Deanos

Thank you, yes, even 22V as I see it roughly gives about 4-5 hours per volt drop with our current load which is around 16 - 20 hours from full battery, so dropping it another 2 volts would be awesome! I have changed the one setting to run 24/7 from the grid and only use solar first to charge! This way I should still save electricity, especially after an outage! To now have to go spend 10's of thousands again is just not happening. Thanks again for the advice, I'll have a go at pushing the various buttons and see what happens. 🙏🙏

Yup. will do that... Just not right now. Will have to work as it is for now.

They still charge from utility, not 100% from solar when the power is on, so should be all good. It's a matter of it all just hanging in there when the power is off. This is current usage as of right now:

OK, this just sounds extremely confusing. 🤣🤣🤣 I don't have the expertise or money right now to firstly get a genny, and then also have to mess around with the inverter settings. This is basically an explosion in my house waiting to happen if I do that! Looking around at other inverters, they are much the same pricing as a smaller genny and don't use as much petrol either! 🤣 So i think the best answer right now is to just leave the system as it is, maybe get another 2 x 100AH batteries and hook them up so we then have a 400Ah capacity. then look at a better inverter.

Thanks again. Now assuming "he" even understands what you are talking about here, does that mean the he, or I, must now go and buy other panels in order to let my batteries drain a little bit more (as per my original questions!) or what is it that you are actually on about? We, he, me, us, I just don't understand where this is all going. Do I now chuck out these 2 big panels and buy a different panel which you now say doesn't exist, or would it be more efficient to just get a newer inverter of sorts that will work with my 2 panels?

OK, understood, and yes, this was mentioned to maybe have 3 or 4 smaller panels, but when he saw my roof, we then went with the 2 bigger panels. They are in parallel as mentioned in the earlier messages. But alas, I guess I am stuck with what I have for now. I am also thinking that maybe a newer more efficient inverter might also be the better option...

OK WOW. Thanks for all the comments and to be brutally honest, I have ZERO clue of what you are all on about. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Let me try explain the whole idea behind this setup. We started off with the little 3KVa Mecer invert. This works like a bomb and keeps things going on it's own for at least a day and bit from full battery. At the most, we pull maybe 300W to 400W from it. It is NOT wired to the mains because I didn't want to worry about COC and the whole Eskom saga and also would like to be able to take it with me when I move one day! So I have my entire study running off it, an extension through to the lounge so the wife can still watch TV, and a 2nd extension to our bedroom upstairs so we can at least have power there if it's off. And before you all go off about the cables, they are all proper 7mm or 8mm power cable. Not a Temu extension... 🤣🤣🤣 Anyways. The power cuts here in Weltevreden Park are now becoming a weekly thing as the whole infrastructure here is collapsing. Much like the rest of the country... I knew the inverter would take a max input of 1200W from the solar, so I then explained to the installer that I wanted 2 of the biggest wattage panels they have so I can get as close to the limit as possible. Hence the 2 x 585W panels... 1170W total. Yes, I know about total efficiency and all that so was hoping to at least be able to pull 900 - 1000W from them. Install was done, everything plugged in and working on 2nd April and back then with the summer sun, I was hitting just on 750W max on a good day so I was almost happy. So yes, I have attached 2 picture below to give a better idea of were the panels are and why I can only get 2 on there. It's a stupid roof and I wanted to put 2 more panel;s on the other side of the roof facing west (Camera is currently facing to the west and panels facing to NE), but I was told that you can't slip panels because if 2 are in the shade, the others stop working also?!?!?! It was a bit of a debate whether we wanted to get the early morning / midday sun or midday / late afternoon sun. We chose the early morning rather... Rain usually happens afternoons here. I have ZERO clue how solar works, how the Watt and VAC and VOC and what what means, so like any normal pleb, I have full trust and faith in that when installer tells me. So yes, unfortunately this is now all installed and done and was a cheap to be done this way also. And unfortunately finances won't let me simple remove and reinstall panels at will. So was just thinking if there was a setting of sorts on the inverter to allow it to drain or ruin on battery for a little longer than it does now where it cuts off at 24V.

Sorry, not the best image, but a shot from Google earth. I circled the 2 panels and North. Problem is that this section of our roof gets the most sun during the day in summer as the rest of the roof is mostly in shade mornings and afternoon. I did want to cut down every tree, but the bigger ones are neighbours trees mornings and afternoon, so that wouldn't happen. We looked at every option, this was the best and most efficient.

Thanks for the help. But should the panel be connected a different way to be more efficient then?

Thanks for this. Yes, panels were all installed to spec by the solar specialists. They also recommended we go with those 2 panels due to the space on the roof. Limited there unfortunately. But I see the battery spec or sticker says it can go down to cut-off at 20V, but how do I know if the inverter is cutting of at 21 or 22V? I have a feeling the inverter is shutting off around 24V. Maybe a safety net or something that the GeeWiz guys reconfigure in the inverter? Can this be checked and changed somehow?

HI everyone. Please bear with me on this, fairly new to the whole solar and backup thing. I have included images of all the inverter specs, the battery specs and also the WatchPower settings for reference. Just after lockdown, we purchased this Mecer 3KVa inverter. It has 200AH of back (So they say...) from the 2 included 24V 100AH Lithium batteries. So due to all the constant outages we have in our area lately, we decided to put up 2 LARGE solar panels. This was done 1st of April this year. The panels we put in are 2 x TigerNeo 72HL4-BDV 585W solar panels on the roof facing east... It was summer! Yes, I know... This is all working perfectly, but now a few little issues I have with this whole setup. Unfortunately, this WatchPower software is all that you can apparently use with this inverter, unless you spend copious amounts on money for that Solar Assistant software. Not happening from my wallet unfortunately... I have this software installed and running on a little Pi that I had spare here with Windows 10 on so I can remote into it and see what's going on. I have just taken a screen shot of it which is below and this winter sun is just not the greatest right now. The settings are the big thing. Are we just extremely limited to what this inverter can do or how can I set it to keep the batteries as close to full as possible, especially in winter? Reason is that 90% of the time when the power cuts, it will be late afternoon or at night and the batteries are just never full and then the system cuts off because of that! It's so annoying and yes, this has been the case for the past 4 outages we had over the past 3 weeks. Then the sun just isn't enough to keep things running the next day and charge the battery... So (sorry for the long story...) my questions... 1) is there anything I maybe need to tweak in the settings there to get better performance from the batteries? 2) How do I know what voltage the inverter cuts off at and what should it be and how do I set it? 3) Any other free alternatives to this WatchPower software? Thanks in advance for the help.🙏