RichardvdS

I am interested to know what all black solar panels are available in South Africa, preferably with a matt rather than gloss finish. Can anyone recommend all black panels that i could consider for my residential installation where aesthetics are important. Any recommendations would be appreciated.

I have a friend who installed a 3.0kW Alliance heat pump. After about three years it is badly rusted (admittedly in a coastal climate in Port Elizabeth) and does not appear to heat much above 37deg (not sure if this is linked to the one way valve issue mentioned by @Scorp007 It apparently also needs a re-gas at least once a year which apparently should not be the case with a closed heat pump system.

I’m looking at different options to reduce my current water heating bill. I have a 200l geyser with a 4kW element (set to 55deg) which runs off a timer as follows: 05h15-06h45 and 15h30-19h30 My current daily power usage is approx 18-20kWh. I am investigating the option of a 5.4kW ITS heat pump which I am told will provide equivalent volume and rate of hot water (up to 60deg) but at a fraction of the power usage as my current geyser and element. 1) BRAND AND RELIABILITY: are ITS heat pumps reputable and reliable? Any other recommendations? 2) EFFICIENCY: is the claimed 1,2kW per hour power usage and the claimed 1.5-2hr time to heat water from 20 to 60deg both realistic? 3) MAINTENANCE: I’ve heard mixed opinions regarding the cost of maintaining heat pumps. Any opinions on maintaining ITS heat pumps? 4) NOISE: I’ve been told heat pumps are not exactly silent. My geyser is outside my kitchen and it makes practical sense to have the heat pump directly adjacent the geyser. Will this make the kitchen unpleasantly noisy? 5) INVERTER: with a power usage of 2kW, will I be able to run heat pump off solar and potentially also batteries? I’ve been advised this is not a good idea. any advice? Any thoughts on all/some of the above heat pump issues would be appreciated.

Hi All, Thank you for the useful replies. Out of complete desperation i ended up replacing my geyser thermostat thinking that this was perhaps faulty and not turning off once it reached its set temperature (hence the higher than expected electricity usage). This despite having tested the original thermostat to confirm it was working correctly. After replacing the thermostat and setting it to approx 50deg i removed all timing settings and left the geyser on. The idea being that this would inform how much power (and time) it would take to raise temperature of 200l of water from approx 20 deg to 50 deg without any influence of timing settings. I then monitored the power usage via the CBI App and could clearly see the power draw of +-4kW over the next 2 hours (or so) at which point the power reduced to 0W. Considering the CBI controller was still "on", the water had clearly reached 50 deg and the thermostat had correctly cut power to the element. The CBI App also reported a total power usage over this period of +-8kW (as would be expected). After further interrogation of my CBI app I have FINALLY realised the following..... Note: my CBI App has two controllers linked to it i.e. 1 for the Geyser and 1 for the Pool. my DB was rewired on 09 June When my DB was rewired in order to split loads into essential and non essential, the electrician inadvertantly switched the wiring of the two CBI controllers. Consequently the readings on the CBI Geyser App (previously pool pump) appeared to indicate an increase from 5kWh to 20kWh for the geyser. It is now clear however that the +-5kWh (prior to 09 June) is reflective of the pool pump (i.e. 0.75kW x 6hrs) and the 20kWh (after 09 June) reflects the geyser usage (4kw x +-5hrs). As these results are reporting on the same Geyser App graph it appeared that the geyser usage has increased significantly when in fact it was due to a change in wiring resulting in the geyser usage being reported alongside the pool pump values. Similarly the CBI Pool Pump App (previously Geyser App) has reported a similar trend with readings dropping from +-20kWh (prior to 09 June) to +-5kWh (after 09 June). Finally SOLVED!!!!! Thanks for everyones replies. Richard

