Launge

Morning guys! Woke up to no power any my axpert has no power, tried to switch it on and off, breakers are all good. Is there anything on the inverter itself i can check?

The fronius looks like a champ of an inverter but i think the goodwe would be more in line with my price range. Definitely looking to go with a hybrid inverter. why go grid tied when your still at the whim eskom power failures. Unless im getting myself confused

So seeing as this thing will pretty much be deemed illegal for JHB use and ultimately i would like to upgrade my solar down the line what on the recommended list would you guys suggest that would be a suitable replacement? Look at some pylontech batteries also.

Jaws im getting there thanks to Chris and Erastus. Id love to borrow the meter bud

Thanks plonkster! All I really wanted to know. The one thing I've noticed is that I have a different meter from all my neighbour's which is strange to say the least. This eve I'm considering shutting the down the all the jumpers at the eskom box as soon as I take a reading. House should be completely running off the batteries. Then see if I have the same reading in the morning.

Last min act of desperation. Anyone willing to stop by my place and check out the system. Ranburg side. Name your price. Message me if your interested

As in shut down the inverter? Everything connected to the inverter like plugs and lights go off. Pool pump and upstairs geyser still work So just the upstairs geyser is connected to eskom. The other one is vac tubed with a geyser wise timer.

We have one geyser for upstairs which is run on eskom and one with evacuated tubes for downstairs. The one upstairs is never used and is always off at the db. Geywise timer install also. Prior to having solar installed were we averaging 22kwh and both geysers were running off eskom back then. Now we're averaging 10kwh more while pretty much shutting off everything at night. Inverter shows a load of 18w to 20w when we shut down for the eve. So I the only thing I can think of is either something is wrong with this install, maybe we're feeding back into the grid or the meter must be faulty somehow. I want to make sure all is right in my side before I contact city of jhb. Also if there is someone knowledge ranburg side that can help please let me know. This is beyond frustrating at this point

Erastus that Pic with the meter is not mine. Another user Nameed posted that. So kak isolator aside any ideas guys? Attached is the eskom meter outside that goes to the house

OK guys sorry for the delays, been crazy busy but had some time off this morning I've added some pics from powerwatch and the setup in general *which im sure will be deemed illegal in jHB come 2019* Excuse the blurry battery bank pic, they're Trojans and i think my camera was drunk.

Morning Chris, im still a white belt in terms of this stuff. I do have a cable that can connect to the axpert, what software should i use to see the settings? From there i can do screen caps for you

https://powerforum.co.za/topic/2334-losing-my-mind/ Thats my current situation at the moment.

only one which is heated via evacuated tubes, will only use eskom to heat the element if weather is poor

Jaco that would be daily consumption

Morning guys. So a while back i posted about how even with solar we were still pulling 22kwh and still being a complete newbie i started to switch off the eskom mains in the house and drain the batteries like people suggested. I was under the assumption that the Axpert inverter did some magic and automatically disconnected Eskom mains and would drain the batteries, as i have learned now, DONT MAKE ASSUMPTIONS! Fast forward and we just gut got a bill from city of JHB and we are now pulling down a 30khw!? In the eve we switch off EVERYTHING at the mains except fridge and the electric fence, even the router gets shut down when we sleep, in the eve after i shut everything off i see on the axpert a max of 15w draw and its all off the batteries. So today i figured i would go take a look at the Eskom meter to see if maybe i can spot if there is any draw there. Its a HXE310p and there im not entire sure how to properly read it. So for interest sakes i switched on the pool pump and went to monitor the meter, i dont see anything that shows constant draw of power. To take it a step further i ended up switching off all the breaker switches on the Eskom board outside of the property where the Eskom meter is, everything connected to the inverter was working like it should which is lights/plugs and all the stuff connected to eskom such as geyser and pool pump were off ,so at least i know the solar system is doing its job. This leaves me with some thoughts. 1: Is the axpert pushing back to the eskom smart meter? *dont see how since the AC line to the board is shut down at the moment, Axpert is only seeing the panels* 2: Fault smart meter? *is it even possible* 3: Maybe someone is stealing power from me? If you guys would like some pics of the setup/Eskom meter il be more than happy to take Thanks guys

DId you come right ?

Looks like the Goodwe ES 4.6kW Hybrid Inverter is very well priced considering the Infinisolar 5KW Plus Solar Hybrid Inverter is around 10 grand more. I do believe im jumping the gun on this, regardless of what i buy i still need to get someone out to install it, so im at the will of whatever certified JHB solar installers are experienced with. Would hate to drop the cash only on the inverter and not have it anyone with the know how to set it up.

Well im not based in CT ,in JHB, Thing is i see other municipalities adopting this especially considering JHB is being run by the DA also. Im not concerned about this but my parents have the exact same solar install as mine and i dont want any Eskom techie knocking on their door and giving them a fine for non compliance WHEN this eventually hits JHB. So id rather have all my ducks in a row so if worse comes to worse it would literally be just changing out the inverter with one on the list. Well... Unless Axpert makes it on the approved list i guess ALOT of them will be on gumtree in the not too distant future

Currently got the Axpert 5kva inverter, safe to assume the SolarEdge SE5000 5kW would be a decent direct replacement?

HI gentlemen, this thread got WAY out my league. So in simple terms, my Mecer *axpert* system that gets power during the day from panels and Eskom if weather is kak/in the evening is now illegal. Only way around this is to either disconnect the Eskom feed and be deemed as Off-Grid or get an inverter on their approved list and pay for a CoC once it has been inspected? If i have the funds what inverter would you recommend i switch to avoid these haedaches?

Guys any idea on how I can remotely set the inverter to make it drain batteries in the eve only and and then pull from Eskom top up once the batteries reach a certain voltage?

Thanks for the reply, I think solar geyser is next on the cards. I guess I don't fully grasp this system. My thought was battery charge fully during the day and they use the bank in the eve but I'm starting to wonder if the inverter priorities the batteries in the eve, so as soon as the batteries drain they pull straight away from Eskom to keep them topped up instead of being drained down?

Afternoon Gents Long time lurker here and i was hoping some of you solar gurus could be of some help. Earlier this year my parents had a solar system installed, nothing crazy but enough to hold them by just in case they received some load shedding. Now the installer did an excellent job and said that we should expect some power saving *nothing drastic but some* with the system installed. From my understanding everything with a plug was connected to the system except for the pool pump,stoves,microwave and geysers, rest was all connected to the system. Before the system was installed we replaced every single light in the house with LED and insulated our geysers/dropped the temp slightly also just for that little extra saving. Well its been about 3 months and this morning i received the power bill via email *as city of JHB still forwards me some of the bills* and daily consumption was at 23kWh. I thought this was strange and trawled back through my older emails from the city of JHB and all our old powerbills cira 2017 showed pretty much the same consumption of 22/23kWh? So i messaged my brother quickly who still lives at the house and asked him if the system was up and running. I told him to send me a pic of the install which i have posted below, I then asked him to open the garage door and see if the inverter was applying a load, and indeed it was. Make note that no one is at the house from 08:00 till 18:00 so in that time the fridge for example should be running completely off solar if it kicks on? Pretty much i have no idea why the power usage is the way it is, even after solar. I was expecting atleast some saving but its having no effect on the consumption what so ever. Any ideas would be great and if any one more clued up in the Randburg area could even stop by and check it out please let me know. Thank you