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tetrasection

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Everything posted by tetrasection

  1. I just got the Growatt ES and it's awesome. Can't see why anyone would spend an extra 7k on another inverter rated at the same output. Plus the Sunsynk/Deye wifi dongle costs an extra 2k or something, with the Growatt it is included in the box.
  2. Also, he stated he uses +/- 22kwh a day. A single 5.5kwh battery ain't gonna cut it.
  3. A 455W panel will give 455W no matter what the efficiency. A more efficient panel might be smaller by a small fraction but unless you're extremely space constrained it isn't an issue.
  4. I've also noticed this. Basically the settings on the app/website are not your actual inverter settings, it's just "default placeholder text" or something. However, when you make a change in the app/website it will apply that setting to your inverter. Since the settings don't reflect on the app, the only way to check what settings you actually have is to physically push the buttons on your inverter.
  5. As a better alternative to a timer, have you checked if your inverter/charge controller has an "aux" or "dry contact" signal? It's basically a switch that turns on or off when a set battery voltage or state of charge has been reached. That way your heater would only use excess power after your batteries are fully charged.
  6. Is it just that the manufacturers don't know what they are doing, or is there some hidden reason for this? AFAIK the cable will just perform as if both wires were the size of the thinner one, making the extra thickness on the positive wire a straight up waste, right?
  7. Got an Outback Flexmax 60
  8. So I checked the PV cables this morning and they were shorting. Been a lot of rain here the last couple weeks so my guess is the earth moved and ripped a hole in the cable jacket. Cable replaced and all working great now!
  9. It's off-grid. 200W constant load is 2.4kwh of extra battery capacity I need every night, and an extra 4.8kwh that I need to charge every day... But yeah I'll see what it does when the sun is shining before calling the supplier.
  10. Thanks Buyeye, Dunno if I explained it that well before, let me try again. Right now my load is at 69W and the batteries are discharging at 74W, (they are at 49.5V). (2 minutes later): So I just switched the panels on and the battery voltage immediately dropped to 49.1V, it tells me that I'm getting 19W from the panels (even though it's completely dark), and the battery discharge went up to 265W. This tells me that the panels are somehow consuming about 200W of power. Is this an inverter fault or could it be a ground leak in the panel cable (which is underground)? Surely the inverter shouldn't be leaking power out of the panel inputs?
  11. Hmm.... Just switched the panels off and it seems to be normal now: Also noticed that when the panels are on, they are "producing" a small amount of power even though it's dark. Plus, when I switch them on, there seems to be a drain on the battery cause the voltage drops by a couple points. Is the inverter somehow "charging" the solar panels? Any idea what's going on here?
  12. Hey guys, Just got this inverter installed and downloaded the app that goes with it. Only got a few lights on, load is 28W, no sun so only getting 17W on the panels. What's confusing me is the "discharging power" which is sitting at 212W. Does this mean that the inverter is consuming 201W??? Can that be right?
  13. https://www.sustainable.co.za/black-friday-2020.html
  14. https://www.solarwaysuppliers.co.za/product-category/on-special/
  15. https://www.inverter-warehouse.co.za/collections/specials
  16. https://lithiumbatteriessa.co.za/collections/black-november
  17. Sorry for the late reply, haven't been around here for a while. 3.Yeah it might take it past 50% DOD but would you rather sit in the dark or use your batteries which still have 50% capacity left? Off-grid people cycle their batteries every single night so DOD becomes much more of an issue. Your batteries are basically just on float apart from the occasional load shedding at night which even at 80%DOD would still be considered very minimal cycling. 4. "Battery stop discharging voltage when grid is available" means it will continue to use your battery power even while grid is available until your batteries reach the set voltage. Setting it to the highest setting tells the inverter to switch to grid immediately instead of running your batteries down. Again it depends on the inverter behaviour, if setting it to the highest setting causes the inverter to switch to grid even when the sun is shining then I would set it to just below the float voltage, like 26.8V, maybe a bit lower if you get voltage drops due to heavy loads switching on during the day (you'd have to check that by looking at the screen while turning whatever load you have on and then set the voltage to just below that), but even if the voltage does drop below the set point during heavy loads it would only switch to grid for a short time which shouldn't be much of a problem. Basically you want it to switch to grid as soon as the sun goes down so that your batteries remain full. 5. I would set it to any setting above bulk since you want it to be able to reach bulk charge voltage and you don't really want it to ever stop charging (best scenario for battery longevity would be floating 24 hours a day). Hope that helps a bit, let me know how it goes.
  18. https://solaradvice.co.za/shop/solar-power/?promotion=black-friday https://sinetechstore.co.za/product-category/black-friday-2020/ https://lrgsolar.com/product-category/black-friday/
  19. Please post any Black Friday specials you find. Found these so far: https://www.livestainable.co.za/product-category/black-november/
  20. Get a small panel and pwm charge controller and use it to power a pump for a fountain/water feature or some kind of automatic drip system or a bunch of twinkle lights in the garden? Replace the battery in your PC's UPS? Use as a second battery in your car boot and install a killer subwoofer or a mini fridge?
  21. 1.)Bulk 28.4V 2.)Float 27V 3.)I would lower the low voltage cut-off to 23V which is 11.5V per battery. Once it kicks in you'll be left in the dark so there's no point in setting it any higher than this. 4.)Highest possible 5.)Depends on the inverter behaviour. If set to float voltage, will it prevent the batteries from bulk charging?
  22. Totally agree, it's very dependent on your appliance setup and guests. In my case there is no municipal water so a pump is required that pulls about 1.2kw which is the main concern. With added guests come showers, hand basin and toilet use, washing machine use, extra dishes etc so the pump is running a lot. They also bring laptops and on occasion an x-box. So my situation is a lot different to yours where you only need a bit of extra power for lighting. In your case lithium is the obvious choice. In my case I normally only use about 20% of my capacity daily so I have 80% spare capacity for use on these occasions. Using lithium in that same way would be very expensive and would not make much sense.
  23. According to google Gel batteries should last about 6 years at 25% DOD. I agree, if your daily energy requirements are constant throughout the year then lithium is a no-brainer. However if you tend get visitors over holidays and need extra power for even a day or two you are pretty screwed. Hence IF you do get visitors and need extra capacity on occasion I'd say Gel batteries are still the better option (or at least more cost effective, compared to buying extra lithium batteries that will only be used a few days a year) and in 6 years time there will probably be cheap sodium batteries on the market.
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