Fuenkli

that is incorrect. The diodes will bypass the shaded panel/s and the string will now operate at a lower voltage. The output from the unshaded panels is not affected. The problem is, that without a good shadow management the inverter will not find the correct mpp and as a result operate the string at the wrong voltage. Another problem is, that the voltage of the string might fall below the inverter minimum operating threshold. This is why long strings (if some shading occurs) are better than short ones.

i think the cause of this behavior is not because of "DC injection high". DC injection high results in an inverter restart. Your problem could be because of "shadow management". If you have enabled shadow management try to disable it and check if the problems goes away.

I agree. Eskom in its present form will die soon. But a well functioning country needs an electricity grid. The grid will work best if as many people as possible are connected to it and share the building and maintenance cost. Looking at what is happening around the world gives us an idea what we have to do here in the future. Power generation and distribution has to be privatized. We have to be able to sell our PV surplus at a profit. Coal, gas and nuclear has to disappear (to dirty and expensive). Massive PV and Wind capacity has to be installed. Electricity distribution (across SA and Africa) has to be expanded.

That is true. I also agree, that a reasonable charge to use the grid is justified. I do however not buy the argument, that PV will overload the grid during the day (at least not for the foreseeable future). We desperately need more clean electricity to push out the very dirty coal power. And to cover the morning and evening peaks more wind power must be installed.

this is the average SA hourly electricity consumption. If anything PV would actually help flatten the curve

I think it depends where in SA you install a PV system. The CoCT for example requires professional Engineer sign off before they approve the system.

it is not only inefficient it is also incredibly expensive to generate, store and transport hydrogen. As much as the oil and gas lobby tries to push the politicians at the moment into distributing power using H2, i think it will never happen. It is much cheaper to do that with electricity. Sure we need hydrogen for industrial and (some) transport needs but that will be generated at the site it is required. I also think that the need to store renewable energy will not be as big as some politicians want us to believe at the moment. A well developed worldwide (DC) electricity grid will take care of that .

One other thing to consider is, that a single phase system will severely restrict the maximum possible feed in power. If we follow the rest of the world (which i sincerely hope so), it will soon be possible and viable to completely cover our roofs with PV and export the surplus to the grid .

this is the problem with an island system. It has to cater for the maximum power consumption of your house. My advice is to rather go grid tied. You can size the inverter for the average consumption and the grid will absorb the peaks.

does the CoCT still require connections to remain net consumers over the year or are you now permitted to feed in more than what you consume

i wonder what the real reason was why the CoCT has changed your existing prepaid meter . I am not aware of any one way prepaid meters who credit you (spinning backward) when you feed in.

yes. As long as it is a prepaid meter. And as @Tariqmentioned, the CoCT exchanges an old spinning with a prepaid meter free of charge when you register your system.

not necessarily. We have an option in the CoCT to remain on the normal tariffs and fees with a grid tie system if we agree not to feed in.

it was reported by @Weasel (see below) (from post "Goodwe vs others") The goodwe es is a brilliant machine. They fall a little short on software and they have had a fair share of firmware bugs. Build quality and component selection im sorry to say surpasses victron by quite a bit. Before im shot at dawn im a massive victron fanboy and to someone like me blue offers the best all round. But credit where its due. The hardware issues guys have with them are almost assuredly because of improper installation, Oversizing backup or high inductive loads. Bonding does happen, guys just dont wire them right. The pe earth is connected to the chassis while the unlabeled earth connection is bonded see pics. In short its the perfect inverter for a certain type of use case. Cons No generator Off grid not recomended No high inductive loads. No parallel Not for the tinkerer Long panel strings not ideal in partially shaded cases Annoying connectivity and firmware issues and propriety software nonsense. Pros Exceptional quality, nippon panasonic omron etc Lower noise and fanless Ip65 if i recall All in one solution with 100A dual tracking mppt Simple to install and setup so less install fees Long strings higher voltage pv so less cabling and again less install fees. Upgrade paths starting with no battery grid tie, or no panel ups. Higher eficiency on grid hybrid because its transformerless vs say victron. Goodwe support isnt bad. Not great but not bad. What would be really useful is if you could show what unlabelled thing this is and how to wire it, so the guys with the floating supply can rectify their setup. If I read this correctly, you're telling me this terminal: ... actually has a bonding relay attached to it, so you just need to connect an earth to that and it will bond correctly? That's like... seriously.... should be in the manual or something Would also be interesting to see if all of them has that. Edit: Finally, someone who knows what they are talking about who can put the matter to bed! Edited July 23 by plonkster

it works (at least on my inverter. It is the old model with the serial number starting with a 3). The unlabeled (third) connection on the "back up" output is indeed bridging to neutral in islanding mode .