mien

Oh man! That's painful - sorry for the additional damage. Yes I have also come to understand that there's no fail proof preventative measures to protect against this. Just to have sufficient insurance cover. As explained to me by my brother - most often the physical damage is to the most sensitive item ie. Pc-boards. The panels does not have pc-boards so that is probably why they survived.

😁 Thank you - adding fuses and breakers to my 'discuss with installer' list. Don't know if any fuses fused, but no breakers broke (tripped😁) - which to me is the worry.... why nothing tripped? Meeting with installer is going to be a looong one. 👍🏻

Thanks for the explanation - it makes sense. My installer is fully a accredited electrician with wireman licence. Coc was done by an independent unrelated electrician. My insurer is satisfied that the installation was done correctly. But yes - very important to be compliant and insured - an electrical fire will destroy a stucture in no time.

Yes thank goodness my insurance is in place. But ai - the annoying inconvenience of it all. I'll be writing a strong worded letter to the South African Weather Service - they're in charge of the weather aren't they?..... Sorry - Stoopid silliness - stops me from crying 😊

This gets full marks -yup!

That's what I've heard as well - if the strike is strong enough it will breach all protection measures taken. Eish. Neighbour 5 houses away had direct strike and every single electical appliance was fried. So in comparison I came off lightly.... And luckily my insurance covers this.

Thank you for this - I'll add to my discussion list with my installer. Also for them to show me where to disconnect to DC.

@frivan I hear you. Not sure how I'm going to disconnect solar panels though? If I understand correctly what happened here, the 'spike' actually came in via the solar panel wiring. I'll google the 'steel cage' solution - not familiar.

Thank you @Scorp007. Also just saw and read the thread on Lightning posted by Bobster in January. It basically discussed this exact issue - should have read it first🤦‍♀️ I'll be discussing with my installer adding some surge protection on AC and DC sides - for what it's worth😔

As per usual I'm here to gather some information and thoughts please? After a heavy lightning storm at midnight and several direct strikes in my neighbourhood, my batteries went from 67% to 0% instantly and no led's on - no flashing led's nothing. Inverter reported a F56 dc volt low fault. Installer tested next day and sent both batteries and inverter off - apparently these were all damaged. What I don't understand though is that my db didn't trip - the 'eskom' db - I'm still grid tied. Surely if it was a 'near strike' causing a spike the mains would have tripped? How is my inverter and batteries fried but nothing else damaged or tripped? It was definitely not a direct lightning strike. And most importantly - how do I/ can I take measures to prevent this from happening again with the next heavy lightning storm? Any thougts/advice please? Btw - solar panels are earthed with coper spike - don't know yet if they were damaged - there is no visible damage and definitely wasn't struck directly.

Thanks - I'll check with my installer then. As far as i know the inverter earth switch didn't trip - only the db. All the inverter switches remained in the on position.

5kw Deye inverter - grid tied. Just want to confirm that the following is correct please? Very heavy thunderstorm last night and a nearby lightning strike caused my db earth leakage to trip - which is correct and great. Should the db earth leakage trip also block my inverter from supplying load? Basically- when the db earth leakage trips there is no electricity the essentials are also off untill I switch the earth leakage switch back to 'on'. I think this is safe and good practice but just want to be sure that it's normal practice?

Thanks. I suspect this may be the best way to go to see the real state of the batteries - thank you. I will not be taking this route - have a full time carreer to attend to...😂 But now understand that it's not a simple answer.

@Kalahari Meerkat okay thanks. Was once explained to me as - when battery reaches a certain low charge level then it is considered a 'cycle'. I'll go google for an explanation on what a cycle is.

5kw shoto, 5kw deye, 2.5kw solar panels. Is there anywhere on the inverter that keeps track/calculate the estimated nr of cycles used? Hope my question makes sense😊

@mzezman @wolfandy Just some feedback. Installer connected both strings to one mppt and here is the result - full cloud cover and all - very happy - thank you again😁

@mzezman @wolfandy Thank you for all the assistance and advice. I'll contact the installer and discuss. Thanks.

@wolfandy sorry should have been screenshot of 20 and 21 nov. But 21 nov looks similar to the one for the 20th.

@wolfandyscreenshots for those 2 days as per your directions. Only have pv1 and pv2 - nothing under pv3 etc. No shading from trees etc.

Yesterday's soc spike around 16:00 was me charging battery from grid to prepare for loadshedding and being able to run aircons during loadshed if needed.

Here are some sceenshots of today and yesterday with SOC added. Usage and generation is blue and red with SOC overlay.

It's grid-tied.

5kw Deye inverter - 6 x 415w panels - 5.1kw Shoto battery. Sorry don't know how pannels is connected to the inverter. This is a new installation done a month ago. Before I contact the installer I just want to gain some knowledge as to possible causes of low charging rates.

Hi. New to the forum - apologies if it has been discussed to death before and I just couldn't find the thread... I'm located in gauteng and yesterday 20/11 was hot, sun all day, no clouds, but dismall solar production - top generation peak approx. 0.8 kwh. Today is cool and overcast and production is stellar - peaking at approx. 1.8 kwh. Would high temperature alone possibly cause this big of a difference?