Ironman

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

Sooo, I decided to get two more batteries and 8 more panels. Now I’m pretty much done spending money going down this rabbit hole...
Anyway, I got the two additional batteries installed and managed to find a ventilation solution that’ll work while retaining the cupboard door. I’m just waiting for more panel hardware then I can get the additional panels installed on the roof.

 

 
As I mentioned elsewhere, the battery stack is still running in backup mode (only charging/float mode, no discharging) in order for the packs to balance out with each other. After a day or so, all lights started flashing/displaying in sync. I’ll let it go for another day or so to make sure they settled nicely.
In other news, I’ve been having a ball with getting the home integration going as well. Just basic for now, running Home Assistant, but I’ve got all the nice Sonoff light switches here, waiting for the electrician to pull in Neutrals to all the light switches in the house. In testing, I already have all outside lights, gates and garage door integrated. My wife thinks I’m a nerd...

She may or may not have said that, I wouldn’t know. She’s currently on my ignore list since said incident. I felt a little hurt when she didn’t rush to help me, but rather burst out in fits of laughter.

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

[sarcasm] Why is it that days with high power consumption correlates with cloudy days - and a serious loss of PV power - battery depleted by 11pm;

while days with low power consumption correlates with no cloud cover and perfect PV power?
 

[sarcasm] Why is it that days with high power consumption correlates with cloudy days - and a serious loss of PV power - battery depleted by 11pm;

while days with low power consumption correlates with no cloud cover and perfect PV power?
 

@ewertb, This whole answer isn't necessarily to address your set up, but to rather address panel positioning in general. Your " less than ideal" orientation and numerous different aspects is not a disadvantage, and no you don't need numerous smaller MPPT's if you do things right.
I'll explain:
The maximum voltage threshold that an MPPT can deal with, will dictate the number of panels you can have in a string.
Every panel in this string should be of identical spec and pointing in the same direction at the same tilt.
Now the current capability of your MPPT will dictate the number of strings you can deal with.
So you can parallel your similar strings to match this current capability.
Now, I want you to be aware of something, a solar panel with very little light still basically outputs full voltage. It may not be capable of supplying current at low light but its operational curve is such that it is very close to full voltage. This in turn means that it wont drag down the voltage of a panel with good light that can output a decent current. Which means a shaded panel can be paralleled with an un-shaded panel with impunity.
The common misunderstanding I am trying to address, is that it is often thought that all strings to a single MPPT have to all be at the same tilt and direction as each other.
As long as each string contains the same number of identical panels, and within each different string the panels are the same tilt and direction, then the strings can be paralleled.
Between the strings themselves, they can be at a different tilt and direction to each other on the same MPPT, without an operational detriment to speak of, in fact this has a considerable upside.
The tilt and direction of a string determines when in the day a string has its peak output. If all the strings pointed in the same direction they would peak together, and that peak current versus your MPPT's capability would determine the number of panels you could have. Your MPPT will have to be sized to deal with a big peak of current for a short period of the day.
This is inefficient, because the other 92% of the solar day, that MPPT is idling. The cost of that MPPT is a production overhead.
Paralleling strings with different directions means you can match waxing and waning strings together and spread their peaks. This softens the noon peak.
This in turns means you could either use a smaller (cheaper) MPPT, or alternatively increase the number of panels and get more useable units of power throughout the day. 
The MPPT still isn't overstretched at noon, but at least it is working at a reasonable pace throughout the day.
I mix and match strings like this, and you'll be surprised how many more strings of panels you can add before you reach your MPPT's capability. Paralleling low tilt E and W strings, anecdotally, I estimate it is about twice the number of panels, of an ideal tilt N - facing array. My loads are such that I can use every watt I make in a day, in other words my MPPT's do not back off when then batteries are charged.
You might argue that this is just trading panel efficiency for MPPT efficiency.
So, I'd like to point out two further advantages that I have noticed:
1.Getting the power throughout a longer solar day also makes the power more useable than having schedule my loads to match a massive noon peak.
2. On an overcast day, when you really need the power, a panel will still produce say 10% of its output, largely regardless of it's tilt and direction. Having twice as many panels under those circumstances makes a welcome difference. 
 
 

Hi all,
Thanks to so much good information on this forum, a lot of thinking, planning and building, I finally came online on Saturday.
So far everything works pretty well. Eskom mains  was turned off on Sunday and so far, no need even to run the generator.
I am still finding my feet with all the settings and discovery of the best options but 
My system:
24 X JAR 375 W Mono's (8.8kWp)
3 X Axpert Type 4kW inverters in parallel  (12kW)
7 X Narada NPFC100 Li-Fe-Po4 batteries (33.6kWh)
1 X Deutsz 15kVA generator
Pic attached.
 
