Blinkwater9

Thanks. The bootlaces do make a neat build. You should see my wire markings?LOL. Wrap-around thermal labels, on all the wires. My thinking here was, should I need to move something from Non-essential to Essential load, I would need to move the neutral and earth too, as each is seperated. This way, I don't need to search for wires.
 
To be quite honest, I'm not concerned over a momentary feed-in or spike. What I want, is should the grid go down for any reason, I want the disconnection to be made.
Also, I imagine, should any compliance be required later, I seriously doubt that anyone will be able to confirm that the this unit would not fulfill the requirement of an ANTI-ISLANDING device. 
And on the point of tripping the pre-paid meter. I am lead to believe that on my meter, the feature to shut down on reverse power detection, is disabled.
I think, if legislation requires a device to prevent REVERSE POWER FLOW, then at +-R2000, this unit should fulfill the requirement. The way I understand this issue, there are 2 clear terminologies that are used? REVERSE POWER FLOW DETECTION, and ANTI-ISLANDING. Reverse power flow detection/prevention, should react to prevent the electricity meter from seeing this as an attack, and Anti-Islanding is isolation from the grid, to protect maintenance workers from electrocution?
Lets see some opinions?
 
 

Thanks. The bootlaces do make a neat build. You should see my wire markings?LOL. Wrap-around thermal labels, on all the wires. My thinking here was, should I need to move something from Non-essential to Essential load, I would need to move the neutral and earth too, as each is seperated. This way, I don't need to search for wires.
 
To be quite honest, I'm not concerned over a momentary feed-in or spike. What I want, is should the grid go down for any reason, I want the disconnection to be made.
Also, I imagine, should any compliance be required later, I seriously doubt that anyone will be able to confirm that the this unit would not fulfill the requirement of an ANTI-ISLANDING device. 
And on the point of tripping the pre-paid meter. I am lead to believe that on my meter, the feature to shut down on reverse power detection, is disabled.
I think, if legislation requires a device to prevent REVERSE POWER FLOW, then at +-R2000, this unit should fulfill the requirement. The way I understand this issue, there are 2 clear terminologies that are used? REVERSE POWER FLOW DETECTION, and ANTI-ISLANDING. Reverse power flow detection/prevention, should react to prevent the electricity meter from seeing this as an attack, and Anti-Islanding is isolation from the grid, to protect maintenance workers from electrocution?
Lets see some opinions?
 
 

Thanks. The bootlaces do make a neat build. You should see my wire markings?LOL. Wrap-around thermal labels, on all the wires. My thinking here was, should I need to move something from Non-essential to Essential load, I would need to move the neutral and earth too, as each is seperated. This way, I don't need to search for wires.
 
To be quite honest, I'm not concerned over a momentary feed-in or spike. What I want, is should the grid go down for any reason, I want the disconnection to be made.
Also, I imagine, should any compliance be required later, I seriously doubt that anyone will be able to confirm that the this unit would not fulfill the requirement of an ANTI-ISLANDING device. 
And on the point of tripping the pre-paid meter. I am lead to believe that on my meter, the feature to shut down on reverse power detection, is disabled.
I think, if legislation requires a device to prevent REVERSE POWER FLOW, then at +-R2000, this unit should fulfill the requirement. The way I understand this issue, there are 2 clear terminologies that are used? REVERSE POWER FLOW DETECTION, and ANTI-ISLANDING. Reverse power flow detection/prevention, should react to prevent the electricity meter from seeing this as an attack, and Anti-Islanding is isolation from the grid, to protect maintenance workers from electrocution?
Lets see some opinions?
 
 

Good morning @Blinkwater9
here's my settings:



The second inverter is configured exactly the same.
single phase off-grid system not connected to the power grid 2x InfiniSolar 5K Plus 7x Pylontech US3000 Regs,
Youda

Very informative.
Wondering how the inverter-charger knows that the battery is full since your battery BMS is not connected to your inverter.
I assume the BMS shuts down the battery if the voltage drops to the Cutoff level.
Thanks a million.

