Krokkedil

This topic quickly went from registering to a discussion about something completely off this topic. I believe the following 1. If your system is less than 20KW and off grid you should not have to register 2. You should be able to produce a COC for the installation to proof that it is safe if asked by the authorities and your insurance 3. If your system is grid tied and you can feed back it should be registered in order for the workers to be safe. 4. I believe the building regulation should be changed that all new building should have at least 3kw of solar installed when a new house is build. 5. i believe generators must be banned from residential areas

I still see adverts for these on the internet. I almost bought some. Now my question. The SUN PAYS.co .za also sells a 4.8kw that looks very similar. must i steer clear

Holy moly That is more than 8KW per hour. Needs a lot of backup for that.

I had a issue where my teenage son will play playstation games for days on end. if you just cut the power to the play station there is a change of hard drive failure. I did the following Installed a 1kva UPS in the tv room and connected the UPS to the DB. Inside the DB I installed a SONOFF to the UPS supply. I then added 2 programs one for the week where the power will be switched on at 5pm and switch of at 9pm and one for the weekend where the power will switch on from say 9 am until 11pm. My kids now know if the UPS starts beeping they have a couple of minutes to shut down the Play station. No more arguing about it. If you dont shut down it will shutdown. I currently have timers on my geyser and poolpumps but whene these fail i will do the same, Hook up a SONOFF to a contactor or solid state relay and set the time. There are similar devices called the shelly 1 available oversea that can handle 16 amp and are smaller than the SONOFF.

Ok so you dont have a lot of moola, 1. Buy a Cadac stove or a 2 plate stove that you hook up to a 9KG cylinder - Food Sorted. 2. Buy small 12v LED strip lights and wire them into each room with a bed lamp switch in parallel 3. Buy a 12v battery 100Ah around R1k (this is the most expensive part of your startup kit) Connect your LED lights to that- Lights sorted 4. Buy a battery charger. to charge the battery when EKSDOM is on. 5. Save and When you have moola again Buy a 3KVA 24v pure sine wave inverter Around R7k (you can get the 48v as well but then you need more batteries) 6. Save and buy 2 x Batteries R4k (if you have the 48v inverter buy 4 batteries R8k) 7. Buy cables and connectors and install as loadshedding kit remember this kit will not run your house, some rewiring must be done. budget around R2-3k 8. Buy solar pannels x2 R4k and add to the system- grow your system by buyng pannels when you have money 9. Batteries will have to be replaced save for this. 10. Buy pannels of the same characteristics to add to your system. EG if the panle is 335w at 40v then get pannels that are 335W at 40V. If you mismatch pannles it effects the amount of power you van get.

Hi there. I am looking specifically for the Axpert or Mecer MKS II 5K with the 430v MPPT i want to create strings of 5 panels. Around 200VOC I currently have a 3kva 2400w Mecer in my house connected. The problem is that the 2400w is just not enough,. My current batteries Narada 200AH bank is busy failing I only get between 2-4 hours out of them if i pull anything more than 500w. My plan is the following. 1. Keep the current inverter and hook 4 panels up to the inverter with the old narad batteries until they compeletly die, This setup will power the pool pump and the borehole pump. pool to run from 9am to 1 pm Borehole when needed. 2. New inverter connected to lithium batteries(still trying to see what brands are available and at what price), connected to 10x 335w panels to power the house, I know that 10 panels will not be enough for full off grid especially in winter when i have lots of shading.

Hi there. I know most of you are on Holiday. I hope you have a womderfull holiday. I need to purchase a 5KW inverter early next year. My current setup is a 3kva Mecer inverter with 4 pannels and batteries. My plan is to purchase a 5kw inverter 2 pylontech 3000 batteries and solar pannels. The old system will be converted to run the swimming pool borehole and some other stuff. I need prices, i know that it is currently a dog eat dog world out there with all the 1000's of fly by nights that joined the scene. If things pan out it might be 2 systems that gets installed one for me and one for the inlaws on the farm. they are currently paying R3k per month just for the transformer rental. the plan is to borrow money from the bank and get them off the grid. I dont know if it is allowed but if you are a reseller please send me prices to Zero 82 Eight Seven Eight 383 nine.

Hi there. I got a new job and was working in Africa for most of this year. Lost my logon details because my email changed. Lets continue with the journey

Hi there. Personally i will not feed back to the grid, I am using to grid to charge my batteries- if they consider that grid tied then I will take my inverter off the grid and connect an external charger. Pretoria had 2 power stations 1 in Pretoria west and one in Rooiwal that was switched off when some person decided it will be better to go with EKSDOM. These 2 power stations needed a bit of upgrade but if this was done Pretoria would probably have less power cuts than what happens now, They also provided work for a lot of people at those 2 power stations. Well (no swearing) as a matter of principle i will be selfish, i will not pay them daily charges or monthly fees, I will go offgrid in the near( distant) future.