 

In a floating system (ie where one side of the battery isn't earthed) you'd fuse both sides to protect against a situation where there are two earth faults.
Think about what is done in a car. The negative is earthed, so the entire chassis is at the negative potential (considered 0V). Any short to earth causes a large fault current and blows the fuse on the positive side, or the fusible link in the positive battery line. Hence, only one fuse required and you have protection against a single earth fault.
Now imagine a car that is not earthed to the chassis. If a positive cable rubs through, the chassis becomes positive (this is the first earth fault). If a second earth fault results it could bypass the fuse (the current can find an alternate route past the fuse via the two earth faults). Now you have no protection. You therefore have to put a fuse on the negative side too.
This is however ONLY if you expect a high likelihood of earth faults (eg in a vehicle where you have cables running in a metal hull). If an earth fault is unlikely, as is usually the case in battery backup systems where the single fuse is close to the battery and the cabling runs in trunking, you can get away with just one fuse.

What!? You mean the Bananarama version isn't the original!? My whole childhood is ruined now... 😛
I've actually had quite a few such cases. The first version of Baker street I heard, was the Undercover (British band) cover of the song, and I initially preferred it to the Gerry Rafferty version, and later learned to love both. Similarly with "Never let her slip away", I got the Undercover version first, and only discovered THIS YEAR that the original is from Andrew Gold (1978). I prefer the 1978 version in this case. I will always love you by Whitney Houston? First version I heard was the one by Tears 'N Joy. First time I heard Nirvana's Smells like Teen Spirit... was the Weird Al Yankovic parody. And so on and so forth...
But then I discovered this backport of Gotye's 2011 hit... and the 80s kid in me prefers it.

Well, if you roll your own, you're still using either the Venus firmware (which is Linux+OpenEmbedded), or you're using the Raspberry Pi packages... so I'd say "No Venus no VRM" is about accurate.
Also, the one very nice upshot of the software name is that I frequently have a Bananarama song stuck in my head... NOT 🙂

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

That's not true. The Multiplus does its own SOC by counting the amp hours going through its inverter/charger. In an AC-tied system this is sufficient and you can get away without any additional stuff.
In a DC-tied system, the Venus device will periodically tell the Multiplus: "Hey, there is also these extra amps coming from the solar chargers!", and the Multi will then add that to whatever its own charger is doing and so the SOC can still be computed. This is assuming there is no battery monitor in the system at all.
But if there is a battery monitor (eg, part of the BMS, as is the case with the Pylontechs), then the SOC of the battery overwrites the one of the Multi. The Multi still does its own (so should you lose the BMS connection, it still keeps track of things), but because it periodically gets a more accurate one from the BMS, that is effectively the one that is used.
The Multi never uses voltage to estimate SOC.

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

We needed a UPS for a small office (about 8 PC's, server and network hardware) to be able to continue working through loadshedding (4-6 hours at a time).
We are renting our office and did not want a permanent setup.
 
Requirements:
- Ultimate long term reliability - high quality brand
- Expected lifetime: about 15 years for inverter and 7-10 years for batteries (expecting much more regular loadshedding while eskom repairs its infrastructure)
- Backup system that works for many years without maintenance
- Standalone system ( rack on wheels)
- Ready to be moved to a new office if we have to move, OR be re-purposed into a solar home ESS system (just add MPPT and panels)
 
If we bought an off the rack 3KVA UPS system with 6000 WH runtime, we could probably get it for about R20k.  But I have a long history with cheap UPS systems - they never make it to 2 years - then you have to replace the batteries - at huge cost, labour - weekend time etc.  At about 4 or 5 years the inverter's cheap capacitors start sweating and it becomes very unreliable - almost worse than not having a UPS. Not one lasts over 6 years - and in the process, the PC's that you are supposed to protect are subjected to many power spikes and failures due to the unreliable UPS.
 
So we went this route - about 4X more expensive but we know it will last, and protect the sensitive equipment properly for many years:
- Victron Multiplus 3000
- Victron Venus controller
- 2 X Pylontech US3000 batteries
- 19" computer rack on wheels
- Small DB with input breaker, earth leakage on output, and two circuits on output.
- DC Fuses, cables and building the rig (took about 5 hours).
 
