Rolo

Hi @Pieter Lourens, any advantage seen by doing firmware update?

That's interesting. Also saw the difference and never knew what it was. According to their website you can register the battery by serial number to extend the 5 years to also 10 years. I have 2 UP5000 and working well. Stage 6 (and still expect it to go to 8 ) might force me to get a US2000 as an add on. Also interesting is that the UP5000 has a design cycle of 4000 cycles and the US2000 if I remember correctly is 6000 cycles.

Hi @Pieter Lourens, are yours also dipping or switching off when loadshedding starts? I have 3 friends with the same inverter and they all report the same. This is irritating me somewhat. I have added a ups for the TV and wifi but still feels I would have liked it more if it didn't. Other than that (as we discussed previously) the inverter is great.

Thanks Pieter. Funny enough the one TV does not dip as much. But again it only a semi smart TV. But I have overcome this with a very old UPS.

@Pieter Lourens or any that are using the solis inverter. After running with my setup for some time now, I have a question regarding the switchover when loadshedding hits. I have asked 2 other friends that I know that have the same inverter. Whenever loadshedding starts my power dip and I can see it on the lights and TV. I know it does not start again with the normal spike you can have when straight from the grid. This however does annoy me a bit as I am sure there is a setting I am missing to cover this. Or is the inverter just to slow to catch the power dip? This happens regardless of operating mode and battery SOC. When loadshedding starts at 19h00 I am already running everything from fully charged batteries. Any help or info would be greatly appreciated.

@Scorp007 I think you are right on the Solis feedback. As Pieter and myself have mentioned, we do see feedback to the grid. Very small and very quick but still there. I mentioned in a different thread that my system did indeed trip my prepaid meter. But luckily I was ready for that as I already had the code to deactivate the reverse line trip setting on the prepaid meter. Conlog BEC23 to be specific. Got the code from conlog themselves. Never had an issue since, been running with the setup from November 21

As Pieter mentioned above. There is a very small "backFlow", apologies for the lack of proper terminology. That backflow actually causes the Conlog prepaid meter (mine is a conlog bec23) to trip, as it does not allow for feedback to the grid. I was however fortunate enough to get the code to disable that trip. The guys at conlog assisted me. This code is meter and account and keypad specific and will unfortunately not help on other meters.

Sho, did you get ALL of that for the R90k? You struck one hell of a bargain 😆 Interestingly, I tripped my inverter when starting up a 2500W WOLFF lawn mower while grid was off (loadshedding). The start up of the motor was so high it peaked above the 6kw threshold of the inverter. Well that's what I think (with what must be said as very little electrical knowledge)

Hi JoeyhZA As far as I can tell from what I have seen it works as follows: If the grid is available - All loads (backup and grid output, critical and non critical) will firstly use available PV, then depending on SOC setting (above the backup value, mine set at SOC 20%) it will use batteries and then grid if needed. That being said, the first second or two it does take the start up from the grid. Very small load and very short time, think it is easier to load from the grid. If the Grid is not available - The non critical load will not be live. The rest will again follow the same as above, just no grid. This is where I found out that the start up of my 2500W WOLFF lawn mower is to high for the 6kW inverter. I tripped my inverter at moment of start. Luckily it does reset after a second or 5. I enjoy the inverter very much. As previously mentioned, mine is in our TV room and is absolutely silent. Does start internal fan if if constant load is above +-2,5kW. Still silent enough for me. Hope this helps

Hi Pieter If I may ask, I know (from my question on another thread) that you also have the 6kw Solis 5g inverter, but what else did you install? Reason for asking is I also spend roughly R90k and was just wondering if I got it wrong. I installed: Solis inverter, 2X4,8kW Pylontech UP5000 with 4 535W JA solar panels. Added 1 panel recently (yes I did not really factor in the losses in the system). And then of course all the required brackets, fuses and breakers. @Cory, if it helps. With my system (5 panels now), with average daily consumption of +-13kWh (Solar geyser and solar swimming pool pump), we went down to using about 500W ONLY from grid daily. This is however a sunny July day in Middelburg MP. On stage 6 we had certain days of 4 hours at a time loadshedding with the system providing more than enough.

