Hannah Barnes

I can only second what Jason has written and add my own big thank you to @Jaco de Jongh from Go Solar. I agree no matter how busy he is, nothing is too much trouble and his service is excellent. Jaco installed two new pylontechs for me and his follow up support is amazing. He is so patient despite my ignorance and he really goes the extra mile beyond expectations. Thank you thank you thank you Jaco.

Thank you

Is anyone perhaps selling an existing Victron battery monitor? It can be the 700, 702 or 712. Please message or contact me with the price if you have one....I will be most grateful.

I wish I knew. They were really doing well lately until I shut down the system for 6 weeks while I was away as there was not anyone to top up the water and they are at that stage where they need water about every 3 weeks. When I started the system up again it was cloudy for about a week so I had to do some charing of batteries with a generator I lent from someone. I am concerned I may have done something when changing the settings that caused this. But I have gone through the setup so many times and cannot see what i might have changed that I did not change back. It may well be my ignorance that is the problem : ) but that is why I went with these batteries 5 years ago.

Thank you for the help. I had the multimeter on the wrong setting (the joys of not really knowing what you doing but trying to follow internet instructions on testing batteries). I put it on the correct setting and put the borehole pump on which draws 1.5KW. I had 1.1 KW coming in though. Within a few minutes the other 7 batteries were all reading between 6.22 and 6.24 but the first one was reading 5.23 so it is definitely not holding charge. It is really a pity as they others don't seem too bad. This is probably the main reason I will not go with a lead acid battery bank again.....if this happens you basically have to replace the whole set if I understand correctly?

I have a bank of 8 Trojan T105's (the golf cart ones) each of 6v so making up a 48v system. They are almost 5 years old and have worked very hard the last five years as an off-grid power supply to my home. I have no other power source and they have served me well. Currently one of them - the first one in the connection from the panels - seems to not be holding power anymore. The multimeter reading on the others show 13.0 and this one shows 7.0 once the batteries are in use, so that is not good. Some questions: Can I do something to help improve it/save it/salvage it to still last me a while? Will it help to move this battery elsewhere in the setup? Anyone have a second hand T105 they are wanting to sell, otherwise? How negatively will this battery affect the other 7 batteries? I am heading in the direction of hopefully replacing them with pylontech's but just want them to last me another month or two.

Chris are these batteries still available?

I found Jaco on this site when he and some others responded to a query I had. Jaco out of his own got in touch with me and came to my farm to have a look at my setup. He did this without any expectation of the work. I so much appreciated this and his help and advice while he was on site. He has so far returned to install a mounting system on my IBR roof and the service was excellent and efficient. He was very patient answering my questions and understanding my situation. I am very thankful to Jaco and can really recommend him. He goes out of his way to help where he can and is open and honest about the process. Thank you Jaco.

Today is definitely warmer than yesterday and at the same time of day my collective panels are producing 200 watts less then yesterday. The borehole pump is drawing so it is not due to the batteries getting less supply, exact same conditions as yesterday. Seems to me this heat thing is a big component to factor in. I wish I had know that from the beginning. Thanks to the people who helped educate me in this. Racks it shall be.

Good questions Jason. Hopefully some experts can help us.

Thanks Jason. This looks interesting. Wonder if it would replace the brackets then? Summer or winter I never seem to get my panels to operate above 66% of their peak so perhaps they are damaged from the heat of the roof. I will be able to do some comparisons once I get another six and hopefully do a proper install then. Our temperatures here often in summer are between 35 and 40 degrees so that roof must be baking.

Thank you. I am so glad I asked this question. I am learning so much.

Thank you for the input

Thank you for your input - I will pm you for a quote for the racks

Very nice. Thank you so much. I will start the quote process. The farm had no power at all when I first bought and I had such a limited budget to get the solar and AC into the house so this was not a priority at all. But I will get it fixed as soon as possible. Again it is grace that my whole system has survived my ignorance for so long.