Clivevan

Item: 4 x Kodak Bl3.6 Batteries Age: 1year old Price: @R16000.00 For all 4 R16k or R16k per battery?

I'm going to point in another direction your victron inverter should not be restarting and making all your appliances power cycle if you have enough solar and batteries to power your loads. Sorry but you are going to have to take me through this in baby steps - what does that mean?

Can anybody help with this?

Sorry those photos taken of a flashing and alternating screen image as displayed on the PAYG

Holiday house in Mozambique. I have a Victron system with an essential circuit and it re-routes excess power into the mains (panels and battery for solar) It uses on average no more than 400 watts. But a few larger items may cause a spike in usage. PROBLEM When solar supplied large items power up the mains is interrupted. It switches off for a second or so before rebooting and then continuing as normal. This use to happen only when for instance the pressure pump switches on (somebody opens a tap). It was annoying but infrequent. The problem is that all pre-set electronics reboot (aircon, washing machine, dishwasher). But I could live with it. It was explained to me that the power in the system oscillates somewhat and the mains supply would ordinarily absorb this (a kind of buffer) but PAYG does not permit reverse flow, detects it as an error and then the PAYG unit switches off for a moment. NOW The mains appear to switch off randomly and without rhyme or reason. Then it REMAINS off for extended periods. I attach photos of the PAYG during such a random outage. How on earth do I address this problem? The frequency of interruption has also increased. What is going on?

Tx all for all the advice.

I am starting to think the same. Also if I route my unused PV power to the geyser element and spread the element running over say 4 hours ie a 2kw element over four hours rather than a 4 kw over 2 hours, then I will suck in all the pv power (about 2kw available for 4 or 5 hours) into the element and use no mains. Tx I will google those two - do you know anything re their reliability?

It suddenly occurs that if I have 10 people the TOP tank will frequently be cold when the bottom has been drained and I will have to leave the top element on as well. (during the 3 month busy period that is). So TWO tanks loosing standing heat and two elements on the whole time. The benefit will be diluted so to speak by having a duplicated system.

So R30k down the tube so to speak. Had no better luck at home where a R30k system first sprung a leak and then burst a few months out the 2 yr warranty. So a yellow card looms seriously. If I don't run an entire boarding house of solar for the next 10 years I can NEVER make up those capital losses. So I have seriously been recommending that people by very very careful to install solar heated water - the risk on the capital outlay results in a debatable benefit.

The collector is only sufficient for the top 150 litres. If I mix both tanks I end up with 300 litres lukewarm water and an element going like crazy to get it to 55*

No I do not believe so (no controller). So the top tank heats up. Only serves as a pre-feed for the lower tank and feeds it when there is usage as you pointed out. My installer sent the attached picture of the current state of affairs. This will save on electricity but really only if the bottom tank is fully drained sucking in all the solar heated water. So for 3 months of the year I will use the solar probably to full capacity. Then for 9 months that bottom geyser must be kept on 24/7 to serve 1 or 2 people. If I switch it off it cools down, sucks in pre-heated water but mixes it with its cold water and no good.

My problem has too many variables for me to solve. Please help it is driving me bats. So how do I build this puzzle? Brand new solar geyser 150 litre on the roof (with element if necessary currently switched off); Existing electrical bottom geyser on the ceiling below (witched on) also 150 litres; Collector in between ie above the existing but below the solar. Currently a normal retrofit pre-feed type installation with cold supply into cold inlet on the roof (into solar); the solar hot outlet then serves as prefeed and drops down into the cold inlet of existing bottom geyser. The bottom hot exits as supply to the house. Problem: for 9 months I run the bottom electrical geyser inclusive of standing losses completely unnecessarily for two people. It should be switched off. BUT then the bottom geyser goes cold and what is received from the solar pre-feed mixes into a lukewarm mix before it exits into the house - this is no good at all. I have been told in no uncertain terms . . . I also received a warning that I am on a yellow card for spending much on a useless system. During 3 months 12 paying guests and the electricity is on but on cloudy cool days the guests will exhaust the bottom electrical supply of water and the solar pre-feed will be too cold to catch up with demand. On those days the solar element should also kick in! Remember - no ongoing supervision here - I have to set it up with minimal ongoing tinkering. How do I set up this system?? Complicating factors but also potential solutions: The house has 3000 watts in PV panels on the roof which during the day is usually overkill and on average (on sunny days) I have 10kwh available to mix in with the mains (a Victron Invertor supplies about 500 watts essential circuit via batteries with the rest available to power non-essentials) PROVIDED THERE IS MAINS. This is currently lost to me as there are no heavy using essentials and could be connected (presumably) to an element here or there. Holiday house in Mozambique so not easily reached/accessed/maintained/monitored/repaired/adjusted etc. Tropical climate. 9 months of the year there are only 2 or 3 people using hot water - so the brand new solar should have been sufficient without having to switch on the electricity at all - 150 litres solar in the tropics are just fine. 3 months of the year there are paying guests who demand hot water and there may be as many as 10 or 12 people and 150 litres will not do at all. Mains is more reliable than in RSA (no loadshedding) BUT sometimes unexpectedly there is a power interruption for a few days. And of course sometimes cloudy and drizzle for a few days so my 9 month hiatus is punctuated with a few crisis 🙂

Apologies for the belated appreciation - tx a million Scorp007

Tx so much that. May I impose further: 1. Sort out the comms? 2 Can I use a Victron PWM? 3 How do I size the panel and MPPT?

Can one add a regulator and panel to a Victron MultiPlus Compact 12/800/35? This Multiplus is a inverter/charger connected to a lifepo4. It does not have solar capacity built in. Is it feasible to add a panel and regulator and then charge the lifepo4 in parallel? This has become necessary because the power does not return after the loadshed and eventually one has to resort to solar.