Steven Burnett

bringing this thread in from Stage 7, but still relevant. OUTAOUTA recommends public holds back on solar system registr...Eskom Distribution agrees to consider issues raised by OUTA my take: Eskom distribution playing a losing battle here, as their consumer electricity price vs embedded rooftop is going backwards quickly. Their customers will be installing, but how do they manage it? They really should resource the masses of bloated employees onto this part of the business - otherwise they lose the customer for good. Not sure who the electricity expert at OUTA is, or their qualifications, BUT to say that "low-voltage grid connected systems up to 100kW" shouldn't need registration is a bit wild. Bring on the bakkie brigade stories and houses on fire.

quick question here. looking at a Goodwe EHB inverter, datasheet says it's a "south africa" only model and aimed at residential applications. despite the CoCT list being up to date (21 feb), now 40pages long it doesn't have the EHB models on it. does anyone know if they are just badged clones from another part of the Goodwe range (ie, ES?) or if it's a HV (takes 360V batteries) version that isn't passed

I laugh at the term "software upgrade" when it's just an instruction to a new encryption key. This article is complete crap surely? The meter has not clue what the date is. https://www.iol.co.za/news/energy/warning-if-you-fail-to-recode-your-prepaid-meter-before-november-24-it-will-cost-you-r12000-b84ebc16-9efe-4dbb-a8a5-e7f6ab15ae21

Quite amazing to see this roof still mainly open. Must have been a fun winter

The device.

Long term update. This was fixed by finding obscure fuses that are wired onto the pcb. It has now properly packed up, and no one wants to touch a 15yr old device. The boat can get a new one with Bluetooth and lifepo capability when that becomes a viable option. Anyone want it for spares?

I'm confused as to what they are actually outlawing here.

If I'm not mistaken those panels are on the (extreme) south facing roof. I'm going to guess UV cable degradation causing a DC short, with zero evidence. It would be really prudent for the investigation results to be made public here, plenty of other 10yr+ installations out there and simple maintenance/inspection would be money well spent now.

probably a good thread to keep updating

This thread was never going to stay on electrics. Basically you will be camping at home. Whatever you need for a one week camping trip in the bush, will probably be fine. But get it now, remember the weird toilet paper non shortage of covid - stuff like that will happen. I remember this was a thing in April 1994, some people still haven't finished all the tins of beans they bought then.

trying to configure this too. (Goodwe 4.6 EH with 3x pylontech batteries.) As I understand it goodwe will only charge batteries from excess PV under general mode. I'd like to configure it to charge from grid when it is rainy so we have some headroom to get through loadshedding, so not sure which mode makes best sense but clearly it needs to be a manual thing to switch over the mode on these days. BUT the wifi connection to the inverter from the app is incredibly temperamental. even when on site it just switches to and from the wifi directly and I have about a 10% success rate of updating any settings even when right next to it. I'm trying to do it remotely too(using the SEMS portal app on android), with zero success. is this a goodwe thing or is my specific wifi module a potential problem?

How is this working in the real world? I had to replace a leaking asbestos roof last year on a building and it was a lot of hoops for very little material benefit to the layman. it is horrendously expensive, when the roof may still be in good condition and "inert" as the experts told me. The inspector indicated that it would be safe enough to work on a roof/add panels if you had an additional plan in place to satisfy the paperwork.

Hi there, we have a Victron Centaur battery charger (on a yacht). - model is 12/40 (ie. 12v 40A) https://www.victronenergy.com/chargers/centaur-charger-12v-24v#downloads There was a short in a connection and a bit of smoke came out of a plug. Plug has been replaced and there is 220v going into the system - this is shore power, comes from the mooring to charge everything when you're parked. It is very hard to work out the wiring exactly, but at least i know it has power. This is a bulletproof looking device BUT not much in the way of diagnostics. I have got the manual now and all I can really see is that there might be an LED on/off. there is no on/off switch, the only way we can see it working is a current needle to show the amps drawing to charge batteries. The problem is that it is a yacht, so getting to it is a mission of note, it's under a bunk so i can only really see the front panel. - i couldn't see if the LED was lit or not. this is all the manual helps you with. Now I don't see any fuses or circuit breakers on the device, and the recommendation of taking it to a dealer to replace a fuse is a little bit nanny state in my mind. Also, we're talking boat electronics so the experts charge like a wounded bull. any experience with these, suggestions?

https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/553450/south-africa-has-started-making-changes-to-its-electricity-meters-what-you-should-know/?fbclid=IwAR0SwO-15i8SfrtDIDydCyTyA_p67lmeNuxMGhO3C3SpO8k2YaYTGI9BKbQ New prepaid meters coming around the country, because the software is outdated? They don't seem to have any sort of timing on them do they, is this for real - has it really started in gauteng? seems like a good time to implement time of use charges rather.

wow, nice project! I know you say it's not possible, but consolidating/converting to energy efficient geysers seems like it should be a worthwhile exercise. always cheaper to save wasted power than generate new.

any updates from recent experiences with CoCT here?

if you have an asbestos roof, then you have an asbestos roof. It's not like changing your underwear. I've got a 20kW installation on asbestos roof, was very concerned about it at first but did some homework on it. The important thing is not to break anything or drill/grind it. You get mounting screws that you replace with what was there

am in the process of converting one office to solar. I have always just scoffed at the CoCT embedded tariffs as essentially a process to keep you away from grid-tied from a financial perspective. however, it would be nice to have grid as a plan C so can reduce battery requirement. If i read it correctly, here is what i would be putting in my spreadhseet (ex VAT) for Small power User 2 (<1300kWh/month) power bought R3.19/kWh - power sold R0.73/kWh daily charge - R5.04 this could almost make sense to me. for rainy winter/days i can get away with paying the high tariffs as the daily access is just R150 per month. am i missing something? tariffs gleaned from here - (almost guaranteed to be a broken link in the next 6 months) https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Financial documents/Electricity Consumptive Tariffs.pdf

the people who are going to invest money into solar to feed in are just going to spend their money to reduce their grid consumption other ways. so the "loss of revenue" from these customers is coming either way. this addiction to loading funding into electricity by municipalities to cross subsidise other operations is not going to work in extremes forever. it makes the alternatives more viable. the train has already left the station a long time ago, but the best solution is time of use charging. we should be paying for electricity for what it costs to produce.then the free market will work it out

it's almost like COCT design the SSEG tariffs backwards. Take a load of options, find the one that ensures it is financially punitive to feed into the grid, then implement that.

i think we're going to try this. will manually charge the batteries from gennie - won't connect gennie into the inverter/220V system at all

thank you. I will keep digging, I'm sure it has been done before without being so risky.

looking at putting an adendorff gennie onto a goodwe ES/pylontech offgrid system. was going to use the gennie as the "grid" and then when required in mornings run it through the inverter to charge the batteries/provide power but now I'm going through the manual again, and page 5 tells me no no. https://www.goodwe.com/Public/Uploads/sersups/EM USER MANUAL.pdf i suppose the only other way is to charge batteries directly, but how would you do that (they are 48VDC and the gennie is 220V AC)

looking at doing the same before winter arrives properly- got 2 pylontechs with a goodwe. am hoping to run the generator for maybe 90 minutes in the morning to run an office and charge 2 batteries. will be on a dedicated manual switch on system, any advice from those who've done this before welcome

starting to see some blackfriday deals...post decent ones here