LMthethwa

1) Would this test be conducted with batteries Disconnect or with batteries ? 2) I'm current using ICC to monitor this should be enough for observation, right?

May I propose that maybe Coulomb or anyone else that has the intricate knowledge of the Voltronic/Axpert draws up a small test case for the MK II so we can put this topic to rest. Early last year I fried my inverter while experimenting 😝, my replacement unit was the MK II, so I have pretty much played by the book since then. Obviously nothing that might endanger the integrity of the system and nothing thing that will involve opening the until and measuring inside. I would be willing to conduct the test and provide feedback.

3) do you problematically check loadshedding or manually switch it off when you scheduled? A: I always want to start a loadshedding period at 100% SOC, in the afternoon the heatpump is at my set Temp (47degrees), because its on Backup, when we bath at night it will automatically startup to warm the water as we use, if I'm loadshedded this will not be ideal as I dont want to drain the battery too much since power never returns on scheduled times. However if I am scheduled overnight, I want to switch on the geyser at 04h00 for water to be hot enough for morning bath. I've had occasion where power did not return from 20h00 until 06h30 the next morning. 4) At what SOC% do you switch off, my heatpump is also on my solar and battery circuit A: Because I have solar, I pretty much have it on during the day from 10h30 until 18h00, I set timer to swich off at 18h00 for evening baths, I switch in on again at 22h45 (on Eskom - once of) (and off again at 04h00 in case of cold nights) and it will be hot enough for the morning bath. SONOFF takes care of the schedules. - In a nutshell I seldom run my heatpump on batteries, its only if Eiskom/Citypower does not honor their schedule. - I only run once of on Eskom (+/- 45min) to heat up water at night at 22h45, most heating happens from 10h45 - 18h00 24/7. - My consumption has dropped from daily 35-38 Kwh (with 1.1 kw @ 8HRS pool pump with solar water heating + heatpump+gas stove+dishwasher, washing machine), to a average of 8 Kwh (my wife loves!!!!!!!!!!!! her dishwasher and washing machine 🤣) - Next challenge, get wifey to schedule washing to specific day/s and not every morning......yes every morning. Schedule dishwasher when there is a full load, not after every meal .....yes 3 times a day and sometimes 4......................or maybe I should rather choose the peace.

It depends on your intended load usage and budget, you can get from R3k and all the way up. You need to compare not just the price but also the battery Life Cycles vs DoD. Anything with less than 500 @ 50% is a “cheapy” and will cost you more in a year or two that the saving you will make buying them (Remember eskom is projecting 18months of pain which means 3 years😜) Anything with 1000+ @ 50% DOD should last you a few year. Lookup up AllGrand looks promising and not badly prices at about R4400 a pop, if you have the bucks, OmniPower is a nice one too, I think they have 240AH variant too just over 7k each. Howver, I am no expert all above is just my opinion from my journey thus far and from the esteemed residence experts information sharing readup in this forum and others. Good Luck LM

Hi BoxFish, I recently built something for my old man is December using the Luminous 850VA Hybrid (can take solar panels if needed) and 1 x 120AH Omni Power Battery. Powers all house lights and TV/DSTV. Load is more less ~ 150W at most, but generally less. I am happy and my old man is happy, he has recently survived a 4 hour outage without issues (average loadshedding 2 Hrs). AVG DOD 26% Hooked up to DB for lights only with C/O switch. I needed an all-in-one hustle free small system for an old man and it does what I needed and more (Happy parent) See pictures LM

Scrarfussi, Apart from the cost factor there are many other reason, most related to why Cell phone companies are struggling to get sites built as quick as they would want. 1) No one wants a tower next to their house or estate. now consider a tower and turbine combination. 2) Tower loading limitation (load of amount of installed equipment on tower vs structural design integrity), space requirement for standalone turbine, let alone the unknown regulatory framework for turbine in residential/urban areas. 3) Wing span consideration for a turbine size that would be required to carry the load of a typical cell phone tower site. I wonder whether there would be any interference to the RF equipment on the tower due to the proximity of the rotating blades and whatever harmonics would emanate from the turbine. Lastly, give us South African time, we will figure out something worth repossessing from that turbine infrastructure .......cheap passing shot I know!!! LM

Hi Durran, Please ensure the LIR1620 coin battery in the control panel is in good working order otherwise whenever you cut power to the heatpump unit, it loses the settings/time and you have to sett them manually. I have not played with the temperature sensor part but, I have hooked up my own SONOFF + RELAY circuit. I did this for the following reasons: 1) in order to be able to link it to my Wifi & Alexa. 2) Get more control times for ON/OFF setting instead of the default (1 ON and 1 OFF schedule) 3)so that I can remotely over internet switch off my geyser if I am scheduled for load-shedding. (My heatpump is connected on my essential load side and running on Solar+Backup), 4) If I'm scheduled for midnight loadshedding 00h00 - 04h30 which normally becomes 00h00 to 05h30, from my cellphone, based on my SOC I want to be able to switch-on geyser without getting off my bed. 5) Currently from 35 degrees to my summer setting of 47 degrees takes about 45 min without breaching 80% SOC. And lastly (SONOFF + WOOD MATERIAL FROM CEILING + GEYSER = Possibility of FIRE) I would recommend your SONOFF is only used to control a relay and not directly wired to the geyser. LM. REgards

Hi Coulomb, I will explore the impact of the recommended settings and do a bit more read up on Peukert value. Thank you for your advise.

