egemnaar

My solar journey: 2017 solar installation by E-egeneering. A total disaster. May things wrong. I stay in Nelspruit 2018 Contacted a reputable company in Nelspruit (Current Automation). Corrected wiring, fuses, cables, etc. I even upgraded the firmware on the Mecer. Worked fine except the batteries. 2020 Upgraded 6 more pannels and BlueNova 8 Kw batteries done by Current Automation . 2023 Upgraded to Victron Muliplus, done by Current Automation. I asked for a COC ,i was told they don't do one I am told they will do one but i need a valid COC for the house, as the one i have is more than 2 years old. I get a coc for the house. and i get a quotation for R4000.. Not much needs to be done as they did the complete installation since 2018. I know a earth spike is now required not much more was required. The electrician came around...he measured a few things... and said i cannot do a coc as there is more work. He noticed that the pv cables entered the main AC board and then exit again, that's not allowed. But your company did this.. so a new quotation this time R20000. I fell off my chair. I said you installed everything, yes but the rules have changed.

Believe me i received my Blue Nova batteries back today, The were hit by lightning on April 5.... What was damaged? The BMS. The BMS was replaced and upgraded. Nothing wrong with the Mecer, nothing wrong with the raspberry. All fine except to find out the ICC software no longer supports Blue Nova.

My Blue Nova batteries were getting charged 100% everytime. My firmware is 73.00. I can boil a kettle if my system is on batteries, no problem at all. I have a different problem...i have no batteries no more. I was hit by lightning 3 weeks ago, that took out my batteries. How does Blue Nova fix these? You have to ship them to Blue Nova. I don't know what they do if you have a big installation. They now have a facility in Pretoria (Midrand?). My batteries are there and I am still waiting. My batteries were 94% SOC when lightning hit, the batteries are not faulty , the BMS is most likely faulty. They asked if I had a wired connection to my router as this could taken the BMS out. I have not. The batteries were connected to the raspberry with usb. My raspberry is connected by ethernet cable to the router. My raspberry is still fine and so is my router. What about my invertor.? Doesn't work without batteries. Was connected to batteries on a test bench and all was fine. We could not connect the invertor to the panels. If that part works we don't know. The panels are producing the voltage.

I didn't know i could attach a file. Good luck.

I send you a message, in any case here is the document with the settings. BlueNova - Axpert5kVA-Inverter-settings April 18.pdf

Thanks Coulomb. LF1_73.00c is installed. My laptop with serial USB cable wouldn't work. I managed to borrow a desktop with serial port and that worked 100%. No issues.

I do have the beta version. Is there a link to the life version dsp_LF1_73.00c?

I am going blue, replacing my useless Narada batteries with Blue Nova. The installer and Blue Nova guaranteed me that my Mecer invertor will do. Blue Nova send me the settings for the invertor with Blue Nova batteries. My only concern is the firmware of the invertor. My invertor is still at 72.40. Can I, should I, upgrade the invertor direct to 73.00c (dsp_BF1_73.00c)?

If this has been published my apologies. Are the forum members aware? The National Energy Regulator has drafted new regulations which require you to register and licence all generators or solar panels whether connected to the grid or not. The definitions are also not clear as they demand registration of all devices, yet only describe the procedure to be followed for GRID linked devices. Such regulations will result in a permitting system, and eventually, licence fees will be instituted to fund policing of installations. This added cost will give rise to yet another financial burden for ordinary SA citizens, which Ted Blom makes clear "is a regrettable situation which we will challenge". Nersa has invited the public to comment and provide input on the draft rules. If you don’t take any action, your inaction will be regarded as tacit agreement with the new rules. Closing date is 31 May 2018. Please have your say now by clicking this link; http://eeco.co.za/projects/generator/ We do not have much time as the closing date is 31 May 2018.

The batteries are 4 x Narada 12NDT200. The HA02 is wired each output to one battery, red to positive, black to negative, in sequence. As mentioned in another post for Narada's I put bulk at 55.8 and float at 53.8.

Chris, I have a HA02 installed. I measured the batteries. They measure 12.6 - 12.7 - 13.4 - 14.0. All I can do is lowering the float and bulk charging voltage. I lowered both to 52V . the deviation is now less than 1V.

My installation has been made safe.Battery monitor is installed with midpoint monitoring. Now I need expert opinion on what has been recoeded. Mostly battery midpoint is at 0.22., but rises...

Thanks Plonkster. The one recommendation I had was to buy a Victron invertor and sell the Mecer 2nd hand. Is there a market for that?. At the moment the installation is doing its job. i will use this setup till it gives the ghost and then i upgrade.

Next week Monday the doctor coming to sort out my installation. I found a reliable installer in the Nelspruit . Fuses, dc breakers, even dc cables will be replaced, battery monitor (702 with temperature sensor, grounding . it will all be done. I already have the trial ICC program running on the raspberry pi. I just have a question.about the BMV 702. Do i connect the BMV to the raspberry and if so with what kind cable, or is this no need..

My HA02 arrived and is installed. My raspberry pi has arrived. I stll need the monitor and the icc program. My question now is more about the installation itself. My batteries are directly connected to the invertor, no fuses, no isolator, The solar panels have an isolator and i have switch to switch the load to solar/off/utility.. That's all. How safe is my installation? Then I took my Ohm meter to check the grounding of the invertor. The invertor is not grounded. I opened the isolator switch, the ground wire from the invertor goes a a ground busbar . no other wire is connected to this bar. I have written an email to the company that did the installation , i expect no answer. .

Which firmware should I install? And where can I get it?

I am still looking for a reliable installer in the Nelspruit region. There is another house with solar panels in estate where I stay. I will visit him and find out who installed his setup.

Chris, I see you scratched out the HA02 on your signature , is it a luxury and not required? Another issue i have is the temperature of the enclosure, in my garage, where the batteries are installed. Even now early morning my garage is already in excess of 28 degrees, later in the afternoon the temperature in my garage rises well above 30. I can install a fan, that doesn't really drop the temperature, i only circulate warm air.. Is there a setting on the invertor i should be aware off? I did set 27 (Float) to 53.4 and 26 (Bulk charge) to 55.8.

I see there is also HA-02. What's the difference between HA01 and HA02. Which one is recommended?

I hate Windows, that's the only reason to go Raspberry. I run Ubuntu on my laptop. I am not a fundy on Linux,, but i can give it a good try. Can someone recommend an installer , I am too old to go on the roof., in the Nelpsruit area?

I My setup consists of the Mecer 5kVa , 6 x 265 Watt Canadian Solar Panels, and 4 x 12NDT200 Narada batteries. I read nearly all the topics concerning the Axpert (Mecer) . I changed most of the setting accordingly. Thank to forum for the valuable information. The reason why i decided to buy solar was the first place to keep my fridge/freezer going during the very outages (in excess of 50 hours) we experienced here. The last outage, 3 weeks ago, 58 hours, my batteries went dead at 10.30 in the evening. But the next morning my fridge /freezer was already running at 6.30 in the morning. I know i didn't buy the best hardware but i have to do with what i have and make it work as optimal as possible. If i tell you the system was initially installed with 8 X Energiser deep cycle batteries. You probably know who installed it. They replaced these batteries as the system did not work. When they replaced these with narada batteries they changed setting 16 to Solar only...their comment was now it will work. After searching the forum i want to control the setup, possibly remotely, solar during the day , utility at night and when the load too high . What do I need? Monitoring software? BVM? I am getting a Raspberry Pi . Another question should upgrade the firmware on the Mecer.? Frans