Hi Mazs,
Yes, I ordered 2 packs 48V 150Ah in March directly from Yiyen, China.  Excellent support with shipping,.paperwork and stuff. 3 weeks later I received them and installed them straight away. Since then they have been working perfectly, without any issue. The internal BMS seems to do a good job. Just... the BMS monitoring software only works on windows. And you have to order the CANUSB Adapter seperatly to monitor the batteries. So, I connected the two batteries via CANUSB to a Intel Computer Stick with Windows, and so I can monitor the batteries via VNC from anywhere.
After sales support, i.e. technical questions, monitoring, etc. is very good.
Till now I have 50 cycles on the batteries and they work perfectly. I am happy!
Cheers,
Felix

Sure my system is victron , multiplus ll,  venus GX , MPPT 150-60 , 7.4kwh Solar MD and logger V2 , Art solar 350w panels not quite north facing and tilt is not great for winter . I get sun from 9am until 3pm , so far I am getting around 11-12kwh per day . I have been using around 4kwh from my battery per day , I guess it all depends on how you use the battery as well as the load you are planning to run . My grid consumption was 30kwh per day and now 15kwh at the very most , I did also fit a ev tube geyser 
 

I am not familiar with this device per se, but I am expert on protection relays in general.
Short of putting these meters through their paces, (which wouldn't be too difficult), I believe I can bring some common sense into this discussion.
I think it must be understood more in depth what tripping in 15ms means and what it does not mean.
Well firstly 15ms is pretty fast to trip to start with, but possible. Practically, this would introduce more expensive parts into a meter, but maybe they are there. Lets accept this spec at face value. bear in mind though there is a cost associated with sophistication, and sophistication can be a requirement in places, but this is just a meter.
Secondly this time  will only describe the trip time once a trip decision is made.
Why do I say this, well, 15ms is too fast to measure, make a trip decision and carry out and complete the action. Way too fast for reverse power protection. This level of sophistication in a mass produced meter ( read cost), why? I don't see it being practical.
Reverse power protection will measure the phase angle relationship between voltage and current over X number of cycles, each cycle being 20ms. (50hz)
The device will probably integrate or count up to Y consecutive cycles of reverse power flow and then only issue a trip. This will take multiples of 20ms.
There are other system considerations that such a meter must remain stable for, such as motors that briefly will become generators during power system dips and the switching of large inductive loads that would require a meter ( which isn't a protection device) to have some practical ride through capability. Otherwise these meters would be too trigger happy to be usable.
Now that Rhomberg relay may just be too coarse and slow, but maybe not. Try it if you have it, use the fastest time and highest current sensitivity.
 

I suppose one could argue, that these water storage tanks require a foundation or footing, and that planning permission is required. Therefore, a fine for non-compliance is a nice way to make some additional revenue?
CoCT begged every resident to reduce water consumption to 50 liters/day, and when those that paid the municipal bill, generating the required cash-flow to finance the indigent, low income, and non-paying users, found alternative solutions, and effectively went "off-grid", this cash-flow dried up. As a result, the basic charge was introduced, based on your mains water supply pipe. Now we the same basic charge on the amp rating of your electrical supply. And fines for tanks already installed, and metering with allocation to the ground water.
Damned if do! Damned if you dont!
 
 

Decided to try using a RHOMBERG SP510 to monitor RPF, and hopefully prevent the LANDIS+GYR prepaid meter from tripping. A 100A ct will be fitted to the live grid supply cable. The SP510, will control a 40A 4-pole N/O mechanical contactor, where my incoming grid load will be bridged across 2 contacts each. I know electrical engineering design, requires double contacts, decreasing the failure factor.
As I am not in the COCT area, and don't have any local requirements to adhere too, I wanted to see how effective this will be. I do not intend exporting to the grid, so just wanted to add an extra level of safety in respect of ISLANDING, and the chance that these requirements, may come into effect some time in the future.
A PDF spec sheet of the SP510, and pictures are attached. Still need to figure out how exactly to get it installed in the most practical way tomorrow.
 