I’d appreciate any thoughts on the following: After recently installing an 8KW Sunsynk inverter and 5kW battery power usage of my 4KW geyser has increased significantly! Prior to installing the inverter and battery the average daily usage of my geyser hovered around 5Kwh (May and June). Since installing the inverter and battery the average daily usage is between 15kwh and 20kwh (last two weeks). I have a CBI timer installed which is set to turn the geyser on between 05h00 and 07h00 and then again between 15h30 and 20h00. These settings have remained the same before and after installing the inverter and battery. It’s worth noting that the electrician rewired my DB when installing the inverter to spilt essential from non essential loads. Any ideas what might be causing my power usage to have increased so much? Could it have something to do with the wiring of the DB? Any thoughts would be highly appreciated

I am questioning how the C rating of Li-ion batteries is determined? Is the C rating based on nominal charge/discharge rate or maximum charge/discharge rate? any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thanks everyone for the valuable replies. It appears that there is no major concern with pairing a 5kW battery with an 8kW inverter for the short term as long as it is understoond that the inverter will not operate at full performance. Consequently loads will need to be carefully managed during load shedding. Should this prove difficult (i.e. regular tripping) then an additional 5kW can be added. In terms of batteries, i understand an extended warranty on the Sunsynk inverter (5 years to 10 years) is available should Sunsynk batteries be used. It is clear that Sunsynk batteries however are more expensive than equivalent non-Sunsynk batteries. I have also hears that Sunsynk batteries appear to come as both 0.5C and 1C rated. Question: is the additional cost of installing a Sunsynk battery (=-R3k to R8k depending on the battery) worth paying considering the 5 year extended warranty? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

I am looking to install a solar system for my house but in a phased approach to limit initial costs. Phase 1 would be to ensure constant power supply (i.e. eliminate loadshedding). Phase 2 would be to reduce monthly electricity costs (currently approx R3000pm). My average power usage (tracked over last 8 years) is 37.5kWh per day, 33% of which is due to my geyser alone (a single 200l, 4kW Kwikot geyser). I have CBI timers installed on my geyser and pool pump. I also have a gas stove. Phase 1: install 8kW Sunsync Inverter with a single 5kW (1C) battery (i.e. essentially operating as a UPS) to ensure constant power supply through loadshedding. Loadshedding in Port Elizabeth is currently no longer than 2 hours at a time which i dont expect will change in the next 6 month when i expect to be able to proceed with phase 2. As part of phase 1 loads will be split into essential and non-essential with essential circuit operating lights and plugs only! Geyser and pool pump will of course operate off non-essential circuit. Phase 2: begin adding solar panels and additional batteries (in 5kW increments). The timing of phase 2 would depend on available finances as well as when i could source my prefered black on black panels (aesthetically nicer) which are proving difficult to source. The number of panels and batteries installed is subject to a cost comparison calc based on the note below. Note: As the NMBM municipailty allows for feeding of power back into the grid a completely off grid system (many panels with many batteries) is not necessarily required. My understanding of the principle (disregarding baterry storage) is as follows: In general residential solar systems generate power during off peak periods (sunlight hours) with any surplus power pushed back into the grid at a "low" tarrif. Approx 70% (not sure if this is accurate) of daily power is then drawn during peak and night time periods (peak periods = high tarrif) resulting in a cost differential that is charged by the municipality (ToU tarrif). Should this cost differential over the lifespan of a battery be lower than the cost of a battery itself (required to store excess power), then it makes sense to rather use the grid as a battery (rather than store self generated power in expensive batteries). Questions: I have heard it is not good practice to install a battery with a lower capacity than the inverter size (in this case 5kW battery with 8kW inverter). Although i realise a 5kW (1C) battery will mean the inverter is unable to operate as max capacity, considering this phase is only for 2hr loadshedding periods to feed essential loads, is this anticipated to be a problem? Once installed should the 5kW battery ultimately end up regulalry tripping during load shedding (should essential loads exceed +-5kW), i could install a second 5kW battery. I am considering using the iGen3 5kW battery which is locally manufactured and therefore locally supported. I understand it is a LiFePO battery, 1C and is compatible with Sunsynk inverters. It appears also to be reasonably priced. Any thoughts and or alternatives? Any thoughts on the above solar setup would be highly appreciated. Regards Richard