CTskollie

@Virwat let me take some additional pics tomorrow during natural light. Will try and take where it is easy to trace the wires. I will get the tester, just sounds like an easy way to test but I am almost 100% certain it's not connected.

I am only picking up new COC this weekend; he did mention that it will only cover his new work and not existing work. Previous COC for Solar was issued in 2024 so cannot rely thereon unfortunately

So, the system was randomly tripping, (every 2nd day or so) before the new plugs etc and sub DB was installed. I never tested the earth leakage before, wasn't aware that it must be tested monthly so I can't say that it's not per your first view. It could really be either hence reaching out with those more knowledgeable. I cannot see any loose wires visible to the eye. The tripping of the overload switch, next to the green light in the DB started about two weeks or so again but system was working perfect before then for around 2.5 years or so. Not sure how the DB was wired before, I don't have a pic of it unfortunately.

Picture of the solar DB, the 3 40 amp breakers are new and replaced 3 ACDC 40amp breakers.

The Solar DB as well?

See pic of new Sub DB

Hi Virwat 1 and 2 either going to or coming from the solar DB on the right of the main DB. 3 See pic below of new sub DB.

To be fair to them, it was actually starting to trip randomly before they installed their DB. I initially thought it was Inverter overload, but the inverter was operating perfectly only the output breaker on the solar DB was tripping hence me asking the electrician to change it. To be fair, the electrician changed all 3 Solar DB breakers just as a precaution. Everything was working as before with the new installation (still randomly tripping) but got worse and started tripping the earth leakage after the Solar DB breakers were changed.

See attached pic of main DB, only 2 wires connected to earth leakage and 1 appears to be going into the solar DB.

Il take a pic when i get home later, basically earth leakage has been completely removed from my system and not connected in anyway now. This guy is a registered electrician, I think its the solar install causing the confusion. Any recommendations for Northern Surburbs, Cape Town?

The Earth leakage has been disconnected completely, when I pull the lever down it has no impact at all on anything in the house. The electrician also confirmed it was disconnected due to nuisance tripping, what I can't understand is how it worked fine for over two years. Il take some pics when I get home but I am 100% certain is not connected anywhere in the electricity system currently.

That's my main concern, don't want an install that causes major risks to myself or my family.

Good evening all and I apologies in advance for the lengthy post and also please move this if not in the correct location. My solar installation is around 2.5 years old now and have been working fine up until recently. My install consists of an 8kw Sunsynk inverter, 14 JA Solar 550W panels and two 7KW BSL batteries. Everything is wired to the essential load with geyser and pool pump on CBI astute breakers so I can manually turn on during loadshedding. For the past two weeks or so, my output breaker (40Amp 2 pole) in the Solar DB have been tripping randomly. The breaker switch would not go down but I noticed the green light indicating solar was off so figured it's the culprit, reset the breaker and all would be fine but would have random trips under loads around 5kw or so but never over 8kw. The Sunsynk also never gave any overload warning during this time. Added some new plugs and electrician installed his own sub-DB for the new plugs as my current DB had no space left for any new breakers. Everything worked fine for the past 3 days but asked electrician to change the faulty breaker which was done today. He changed all the breakers in the Solar to Schneider 40 amp double pole breakers and all worked fine for about an hour after his team left. Heard a noise like breaker tripped and all breakers down, Main breaker and earth leakage in main DB, all 3 breakers in solar DB and everything off. Installer team returned and checked everything and when they were done, they advised that they removed everything from the earth leakage and all now working. Installer has really been great and assisted with re-wiring things he identified in my main DB so I am quite happy with him. I am though just a little concerned that nothing is now collected though the earth leakage and AI responses make this seems quite dangerous and hence I just want to confirm if this is fine. My electrician confirms my installation is safe however; I am just looking view other views whether this is correct? Also, any solar/electricians in the Northern Suburbs that can assist with identifying the cause of the earth leakage tripping now after 2.5 years of working perfectly fine?

Thanks, i was aware of this limit before but its the initial cost that is currently putting me off. R20 - 30K will only be recouped within 5 years or so and that is a bit too long. I have an 80 amp breaker so theoretically I can sell back 4.6kw per hour but maybe in future once its more cost effective to install the meter.

Not at all, started out with a 4.3kw array but was falling short in Winter on bad days. Added another 3.3kw of panels, the cost for this was an extra 20k. Panels are really the cheapest part of the system so upgrading those to ensure good production was an easy solution. Now with our sunny CT weather I realized it's overkill for my needs but rid rather have excess capacity then falling short.

Extra batteries are not really economical for me as the current 14kw of battery easily gets me through the night, going off grid would require a genny for the winter months which is not something I want to consider for now. Will leave everything as is for now, rather the problem of excess solar then the other way around.

Saw this, hence thinking it may not be feasible after all. Will rather add some aircons to use the place in summer and utilise as much solar as possible instead of trying to sell back.

You correct, my excess is more of an informed guess then an accurate number. My daily usage is around 20kw including heating the geyser and charging the 14kw battery back up. Batteries are fully charged by 10:00am and geyser is hot by 11:00am and no significant load thereafter. By 11:00AM while there is usage I am generating around 6.0kw from the solar array and this starts going down from around 13:00. At 15:30 with load I am still generating around 5kw. Based on the above I am estimating around 20kw excess, but it could easily be more. 3 weeks ago, I had 2jumping castles running from 9:00am - 18:00pm and thus utilised all available solar. My generation on that day was around 52kw. From the mybroadband article it does however appear that the reverse meter is only part of the cost and then i need to factor in installation as well, if I am quoted anything like mentioned in the article then the payback period will not be worthwhile. Will have to do some more research but for now it doesn't appear to be as cost beneficial as i initially though.

Thanks @Bobster., appreciate the inputs. Currently I am generating excess capacity of around 20kw daily, I assume this will continue until around mid April where Winter kicks in and generation reduces significantly. At present I consume nothing from the grid since around August, my prepaid meter uses around 20kw per month but that i guess is just for the comms with the meter as batteries never goes to below 40%. When I did the basic Math, at around 600kw export per month I should be able to cover the bi-directional meter within 1,5 years (taking winter into account) and anything thereafter will reduce my utility bill. I will however do some additional research based on the NERSA net consumer requirement, if that is the case then i doubt it will be viable for me.

Thank you, will have a look at this thread,

Good Day All Just wanted to enquire if anybody here is using the reverse meter with the City of Cape Town and if their is a monthly fee for this. I have quite a bit of excess solar so juts want to see if this is worthwhile considering, also my SSEG was approved on non grid feedback, I know i will need the new reverse meter but will i need to apply for the SSEG again and get the engineers sign off again with this process? Thank you

Good Day All Does anybody have a BSL comms battery cable or know where I can get a cable in order for BSL to link up to my batteries. My batteries usage is not aligned to my consumption and today stopped charging ar 91%. BSL wants to link up remotely to check the batteries but I need a cable to link to it. Anybody know which place can make up their communication cable, it's a RS232 cable as per their remote manual.

Apparently so, might reach out to BSL as well but most likely the challenge is with the inverter. SOH reads 100% on inverter.

That is what I was thinking, they offered no advice at all other than to do a system upgrade.

Okay makes sense, I selected grid charge though and then it actually charged it for 45 minutes or so back to 20% so it appears it was actually dead. Reached out to Sunsynk as well and they advised to upgrade my software. Lets hope that helps.