Good morning Tacet. As was pointed out make sure you get the genuine MECER/Axpert later on move blue and by a victron below is a wiring diagram that i used in my house, i pulled this diagram from the forum.- this works 100% for me, i will use this until the SANS compliance is sorted. If you are in cape town follow their rules. where I am nobody has a clear direction yet. I have a 3kVA inverter when we need to draw more than what the inverter can deliver i take the load off switch the changeover switch to eskom and then connect the load back. I have been warned that the Mecer/Axpert inverter burns if they are overloaded and shed the load.

Gerlach Welcome to the light side. I started of in December. and is also still building. Friday night the phone rings, WHY DO YOU HAVE POWER AND THE REST OF US DON't. I respond halo how are you, again the voice on the other side is aggravated with some bad swear words. Will i then told them i installed solar power with battery backup, When i went outside we were 2 houses in the street with lights. the other house also has solar. I believe this to be my best investment i have ever made. even better than paying off my bond.

I did not post for a while, my pc at home crashed and i was extremely busy with tenders. I added 2 more panels to the roof and now have a 4 x 330w panels. I used the software that came with the inverter and checked the output for 3 days and realized that with nobody at home during the day the batteries will be fully charged around 10AM and i am then not using the panels anymore, i then connected the pool pump up to the system and checked if the pool pump can run together with the normal stuff that runs during the day, The pool pump is a 1,1 kw pump and was very worried that it will trip the inverter on startup. i tested it and it runs 100%, to ensure that i can switch it off, i wired it into a separate breaker that i can switch off if we need to draw more power, like if one of us is home during the day and wants to boil the kettle. The pool timer was changed to run from 10AM to 2PM when the kids usually returns from school I also bought a new 1.7 l kettle that only draws 1 kw from an Indian shop in Souter street in Pretoria west for R90, yes R90 it takes a little bit longer to boil but works 100% I tested and i can also run my borehole pump from the inverter but i have to ensure the load is below 200w before i start up the pump this pump will have to be changed later to a smaller pump or the inverter upgraded to a 5 KW inverter. I have a 2000L jojo tank with a pressure pump tied into the house, the Borehole fills the tank and when there is no water we still have water. unfortunately i cant run the borehole and pressure pump at the same time. My plan is to purchase 2 more panels month end. i will increase this until i have enough panels, i am thinking that maybe i must go with a 5kw inverter to run the house and the 3kw inverter that i have i then use for the borehole and swimming pool pump . For the swimming pool and borehole i dont need batteries they can run during the day, The 5Kw can use the current batteries until i can upgrade to lithium The 3kw will run happily with 6 panels. the 5 kw needs 16 panels. (this is going to take a while and cost a bit of money) One thing that is amazing is i don't get affected by the load shedding, i have enough to power my house as it is currently, my electricity bill has dropped from R1500pm to less than 800pm

Hi there. if i purchase the 280w panels will that not reduce my string rating to 280W. I have 2 330w canadian solar panels and want to add another. I want to build strings with 3 panels. Please send the details of the shop.

Hi there. I am looking for a reputable dealer in Pretoria that sells 330w Canadian solar panels. I want to purchase one panel a month to grow my system. I saw a lot of Facebook warriors that advertise Canadian solar panels for R1850 but as soon as you make contact the hide like cockroaches from the light.

I have a 20m run from inverter to DB, I only have a 3Kva 2.4 kw inverter but I installed 6mm cable. My plan is to install 2x 5kva inverters later. The wife want to keep the oven During my research the 6mm can only carry 42A when in conduit with a voltage drop op 7.9mv/A/M. in free air it can do 63A. 10000w/220= 45A for 5000/220=21A the 4mm cable will be fine. If you do not plan to upgrade the system.

When i had to make up my cables i crimped the lugs using my bench vice. squeezed them properly. they do not look as good as the one on top but they will not pull out ever.

I love how everything is hidden away. What size and lengths are the earth rods that the electricians used for your earth spikes? I installed 6mm cable to earth my panels and would like to add a earth spike on the dc side of my system.

that is correct. I also get in the pool now and then when the heat is too much. I cant swim unless i have earplugs because of holes in my eardrums. if the water gets into my inner ear i am stuffed with ear infection for weeks..

This is new 0 gauge cables with the new 100A ANL fuse holder. Check the cable size difference I will replace the fuse holder with one of those that you pull out. For now the system is fused

This is the 200ah narada batteries. a lot bigger than the others. This is with the jumper cables connected from the top bank to the bottom bank.

Hi there Yes i have 200m of 20mm pipe on the roof. this extends the swimming season a bit. this year the pool has not been used much. i don't know what the kids issue is but they hardly use the pool.

This is the panels mounted on the roof. I have since moved them because the chimney casts a shadow on them in the afternoon.

This is the building of my panel frame on the ground

This is the 1st set of batteries i had. Note that the 2 batteries in the front were on loan but these batteries were not working