suds7162

No idea! I'm not doing a firmware upgrade. I have no reason to - nothing is wrong with my inverter. I've heard too many stories of inverters bricking after an update, so the juice is not worth the squeeze for me. I am a couple of versions behind, and I'm happy to leave it like that. Sunsynk makes a fantastic product, but they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to their software, and software update comms.

Happy reading! 😂

So in summary, on a normal day like today, with lots of sunshine: Some things to note: Not sure what that 01h00 spike is. Need to figure that one out. The 04h30 geyser boost took place, and pulled from the batteries because the grid was off. This is not ideal, a cooler shower is preferable imo, but there is no way for me to avoid this, unless I wake up at 04h30 to switch off the geyser. Batteries were fully charged by 10h30. The coffee machine morning spike came from the grid, because the batteries were <50% SOC at this time, so the inverter did not allow it to go lower. The spikes you see above the geyser's 2kW draw include the dishwasher, washing machine and other things like kettles. 15h50 spike was the airfryer, lunch. On a less than nice day, where it's either raining the whole day or cloudy, things might look like this: Notes: Geyser still comes on in it's given time slot (hot showers are important!), but now the inverter uses a blend of solar and grid to do that, because there is not enough PV do it alone. The inverter brings the battery up to 75% as per my settings, and uses grid in this time to power other loads. Once it's at 75% it stays there, and uses grid to power my loads, as I had a massive rain storm at this time and PV was uncerperforming. In the late afternoon, the sun came out, and topped my batteries up to 100%. We decide to cook something in the oven at 1730, and the batteries crashed back down to 75%, and the inverter held it there till 20h, using grid during this time.

Ok, so first a summary of my setup: 8 kW Sunsynk inverter 2 x 5kWh Greenrich WM5000 wall mount batteries 10 x 555W Longi panels, for a peak of 5.5kW nameplate capacity. All my circuits are connected on the essentials (UPS) side, except for the geyser, which is connected to the Aux output. Although I am considering moving it over to the main UPS output as well. Battery Mode: No screenshot, but the only interesting thing there is I have "Grid Charge" enabled. So that I can authorize my inverter to charge the batteries from the grid under extreme conditions (see below). Work Mode: System 1: Some general notes: "Use Timer" is enabled, otherwise all the settings on this screen is ignored. The SOC column determines the lowest allowable SOC before the inverter will switch over to grid mode. If there is no grid, the inverter will continue using battery, even if it goes below the setting for that time slot If you have either the "Grid" or "GEN" columns ticked, then the inverter will charge the battery from the grid/generator up to the SOC value. This will only happen if your battery SOC is less than the setting for that time slot. My reasoning for these settings I never want my battery SOC to dip below 50%. This is because we often have loadshedding in the mornings before the sun comes up, and that's when I want to use my coffee machine. With my house's load it's easy to completely drain my batteries in a single night, which results in me being without power in the early morning before my PV starts producing. The side effect of this is that my inverter regularly switches over to grid from midnight-ish till about 07h when the PV starts generating. I buy about 1-3 kWh eskom power every day. A 3rd battery will take away this problem, because then I'll have more than enough capacity to last me through the night, but at R30k, just to save R10/day it's not worth it. From 10h-16h I require my batteries to be at least 75%. My assumption is that with good sun, my batteries should be at 100% before noon every day, regardless of how much they have drained the night before. Between 16h-20h I also require the 75% limit, BUT, I authorize my inverter to use grid during this slot if the batteries are not up to spec. This only happens under serious inclement weather, which happens about 10 days out of the year in Pretoria. The timeslot for this grid charge event is 4 hours long, so that if I were to be loadshat during this slot, I'll have some power either side of the loadshedding event to charge batteries. Our area rarely start loadsedding at 16h. it's either 15h, or 18h. I don't want to be caught off guard with a flat battery during loadshedding and rainy weather. If my batteries are at 75% by 20h, I have enough remaining energy to last me through the night till dawn (usually). During 20h-01h I lower the SOC limit to 50%, because that's typically where the battery will be anyway. Grid charge is also on here, in case I dipped lower than that and I need to make sure I have enough juice left for the aforementioned coffee machine the next morning. Work Mode: System 2 I honestly can't figure out how the "Zero Export" series of checkboxes work. This is how my installer set it up, and it works, so I leave it like this. I don't export to the grid, and I don't have non-essentials connected. So no need to fiddle with it. What is important to note, is I have "Priority Load" set to OFF. This means "Priority Battery" is ON. What this means is that when my battery SOC is less than whatever SOC if have set in the timer table under "System 1", then the inverter will send ALL the PV power to the battery. When this happens, the inverter uses grid to power the load. If there is no grid, then this setting is ignored and the load is powered, and remaining PV is sent to the batteries. Remember, the "Load" output on the inverter is a UPS output. So the inverter will do everything in its power to ensure it remains on at all times. Aux Load I'm not really using my Aux load as an aux load anymore, but my geyser is connected to it. I did not want to redo my wiring so I set everything to 0 to essentially force the Aux output to function identically to the UPS output (i.e. always on). Do you want me to explain how this screen and its settings work, so that you can use it for your pool pump, or are you familiar with how it works already? Geyser I recently installed a Geyserwise TSE timer, and I have it setup as follows, to help me better manage things: The four temperature blocks I have set as 00h00 - 06h00: 45C 06h00 - 12h00: 50C 12h00 - 18h00: 75C 18h00 - 24h00: 45C For the Timer, I have 2 blocks enabled: 10h30 - 17h00: This is the main heating period. I assume my batteries are full by this time (they normally are), so I have more than enough excess solar to then "charge" my geyser. You'll notice this "on" period goes up to 75C. So I make my geyser as hot as it'll go from the sun, as I see the geyser as another battery. During the days of inclement weather, I need to basically monitor things, and then maybe when I hit 50C or whatever I switch the geyserwise off with the keypad. With inclement weather it's likely I'll heat the geyser from the grid, so no need to then make it hot as hell. 04h30 - 05h00: This is a short period of boost, before my morning ablutions. Just to make sure there is some hot water. This is especially important if someone took a bath the night before, or if the geyser did not get up to max temperature. Often, because of my battery SOC settings, this boost will draw from the batteries or from the grid, depending on where my SOC is at that time. 30 minutes on my geyser is 1kWh, 10% of my battery capacity, or about R2, so not that bad. This boost does not happen every day, if we took showers the night before, then it's still well above 45C the next morning a lekker hot shower. Note: I installed a 2kW element. Originally I had a 4kW element installed. 2kW is small enough that it will not overwhelm my PV production. So I will almost always heat my geyser from PV, unless it's the early morning boost, or when there is inclement weather during the day.

