Tersius

My setup was tripping the "main" earth leakage before the inverter so just moved the inverter off the feeding earth leakage. It still has it's own earth leakage after inverter output, but the inverter it self is now without EL protection...
The trips would happen when there was a high load on the inverter that switched off, then the inverter would briefly push that current into the source and then the EL would trip. The old EL is very sensitive though, any sort of heavy weather and it will trip, maybe time for a new EL?

I'm in Roodepoort, dibs allowed but if someone wants to take the whole system when it's time they get preference. 

Hehe we lose quite a bit of water with evaporation so have to keep the damn thing topped up all the time. 

I've got a 32 tube system heating water in a 200l geyser. I would like to connect some sort of relay-valve and monitor the temperature and then open the valve if say the temperature goes above 75 and close it if reaches 65 degrees. At the moment I'm just covering 12 of the tubes in summer but then on cloudy days the performance is not so great. 
What would be the most reliable way of achieving this? I've got a geyserwise so would be awesome if one could plug into the sensor for that.
I'll dump the extra hot water into the swimming pool as I have to top it up with water anyway. 

http://www.communica.co.za/catalog/Details/P1239073412
 
add a 15amp plug and a Janus connector to one of the above sonoff pows and you have a on/off switch with power metering, / logging,  provided the sonof pow can connect via WiFi to the internet.
They seems to be able to measure fairly low wattages and seem to be fairly accurate.

So been running the system for about two weeks now and got most of the settings sorted out.
My current setup thus is an untidy bunch consisting of:
3600W Array of 12x300W Panels
Outback Flexmax 80 Charge Controller
MLT 8KVA Powerstar Inverter
Freedomwon 15/11 battery. 
A battery controlled 100A contactor that disconnects the solar panels if the battery disconnects, required because the MPPT does not turn off quick enough and might damage inverter if battery is not present to provide voltage reference.
The battery provides canbus and several analog outputs of which two provides SOC % and max charge current % because the powerstar does not have canbus. Inverter is setup to allow draw from battery until 45% SOC after which it floats the battery and switches over to eskom to power the load. If power goes off it will allow it to run down to 30% SOC before it will shutdown. The battery self will isolate by 15% SOC.
The battery uses an Orion BMS Jr. I can interface with it via a USB to Serial cable and the provided utility to see lots of different battery details such as SOC, Cell Voltages, Avg Temp etc. Can also modify the settings. (Probably means voiding your warranty though).
The battery was delivered in a wooden crate and it took 4 men to carry it inside the room since it weighs about 154kg, it was hanged on the wall after some effort. It has a SOC bar display, reset and breaker on the front, serial connector on the left, DC, CAN and Analog out in the right. 
In the last two weeks we averaged about 35-45% DoD which is about 6kw during the evening, the array quickly recharges the batteries and on sunny days the battery is 100% around mid day.
Price wise I was lucky to have gotten dealer prices and I was able to claim back VAT, so it came in at +-R6500/kW ex or R8900@70% DoD ex. So one major CON for the battery is price. For a normal home user the price would have been R8,664/kW incl. or R11800@70% DoD incl.. At that price point the Bluenova and Pylontechs batteries blow it out of the water, but I was lucky. Also their factory is 5km away from me.
They warrant the battery for 10 Years or 3500 cycles at 70% DoD. At the end of life it will then have 70% capacity left i.e. about 11kw. I'm cycling it at less than 50% so it should do about 20 years and 7000 cycles. What is quite nice is that I can later trade in the battery and Freedomwon will give you discount on a larger battery based on the pack age and cycles done. So it opens up an upgrade avenue. It can also parallel with 3 more for a total of 4 batteries or 60/44 capacity, recommended to rather upgrade after 3/4 years instead of adding more batteries.
All in all I'm happy with what I got and time will tell how it performs after 10/20 years.
Specs  :http://www.freedomwon.co.za/images/pdf/litebatteryspecsheet.pdf
. 
Freedom Lite Installation Manual Rev 5 (1).pdf

One of my fears as well. I also shut off the mains, earth and inverter breakers. But with a direct strike that won't matter.

Just an update the battery was installed last Friday and most of the house has been running "off-grid" for an average 50% DoD. Solar panels are now finally showing their full potential instead of the instantaneous use which used to give about 7-10kW per day the array is now doing 15-20kW per day to charge up the battery.
Ovens, stove and solar geyser and one kitchen plug still on Eskom.