regbes

Thought I would share some of my experiences and learnings with my quest to be independent of ESKOM.
 
First some stats of the system that i had installed.
2 x Chase Megarevo 8kva inverters
6 x Chase 6.1 Kwh lithium batteries
22 x Trina 550w solar panels
Things to consider in your off-grid journey in South Africa
1.       Inverter KW rating (minimum 12KW)
In sizing my system, I had to keep in mind the primary purpose was to go off grid or get as close to it as possible. My starting point was to replace the ESKOM single phase input which is 220V at a max of 63A giving a theoretical max from ESKOM of 13.8 KW so I wanted my inverters to be rated for at least that, so I decided that my choices were one 16KW or two 8KW inverters I decided for the parallel inverter setup for the redundancy and added flexibility in panel configuration that it offered. I have not been over the 63A usage often but I have, so this was a must for me.
 
2.       How many panels (As many as you can)
There are many calculators and opinions on how many solar panels you should install, and here is my take: Install as many as physically possible. I can’t tell you how many times I regret not getting panels installed on some of the less-than-optimal areas on my roof, Why? Well it seems that most of those opinions and calculators telling you how many panels to install are looking at average sunlight for your location, when going off grid average is not going to cut it, you want worst case, when it is overcast for 3 to 5 days in a row and you start shouting at people for using hot water and your wife is grumpy that the pool is green because you switched off the pool pump, and you looking at the solar app obsessively, when those overcast days roll around you will be glad you put those extra 10 panels in, the additional cost when you do it all at once is far less that calling your installer back to install a few more.
 
3.       Battery KWh (24 hours of usage)
These are the most component of the system and hard to get an idea of how much capacity to install, so I went with the following install enough battery to run your house for 24 hours or as close to that as you can afford, it follows from the solar panel logic that you are not sizing for the average day you are sizing for the worst case. In winter when there is less solar production, my batteries hardly ever go under 50% in summer it is almost never at 100% because of all the cloud about.
 
 
I consider the above the minimum for gong off grid, there are other things to consider when selecting the equipment, you will be using, and the many manufacturers out there offer a variety of features that will interest you, good luck with that choice.
 
Some things I regret,
550w panels instead of 720w the price difference is minimal,
Wrong soalrman dongle, the ones I got do not integrate to Solar assistant.
Not putting on more panels.
The batteries I got seem to only charge at 100A (could be a config issues that I need to look into)
A high voltage setup may have been better for my needs.
The firmware on the inverters is not very good
 
Some summary stats from solar assistant,
the grid usage by the inverters irritated me so I disconnected the inverters from the grid totally in October.
The house hold has 3 adults till May when it increased to 6.

Thought I would share some of my experiences and learnings with my quest to be independent of ESKOM.
 
First some stats of the system that i had installed.
2 x Chase Megarevo 8kva inverters
6 x Chase 6.1 Kwh lithium batteries
22 x Trina 550w solar panels
Things to consider in your off-grid journey in South Africa
1.       Inverter KW rating (minimum 12KW)
In sizing my system, I had to keep in mind the primary purpose was to go off grid or get as close to it as possible. My starting point was to replace the ESKOM single phase input which is 220V at a max of 63A giving a theoretical max from ESKOM of 13.8 KW so I wanted my inverters to be rated for at least that, so I decided that my choices were one 16KW or two 8KW inverters I decided for the parallel inverter setup for the redundancy and added flexibility in panel configuration that it offered. I have not been over the 63A usage often but I have, so this was a must for me.
 
2.       How many panels (As many as you can)
There are many calculators and opinions on how many solar panels you should install, and here is my take: Install as many as physically possible. I can’t tell you how many times I regret not getting panels installed on some of the less-than-optimal areas on my roof, Why? Well it seems that most of those opinions and calculators telling you how many panels to install are looking at average sunlight for your location, when going off grid average is not going to cut it, you want worst case, when it is overcast for 3 to 5 days in a row and you start shouting at people for using hot water and your wife is grumpy that the pool is green because you switched off the pool pump, and you looking at the solar app obsessively, when those overcast days roll around you will be glad you put those extra 10 panels in, the additional cost when you do it all at once is far less that calling your installer back to install a few more.
 
3.       Battery KWh (24 hours of usage)
These are the most component of the system and hard to get an idea of how much capacity to install, so I went with the following install enough battery to run your house for 24 hours or as close to that as you can afford, it follows from the solar panel logic that you are not sizing for the average day you are sizing for the worst case. In winter when there is less solar production, my batteries hardly ever go under 50% in summer it is almost never at 100% because of all the cloud about.
 
 
I consider the above the minimum for gong off grid, there are other things to consider when selecting the equipment, you will be using, and the many manufacturers out there offer a variety of features that will interest you, good luck with that choice.
 
