Solarphile

They are both. They are not. This sounds strange, but it answers my question. Last night I rocked the trip switches individual to check if they were mounted and sturdy then I heard what sounded like a sparking noise coming from either the main trip switch or the earth leakage. I suspect the earth leakage as it has been the one tripping. Thank you Vassen and Richard for your assistance. 🙏🏻 I think I must change the earth leakage and give it a few days.

I intermittently experience earth leakage tripping after heavy rains. Last night the lights were flickering (on mains) and I went to check what the problem could be. After a few seconds the earth leakage tripped. I noticed something I think is strange, but maybe it is normal. The live wire comes out of the main trip switch, goes to the digital meter, comes out of the meter and goes to the earth leakage (entering on top) from the bottom of the earth leakage it goes to the last three trip switches for plugs. The funny thing I see is that from the input of the earth leakage on top there is a copper busbar bridging over to the other trip switches, but not going through the earth leakage at all. Would this not override the earth leakage protection of the first five trip switches? Is this normal, or could this be causing the tripping problem?

I have been using these clips for my 330w 72cell solar panels for the past year. I use 4 clips per panel and have never had a problem with the strong winds I experience on the farm. I can’t measure how fast the wind is here on the top of the hill where the house is, but it is very, very windy some days. There is a reason the farm is called Windhoek Farm. It is so windy that I would think that the panels would blow away, but they never have. At times I can hear the roof tiles rattling, but the panels stay. Maybe they will still blow off one day, but it hasn’t happened for a year.

I don’t know about burning my fingers, but I definitely have paid more than I needed to for some solar panels. Once you have bought a certain wattage of panels, you are pretty much tied to that wattage, unless you buy another MPPT. My advice is to buy as many of that particular panel as you can at one time before they become obsolete. I have 6 x 305w 73 cell panels. These are now quite scarce. If I want to add more, I have to pay about 20% more for that 305w panel than what I pay for a 330w panel. It is better to know how many panels you need from day one and buy them all at once. Also go the biggest and most common size you can find.

Not necessarily. I learned from Phil.g00 who is a member here that you can put multiple strings, and at different orientations on one MPPT. Check topic posted below. I tried this myself and was quite surprised by the results. I am currently using one MPPT for both east and west arrays.

I totally agree that there will definitely be a loss in production. However, no matter the time or season an east/west array used to SUPPLEMENT your north array is always well worth it. Even if this east/west array only produces 40% of what it is rated for, that is going to help you overall production. I wouldn’t quite describe it as a disaster. 😁 There is a big drop in production, but as stated above, this is a good addition to your existing north array.

Is this roof east/west or north/south facing? Lots of people have found the east/west setup better for more production throughout the day. Other people have filled the north roof with panels and then made special brackets to attach more panels to walls on one or both sides. I was also toying with the idea of building a porch off of my lounge and using panels to make the roof. In your case it might just be easier to go EV geyser as it takes up little space compared to it’s PV generating equivalent.

As I understand it the Skyking inverter is a rebranded Devel inverter. I have had some dealings with the manufacturers in China. I was looking for a replacement fan and they couldn’t help, but offered advice on where to get one locally. Try sending an email to the address below and you might get some feedback. [email protected]

This would change the equation slightly in my opinion. If I owned a house and rented it out, I would rather add an EV geyser because a tenant might not take the time to look after my expensive PV system. For example, my PV system is used only by my family and we all know how much it can handle. We cannot have the oven, tumble dryer, kettle, dishwasher and hairdryer on at the same time. We have to stagger our loads and use different appliances at different times of the day. Also we need to manually change over to Eksdom when the batteries get to a certain SOC (This is an off grid system) The tenant will not do this. When it comes to low cost housing there is another consideration. The roof would have to be very big to accommodate the many panels needed for charging a battery bank big enough to power a geyser. There just isn’t enough real-estate to mount all those panels. Here an EV geyser would be better as it is small and efficient. Something else that is very seldom considered has to do with the weight of the EV geyser. A friend of mine who works for a company that makes roof trusses says that the roof needs to be reinforced to carry the weight of the 200 kg to 300+ kg geyser. After some time the roof will start to sag if the job is not done properly. I don’t build roof trusses, but this makes sense to me. Many variables to consider...

I tend to think the bi-facials would have the same issue with heat buildup lowering efficiency.

I could be wrong but it looks as if some of the diodes have blown. I made this mistake once a long time ago (when I was still young and stupid) by connecting a solar panel directly to a battery with no charge controller. Maybe the customer made the same mistake. 🤔

While this is a good idea and I’m sure someone out there has successfully done such an installation, I would be concerned about two things.. 1. There should ideally be a gap between the panels to allow for cooling. Too close together and they tend to get hot and retain that heat thus bringing down efficiency. 2. If one of the modules fails and needs to be replaced, it will be difficult to remove. Consider the marine sealer that holds a fish tank together. That stuff never lets go. You could maybe lay a “dampcourse” down on the rafters or brandering and then put the panels on top of that. However that will also retain a lot of heat and bring down efficiency. Maybe putting a dampcourse on the inside as a ceiling while leaving a generous gap for airflow would work.

This is a VERY big battery. Forgive my ignorance please, but how many panels are you going to use to charge this colossal beast? You will need a huge solar array to keep this battery full. 😁

If you only intend buying 16 cells, they will likely want to send it by air which is expensive. A year ago I had two 100ah LiFePo4 cells sent from China and they cost me R3500 for the two. You might also have the parcel inspected by customs and they may ask for your import code if you have had more than one import in the last year. As far as I know (I might be mistaken here) the only Lithium cells that are duty free are the 18650 cells, and all imports are charged vat, unless if China sends them DDP. It might be cheaper and/or quicker to buy from Bain.

Not to be judgmental or anything, but I think you need someone professional to check your whole system over. It sounds to me like someone has taken a few shortcuts..

Yeah I know, I was just messing with you. 😁

Hi Eduan, and welcome. What all do you want to learn about? Do you plan to DIY build a LiFePo4 battery? Do you want to buy your first inverter? Do you want to buy a charge controller? Is there something specific you want to research?

Hey Coulomb, I think you need to be a little more specific in your signature.... Some 410w panels are available in “half cut cells” meaning that they could even be up to 144 cells.. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

This is what I said you must do!! 😂😂

Not sure if it will help, but he can ask on this forum... https://diysolarforum.com/

This does seem a little low for 6 x 410w panels. I would say you should be at least 28a or maybe closer to 35a counting the losses usually expected. That is assuming your panels are facing north at roughly 30 to 40 degrees.... You sould probably buy some more panels.

Haha, I beg to differ.. It is very simple. SWAMBO is home all day long she turns the geyser on when the batteries are full and turns it off if they are too low. No need for complicated electronics... 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 On a more serious note, if you have a big enough PV system you can leave the geyser on permanently.

I would agree with these suggestions given. If I had R30k I would definitely spend it on more PV than waste it on a solar geyser. A solar geyser only heats the water, it has no further use. Solar panels and an inverter produce power that can be used for anything....

OMG, I would have to reinforce my roof before I mount one of those! 😳 At that size and weight I would only use it in a ground mount array.

Wow, 600w?!! 🏋🏻‍♀️ You will need a forklift to get it on the roof. 🤣🤣