RobG

I bit the bullet and bought the Steco 7.5 Silent inverter generator in January 2026. With City Power not allowing solar users to go pre-paid it seems the only alternative is to go off grid completely. My solar system comprises of: 6250w of PV 3800w fixed on tile roof and 2400w bifacial PV on a solar tracker ( generates 25 kw/h on good days in summer 22 in winter) 2x 5KVa Axpert inverters paralleled 5x Pylontech 3000C 17.5kw/h 200L solar geyser 20L/hour gas geyser back-up Gas stove Airfryer oven. Fridge, washing machine, dishwasher 10L 220V hot water kitchen geyser I work from home recording studio, have 750w swimming pool pump runs for 8 hours a day Rainwater harvesting pump 1000w used about 20 minutes a day to water vegetables and garden We use about 30kw/h over 24 hours and generally have 40% battery in the morning In January I generated 33 kw/h and used 18L of fuel which is about R380. I run the genny at 75-80%, charging @ 4.7kw per hour I am still on post paid and after using no utility power in January I received the bill for R1600 just for being connected to the grid! To go off grid they charge crazy amounts to remove the service. Another rip off by the corrupt City of JHB!

I bit the bullet and bought the Steco 7.5 Silent inverter generator in January 2026. With City Power not allowing solar users to go pre-paid it seems the only alternative is to go off grid completely. My solar system comprises of: 6250w of PV 3800w fixed on tile roof and 2400w bifacial PV on a solar tracker ( generates 25 kw/h on good days in summer 22 in winter) 2x 5KVa Axpert inverters paralleled 5x Pylontech 3000C 17.5kw/h 200L solar geyser 20L/hour gas geyser back-up Gas stove Airfryer oven. Fridge, washing machine, dishwasher 10L 220V hot water kitchen geyser I work from home recording studio, have 750w swimming pool pump runs for 8 hours a day Rainwater harvesting pump 1000w used about 20 minutes a day to water vegetables and garden I use about 30kw/h over 24 hours and generally have 40% battery in the morning In January I generated 33 kw/h and used 18L of fuel which is about R380. I run the genny at 75-80%, charging @ 4.7kw per hour I am still on post paid and after using no utility power in January I received the bill for R1600 just for being connected to the grid! To go off grid they charge crazy amounts to remove the service.

I'm running 2x 5K Mecer Axperts paralleled, It has been suggested that I start a second bank with the UP5000 and leave the original bank as is with 4 batteries. Does this sound like a good idea?

Hi Jacques Are they US3000C or the earlier batteries without the "C"?

I have a bank of 3x Pylotech US3000 and 1x US 3000C 2 of the 3000's have 1450 cycles the third has 1250 cycles. The 3000C has 900 cycles. Can I safely add 1 US5000C to the bank - making a 5 battery bank. Is it better to add another 3000C I have added PV and current bank is fully charged by 13:00 Any help appreciated. Thanks Rob

I'm thinking of going off grid completely. I have enough PV, batteries, solar geyser with gas back-up gas stove, airfryer oven, to survive sunny or partially sunny days. The only time I require ESKOM is if there's 2-3 days of heavy cloud I want to replace my old 5 KW petrol generator, which charges the batteries and runs the load - with a 5KW Inverter Generator. It has a lot of advantages, especially fuel efficiency, noise pollution etc. I can charge my 14KW/h battery bank in about 3.5 hours currently while carrying the load. Does anyone have any experience with inverter generators?

Thanks for the advice 87 I have a change-over switch - grid/generator - feeding AC into the inverter. So I should put an ON/OFF switch before each inverter? Presently the existing inverter is wired directly into the DB. If I understand: I need to use the same length wire to 2 AC switches then 2 same length wires to the DB? They don't run independent plugs etc. so loads will be balanced. I'm using ICC so would both inverters need to be plugged into the Pi USB?

Hi Coulomb Thanks for the concise reply and pics! I have a set of cables. Why do you feel 2 AC switchers would be an advantage? Rob

I have an existing Mecer Axpert MKS1 5KW. It is about a year old and has a parallel card in it. I have 4x Pylontech 3000, 4725w of PV with 725W on a solar tracker I made. The idea is to parallel the 2 inverters and have the tracker array on it's own MPPT on the new inverter. Will having the 2 inverters MPPT's with different wattage coming in from the PV's create any kind of problem? Is there a cable that connects the 2 Axperts together. How long is the cable? What DC battery isolation switch is recommended? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks Rob

Thanks for the info! My 3000c has faulted a few times. Its older than a month so hopefully this will help

So my 3x Pylon3000B's Firmware was way out of date! v1.3 updated to v2.4. I never knew they had firmware and don't know where to check .. It was picked up at Segen and I took them all in for update I connected a new 3000C as master with new ICC cable and all working as they should.

