Vosser

Monopoly. One of the Chance cards gains you R100 because of a banking mistake.

The Sika 11 FC on the upstream edge of the bracket pretty much eliminates the chance of water getting to bolt.

Hi guys I am quite new to solar and have just installed my own DIY system. My reason for solar was to save a few rands on my bill and also train myself on solar as I am a electrician. My aim was to cut cost where I could and stay within a strict budget, so that maybe it can guide other people to decide if DIY is worth it or not. Cutting cost might come and haunt me later but I will then just call it school fees.
I have a 5KVA inverter with 4x330W PV panels and 4x120AH gel batteries. Inverter fitted in garage for noise reasons and remote keypad in house next to the DB, where I can switch inverter on and off and easily monitor my system. I can also changeover between eskom and solar with my cell phone, to switch only critical equipment or entire house load. I find this very handy and it keeps me in total control of the system even when I’m not at home, I must say I enjoy playing with this function and than check my cctv cameras just to confirm all switching went well at home.
I ended up replacing my entire DB to make space for all the new switchgear. During the day I run the entire house on this system from about 08h15 to 17h00 without using too much of battery power, The batteries are than ready for night time in event of load shedding. I can run the critical loads ( cctv, alarm, electric fence, lights) from about 22h00 to 06h00 without any problem. My daily average use is about 500W except weekends its more with the whole family at home. I do have a solar geyser that I installed in April before I attempted the solar electrical. The solar geyser in my opinion is a must before attempting to go off-grid. The total cost was R33k electrics + R15k for a 200ltr solar geyser. The labour luckily was for free but lots of hours of planning and shopping for good deals. I would definitely recommend a DIY if you are hands on but get a electricians advise on the legality for C.O.C purposes and also for the DB upgrading, this can be challenging if you have not worked on a DB before.
I like the system that I installed because of its simplicity and the inverter is easy to operate and change settings if need be. I have taken my last 24 months electricity bill and can already see my bill have halved since my solar install. I would like to install a different system on my next project but purely for the experience thereof, but cost is still the big factor to me to whether it’s viable or not. 
I hope this information can help someone whom is considering a DIY and I would also like to hear of anybody's similar solar experience.

For a single string, you can keep it on 4 mm up to the combiner box. After combining the 3 strings, that is where you have to think about bigger cables, depending on the distance from the combiner box to the inverter.  
 

Yes.
Volt drop on 6 mm over 30 meter will be 8.62 volt and on 10 mm it would be 4.99 volt, so on 6mm you will have (8.62V - 4.99V) x 36.4A = 132wh extra losses during full production 
Although 6 mm is within SANS regulation, it is better to use the 10mm to minimize your losses. 
SANS regulation state that you should remain below a 5% volt drop, but for solar applications a 3% is recommended to minimize losses. 
I am not sure what crimper you have, but mine can has different slots in the jaws to accommodate different size lugs. 
   

Over the past couple months I've been in the process of getting a small property I bought in the Midlands livable and off-grid. The choice to go solar became a lot easier after seeing what Eskom charges for line rental and the general uncertainty WRT power supply.
My initial plan was to install a Goodwe inverter but after posting my plan here a couple months back, @Chris Hobson suggested the Goodwe wasn't ideal for an off-grid set-up. Chris also gave up some of his time by letting me contact him via telephone to give some further info, for which I'm very appreciative.
The system consists of 12 x 355w Canadian Solar Panels, mounted as two 6 panel strings. The panels have been mounted using Renusol hardware, which is better suited to IBR sheets (my roof is corrugated).That said I worked hard to ensure each mounting screw went through the very apex of the corrugation and added Sika Flex FC to the attachment point and the front edge of the corrugation that has the screw running through it. We've had some decent rain and no leaks at all so I'm happy. I h. Each string runs through a fuse, surge protector and isolating switch before connecting to a 5kva Axpert/Mercer inverter. The 2 inverters are connected in parallel and supply power to 5 x 2.4kWh Pylontech batteries. The inverters were both manufactured in December 2018, and have version 71.50 firmware (which is what they came with). I have allowed for a generator input for periods of extended cloud/rain etc. I'm in the process of finding better monitoring software as the WatchPower software the inverters came with is very poor.
The entire AC side of the house was wired by an electrician who also oversaw the solar installation and has signed off on installation. 
Below are some pics of the system at various points of the installation.
1. Solar mounting hardware

