to settle down.
He also checked the inverter settings which was nice to see.
We gave it a few more minutes and it then worked perfectly.
Clearly with the new bms etc it needed a bit of time to settle down.
Outstanding after sales service from Sunsynk.