I took the battery into Segen Solar and they replaced a board under guarantee. Really friendly efficient folk. The tech saw that my 2 year old battery's firmware was way out of date. v1.13 so I had to take my other 2 batteries in as well for the update to v2.4. My 3 batteries now charge/discharge equally now whereas before there were quite large differences of up to 10% which I thought was normal. So lucky misfortune I guess.

You give me hope. Thanks man

I rerouted my pylontech 3000 battery wires from the inverter and decided to rebalance the batteries. The 2 older batteries I connected together but, I don't know where my head was, connected black to black and the red from the bottom battery to the black of the other battery. Turned them on and saw a fault light and my mistake. About 15 seconds I reckon. 😱 Now that battery is not working. Have I cooked it or is there a protection circuit that can be rectified? I feel like such a c#%t

you need to get a new cable from ICC. it has a different connector. Make sure you balance the batteries before joining all together.

I received this from my supplier. The docs are attached It`s been noticed that among new installations of US2000C/US3000C,in fewcasesof the moduleswill suffer buzzer ringingwithalarm lighting on permanentlyafter installation in a short period.The root cause of buzzer ringingwith alarm lighting on permanentlyis the modules have experienced overcharge to above 55Vdc or power device on BMS is damaged,which triggered the secondary protection elementsdeployed on the BMS. In either case it will need a replacement of the BMS.During further analysis, it`s found that in all cases the modules have beenovercharged to above 55Vdc.This ismainly due tothe communication between inverter and battery haven`t been set up properly. Note US2000C&US3000C- Dip Switch & Cable Pins.pdf

Is there any documentation from Pylontech about setting up with the older batteries? Segen Solar are the supply people. I called and spoke to someone there who said that they can't post the correct procedure on the Forum!! Why I don't know. It seems up to us, the end users to figure it out and let them know. She said that the Master dip switch number 1 should be on!! That seems wrong

I returned mine as faulty and am waiting for the report before buying another. Really frustrating when the brand you were trusting decides to change it all after 2 years.

Thanks for the reply Did you check the voltages were the same on both batteries at the SOC? Is it normal for the Red Fault light to flash intermittently? It seems to flash when the pv and utility charge is high about 95A.

Hi thanks for sharing I've just added a 3000c to 3x 3000b I've balanced the batteries as per above twice but the c won't discharge lower than 61%. The older went down to 35%. Has your problem been resolved with the new battery?

Now again I'm very confused. An installer tells me that I can add another 1000w to my pv array, despite the spec sheet shows maximum pv array of 3000W, which is installed. The label on the Inverter shows maximum 60A MPPT. I'm already getting 56amps in when there's cloud flare. Is this a clueless technician or is there any validity in what he says?

Thanks Coulomb Yeah I'm going to have to get the mks l 80A. But I'm still told that I have to get the exact same 250w panels to expand the array to 4000w. I can get 250w panels as explained. We reconfigured the strings to 3 panels per string 750W per string x 4. This is 3kW. If you add 4x275 =1100W then I would have 4.1kW. One panel per string. 16 panels in total. It should work on the 80A Axpert.

All the suppliers say the old mks 5kva 60A is no longer available. So I have to get the new mks ll 5kw which can handle 4.5KW of pv. I have 12 x 250w panels in 3 strings and cannot get any more 250w panels. I can get 275w panels which would push total pv to 4575w, slightly higher than the maximum. Would the extra 75w create problems or would it be OK to use with the Axpert?

How would I get the existing built-in charge controller and the new one to work together. From earlier post How you would get the dedicated Charge Controller and the build in Axpert to play nice together, on the charging of a shared battery bank, gets interesting.... both the Dedicated Charge Controller and build in Axpert would need to be configured with the same Input/charge settings.

That is an option. Would we be able to tell from Serial numbers if they are the same batch. And is the parallel cable available still for the older Axpert?