Rhomberg SP510.PDF

Awesome info, thx

Just one correction to the topic: This is a LiFePO4 battery, not a lithium ion battery 🙂
Lithium Ion is what your phone and your laptop has. Usually less than a thousand cycles before end of life (depending on how hard you work it). LiPo (Lithium Polymer) is what you get in Vape pens and Drones and toys and so on. LiFePO4 is used in some vehicles (it is considered not to have a good enough energy density) but mostly for stationary power applications, aka solar power.

... not exactly, as I gave 2 x US2000's... each 2400Wh aka 2.4 KWh
 
G

seems your cell phone battery needs charge - 11% compared to the 100% Solar MD 

I calculate that as 18 x 275 = 4950 W, just under 25% oversizing. That's still a lot, but you may well get away with it. The only sensible numbers I've seen for 4000 W rated Axpert MPPTs is 4500 W. It sounds like those are 60-cell panels, which are good for 3S into 145 V max Axperts. Perhaps you meant that 4950 W is about 50% more than you theoretically would need ignoring shading issues, Winter, etc.
With regard to fuses and breakers, generally it is desirable to combine some strings on the roof, so that you don't need to bring down 6 pairs of cables to the combining box. So you would have a fuse per string on the roof, combine usually pairs of strings with Y cables on the roof, then use 3 DC rated circuit breakers in the combining box. Noark make suitable dual-pole breakers, but I don't know about availability in South Africa.

Hi Arandoza
My system runs much higher VOC voltages, and as a result, I paid special attention to the ratings of the switch gear I used. AC switch gear should not be used for DC applications.
There are technical specification that differ. Any good electrical wholesaler, should have a DC range of equipment. 
As for SURGE PROTECTION, the region your are in will also play a part here? As lightning is more prevalent in some areas. The surge protection is rated in TYPE 1 and TYPE 2 for AC applications, and a separate PV class.
Even fuses and fuse holders, specially suited to PV applications are available.
ISOLATORS too, required a different rating as well as wiring method.
I know your question was specifically related to STRING BOXES, but I hope this helps.
 
 

No, I'm not using any external relay.
I know that there's a relay control port on the inverter and depending on the application one can use this port to for example switch loads between grid/inverter. Also, it's possible to use the port as a trigger for a diesel genset. But since I don't need such functionality, I just connected grid into the AC-IN and from the AC-OUT there's a cable running to my DB. In the DB, I have changeover switches for every circuit, so I can manually choose whether the circuit will run from the inverter, or directly from the grid. But that's all

@Blinkwater9
I'm running four strings of 600-700V DC:

Each string is made of 18 x 285Wp. 72 panels total.
We are experiencing a bit cold weather here in our winters, -20°C sometimes. By that time, Voc can climb over 800V DC.
 
 

@Blinkwater9
just for your reference, this is one of my Infini 5K as seen from the bottom. There's a nice PV switch embedded, therefore you don't need to unplug the MC4 connectors if you want to disconnect the panels. This is very different from an Axpert or Victron equipment, where panels are wired directly on the screw terminals and no DC switch is embedded.
So, when I'm going to work on the inverter I normally proceed like this:
turn off this PV switch open the PV fuses disconnectors No arcs, no sparks, etc...it's comfortable

2-years ago, I started the lengthy process of going completely OFF-GRID on my residential water supply at my home in StHelena Bay, on the West Coast of the Western Cape.
The property is situated +-150-200m from the beach. I was able to find water at approximately 8m. SALTWATER INTRUSION, gives me a salt content of around 1300ppm, which fluctuates slightly with tidal movement.
I'm running a normal 0,75kw well-point pump, supplying the raw water to my treatment equipment in the garage. The raw water is fed through pressure control and safety valves, through a 3-stage filterset, UV sterilizer into the Primary storage vessel. From TANK 1, it gravity feeds a high pressure pump, driving 2 REVERSE OSMOSIS filters. The permiate is collected in 2 more storage vessels, and the brine waste returned to borehole. A DAB EASIBOX supplies the pressure to the house.