2. Panels going in. Fortunately the retaining wall helped to make things a bit easier (co-worker grabbing some shade

3. Panels in

4. PV fuse, surge protection and isolator

5. Inverter details and firmware

6. General Layout

7. Battery bank in box

8. Final setup

This method of vegetable (and other crop production) involves no digging, no weeding and very little work. It also requires little or no fertiliser or pesticide and keeps increasing the soil fertility the longer you practise it. Less water is required because of the mulch covering the soil retaining the soil moisture.  
Developed by Ruth Stout : https://www.goveganic.net/article182.html
Basically all you do is heap organic matter thickly on the ground, raise seedlings in trays and then plant them straight into the mulch. That's it. You may find a few weeds coming up, buy then you just heap more mulch on top. Once you have harvested, guess what, just throw more much on top and start again. The mulch composts at the bottom of the heap and you find after a few seasons that the soil becomes a writhing mess of nitrogen fixing earthworms and other soil organisms.
So this in one part of a permaculture system which tries to close the nutrient cycle as far as possible. The first stage is growing of nitrogen fixing legume crops as animal fodder. This I do fertilise with phosphate and potassium, as they are eitehr in the soil or not. You can't get them from another source. This I bale as winter feed. During winter I spread the bales all over the pastures so that the wastage is spread on the ground, and starts building thicker topsoil. Some of this residue ends up in the veggie garden as below. The  manure that accumulates is also spread back on the fields to improve the grazing which closes the circle. So the input is P & K and via various biological systems, the product is meat and vegetables.
To contrast this with modern industrial farming, the main difference is there is no bare earth! Nature doesn't do that, why should you denude the land surface to grow crops? All that does is kill off the beneficial soil bugs and require more fertiliser.
What I grow, depending on the season is cabbage, kale, broccolli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, tsan soi, potatoes, parsnips, spinach, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, chilli, garlic, onions, leeks, radish, lemons, limes, naartjie, grapefruits,  a variety of herbs, fish, chicken, duck, goose, sheep and goats. No mielies (monkeys and GMOs)

You need this only for firmware updates. But usually you do need to update the firmware during installation, so unless you have a friend who can do this for you once off, it is good to have the dongle.
Remember to get vedirect cables to link the solar chargers to the Venus-GX.
No.
Maybe. Depends on where your loads are. When running ESS the Multi closes the backfeed relay so that the inverter is connected to the grid, so essentially the grid, the inverter and the loads on the output are all connected in parallel. If the grid fails, the backfeed relay is opened so that only the loads on the output remains connected to the inverter.
With everything connected like this, the Venus-GX then instructs the Multi to feed power into the grid. The amount it feeds in is always adjusted so that it cancels out all the loads that it is aware of, so that no power is used from the grid (ie you are doing self-consumption). Naturally the Multi is aware of any loads on its output, but if you have loads elsewhere in the house which might not be connected to the Multi's output (typically things like a geyser and a stove that remain connected directly to the grid, no backup), then you can install an energy meter like the above and connect it to the Venus-GX (you also need a usb-rs485 cable). Then this measurement from the energy meter replaces the internal measurement from the Multi, and it can feed back power for those loads that are directly connected to the grid.
So the energy meter is optional, but often it makes for an easy way to send power to loads without rewiring everything to move them to the output side.
Remember that the Multi also has a second output. The second output is disconnected when there is an outage. If it is possible to put your non-essential loads on AC-Out-2 of the Multi, then you also don't need the energy meter.
Finally, remember the Multi can only handle 50A (or 32A for the MP-II) through its transfer switch, which might mean that you cannot put some loads on the output. In those cases, you have no choice but to use an energy meter IF you want to compensate for such loads.
And finally-finally (I keep thinking of more things), the Multiplus-II has a an optional external current transformer (cheaper than an energy meter) that does the same thing.

Helps to know the difference.
BMV-700 measures one battery, no more.
BMV-702 has a secondanalog input that you can use for 1) measuring a second battery, eg a starter battery in a vehicle, 2) temperature sensor, or 3) midpoint monitoring.
BMV-712 has everything the 702 has plus BlueTooth.
Most people will go for the 702.