Thank you DeepBass 9 and Coulomb for you replies, Bellow is the spect for the MKS II Below is the setting where my charging setting are both set to 20A This is my BMV setting., I have not changed the Peukert setting and still on default values. I did change tail current from 4% to 2.3% which I picked up on some old thread in this forum. @Coulomb, if I understand you correctly, are you saying that the SOC changes that I am experiencing is not correct?

Dear members, I can finally say I have progressed past the teething stages on solar conversion with the help of this forum and I have navigated all the difficult huddles of not understanding what I was buying and using installers that did not know what they were doing. I am at the point where I am comfortable with my system overall and can start to broaden my understanding of foreign concepts without trepidation. My current area of concern and inquiry is around the topic of Battery State of Charge. System details: 5KW MKS II Axpert (80A, 4500MPPT), 12 X Canedian Panels (9x330 + 3x335), 8 X 12V@110A Lead Acid Batteries(Flooded), BMV 712 monitor, Raspi ICC Settings: Back to Grid Voltage 48V, Solar charging 20A, AC charging 20A, Back to Discharge Voltage 54V, Bulk Charging 58.4, Float charging 54.4, Battery Cut-off Voltage 47.8 Battery Control settings: SOC control 90% to Grid and 95% to Solar - Time Control 07h00 to solar and 17h00 to Grid. Questions: 1) Even without load with SOC at 100% (after 17h00), by next morning (07h00) my batteries SOC is already 97% is this normal and can the connected BMV account for the 3% drain on Battery bank. 2) When looking at battery trends graph of ICC, SOC drain is gradual but charging is not, it can shoot up from 92% SOC straight to 100%, is this normal? (see pic below) 3) Is there anything that needs to be adjusted on my settings? In my journey towards going solar, I have already made a R15 000 mistake and damaged by previous batteries and hence the paranoia the second time around. Your guidance in this regard will be highly appreciated and possibly save my marriage (no need to explain why I need to spend more money on 3rd new set of batteries 🤣) Regards Lindani

Hi Jacques, congrats on your new system and welcome to the sun junkies club. Can you send your inverter settings ? 1) Long press on the enter button on inverter panel, -> 00 and 3 letters eitheir Util, Sbu or Sol, 2) using the up or down buttons go through all your menu settings from the 00 above all the way to 30 or 31 and record all the value 3) Dont worry if some menu values are missing. When done press esc button. Lets take it from there..

Rolo, Batteries in my view are the most delicate part of the system and require much more attention. Mistakes with batteries are generally irreversible and costly. 1) Yes cycling refers to exactly your understand. 2) As a general rule "not sure where's the rule book", you do not mix old and new batteries and therefore getting the right capacity from start is ideal. Only when you are ready to replace your old batteries, a few years down the line, should you be able to add without worries.

Hi Rolo, I am currently running a 1100W pool pump between 5-7 hours, a 1170W Heat pump (plus all house small loads lights, tvs, Dstvs, alarm, wifi.....) using a 4000W inverter with 9 x 330W panels (Hybrid configuration) (8 x 12 V @ 110h batteries). I have reduced my utility daily utilization from 30-37 KWh to an average of between 12-14 KWh. I did not change my pool pump, I just changed the time when its running, the same with the heat pump. While my ultimate aim is to go with evacuated tubes, for now while I have the excess power from the panels it just made sense to connect it to the backup. The only concern is remembering to switch the Heat pump off in case of after hours load shedding. I am also new to solar (1 month) and still figuring out a few things with the help from this forum. My advise to you if cash is tight would be: 1) Don't change the pool pump 2) Spend extra on panels and inverter 3) Try and over spec your system, once the bug bites you will regret not putting a buffer of capacity in your initial design. 4) If time is not an issue, try and go in stages and break down your final system design in stages eg. Backup system first, solar panels next, this helped me understand my system in small chunks of information. I did make a R18 000 mistake with my batteries on my backup by not cycling them enough but.....education is not cheap....except in www.powerforum.co.za Most importantly do your homework it helps when you have a clue what you want otherwise people sell you all sort of junk and you end up not getting what you expected.