Don't we all 😂 I would strongly advise you move your pool pump to the Aux output, unless you are already using it as a generator input. You can configure the Aux output to come on when the batteries are full, and when there is sufficient solar (i.e. don't dip into battery capacity). Your pool will survive a day or two without the pump running. If you can't do this, at the least set your timer to only run the pool at noon for a couple of hours. A pool pump can eat a lot of power, and running it in the evening will eat your batteries. Remember, anything that runs when the sun is not shining must get power either from your batteries, or from the grid. You don't want a situation where your pool pump running means you can't use your airfryer for dinner because the batteries are flat, and it's loadshedding. I will post later this afternoon a detailed description of how my setup is configured, with pictures for you. I don't have the time right now. We have very similar setups, sans the pool. The reality is that you will have to manage your big loads, and when the weather is really bad, you'll have to manually intervene here and there.

I'm in Pretoria, PV is not really affected by the seasons that much. How winter affects solar output in every province in SA | News24 And in fact, I have had a couple of instances of overproduction, very cold mornings with some clouds results in my PV going all the way up to 6kW, even if my nameplate capacity is 5.5kW.

But then in another video he says the inverter has an overvoltage cutout of 520V. I have my salt-shaker next to me when I watch his videos 😂

Like @Nexuss said, not really possible to do that. Make sure you have priority load enabled on the work mode screen. The inverter will always send PV to the load, and the remainder (if any), will go to the batteries. With a PV setup like what you have, you'll have more than enough surplus after your load to still charge your batteries quickly. From the inverter's perspective, the "UPS" output (essentials), and the non-essentials output are electrically the same circuit. So the inverter cannot "blend" between the loads. If you have Priority Load enabled, then the inverter will send power to all loads, regardless of essential/non-essential. Only thing the non-essential thing does is it gets switched off when there is loadshedding. I think what you are looking for is the Aux output. With that output, you can control it to only come on when the batteries are fully charged and you have some minimum amount of solar available. Some folks connect their geyser to it. I have also done this, but since reverted that and rather make use of a Geyserwise timer to control and manage my geyser. Problem with putting your geyser on the Aux port is it will not come on during inclement weather. So if it's rainy, you run the risk of a getting a cold shower. The geyser is actually an essential load. What appliances/devices do you have connected to the non-essential side?

