Wetkit

Thanks for the info Clint. There is a huge substation just on the other side of Hopefield, so they propably going to tie in there. And if you ever drove this road, you will know there is ALLWAYS wind on it!

Hi Guys, I drove via Hopefield on Thursday morning on my way to Paternoster. Huge was my supprise to notice around 36 wind turbines installed just before Hopefield!!! These units is huge and must have been installed in the last 8 months or so, as I did not notice them the last time I went past here. Anybody know anything regarding this? Sorry the picks is not too great as I took them from my dash cam.

Well well, all I can say is that I am extremely impressed so far. Not any of my panels is truly facing north or at the correct angle, but it is not going too bad. Here is what I got the past week. I am extremely impressed with Yesterday, as it was overcast and rainy

Ok, so installed the last 4 x 235W panels on Tuesday evening Was lucky as I finnished just before the rain hit. Wednesday was slightly overcast with rain, so decided to only run the pool pump. Still got around 11kwh for the day. Today, it is looking much better.... Currently running the pool pump and irrigation. Inertor is running at 41Amp so the system is keeping up!!!

Hi Mike, Please feel free to come have a look yourself, just to make sure you 100% happy.

Ok, time for an update. I have not recieved all the panels yet, but have mounted 2 so long. The Tri Strap is available from Brights at R11/m ex vat. Firstly, here is the view of an end panel. The 90 degree bracket is not 100%, but I think it would work well enough. I did not put is right at the end of the channel just to make sure it does not bend the cannel lips open. Here is the view of the square piece used between 2 panels. Initially I was looking at keeping the gap very small, but then the metal square would start to overlap on the panel PV cells, so using a 17 socket on the bolts works great to make sure the gap is the same top to bottom. Here is just a bit of detail on how I have done the earthing. I would have liked to hide all the wiring under the roof, but that prooved just way too much work for me on my own.

Ok, so I spent another week-end on the roof contenplating which way to go with my panels. Finally decided to go with 4 strings of 3 panels each. Basically it came down to the Jinko and Tenesol panels not matching 100% in performance if I mix them in the same string So now it will be 6xTenesol and 6xJinko. Could be a nice match-up. Jinko to do the early morning sun to afternoon, Tenesol to do late morning to late evening. So to make things legal and easier for me to measure and test, I installed a solar combiner + fuse box on the roof. The cable is a 4 x 6mm trailing cable, so more than enough insulation and protection. Each 6mm core should be good enough for 40Amp, so I'm covered there.

Hi Mike, the Tri-Strap is HDG, pre drilled and you normally get it in a 5m or 10m roll. It is normally used to fix roof trusses to the concrete walls or pillars.

Lucky you! So far I know Mike, you can export more than you use, but they will not pay you the diffrence. The question is if they reset you to ZERO every month, or can you build up credits in summer to cover the winter months?

Bloody hell Mike, that is a bundle of cash!!! 1st, I would say it depends on your roof construction and angle. Luckly Kuilsrivier is one of the less windy places in CPT. I had no problems during the winter storms this year. If you worried, I would use longer and stronger screws into the roof truss. Everything I used is HDG, so it should last a long time.

Hi Guys, I have spent a krap load of money lately on my solar system. So I spoke to my insurance broker the other day, to make sure we get it added to my insurance. Problem is, they not sure of where it should go? Should it go with the house and roof struckture, or with the household contents? Anybody have an idea?

Ok, so I thought it might be a good idea to do a step by step of how I mount my solar panels on the roof. Firstly, I am NOT saying this will work for everybody, or that it is the correct way. This is just how I have done mine to save costs, as the original equipment from the solar companies is extremely expencive. So, I use electrical stuff every day at work, so it was logical for me to use what I have learnt there. All the following is part numbers from Cabstrut and your local electrical supplier should have it available. I got mine from BES (Bellville Electrical Services) and Mr Koen there gave me 40% off from the listed Cabstrut price. The following should be enough for me to mount 8 x 235W panels. 4 x P2000 (1mm thick) 20 x SN110/M10 (M10 nut mounted on a spring. This fits inside the P2000 rail) 20 x P1063 (Square piece with 11mm hole in the centre. Using this to fix adjasent panels) 20 x M10 bolts 10 x P1026 (90 degree angle. Will use it to fix the panels on the ends) All the above worked out to less than R1k 1st step was to make sure I knew where I wanted to mount the panels. 2nd was to start opening the concrete roof tiles to find out where the roof trusses is located. Here I used Tri-Strap that I got from Brights. I used 35mm long self drillers to fix the Tri-Strap to the roof truss. Next step is to bend the strapping and cut it to the correct lenth. Next would be to close the tile gap again and do the rest. I used 3 fixing points per 5m length of P2000. Once all the straps is done, it is time to fix the P2000 to the straps. Here again I used the 35mm long self drillers. Final product Next week I hope to start mounting some panels.

Well, as Grid-tied is not yet allowed in CPT, it is not really worthwhile going this route, just yet. I got a normal 2nd hand invertor for very cheap from Gumtree, so why spend 3times that for something I was not sure I could use. Once all the legalities is sorted in CPT, this will be my first option. 2nd would be Microcare. 3rd would be SMA (Sunny Boy) For now only 3 invertors is certified by CPT, the MLT units, Microcare and Sunny Boy. I hope this will change soon

Ok, for now I will take the 148V under advicement My initial plan was to have 2 strings of 6 panels each. Just right for a 3kw grid-tied system. This is also the reason I am unwilling to spend more money on MPPT controllers or battries. Currently I have 2 x 4 panel strings and adding another string of 4. Up to now I have not had any problems, but if I do get some, I would have to go to 4 strings, each with 3 panels. I like your explenation regarding the diffrent strings on the same MPPT, thanks.