2-years ago, I started the lengthy process of going completely OFF-GRID on my residential water supply at my home in StHelena Bay, on the West Coast of the Western Cape.
The property is situated +-150-200m from the beach. I was able to find water at approximately 8m. SALTWATER INTRUSION, gives me a salt content of around 1300ppm, which fluctuates slightly with tidal movement.
I'm running a normal 0,75kw well-point pump, supplying the raw water to my treatment equipment in the garage. The raw water is fed through pressure control and safety valves, through a 3-stage filterset, UV sterilizer into the Primary storage vessel. From TANK 1, it gravity feeds a high pressure pump, driving 2 REVERSE OSMOSIS filters. The permiate is collected in 2 more storage vessels, and the brine waste returned to borehole. A DAB EASIBOX supplies the pressure to the house.

2-years ago, I started the lengthy process of going completely OFF-GRID on my residential water supply at my home in StHelena Bay, on the West Coast of the Western Cape.
The property is situated +-150-200m from the beach. I was able to find water at approximately 8m. SALTWATER INTRUSION, gives me a salt content of around 1300ppm, which fluctuates slightly with tidal movement.
I'm running a normal 0,75kw well-point pump, supplying the raw water to my treatment equipment in the garage. The raw water is fed through pressure control and safety valves, through a 3-stage filterset, UV sterilizer into the Primary storage vessel. From TANK 1, it gravity feeds a high pressure pump, driving 2 REVERSE OSMOSIS filters. The permiate is collected in 2 more storage vessels, and the brine waste returned to borehole. A DAB EASIBOX supplies the pressure to the house.

2-years ago, I started the lengthy process of going completely OFF-GRID on my residential water supply at my home in StHelena Bay, on the West Coast of the Western Cape.
The property is situated +-150-200m from the beach. I was able to find water at approximately 8m. SALTWATER INTRUSION, gives me a salt content of around 1300ppm, which fluctuates slightly with tidal movement.
I'm running a normal 0,75kw well-point pump, supplying the raw water to my treatment equipment in the garage. The raw water is fed through pressure control and safety valves, through a 3-stage filterset, UV sterilizer into the Primary storage vessel. From TANK 1, it gravity feeds a high pressure pump, driving 2 REVERSE OSMOSIS filters. The permiate is collected in 2 more storage vessels, and the brine waste returned to borehole. A DAB EASIBOX supplies the pressure to the house.

2-years ago, I started the lengthy process of going completely OFF-GRID on my residential water supply at my home in StHelena Bay, on the West Coast of the Western Cape.
The property is situated +-150-200m from the beach. I was able to find water at approximately 8m. SALTWATER INTRUSION, gives me a salt content of around 1300ppm, which fluctuates slightly with tidal movement.
I'm running a normal 0,75kw well-point pump, supplying the raw water to my treatment equipment in the garage. The raw water is fed through pressure control and safety valves, through a 3-stage filterset, UV sterilizer into the Primary storage vessel. From TANK 1, it gravity feeds a high pressure pump, driving 2 REVERSE OSMOSIS filters. The permiate is collected in 2 more storage vessels, and the brine waste returned to borehole. A DAB EASIBOX supplies the pressure to the house.

Personally? I think the human race has become lazy, choosing to "GOOGLE" a problem, read one post, and believe everything they read, WITHOUT making any effort to figure out what the correct solution is. This and the fact, that no-one seems to have any pride in their work anymore.
We were told by a major sugar mill in KZN, to lower our standards, and remember we are in Africa? WTF??.......