Some things I regret,
550w panels instead of 720w the price difference is minimal,
Wrong soalrman dongle, the ones I got do not integrate to Solar assistant.
Not putting on more panels.
The batteries I got seem to only charge at 100A (could be a config issues that I need to look into)
A high voltage setup may have been better for my needs.
The firmware on the inverters is not very good
 
Some summary stats from solar assistant,
the grid usage by the inverters irritated me so I disconnected the inverters from the grid totally in October.
The house hold has 3 adults till May when it increased to 6.

PS. Splash out and get a few more panels. You know you want to. Better performance on overcast days, and more savings when the sun is shining. Panels don't cost a lot right now.

Thought I would share some of my experiences and learnings with my quest to be independent of ESKOM.
 
First some stats of the system that i had installed.
2 x Chase Megarevo 8kva inverters
6 x Chase 6.1 Kwh lithium batteries
22 x Trina 550w solar panels
Things to consider in your off-grid journey in South Africa
1.       Inverter KW rating (minimum 12KW)
In sizing my system, I had to keep in mind the primary purpose was to go off grid or get as close to it as possible. My starting point was to replace the ESKOM single phase input which is 220V at a max of 63A giving a theoretical max from ESKOM of 13.8 KW so I wanted my inverters to be rated for at least that, so I decided that my choices were one 16KW or two 8KW inverters I decided for the parallel inverter setup for the redundancy and added flexibility in panel configuration that it offered. I have not been over the 63A usage often but I have, so this was a must for me.
 
2.       How many panels (As many as you can)
There are many calculators and opinions on how many solar panels you should install, and here is my take: Install as many as physically possible. I can’t tell you how many times I regret not getting panels installed on some of the less-than-optimal areas on my roof, Why? Well it seems that most of those opinions and calculators telling you how many panels to install are looking at average sunlight for your location, when going off grid average is not going to cut it, you want worst case, when it is overcast for 3 to 5 days in a row and you start shouting at people for using hot water and your wife is grumpy that the pool is green because you switched off the pool pump, and you looking at the solar app obsessively, when those overcast days roll around you will be glad you put those extra 10 panels in, the additional cost when you do it all at once is far less that calling your installer back to install a few more.
 
3.       Battery KWh (24 hours of usage)
These are the most component of the system and hard to get an idea of how much capacity to install, so I went with the following install enough battery to run your house for 24 hours or as close to that as you can afford, it follows from the solar panel logic that you are not sizing for the average day you are sizing for the worst case. In winter when there is less solar production, my batteries hardly ever go under 50% in summer it is almost never at 100% because of all the cloud about.
 
 
I consider the above the minimum for gong off grid, there are other things to consider when selecting the equipment, you will be using, and the many manufacturers out there offer a variety of features that will interest you, good luck with that choice.
 
Some things I regret,
550w panels instead of 720w the price difference is minimal,
Wrong soalrman dongle, the ones I got do not integrate to Solar assistant.
Not putting on more panels.
The batteries I got seem to only charge at 100A (could be a config issues that I need to look into)
A high voltage setup may have been better for my needs.
The firmware on the inverters is not very good
 
Some summary stats from solar assistant,
the grid usage by the inverters irritated me so I disconnected the inverters from the grid totally in October.
The house hold has 3 adults till May when it increased to 6.

Mu Solar assistant dashboard now has this nice graphic, only problem i am in Johannesburg, cant find anywhere to change my location anybody know how to do this?

Thanks
Reg

What type of premises are we talking about here? The typical household has a 60A single-phase supply, ie. around 14kW power output before the mains switch trips. And uses around 1000kWh per month. Give or take.
From that perspective I reckon most homes should be able to go off-grid with 12-15kW inverter power, 15-20kW of panels, 20-30kWh of batteries, some efficient appliances and water heating equipment, and just a little bit of intelligent power management.

The what I call “TUYA Smart breaker” has been re labelled so many times that there is no one name or description you will find it listed under when shopping for it.
It looks like this with some minor differences depending on where you find it

I decided to write a quick review on it because I have found it very useful.
Ill start off by listing some of the features.
1.       Has a Pre-Paid function, I use this to mirror and check my prepaid units, whenever I load up units onto the City power meter, a also load it up on this meter and it will alert me when I am running low, and if you are using it in your connected cottage you can have it switch off if the units reach 0
2.       Monitors whole home energy & power usage, with history that you can reset.
3.       Has over current detection
4.       Has over and under voltage detection
5.       Has earth leakage detection
6.       Circuit stays closed if supply is disrupted, I like this because on the occasion I have forgotten to buy prepaid, with the circuit closed the keypad maintains communication with the meter so I can load new tokens easily.
  
