SheldonB

Hi Stoic, thanks for the feedback. I am currently looking at installing the following on further review: 1xVictron Multiplus 2 48/5000 inverter 1x Victron Smartsolar MPPT 150/85-TR 15x Canadian Solar panels 330w or (12 x 400w Canadian solar - This however works out more expensive per watt i thought it would be cheaper?) 1x Venux GX smartcontroller Best price i have so far for the 300w panels is R1700 (excl) and for the 400W R2765 (excl) , so in terms of this 15x330 (4950 watts at R25500 which is equal to R5.1/watt) alternatively 12x400w (4800 watts total at R33184 which is equal to R6.9/watt) So in terms of the above would anyone recommend something different. In additon a few questions Would one recommend going for the 400w panels or the 330w panels i see the 400w panel have a higher efficiency, VMP,IMP etc however i am not sure what that actually means thou? The price is higher however are there other advantages going with the 400W panels? Should i get a larger MPPT if so which one? Whats the difference between the smartsolar MMPT150/85 r and the bluesolar MMPT 150/85 ?

Thanks for the replies everyone, i already have a solar geyser all my lights are led, i have a gas top however oven is electric. Staff have gas stove and gas water heater so no hotplates.This is my home. I am powering the following: Pool pump (1,1KW) Heat Pump on pool (12amps) Borehole pump Pressure pump 24000BTU aircon (Nightime only) 3 x fridges (Have live in staff) 1x chest freezer Washing machine Dishwasher Electric oven (Gas top) Microwave 2 x LED TV's Alarm Electric Fence One can see on the graphs when the pool pump and heat pump kick in around 7:00 am each morning till 4pm each day. These 2 items are the main energy consumption hogs in the day. Has anyone installed those black solar heating panels one puts on the roof? I'm thinking of taking out the heat pump as that alone is 12amps! For a residential installation are you allowed to have more than 5kw grid tied?

Would the below be recommended for my needs as explained above? Battery Monitor BMV-712 Smart Quattro +48/10000/140-100 Blue Sol MPPT 150/70tr 330 Watt solar panels (Canadian Solar) x 20 2 x pylon 2.4kw batteries Question with the above, in a scenario where i don't utilize all the power generated from the solar in the day, my batteries are fully charged and i dont have a bidirectional prepaid meter installed as of yet (so im not feeding back into the grid as of yet) might be a silly question however what happens to the extra power generated?Can the above components see everything is full and put the whole system into a stanby mode of sorts?

Hi All Firstly what a great Forum, i have been toying with the idea of going solar for a few years now however the main reason i have not is due to total confusion as each solar person/company i ask advice from seems to differ so i eventually just gave up. The time has come now to do it as i my electricity bill is large and i am pretty certain is gonna go up in the short term due to issues at Eskom. My situation is as follows i am currently using in the region of 60kwh electricity per day of that the majority is daytime use +- 45kwh between 7am-4 pm. I have a solar geyser, all my house lights are led and want to reduce my electricity bill. System requirements for me are the following: To Use solar to power all of my electricity requirements in the daytime (+-45Kwh) to reduce my electricity bill which is currently around R5000/month 😞 I currently have a 7kva generator wired to an essentials circuit, and would like enough batteries to power this for 2-4 hrs instead of using the genie. (Lithium batteries). If i cant afford all the batteries at this stage i plan on going with 2 or 3 of the pylon batteries to start (2.3Kwh or 3.5kwh ?) I am currently on a old prepaid meter so plan on upgrading to a bidirectional prepaid meter at some stage and have excess power pushed back into grid for credit. So system needs to cater for this. I live in Pretoria and apparently in the next couple months these bidirectional prepaid meters will be available. Would like to be able to expand the system as money allows without having to change existing components. I would like to be able to remote monitor the system My electrician connected a device to my DB and measured my amp usage over a number of days as a matter of interest which i have uploaded to this post. So my question is what would you recommend i go for in terms of inverters etc. I initially looked at the Goodwe 5kwh however i believe this wont be sufficient for my needs and apparently one cant add another Goodwe without setting up a seperate circuit for the 2nd inverter? Would be great if i can get some feedback in terms of recommended components i would require to power and setup the above? Apologies if i have used any incorrect terminology im a Solar infant and dont know much about electricity either.