After 2 months I started with my installation and will post progress here as I proceed. After reading a few books and websites I actually decided to do everything myself although I will need some-one to assist in lifting the solar panels onto the roof. This a quick post (while I wait for meeting to start) highlighting a few lessons learned to date:
Get more than 3 quotes and buy the components where you can find the cheapest, even if you can buy from 5 different people. I selected to buy the bulk from one supplier thinking that the supplier will assist with a nice design and advice. Wrong. I will not go into that. There are numerous websites and forums that will assist in advice, and with the money you save you can hire a professional for an hour or 5 to assist in sorting out issues you may have. Note: This is just my opinion, as with a difficult installation I have heard that installers came back a few times to fix some issues. I am speaking from the DIY perspective. If you select to redo your own DB, mark all cables clearly, including the neutral cables. When splitting the DB, make sure that the correct neutral wires are also removed from the "non critical part".  Get a larger DB than what you think you may need.  Working on an old, 20+ year old tile roof is a %^&*(%$, especially if the roof was painted a few times in the past. Lifting tiles is not as easy as it appears on the youtube videos where the guys work with new tiles. A wooden mallet and a large piece of rubber will do wonders to loossen a tile but be careful. I only had to loosen 2 tiles and managed to do without the mallet once I managed to lift the first two tiles. Tiles will be broken. I only did a small section (one string) to lay the conduit for the wires, yet found 2 broken tiles when I lift other tiles. I glued them together using epoxy glue and marked them to ensure that I will never again walk on top of them. They were repositioned to be directly underneath the solar panels. The brandering below these two tiles were from two small pieces of wood. Use garden gloves when working with tiles. I had to change my bank card the next day and they could not verify my fingerprint ... This seems logical, but I initially wanted to lay the conduit diagonally along the roof from the area where the panels will be installed to the location where it leads to the MPPTs. A firewall and rafters however blocked me at a few locations. After lifting 30 tiles I realized that there was no way that I will be able to fit trunking diagonally and had to refit all the tiles and went horizontally to the edge of the roof all along the brandering. Yes, my back was killing me sunday evening. Do not expect great work by the previous builder/roofer. I found a section where they used pieces of offcut brandering to install the roof tiles, which broke either while they installed it (and just decided to fit the roof tiles anyway), or it moved sometime when someone added a new light fitting to the room. Two sections were completely broken and were not even supporting the tiles properly. I was just lucky that it carried my weight and that I did not crash through the roof. Unless you are an electrician, or have an electrician friend, install the conduit in sections, add the wire through that section; mark, bend and fit the new section of conduit and extend the wire through the new section before doing the following section. It is difficult to pull 2 strands of 6mm wire through conduit with 2 bends, and impossible if there are more than 3 bends. I had to cut the conduit and had to start from scratch.  

I have two more 300W panels on order and I'll try and install them at the weekend. I will then have 4 strings of 3x300W panels. Each pair of strings has its own MPPT since they are at different angles. 6 panels are at about 35 degrees on true north, and the the 6 will be at about 10 degrees also true north. 

Before you ship the final set, please just fix the spelling error!

I don't actually know if any such thing is done at the moment, but I do know the serial numbers are known. Do what you want with that info.
I can tell you another interesting story. A local outfit who makes hardware for car diagnostics. They had their stuff copied by a Chinese company, but they ship it with the same software (therein the crime, they steal the income on your hardware, and use your "free" software to make it work, thereby stealing from you twice). Again, all the copied units have the same serial number, and it is known. If you use one of these, what the software does is to silently detune your car. That is an absolutely brilliant prank quite frankly. Forces you to take it (more like limp it) to someone with the real thing and pay real money for your crime.

Fortunately, I avoided electrocution last night installing an efergy energy meter on my mains in. Had an enjoyable few minutes when I tripped the power, still do not know the reason, but I may have suffered a short blackout as I can only remember that blue flash. So, I will definitely make use of an installer. 
Anyway, after recuperating from the short power outage, I revelled in the output of the meter, showing me where I am wasting power. The result was a short family information meeting. I decided not to change the typical usage over the next week, and to start making a few changes next week (energy saving, not more exercise of healthy eating ...) 
Seems that my current, typical night-time usage (22:00 - 06:00) is less than 0.5 kW, with the meter showing less than 0.4 kW for most of the night (0.3 kW this morning). Naturally I took the display to bed to the utter dismay of my wife, but I promised her that it would be a one night stand. 
Will keep on logging the data and provide feedback, but it seems that a 3 kW battery backup should be sufficient for the night after some slight changes in power use. The night-time drain can be traced to:
- A water fountain that was running the whole night;
- 2 or 3 refrigerators that were on the night (not sure of the 3rd one in the apartment);
- A small air pump for a fish tank;
- A media PC that I never switch off;
- A plethora of small lights from chargers, multiplugs, TV's and PC monitors on standby;
- And naturally, vampire drawing from the various chargers located through the house. 
(I live in a secure area and do not need lights around the house at night, so those are always switched off)
 
I have no idea what is running at night in the room of the domestic, but management and a few timers can significantly reduce the night-time draw. 
I like the idea of installing the frames for the solar panels in the meantime. That I can do, will measure the pitch of the roof this weekend. 

she manages with the lowest heat setting and leaves the final touch to the wind outside, i have suggested 'cold' blowing but that seems a bit chilly on the rest of exposed skin so i shrink away from an argument on this one... the alternative for minimal time is to market the short-hair-is-beautiful one, you taking the lead  

I'm in Roodepoort, dibs allowed but if someone wants to take the whole system when it's time they get preference. 