It can be found online for R600 plus or minus R200 depending on where you buy it and what specials are going.
When you consider there are units out there that just offer a LCD screen with current usage and nothing else for the same price, this unit offers value for money.
I have had one running without a hitch for over 6 months now, the usage stats I got from this were helpful in sizing my off grid solar installation.
Not everything is roses though some drawbacks are
To get the full benefit from It, it needs to be installed in your DB board either just before or after the main earth leakage and it takes up 2 slots, so installation can be a pain.
it uses the Tuya app which I am not a fan of (i have looked for a Sonoff version with no luck), but using the Tuya local integration in Home Assistant works well and has quick response.
My wife is a technophobe so I tried to teach her to use the buttons on the unit and she just does not have the physical strength to push the on/off button so that it registers.
In conclusion I can recommend this device.

So after many months of reading and procrastination I made the leap and upgraded from a glorified UPS ( Growatt 3kva inverter and Mecer lithium batteries) to a full off grid solution.
My current average daily energy consumption is 31Kwh with the main culprits for the usage being the pool pump and 2 geysers. On very rare occasions did usage spike above 8kva.
I wanted to say goodbye to ESKOM for good but decided to move to prepaid just as an extra backup and to avoid the R800 odd a month connection fee.( thanks city power for starting the R200 a month for prepaid users), I also wanted redundancy and be over capacity so I would not stress if somebody switched on the oven or AirCon. So initially thought I would get
2 X 6 Kva inverters
16 X 500w panels
4 X 5kwh batteries
So I started shopping and hunting for the best prices on the above, and got lucky and found
8Kva inverters for R 13 300
6.1 Kwh batteries for R 11 500
I initially thought these prices were too good to be true so did some research and the kit was good, and supplied and supported by Voltex being a Bidvest company made the decision easy, so I bought
2 X 8Kva Megarevo  inverters
https://www.voltex.co.za/product/megarevo-chase-technologies-hybrid-inverter-ess-8kw-8kl1/
5 x 6.14 KWH Megarevo chase batteries no longer for sale but they are these batteries
https://www.eikto-tech.com/6kwh-energy-storage-battery/
21 X 550 W panels
Since the install the Eskom breaker has been on the off position and we have sailed through the cloudy and rainy period we just went through.
 
The install was done by

 
I have a slate roof and was very concerned about leaks and issues after the fact, Harlan did a Great job the slate looks great, and not a leak through all this rain we have been having. He did not mind that I had already bought the Inverters and batteries.
 
All is not roses though, the dongle that came with the inverters lets you use the Solarman app, but that does not integrate into Home assistant, so had to go down a rabbit hole of getting solar assistant installed, finding the adaptor that connects to the COM port for solar assistant was a long frustrating process, eventually settled for a hack there, on another note if anybody is looking for round 4 pin connectors let me know I have multiples of 2 different types lying round irritating me.
The hardware on the inverters is top notch they run quiet and cool, without a hitch so far. The only gripe I have is the firmware could be (much) better, it is a confusing mess and I am still trying to find a setting that will draw 0 from ESKOM and not attempt to sell back to the grid. Now using Home Assistant to handle unlikely switch to ESKOM if there is no sun for an extended period.
All in all happy with the monthly savings. some mandatory pics

 




 
 
 
 

Was considering that but could not find the adaptor that plugs into the inverter the round one with 4 pins

Thanks sidewinder good points
I have 5 of these https://www.voltex.co.za/product/megarevo-chase-technologies-lithium-battery-ess-6-14kw-51-2v-120ah-es48120t/
Connected to the inverter via can
Located in jhb near Melrose arch

Hi All,
I need someone to supply and install solar assistant (and all the relevant cables) and connect it to my Chase megarevo inverters ( i have 2 in parallel) and battery, and get it integrated to my home assistant.
on the solar assistant site i see it is supported https://solar-assistant.io/help/megarevo/configuration
I have run out of patience and hair trying to get solarman working with home assistant.
PM me with questions and or quotes so i can get this done.
Thanks
Reg

Searching for similar connector on the internet, only one I could find so far was on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/155648938095, as well as a RS-485 to USB cable: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Communication-Cable-Connector-CC-USB-RS485-150U-4LLT-For-Epever-SolarController/372473784094
There is also a converter: https://watts247.com/product/cable-rs485-solar-assistant-remote-monitoring-nhx-adaptor-use-with-solar-rs485-to-usb-cable/ (overseas site, but it says it is a adaptor cable for Solar Assistant).
Alternatively, DIY Solar Power Forum has some MacGyver solutions in this thread: https://diysolarforum.com/threads/connecting-solar-assistant-to-eg4-megarevo-8kw.67758/

Hi All,
I am looking for an installer with experience in installing panels on a Slate roof in the johannesburg area.
I want to install 20 panels in various locations on my roof. i have purchased the batteries and inverters but no panels as yet.
I want to get this done ASAP.
Thanks in advance for the help
Reg.

Thanks I have, unfortunately he is booked solid