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TheRidDlerX

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Everything posted by TheRidDlerX

  1. I've got a Victron system with a sizable MPPT 250/70 and 6 panels installed. In the DC distribution box there's 2 surge arresters and then a DP 1000V/32A fuseholder that was running a pair of 1000V/32A fuses. A few months back one of the DC fuses popped. Our installer told me it was most likely due to the overcast day we had and that can make the panel voltage spike at times. After some driving around and getting spare fuses replaced the one that was popped and was fine from there. Last week however it happened again and it was quite evident there is massive charring from some sparking inside the fuseholders. Did'nt have spare fuseholders at the time (some shortage currently) but put another fuse in and it held all up until today when it blew again and the smell was quite evident. Found some spare fuseholders that someone was hiding that are 1000V/30A holders. I only have 32A fuses left. Should it be a problem? Does anyone know perhaps why this is happening? It feels to me like there might be more to it but my installer is quite awesome with support and ensures me its either i didnt put the fuses back properly or a panel voltage spike, but something about it feels a bit off like there might be more to it - why would the fuseholders be charred to hell and back (unless it was me not putting it back all the way?) Thanks
  2. Just wanted to add my 2c on the installation of US3000C's. I bought an extra one last year and it arrived a week before the the earliest time someone was available to install it. Turns out after some quick consultation with my supplier at the time it was a 10min job and ended up doing it myself off a Youtube video. If need be I can find it, think i have it bookmarked for the future. Been running great. Actually have a few questions on future expansion but ill put those in another separate post.
  3. I actually contacted Dualsun in France to ask about this. Below their response They also then followed up with this - but not checked any of them out yet
  4. Definitely. Thanks for the link. That's actually where I got the idea from. Didn't know they existed before this. Could be a gamechanger in terms of finally ripping down the dedicated roof space that's there for pool heating. Just gotta figure out if they are a) available in SA, b) affordable, c) what are the different options in terms of pumping/circulating, etc. Also never heard of the microinverters before, but i guess that's most likely for when you dont really have a battery bank feeding back and only want to push the power straight to the load and/or back to the grid
  5. I've recently come across a video where this was showcased in an installation in Canada and since then I've not been able to stop thinking about the possibilities, especially for those perhaps with an existing pool pump already (or that's what I assume could be potentially used). Thoughts, comments, ideas? Dualsun Hybrid Solar Panel
  6. I'm totally for this! Now just to find out how to enter
  7. This post has me quite excited. I've recently been annoyed with my solar doing nothing from around 1pm on a hot day so was looking at perhaps installing a smaller element into my current Kwikot 200L geyser and then moving it onto essential loads, but the heat pump solution is sounding better and better as time goes by. Still quite a rookie in the solar space with today marking having it for a year. Currently have a 5kw Multiplus II. When the family isn't paying attention and starts making evening food with kettles and airfryers the load can reach about 4.3kW for a odd 5mins and I start getting emailed alarms about temperature and overload on L1, which I've always attributed to the inverting capacity of the unit. That said, under normal circumstances the house draws about 700-800W constantly so there is definitely leeway to have it start heating up the water when the batteries are full during a normal day. That combined with a smart switch I plan to run via HA would be ideal for me. Would it be ok if i were to compile a list of smaller dumb questions to get the advice of the more experienced users here?
  8. Solved. Installer came out again and replaced the UTP between the batteries and the Inverter, which at first did nothing. Then they played with removing the ESS assistant, combined with a Venux firmware update. The system kicked into action. Re-added the ESS assistant and it was fine again. Seemed somewhat pure luck really.
  9. Hi there everyone. So finally got around to getting our ESS system in. Pretty new to the whole thing. Running it currently in Optimized with Batterylife. While i'm quite stoked with the operation it has currently, i'd like to take a bit more hands on control of when the battery stops discharging, PVs prioritize the charging, etc. Maybe i'm being picky, but myself and the mrs have some ideas on how we would best want the thing to operate to work best for us in terms of cutting savings for our routine and then also having a balance of being ready for a sudden substation failure, which is popular around here when it rains. The firmware settings by themselves seem pretty standard either this or that, but id love some time base controls. I'm pretty experienced in PLC and industrial programming, so the essentials of getting a script built should not be that hard. I read you can load a cronjob into the Venus, but not really been able to find any real guides on it. Even python scripts. And then also you can talk to the Venus via Modbus, which should be quite fun to play with. My question is to gather some info from others, has anyone done this? What are you experiences and which methods did you find to be easiest? Also in your opinions regarding the VRM portal when does the installer/retailer supposed to release control to the user? At this point he's left me with monitoring only access, so i have to walk down to the Venux each time if i want to change the Grid limit or SoC while im optimizing it. I've phoned them a few times but they seem to have stopped really bothering phoning me back after the installation was done, apparently too busy. Appreciate your time in reading this. Regards ----- MultiPlus-II 48/5000/70-50 VenusGX BlueSolar 250/70 MPPT Pylontech 3000 x 2 -----
  10. Hi there all, So i recently got to the point where we were able to get a full on solar installed after some much needed advice from here, thanks so much. As my curse would allow me tho i seem to be one of the few that is experiencing a funky situation where the inverter is pretty much stuck in absorption mode all the time, topping up the batteries from the grid mainly whenever it drains below 100% and because of this the PV is just chilling as well as the entire system seems to be frozen in this kind of bypass mode. The retailer has been an absolute star in trying to help me get it all sorted out, but i thought perhaps i might just put some feelers out there if anyone else has experienced this as well? We even had Victron themselves log in and do a firmware update remotely and they are also somewhat stumped. The retailer has a suspicion it might be the CANbus cable we used that was sommer a UTP i had lying around (we actually tested 2), so i'm thinking of making up a new one from scratch to try and test if that helps. Anyone perhaps have the pinouts for that? I'm a rookie to this so maybe its not even called the CANbus cable, its the one between the Color Control GX and the Multiplus II. I also find that my VRM portal values are heavy delayed from that of the actual GX, which i wonder if its related. Attached a pic of what i see pretty much all the time for the past 48h - SOMETIMES the PV kicks in with 40W or so and then fades away again Additional info : Inverter switch is in position (1) Thanks in advance!