I opted for 3 x 16A NoArk Double-Pole breakers (one for each PV string) since the breakers apparently have a more accurately controlled trip threshold than fuses. I then have a 40A NoArk Double-Pole breaker as an overall DC disconnect.
 The nice thing about these breakers is that they do not appear to mind opening or closing them, even under full load.
I used the Citel "DS240S-130DC" surge protection which has a maximum DC Operating voltage of 180V. My reasoning was that this would clamp earlier than the 1000V version and hopefully protect more stuff from blowing up in case of a surge 😁 

This is what you need, portable! https://www.junkmail.co.za/farming/generator/mpumalanga/delmas/lister-kragopwekker/83269ba6ac2249b882ee26f2b95e09f8
 

Yup, the last frame I put up I pretty much did using only a drill and some hand tools. Of course my cordless unit has long since grown a bad battery and as a result I used the 15-year old green Bosch drill (aka the DIY one... not the nice blue professional one). But at least in theory I COULD have done the whole thing using only a cordless drill.
You could also just hire a cheap petrol generator for the duration of the install... if you really wanted to be all nit-picky and prove that it can be done. But the general point has been made: You're going to need one at some point.
In my experience Diesel generators tend to be better. Well, my experience is limited. On the farm it was always Diesel. There was never even a question. In town, whenever you needed backup, it was always some dinky petrol generator. Diesels are usually more expensive and therefore caters to a different customer straight off the bat.
They are usually larger than 5KVA (whereas petrol units are usually smaller), and they start around 15k in price tag. This is what I've found through normal window shopping over the years.
They make cleaner power usually, as they are often lower-RPM engines with larger flywheels and therefore more holds a bit more inertia. The better units will have a 4-pole alternator and the engine will run at 1500rpm, whereas cheaper units will run at 3000rpm (Petrol generators pretty much always run at 3000rpm, that's where the power is).
But the nice low-RPM generators also cost more.
Finally, Diesel generators generally cost less to run in fuel costs.

Here's an excellent reason to get a generator. When you arrive on the farm with a pile of solar panels and mounting brackets and wiring to be installed, how are you going to drill a hole in anything? 

North West - Near Vryburg
 
BTW: we stayed at Dream Lodge some time ago (in Gecko) and had a tour of your system - long before we thought of going solar!

It is not uncommon to have 3 days or a week of cloudy weather in which case if you are running only off solar you will run the batteries down, and then you have to load shed yourself. Given the price of batteries, it is more cost effective to have about 2 days of battery storage and a generator, rather than trying to have enough batteries to keep you going for 3+ days of cloudy weather. So R50k of batteries + R10k of generator + a bit of diesel from time to time is a lot cheaper than R100K of batteries. 
If you want to use power tools or weld and the weather is a bit cloudy, just start up the genny and you don't have to worry about killing your batteries.
Are you going to stay full time on the farm? 
 

I agree with TTT, separate is easier. If lightning pops your MPPT  for example (which has happened to me), you can at least run from generator and batteries and your inverter, while it is repaired.
BTW,  I didn't see a generator on your shopping list, that is essential for off grid.

Sjoe, I didn't realize there are so many scammers around. 
Seems like it's better to pay a bit more and use a local and reliable installer/supplier!

I'm actually not saying that. It's a bit more complex than that. That's a franchise that used to be owned by Jason Sole (this is factual information, no defamation intended). Several customers of this business paid for things and either didn't get it, or got a different product (again, these are facts, check hellopeter as well). Whether the business purposefully intended to scam these people or whether it was just badly run is an open question.
Some people did order from them, and many of them DID receive the things they ordered, so it seems it is not an outright intentional scam, there was at least the intent to give people the stuff thy ordered. It seems rather that it was a bad business who occasionally steals/loses your money (other examples would be lawyers who float the salary bill from escrow accounts, and put it back quickly, or roll it into the next transfer... until one fateful day).
So these are not quite om the same level, that I will admit, but if you were one of the people who lost money, then you must surely have deja vu 🙂
Jason then started a new business called MegaSolarSA. Well... again I have to be careful, cause he is fond of claiming defamation. He now works for a company called MegaSolarSA. Some months ago (before the information was hidden), I managed to find the registration details for the domain name: It was registered in the name of a Judy Sole, which I assume must be a relative. It is unclear who the current registrant is. However you look at it, I'd say the claims of being employed rather than owning said entity is a bit thin... but make your own call.
Again things are about the same. I know people who ordered from them and got their stuff, singing the praises of this company even. So the intent is clearly not outright scamming. But you're welcome to also look at the complaints side of things.
So I think I put that as factually as I could. I'd avoid both these companies.