DMNknight

Food for thought, thank you both. Disappointing that you can't actually track what I thought I could. My logic says the energy from the sun is hitting the panels anyway, so X amount of energy must be produced at all times and discarded through some means, I assume heat generation. The house was built north/south, so the roof is well angled for generation.

To start with, some advice for prospective Growatt purchasers, give their Wi-Fi monitoring modules and their monitoring app a complete skip. For the same price you get Solar Assistant and a raspberry Pi (+some setup) or a prebuilt from them. This is not a plug, it's simply a quality product vs the dog pile you get for the same price. SA also collates the 2 inverter inputs into a single readable graph, where the Growatt app you have to switch between them. However, there's a monitoring issue I want to solve and wondering if anyone can help. This is what a normal day looks like without grid power and is great for what I am looking to monitor. It was the same on the Growatt App and SolarAssistant. That big lump of yellow in the middle is where the inverter(s) used PV power to charge the batteries. After that, you can see the PV usage matches household usage. What I would like to see is the total PV incoming power, not just what is being used from the panels. Reason being is I need to know how much of an impact a certain tree is having on my early morning generation, because there seems to be a flat spot from about 8am to 10:30'ish. Is there a setting I can ask to be set, or firmware or something I can fiddle with to make that visible? Setup is 14 panels, 450w or 480w have to go look at the quote, but somewhere around there. 2 Growatt SPF5000 inverters, 2x 5Kwh batteries.

So since my last post here, I was happily getting along with some one who contacted me here for a full solar install. Everything was going swimmingly except there was a delay on batteries. So I waited, preferring to have a once off install with new batts, rather than possibilities of complications with second hand batts. However this person has decided to just ghost me. No replied f'all. So, this is start no.2. I am going to be testing a DIY battery system which will work at 48v... this seems to be a magic number in Solar. I've found a source of discarded Li-Ion batteries, so I could possibly start with a 48v/2.2A 4-8 hour system and work up from there. Once I am confident the setup works, I'll be doing a whilesale import of these batteries to give myself a 16-24 hour powerwall However I need a list of the rest of the components I need to purchase. For august, I specifically ran the house hot, so that I could get an upper limit of what I need to cater for. This turns out to be an average of 16kWh/day. I have a 2.7Kw generator (Manual start) for those days when the batteries are going dead, eskom is dead and the sun is hiding behind clouds, so it will be rarely used. I am assuming I need a Hybrid inverter to cater for the Solar Panel input, Eskom input, battery charging and input and Generator input. I will need a charge controller for the batteries right? Are there modules I need to link solar panels together? How many panels of what rating will I need? I prefer larger because the solar geyser has taken the prime roof location, so I need to place the panels well. A smaller number of them will be advantageous. I have someone who can do the roof mounting for me and similarly an electrician who can tie all of this into the house main circuit board with compliance. I just need help with all the other minutae because my trust in professionals is diminished >:(

Really glad I decided to go solar. The neighborhood I'm moving into has been down for the past 2 days Because I'm close by , they tripped our neighborhood as well, but the genny saved us from boredom. Can't wait to be less on grid

Hmmmm we've lost a bit of the discussion. However, thank you so much for the advise. A gent on the forum has contacted me and we're speaking about all the bits and bobs required

So... one reputable company has already decllined due to being overworked How do I go about the next steps, because I don't see myself installing this as DIY.

This appeals to me for some reason... perhaps my german blood shouting efficiency uber alles! What are the ups and down of the former "std" system compared to the above?

TTT: I'd pretty much go to about 50% into option 3 where our househole Quality of Life items sit. Gaming and TV. Then it's down to how much and who do I call I think I have a fairly healthy budget for this... but If I use google I get anything from 50k to 150k for a 5KvA system (In South Africa) and I don't know who to trust. A lot of them also seem to be DIY which is a little beyond me as I probably need a proper DB installed. I'll do the IT stuff as I have some other systems I intend to integrate.

The main issue then, is to address the times of heaviest use which is the "Needs" part 2. In the evening when the sun is not shining, we get home and fall into our usual routines of TV watching and gaming. That's about 8 hours worth at worst... which is where the cost of batteries vs Eskom comes in I guess? Is there a way of switching over to Eskom at about 4 hours use (75%) and once the load drops below X amount of load (i.e. the pc's and tv's are off) then switch back to batteries until morning and the sun does it's magic?

From what I understand I need to determine the KW's I need for the "Want's" table because the solar panels are much cheaper than the batteries. Then determine "Needs" in PV KW to charge the batteries and then determine the KvA of the batteries I need. Apparently the battery type are important and need to be applicable to the use I am going to be putting them. (Gel, LeadAcid and Lith_Ion?) Oh and I don't need 3 phase, as I will only have enough draw for which 1 phase is fine (even though there is efficiency in 3 phase) That's as far as I got because then parallel 24v or single 48v and DC and AC and all those other buggers entered the fray and got me confused

Hey TTT, Yes, much optimsation is to be done, like switching all the lights to LED, geyser is already solar and the stove will be Gas. I understand the Needs vs Wants. Needs: Absolute must - Lights and cellphone charging and house security (beams). Internet and network equipment. Laptop. This is for short term outage/working from home. Secondary needs TV & Media box which uses internet to stream and on occasion 2 PC's which are used for gaming. This is for extended outage where you can only read a magazine so many times before you start quoting the articles verbatim. Wants: Run 100% on Solar during the day, including a tumble dryer (which has a secondary saving in terms of clothes not being bleached by the sun) and everything else... possibly a dual geyser setup with PV/Eskom "heat-up" Microwave / Convection oven limited use (max 1hr in the evening) Slow cooker and other kitchen utilities. 4 Already installed Aircons. Unlikely for them all to be on at once though. Eskom only: Only the Oven that I can think of.. for baking things.

Hi, I am obviously new and I was sent here by a forum member on MyBB. I am purchasing a house in Northern JHB near Northgate and I'm looking to go green as well as avoid escalating Eskom costs in the future. The house has a Solar Geyser already and Water capture tanks, which is part of the purchase decision. Before saying DIY kits... I'm overwhelmed with the info out there (even on this forum) and I'd rather have an install done by someone whose made all the decisions alongside me and get recommend, purchase and install the kit. ATM I use about 20KW a day (with the current geyser tied into the grid and on all day), we have one of those Eskom electricity monitor things that shows monthly, weekly, daily usage. Ill upload the numbers here. My rough thoughts are as follows: Grid tied to Eskom, Can run the generator when both Eskom and batteries are dry/low and approximately 10 hours worth of Battery power for: Fridge, TV & Audio centre, Internet components (Fibre CPE, Firewall, switch & Wifi) and perhaps 2 PC's. We'll be going gas with the stove and I can't think of any other big requirements. I've seen all kinds of DIY kits so I'm really confused as who to go to. What I would like is an A-Z install, from inspection to purchasing, implementation and integration into the existing electricity supply with the electrical certificate and other compliances done. Lastly, I would like some network connectivity so that I can centrally monitor the system through a raspberry Pi or similar (that's the part I will do and am good at :)) Thanks