Hi Pieter Yes I think I understand it now a bit better. As you mention above, I also have my back up mode set at 30% although grid charge disabled. What I have seen is with the settings you describe, the inverter will operate in "Self Use" mode while the SOC is above 30% and then switch to back up when needed. At the beginning I thought if I choose back up it sort of always runs in back up mode. Must say I am very happy with the inverter. Mine is in my living room about 3m from the TV so you can imagine how much I appreciate the silent operation. I have however added one more 535W panel. My only problem now is that I am constantly looking for something to switch on by 15h00 as I feel that with full batteries and a still shining sun I am wasting potential energy 😆

Thanks, I will take a look. It might be that the low cut off is automatic when grid is lost. I see there is a absolute discharge of 10% where the inverter does a battery wake up

Good day all I have searched but it seems that not many have used the Solis 6kw hybrid inverter. For those who have, may I please pick your brain a bit. I have taken the plunge to install 4x535W panels with the Solis 6kw hybrid inverter in a grid tied configuration (with a conlog bec23 prepaid meter). I also have 2 x 4,8kWh pylontech up5000 batteries connected. Thanks to the guys at conlog I have successfully deactivated the load line reversal trip with the token they gave me. My question is on the running program/mode of the inverter. I am currently running on "self use" mode as I want to charge the batteries with the surplus power not used and then cycle the batteries to 30% during the night. I have found that we will just about make it through the night on the 70% of the battery used. But now, what about load shedding or like in Middelburg the municipality decides it is time for a power cut. Is there some way to program the inverter so that in cycles to 20% when the grid input is lost? During stage 2 loadshedding we sometimes have the time slot of 3AM to 5AM or 5AM to 7AM. That is when the batteries might be at 30% depending on the usage we had during the night. Thats why I would like the extra 10% available if we loose the grid. Thanks in advance

That is why I was looking at the Bundu pump setup. It is a 370w pump with controler/inverter and min 2x 255w panels. Works to about R14k. https://www.bundupower.co.za/solarpool-single.php?mod=SP-JP13-13-370 They claim that the entire pool volume be circulated twice a day. In other words the pump will circulate 13m^3/h for 6 hours = 79000 l. Mine is about 36kl.

Thanks for all the pointers and thoughts. On the pool side. Saw that it is recommended to turn the total volume of the pool at least twice a day. So the solar pump I am interested in does it in 6 hours (being 36000 l pool). As I am looking at different ways to heat the water as well, I would much rather turn it slowly and for long time as it should heat up more in the heat system (currently just coiled up 25mm black pipe). On the geyser side, after reading more on the regulations regarding grid tied I actually think that thermosiphon will be the route. But again I can't decide between a split system using a collecting manifold and old geyser with 12v circulation pump or using a complete new system and geyser. I am very interested in using the Geyserwise controller regardless of system.

HAHAHA, glad you could solve both the problems. But between me and the chocolate Lab that will never happen. Maybe heating the pool water is the only other thing that will happen to it 😉

So in short, rather look at a panel and inverter setup than changing pool pump and geyser? Don't mind if it will be a bit more expensive as long as the saving over period would greatly improve.

That sounds good. Can one add batteries as more backup is required? By not cycling enough, do you meen they are going through full and empty cycles often enough?

Can one expand on such a system as time goes? As far as I understand (and that is not very far) the main thing and most expensive is the inverter. So for lets say running the pool for 7hours and then geyser for 2hours during daylight (about 3 to 4 kw running power). What is the power consumption of the 1,1kW pool pump on startup? 3,5kW? Don't really want to stack a lot of batteries in the house (only getting married end of Feb but don't think the wife to be would appreciate all the batteries) @The Terrible Triplett, do you have a cost estimate for doing that? I have about 7mx4m of usable north facing pitched tiled roof.

Thanks for the advise. I was also looking at something Hybrid for the geyser as I believe mine is still ok. With regards to going off grid, I have prepaid electricity from municipality. As mentioned we run the Geyser for max 1h30 mins a day. Our total consumption is about 15 to 20 units a day. So I figured that the pool and the geyser will be the most gained for $$ spend (R25-R30k in total). Not really looking at powering when Eskom is off, more a cost saving aim in the long run. 90% of lights are LED already.

Hi All As most of the posts in this new member part, I am also looking at my first solar setup. I have identified the pool pump (+- 36 000l) as one of the main contributors. Only running the 1,1kW pump for about 7 hours a day (7.7 kw/h). I have found that Bundu pumps have what looks like the solution with a 370W pump and 2 255w panels. My question is if anyone has gone solar pump for the pool or is panels with correct invertor a better solution. I am looking at adding pipes (water heating) on the roof later on. With regards to the geyser, it looks like a whole new can of worms all together. I think 200l low pressure system will do the trick. I have no mixer taps in the showers (2 showers devided by same wall). The municipality pressure in Middelburg MP is quite high. I have been told that a reducer valve on the cold water entering the house will solve the pressure differential problem. Also learned that "The Sun Pays" has a system that allows the cold water to run from the fill up tank (5l and 7bar) at the top so the hot and cold would be at same pressure. We don't require very high pressure in the shower, but would at least like the water to be hot and not only lukewarm due to high cold water pressure. We are already "timing" the geyser running time by hand, one hour to one and a half hours (+- 6kW/h) Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated. thanks