 
@Jaco de Jongh built this rig for me:

Hi all,
So I decided to be “clever” and try get a Venus Pi running instead of a GX device as part of my upcoming solar installation. I expected the integration with the Pylontech battery to give me the most headache and wasn’t far off, so I figured I’d document what I did to get it running here in case it helps anyone in future.
Hardware/Software:
•    Raspberry Pi 3B+
•    Waveshare RS485 CAN HAT (https://www.robotics.org.za/W14882?search=wave%20rs485)
•    Venus OS Firmware version 2.23
A bit about the CAN HAT: I saw here (https://github.com/victronenergy/venus/wiki/RaspberryPi-CAN-Interfaces) that the MCP2515 chip was supported in the Venus image, although this specific HAT wasn’t documented – I just figured I could hack it to work.
OK, on to the instructions (Disclaimer: I don’t really know what I’m doing, and relied heavily on information from other similar threads e.g. https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/victron-dev-venus/C4-3JhHpbcY). The guide assumes you’re familiar with SSH and have access to the terminal via PuTTy (Windows) or similar.
1.
Add the following text to /u-boot/config.txt
[all] dtparam=spi=on dtoverlay=mcp2515-can0,oscillator=8000000,interrupt=25,spimaxfrequency=1000000 2.
Create /data/rcS.local and add the following text to bring the CAN interface up
ip link set can0 up type can bitrate 500000 2 a)
You can then check the interface with the following command to make sure it’s up and running:
Ifconfig can0 can0      Link encap:UNSPEC  HWaddr 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00
          UP RUNNING NOARP  MTU:16  Metric:1
          RX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:0 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:10
          RX bytes:0 (0.0  TX bytes:0 (0.0
If the battery is connected and powered on, you should see numbers for RX packets (including some dropped packets which seems to only happen initially – my battery was not connected when I ran ifconfig hence all 0’s).
2 b)
You can also verify communication from the battery using candump can0, which should return something as follows:
  can0  359   [7]  00 00 00 00 01 50 4E
  can0  351   [6]  14 02 72 01 72 01
  can0  355   [4]  45 00 64 00
  can0  356   [6]  80 13 00 00 D5 00
  can0  35C   [2]  C0 00
  can0  35E   [8]  50 59 4C 4F 4E 20 20 20
  can0  359   [7]  00 00 00 00 01 50 4E
  can0  351   [6]  14 02 72 01 72 01
  can0  355   [4]  45 00 64 00
  can0  356   [6]  80 13 00 00 D5 00
3.
Then there is some fiddling to make the CAN interface visible to the Venus software (i.e. show up in the services menu).
First create the following missing symlinks (each one is a separate command):
ln -s /opt/victronenergy/can-bus-bms/service /service/can-bus-bms.can0 ln -s /opt/victronenergy/dbus-motordrive/service /service/dbus-motordrive.can0 ln -s /opt/victronenergy/dbus-valence/service /service/dbus-valence.can0 ln -s /opt/victronenergy/vecan-dbus/service /service/vecan-dbus.can0 ln -s /opt/victronenergy/mqtt-n2k/service /service/mqtt-n2k.can0 Note that all symlinks must be added – I initially got stuck as I only added the BMS which caused gui/ssh instability.
Then you need to make Venus aware of the CAN interface by executing the following command, which creates the file canbus_ports with a link to the can0 interface:
echo "can0" > /etc/venus/canbus_ports At this point it should have worked (after step 4), but I still had no joy getting the battery to show up in the Venus UI. Eventually I replaced “DEV” with “can0” in the following script file:
/opt/victronenergy/can-bus-bms/service/run
#!/bin/sh exec 2>&1 exec softlimit -d 100000000 -s 1000000 -a 100000000 /opt/victronenergy/can-bus-bms/can-bus-bms --log-before 25 --log-after 25 -vv -c socketcan:DEV –banner 4. 
Reboot
Follow the steps in Section 5 of https://www.victronenergy.com/live/battery_compatibility:pylontech_phantom
Reboot (not 100% sure if this is necessary – I’m compiling this guide from memory, and I had many, many detours along the way), and with a bit of luck, the battery should pop up in Venus, like so:

Extra: During the troubleshooting I used the following command to test. Running it from the console immediately (within 2s or so) brings up the battery in the Venus UI. Killing the command results in the battery showing as “Disconnected”. This is why it’s necessary getting Venus aware of the interface and getting the service running automatically (step 3):
/opt/victronenergy/can-bus-bms/can-bus-bms -c socketcan:can0 --banner --log-before 25 --log-after 25 -vv Hopefully I didn’t mess up the order too badly or omit any steps. As mentioned, this took me a little while to figure out and I’m doing this from memory which is admittedly shoddy at the best of times, so please forgive any obvious errors. Note that firmware upgrades wipe some of the modifications made above (I think maybe the symlinks but definately the changes to /opt/victronenergy/can-bus-bms/service/run (Step 3)) so just be aware of that.
Questions or comments welcomed, and hopefully this helps someone in future.
 