Never said you were lying, it's just important that we know where you are, and whom you are paying. Puts a lot of things in context. I realize now that my all-caps "HAVE" came across poorly. Sorry about that. Also, we don't have the R55 flat rate charge, but you get R0.80 per kWh that you sell back. I would happily pay R55/month, and be able to sell my excess PV back! You are the lucky one! 😂

@Bobster. look at my links in my previous post, on the COE website they clearly state the R55 flat charge

I would happily opt for this option, if it meant lower unit costs, and if they want to bring in a flat charge, make it less because my peak consumption is less. Feels like a win-win.

My links go to PDF documents that contain all the costs and charges that I explained. If those links don't work, then I profusely apologize. I can't attach the documents myself, as they are too large, but you can go to Promulgated Tariffs – City of Tshwane to download them for yourself. I also did as you suggested, and went to the City of Ekurhuleni, and found the following page: Tariffs - City of Ekurhuleni. Downloading the "electricity tariffs" (Schedule 2) PDF contains all the information and backs your claim of a R55.88 fixed charge. So I'm not sure why you are being sarcastic and calling it "proof", it's all there, in a (very) neat document. Nobody was disputing your claim of a R55 fixed charge. We just need to know for which council, because it's VASTLY different between them, and it does not help the rest in this forum if you make a blanket statement that does not apply to 95% of the rest of the country.

Firstly, the electrical infrastructure that actually connects to your house does not belong to Eskom, it belongs to the council. If your council invoices you for the electricity that you use, then it's their responsibility to maintain, repair and upgrade the infrastructure that supplies your house with electricity. I speak in general terms here, since most live in cities where the above apply. If you are invoiced directly by Eskom, like on smallholdings or farms, then it's different. Probably. Secondly, you don't pay a flat rate for fuel, to the petroleum industry, but you do for using the road: tolls. The way I see it: I am now buying next to no electricity from my council every month. My consumption has gone way down. Yet, I still expect my municipality to maintain, repair and upgrade my connection, for the off chance that it's rainy and I might want to use some grid electricity to make up my solar deficit. This is very unfair, because my Neighbour, who uses a lot more grid than I do, is essentially subsidizing the maintenance costs for my connection. That's unfair, and I would not like that to happen to me. COT "Solved" this for water usage a while back, by charging customers a network access charge (see my previous post). Many households in Pretoria have boreholes so the same thing applies. You use next to no municipal water, yet you expect them to maintain the infrastructure for you. In the old days, a per-usage charge made sense, because everyone's usage was very close to average. Now with solar, some people are using nothing, where others are using "normal" amounts. Somebody has to pay for the infrastructure maintenance. And now with so many going over to solar, you can't build those costs into your consumption charges. And in all honesty, don't come to me with the bullshit that my tax is going towards these infra costs. I'd MUCH rather pay for a specific line item that I know goes to electricity infra maintenance, instead some opaque charge that I have no control over where it goes. That way I can choose to not pay it, and then not get the benefit that that service provides. i.e. not have a grid connection and be totally off-grid. It already works like this for national roads. I can choose to not pay for highway maintenance, by not paying toll fees, but then I need to find an alternative route.

Again, @Eurard, you HAVE to qualify statements like this either with proof, or at least indicate which council is invoicing you. I'm with Tshwane (COT), and I pay no surcharge. I get exactly the amount I pay for. In fact, before I had solar, my second purchase for the month would result in less units, because my unit cost goes up, the more I buy. In Tshwane, the electricity costs are identical for pre- and postpaid customers, according to the following sliding scale, monthly: 0 - 100kWh = 209.70c / kWh 101 - 400kWh = 245.41c / kWh 401 - 650kWh = 267.38c / kWh >650kWh = 288.24c / kWh SOURCE: https://www.tshwane.gov.za/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?juwpfisadmin=false&action=wpfd&task=file.download&wpfd_category_id=266&wpfd_file_id=28726 section A, paragraph 1.1 Interestingly, for water, we pay a "network access charge", which is a flat rate regardless of monthly consumption. For the consumption part, we also pay on a sliding scale, the more you consume, the more it costs. There is a second dimension, for water restrictions. The higher the restrictions, the higher the unit cost. The "network access charge" is R141.70. SOURCE: https://www.tshwane.gov.za/wp-admin/admin-ajax.php?juwpfisadmin=false&action=wpfd&task=file.download&wpfd_category_id=266&wpfd_file_id=28722 section B paragraph (a) and (b). Note: These costs are for the FY 1 Jul '22 to 30 Jun '23. So it's going to change in 2 months, but more than likely the costs are only changing, and the structure remains the same. PS. See how I backed my claims with actual evidence, straight from the horse's mouth 😉

For which council is this? Can you maybe link to some online literature that explains this in more detail? It's the first I've heard of this, so would be interested to learn more.