Ok, first the MPPT. I sent a mail to Microcare and according to them it will NOT be a problem having diffrent legs of a string face diffrent directions. Here is my shopping list for mounting the panels to the roof. Planning two sets of four panels, but only installing 4 panels for now. Hardware can be ordered from any electrical supplier. Part numbers from Cabstrut. 4 x P2000 (5m sections, 1mm thick) 20 x SN110/M10 (m10 spring nuts) 20 x P1063 (Square to hold 2 panels on the sides) 10 x P1026 (90 degree angle, to hold outside panels) 20 x M10 bolts, 80mm long This time I will try and document the installation step for step.

Ok, for now the contactors is sorted. Everything was mounted on some marine plywood. The 2 main contactors is big, so if they switched, the smaller contactor would shake and loose contact. Mounted the smaller contactor in a diffrent location, so that problem is sorted for now, I hope. With my PV solar totalling 1880W (235W x 8) and my load over 2000W, I am getting some other problems now As my battery bank is very small, only 200Ah and the load very big, I find now that my system keeps switching between Solar and Eskom around every 10min. Options would be to schedule the motor run times better, but then I will get less time on the pool pump. Increase battery bank capacity, but as I got the existing units free, I would not like to spend more money on the battries. Also only running load during the day. Increase the PV capacity. As my roofspace is getting smaller, I might have to mount these new panels in a diffrent location. Anybody know how this would affect the MPPT controller? I would hate to have to go and buy another one. I was thinking of adding another 4 x 235W panels. That would give me 3 strings of 4 panels each. That would get me to 2820W total. At 48V the amps would be 58.8 which is still within the MPPT controller limit. 4 x 37V (Voc) = 148V. That is also still within the limit of the MPPT controller. Max is 150V.

Right, so have connected the pool pump on Friday, but it was too late in the afternoon to run it. On Saturday and Sunday with the pool pump and irrigation running, did 11kwh on both days, so very happy for now. Problem I now have is that if one motor is already running and the 2nd one starts up, the voltage dips a bit. This dip is causing my contactors to fall out. Perhaps some re-wiring of my cicruit or a timer would help? Not sure.....

Ok, just an update for now. Have installed the new 48V pure sinewave invertor on Sunday. My change-over contactors is also installed and running very well. Basically if the battries is low or the invertor trips, all systems will be powerd from Eskom automatically. I have now added all my PC equipment, that is running from a UPS, onto the system as well. Did 7.7kwh on Monday alone Now I still need to figure out how I am going to run the pool pump and it's timer. I need to be carefull here as I do not want to drain the battries too much or have the system switch to Eskom power every couple of minutes.

Leaves, isolating circuits for when running on battries or mains is very easy. The difficult part is getting the wiring for each circuit sorted out. Just use a contactor with the coil powerd from mains. When the mains goes off, the contactor falls out and there is no power going to that circuit. Once mains is restored, contactor will come back on and circuit will be live again.

Right, getting back to this topic To date I have NOT got round to eathing my own system as yet. Now over the week-end I installed an new 48V invertor and changed my battery configuration to 48V as well. While going over the battery connections, I sunnely got a very nice wallop from the battery terminal. It did not veel like an DC hit, so what the hell? Later I got another lekka wallop from the battries Got my meter out and started measuring, getting 190V AC between my battery terminals and Ground! My best guess is it is the invertor switching noise creating this AC voltage on the DC side. I measure it all the way to the solar panles as well. My concern right now is that if I do earth the negative, could the AC jump to 380V on the posative??? Anybody had a similar problem?

Sorry, forgot another one about the gas, sorry. When I did my gas install, I was also looking at doing 2 x 48kg. I was then informed that you only allowed MAX 50kg of gas on your premisis at any one time, except if you are a supplier or commercial kitchen, ect. Also, moving a full 48kg cylinder is NOT a job for me. If you do go that way, make sure you have a local gas supplier that would come and fetch and deliver it again. I am now using 2 x 24kg cylinder and that is heavy enough to kart around, but I only have to do that around every 4 to 6 months.

Mike, how many in the house served by that one gas geyser? If I had to do my gas geyser over now, I would install the latest electronic ones, which will regulate the outlet water tempreature. This way you do not have to constantly adjust the geyser to get the water right. Reason for this is that you set your temp according to say running a bath at 28l/min. Now you have a shower and only using 14l/min, so the water is nearly twice as hot Then I would install a solar geyser, but without the electrical connection. So basically the solar geyser would be a pre-heater for the gas geyser Have you seen this AEC invertor as sold by PHD Powerhouse? It is a combination of Grid-tied and Bi-directional, called Hybrid. 2 birds with one stone? PowerHouse.pdf

Ok, spoke to a guy on Sunday who is also forced to live off the grid. He told me it is a compromise between battery capacity and having enough solar panles to charge said battery bank.

Geeze Mike, that sounds great! Question: How you planning to run the grid tied and bi-directional invertors together off a single solar array? Why only gas for water heating? No solar heater? As you right at the sea, make sure you do not have issues with metals. Solar panles does have an alu frame, so mounting them on a diffrent metal could cause corosion where they fixed

Hi Mike, Try Hardy Engelbreght on 079 368 2205. He helped me find the right LED's to work in my house. He is also based in Kuilsrivier. Just for the record, I replaced only my kitchen downlighters with LED, as this is the room where the lights stays on nearly 24/7. I did not want to change my sockets, so went 12V on the LED's. The LED's is 6W, but my electronic transformer did not really like them, so I had to go old school with a standard wirewound transformer. Now both globes said 60degree angle, but the LED's is giving a more spread beam, and the light output is lower than the 35W halogen.