This, to me, is not dissimilar to the situation in Australia right now, in that there is a problem, there is a clear solution to the problem, BUT it is going to cost some people their jobs. In such cases unions dig in and politicians of one stripe or another will back them. In Australia this means that government is not going to do anything to curb the coal industry - that's not how you get people to vote for you. I suspect that's the problem here - Eskom and the coal industry provide jobs and opening up for alternate energy production threatens jobs.

I can see both sides of this. Yes, something needs to happen to bring temperatures down and reduce the impact of climate change, but I'm not sure I'd just walk away from my job even if asked very nicely.

There has to be a fundamental change, not just in SA but everywhere, to how we deal with jobless people and the reduction of jobs. Already banks and insurers are laying off as technology starts to do more and more of the routine work. There are estimates that by 2030 nobody in the USA will drive a vehicle for a living (OK... race drivers will, but nobody will drive ON THE ROAD for a living) as autonomous vehicles improve and transport and delivery services automate (including moving away from trucks and using drones). It soon won't be possible for any government anywhere to promise everybody a job, indeed the job market seems to be shrinking already. Supermarkets with no cashiers are already being piloted in the UK. Governments have to either try to throw a clog into the wheels of progress (which is Mantashe's game) or find a way to keep the disemployed and those who will never be employed satisfied and active in the economy.

A year or maybe more ago, Artsolar approached the "Government"  and asked that additional taxes be raised on the import of PV modules into SA. They hoped that it would discourage imports and send more sales their way (Assumption).
 
Now knowing what happens on a daily basis in SA with corruption ext, I cant help to wonder what effect involving the "Government" in their affairs had on the current situation. 
Edit: And now who will honor the warranty if they close down as predicted. Not the first time this happens to a local PV manufacturer. 

It has a North facing roof. My wife likes the house for other reasons (of course), but when I got there I first looked for a North facing roof (and noted the presence of a shadow-throwing chimney and the location of the pool heating mats... out of the way by the looks of it). Then I went hunting for the distribution board and noted that it apparently has extra space in it (which is remarkable for 1970s houses in Heldervue). Might have happened when the AirBnBs in the back were added a few years ago. Finally, I decided the inverter and batteries goes in the laundry room this time... and bought a good secondhand server case for that purpose. Mean while the wife is buying things to get the AirBnBs up and running... so now there is no space for my car in the garage 🙂
I hate moving, but there remains an element of excitement to it!

Yeah, I was thinking to myself that criticism was a bit much. Well, it was probably not meant that way but it came across that way. For me this thread about how long it takes people to actually get the paper work done... was immensely informative. As I said... I too got my permission after 6.5 months, just in time for not needing it anymore.

