pilotfish

And fair enough too - I have watched the video and it is clear that he has no idea how the Pajero drive system works (which is amazingly capable, I know because I have one) and then uses his privileged position in the media to lambasts and destroy the reputation of a great product, because he was embarrassed at looking like an idiot in that group when he portrays himself as the master of 4 wheel drive.

Unlike you I hope that I am dead long before that eventuality - the thought of my solar system and roof design being prescribed by some government lackey and forced on me against my will fills me with horror, almost as bad as Nersa removing regulating my right to employ the suns rays to produce my own power

Having said that^^^... You would need a BIG area in practice and probably only practical in a rural setting. To slap 10 or 20 panels onto a suburban roof is doable in most instances, but filling your 1/4 acre plot with a big ground mounted 2D array (because your neighbors wont be overjoyed to see this mounted on your flat roof) is not going to leave much space to park the bakkie. If you are on a farm then a 2axis array is doable so long as total cost is not more that fixed array x1.5. Also remember that your maintenance will be a bit more than the occasional spray down with the garden hose.

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).

That I dont know, will need to check with @Coulomb. Maybe it is because you have 1450W coming into a 3kW MPPT. My PV indicator is either on or off, maybe the Aussies got smarty and added power level indicator.

That is an ICC thing and not to do with the update, if you have a dual MPPT inverter then you will see [MPPT 2] come alive. I have 2 Axpert in parallel and still no [MPPT 2] numbers on this screen, howver you can view them in the [INVERTER CLUSTER VALUES] tab, which is also only available if you have parallel inverters.

Snap - same time!

I guess he is referring to a PC board.

I think I know those meters you are referring to and they are junk! (because I tried a similar thing using that rubbish conected to my 24x 2V batteries and the results were unusable). Get a proper multimeter and measure the batteries, O.3V is quite a significant difference in battery SOC so lets hope that they are more balanced than that.

I would ignore the load related volt drop (within reason) as long as the batts are doing a job for you. When they get too tired a medium load will drop them to your alarm voltage, then time to cough up for new batteries. If you suspect battery problems then maybe you should check individual batt voltages again now that your HA's have been in for a while. If voltages are reasonably level now with HA's in place then disconnect the HA's in early evening (while high SOC) and check batt voltages in early morning (while low SOC) to identify bad batteries. Do morning tests while the batteries are IDLE (no charge or load). Maybe you have some bad batteries spread around your bank, if so you could pull those out and reduce to less strings, for example if you identify 3 bad batts then pull them out and reduce to 3 strings which would be better than running 4 strings with 3 bad batteries.

Any battery has an internal resistance which will cause a volt drop in the battery proportional to the current flowing through it (V=IR), so when you attach a high load the current will increase and the battery voltage will drop while that load is attached and then rebound when the load is removed. This is the main reason why state of charge cant be estimated using battery voltage when the battery is under load.

The new Nersa registration requirement is for ALL systems below 1MW to register both on-grid and off-grid, that is why everyone is bitching (including me!) Thais includes PV system, generator systems, pig-shit to power systems - everything. The only systems excluded from the requirement are systems dedicated to backup only [so only in use when service provider fails].

Axpert cooling fans are controlled by various temperature sensors, not by wattage output. The cooling fans will not be a major consideration in your system design, if you add up all the efficiency losses in an average PV system compared to a theoretical perfect system I would be surprised if cooling fans made up more than 1%.

At RSA latitudes you can use [your latitude + 10'] as a good rule of thumb for best year round performance. So in Pta 35' about right. Depends when you measure - mid summer your panels will be fantastic, mid winter your panels will be pathetic. For best AVERAGE year round performance use 35'. The thing is in winter you will struggle with your panels laying flat unless you have MUCH more panels than you actually need (like double). I recommend that you have your panels only 1 layer high on your flat roof [eg 5 rows of 4 panels wide], but remember to use spacing of at least 1.5x the height of your panels. So if 1st row is 500mm high after 35' tilt then 750mm space before next row - otherwise you will get one row shading the next row in winter. Yes - the structure design would be up to you - you could anchor with sand bags if really worried about leaks, but most would use bolts and a waterproofing solution.

Hells bells dude, I dont know why you insist on creating unnecessary work for yourself! Your Axpert seems to be doing a wonderful job of keeping your batteries charged and balanced, but if you have a lot of time to kill and like experimenting with expensive kit like batteries then go ahead! Float charge voltage is WHILE ON CHARGE. As soon as you disconnect the charge source as you have done by disconnecting NEG your battery voltage will slowly drop and settle around 12.8v. LOS NOU UIT!!!

^^^? The battery balance is about as good as you could ever expect. I reckon any fiddling that you do could only disturb that.

I think the title should be changed to indicate the subject matter so that we don't get hundreds of parallel threads as already seems to be appearing? @Energy

Imagine the ludicrous situation where in a municipality like Joburg you could be fined up to R100,000 or jailed for 2 years for stealing electricity from City Power - or you could be fined R5,000,000 or jailed for 5 years for manufacturing your own power and stealing absolutely nothing from anyone???

Taxing an off-grid solar system would be like taxing the air that you breathe... By all means institute fair use costs for a grid tied system if that is found to be a fair and equitable mechanism to protect the grid, but then anyone should be free to elect to go off-grid in order to avoid this additional tax in an already massively over-taxed environment.

The RJ12 (6 pin) can be tough to find in stores which are more likely to stock RJ45 (8 pin) used in the computer world for LAN cables. If you struggle you can order online from http://www.mantech.co.za Otherwise collect when next in Joburg, they cost about R1 each not sure what they will nail you for delivery!

Contact @Chris-R or who is able to supply, or @Chris Hobson who is also may be able to assist.

Me too,

What character, Shady Character maybe If he wasn't such a dodgy dude as described by several 1st hand stories in the comments and links above he wouldn't have to fight so hard to drag his name out of the mud. I for one am grateful for the heads-up - thanks to all who contributed. (Not contributing to legal costs though, you're on your own there)

... except that mine is for 2 in parallel and I think Gariels is stand alone Better do that 0 point calibration on your BMV!