  11. Wow.. Just when I thought I had my mind set on the correct inverter of choice I happen upon this thread.. Haha.. Yet again I'm torn between V and G. I'm a big fan of the ESS solution and wanted to go V initially , but the external mppt made my look elsewhere, since it doesn't fall in my budget of 30kish. The G seemed like the way to go but now I'm concerned about battery performance health and performance in the long term.
  12. Thanks so much! That already clears up alot of questions that actually came up while I was watching that vid! Cudnt figure out if what i have in mind is an ESS or not
  13. Hi there forumites. Ive been gathering info left and right for a system I want to put together, but have installed, DIY is NOT my forte. The basics are as follows.. 15kW/day load. Lookin for a hybrid inverter with built in charger that can keep the house alive during an outage (looking at pylontech batteries) and share the load between PV and the grid under normal circumstances (after the battery bank is charged). The idea is to eventually go off grid at a later stage in the future, but not in the next year or three, so over speccing the inverter a bit. I'm currently very fond of the victron multiplus 48/5000, but I lack the big picture knowledge to make an informed decision. Hoping some of you might shine some light please. I keep reading it has a built in charger for the batteries but then on other sites they want you to link it to a PV inverter, and on others they suggest linking it to a MPPT (which I've only recently realized is the charger portion... I think) yet I thought this was the inverter itself.. Freakin confusing. Any pros / cons for this one? Will it do the job as mentioned above? 48V batteries and all that. Max amount of panel watts it can handle? And lately I've been reading there is some magic voltage rules that ur array has to be in to match your inverter plus something about strings...Feels like the closer I get the further things seem. Thank you for taking the time to read this. Taking it one item at a time. Any help would be appreciated.
  14. Not a problem. I, myself grew up with ICQ and Groupwise. What an interesting time indeed. Dial-up... what a nightmare living on a farm in the Free State. 2Mb worth of spam downloading on Outlook then made you feel like a hacker. Im sorry to hear that the live chat did not deliver to expectation. That being said (just speaking from experience) ive found that if a discord is set up with proper channels to topics of discussion it can become very handy. Not to mention the search function that spans across all of the mentioned. Regardless, albeit new, i see myself being quite active here, and (as with many other forums i inhabit) i cant help to try and contribute in any way i can. Only a fair trade for all the knowledge shared here. If the above mentioned is not an avenue of interest for most i can understand that
  15. Cant really speak for Slack myself, ive heard alot about it, and used it about once or twice but that was it. It sucks paying for something. Let it grow by its worth and keep it free. Look where whatsapp is today
  16. Heh, no reason, like you said, its just another one on top of the many. I guess its just popular in the circles that i move in than the rest (technical / IT), so perhaps that's part of the motivation behind the question
  17. Not at all, thank you for your reply. If i may ill quote from some online resources, and supplement after : "Discord is a chat app, similar to programs such as Skype or TeamSpeak, or professional communications platforms like Slack. It supports video calls, voice chat, and text, allowing users to get in touch however they please." "Thanks to this breadth of functionality, users have also embraced Discord as a semipublic, forum-style community platform: Groups of players with common interests, such as fans of a particular game or studio, can create or join “servers,” both public and private, where lots of people can meet and hang out, chatting via text, video, or voice." For the good part of the last two years this has been growing exponentially in usage for interactive discussion of any context. I have seen many forums open up a server (which is free) providing their users with the ability to connect to each other in real time if needed, supplementing the original forum technology we all know and love. The typical layout looks something like this : Your userbase to the right. Administrators controlling the types of channels within the server (to the left) and all kinds of powers and more that a usual forum can offer. To be used as a supplement of course, not a replacement. Think of it as the 'chat online' option when looking for support somewhere, but more community orientated.
  18. @admins Has anyone perhaps concidered setting up a discord server for Powerforum? I think it would be an enormous leap forward in terms of getting in touch with all the members in real time for support and general day to day talks. I'll help out if needed. Regards
  19. Hi there everyone. Being a total novice in the field but a quick study, countless hours of reading up and RFQs to the several first places that came up when searching has left me with quite alot of feedback from mainstream retailers. Sadly none of the quotes I've gotten live up to what I'm looking for in terms of pricing, especially after compiling countless lists of pricing I can buy all the main components seperate for at different places. This has left me with the option of sourcing all the main parts myself, and just getting someone to fill on the blanks like brackets, wires, DB and the actual installation. I'm convinced this will work out cheaper than some of the numbers I've seen and ill be a happy camper in terms of what I'm looking at getting. So the question beckons.. Do any of you know of a place that can handle the nitty gritty extras and install if provided inverter batteries and panels? And would it be possible for the communitys opinion on what I have in mind for the main elements? Thank you
  20. Anyone aware of something like this? Just talking in terms of perhaps choosing the main components and it would output the results in terms of uptime under certain load, etc. Perhaps even a bill of materials of common parts that need to be installed along with the main ones. Thank you
  21. Hey everyone. Pleasure to be here, have to say the site is loaded with info and knowledgeable people. Been a joy reading through all the things and realizing how absolute lost one can be. Finally taking the plunge to put a mostly all around solar backup / supplement solution in and doing all the research I can. Would love to pick some of your brains when there is time for it. Regards
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