Hi @Ironman,
You will find various photos etc if you look back through my posts.  I've been a pain on Powerforum I'm sure but the ou manne and others have been fantastic with advice and referring me to good guys to help me - most of whom are on this forum.
My system has a "Renesola Replus" hybrid inverter.  These were being cleared out a few years ago at a great price.  Its a Voltronic Infinisolar OEM.  It is on the CoCT magic list of approved devices though it does not meet the latest standard so I needed to get my approval complete before the end of 2019.
Its rated 3kVA but that really only becomes a limitation when the power is out.  When the power is present the inverter really connects the grid and essentials together and then the DC/AC inverter feeds both.  Practically that means that even on the essentials side you can exceed 3kVA.  (Obviously if the grid disappears in that state the inverter will trip so its to be avoided).
I have 9 Canadian Solar 350W panels - I could probably have used 10 but my inverter maximum voltage is 500v and I didn't want to take a chance. So 9 means 3150kW.  COCT rules would have allowed me 3500. In practice I think 10 of these would have been fine.
I have 2 2.4kWh Pylontech US2000B batteries.  I used 80A fuses in both + and - and also fitted a Victron battery monitor.  I probably didn't need a battery monitor since the batteries are smart but its handy at a glance to see the charge state etc.
My inverter has a "grid" connection and an "essentials" connection.  The essentials goes to a sub-board and all my lights, my computer dedicated circuit and some plugs around the house are connected to that.  On the grid side are the high load stuff.
I elected not to feed in to the grid.  So to get that right I fitted a Carlo Gavazzi ET112 meter and a modbus card in the inverter.  The inverter reads the nett power flow from the meter and uses that to try to balance what it feeds in so that it doesn't feed back into the grid.  After buying the ET112 I discovered it was not compatible with my inverter's modbus card - I'm stubborn and a programmer so I wrote a program that runs on a Raspberry Pi and converts the format so that the inverter is happy.
Paperwork wise in Cape Town: It starts with a form and a basic diagram of what you intend to do.  You then get a permission to install letter (I did have to hassle them to get it).
You then do the install, and you may "test".
Once done you will need to have a COC for the electrical work, and there are requirements to be able to isolate, to mark main switches, and etc.  In that process I had to improve my ground for the house.  We also established that my supply from the council is out of spec - heavy load in the house and the voltage at the point of connection sags to something like 195V.  Council came and stuck a meter on the supply and didn't do anything to load it down and shrugged and said its OK and that was the end of that.
You also need a Professional Engineer to sign off that the required automatic isolation works properly - the requirement that the inverter disconnects from the grid if the grid goes off.  He also checks grounding, isolation points, labelling and etc.  @Rautenk did that testing for me - with careful testing which is a bit tricky in the case of a hybrid.

Then you need to do a "single line diagram" which is a sort of circuit diagram of the house electrics.  Karel gave me an example and pointed me at something called profiCAD and I did the diagram.  Took some time but was quite fun.

Lastly, you sign a new supply contract and send all this stuff off the the council who I suppose study it carefully (?) and issue the permission to commission the system.  And you are all official.  Whether that's a good thing remains to be seen!
I did discover that my inverter doesn't ground neutral when disconnected from the grid and supplying from solar or batteries.  So in that case neutral floats at 115 volts or so relative to ground. We've had lots of disussions here about that, especially because my inverter uses a switching inverter and not a transformer creating a question about whether its OK to connect the output neutral to ground.  But mine, at least, seems perfectly happy.  Apparently the inverter is approved, but I didn't think that was safe so I fitted a contactor that links neutral and ground if the grid drops out.
In June I got 315kWh from the panels - so about R800 worth at the higher Cape Town rate.  425kWh in October - R1100 maybe?
 In the summer I don't have enough daytime usage to use up the available energy, and I don't have enough batteries to save it all for overnight - so sometime I'll buy another Pylontech.
On a sunny day with lots of demand in the house I saw as much as 22.6kWh from the panels (October 25th).
I guess I spend R65k and of course many hours.  It was a fun project so I'll pay myself R0.  So on that basis I guess it pays itself off after 6 years.
 


 
 

The roots of this go a long way back, to pre-94. There were two problems
1) A lot of folks living in townships didn't pay for services per se. They had communal connecitons (EG one supply for a block of 4 flats, with one circuit breaker) and they got charged a flat rate for rental, services etc according to their income. There was no billing for consumption, but consumption was controlled (in theory) by a limited supply- shared connections with a single circuit breaker so that if your neighbour overloads, several homes lose power and the offender is in bad odor. Also limited taps, light fittings and sockets per dwelling. But once people figured out how to tap directly into supplies this model broke down.
2) Refusal to pay as a means of protest. This is my beef with people like Helen Zille who threaten a tax revolt. This model doesn't work. As Tony Blair recently said, the problem with revolutions is not how they start but how they end. The initial principle has something going for it. But the result is that people get used to not paying, and when the original problem is removed and you ask people to start paying again they're not very keen to do so. The ANC rode a tiger. As they saying goes, riding a tiger is a lot of fun, until you get off.
I don't blame Eskom for trying to recover losses. A bit of pressure can work. COJ recently won against Gautrain who had not paid for services at their flag ship Sandton station for years. COJ cut water to a trickle. Customers couldn't go for a pee. The bill soon got paid. However, it wasn't the fault of people like me who pay our fare and when we got off the train at Sandton were bursting and either had to go to Starbucks for a cup of coffee we didn't want or keep our legs tightly crossed until we got home.

Too often it's the honest people who pay their way that get caught in the middle.

But on the bright side, yes, it's a great business opportunity.