Calvin

I think that it is a national requirement that you must be a net consumer (in kWh, not in Rands) - it certainly is in Cape Town. That means that you can at best get about a one third reduction in the energy cost by exporting to your limit. There was a user on this forum who claimed to get back thousands of Rands every month from COCT, but he never provided proof and seems to have gone off air. Not sure what that was all about....

Apologies - I did not know that.

Using todays prices: You purchase: USD1968 / 3 * 15.74 (R/USD) = R10 324. Local Pylontech 2000B (Powerforum Store): R12 822 Not exactly half. 80% in fact.

Try https://www.yr.no/en or the YR app. Works very well for me (Stellenbosch). Having said that, current weather patterns are very disrupted and I think all the forecasters are struggling a bit.

I finally on Monday received a Hubble AM2 that I ordered in November, and which had been promised for "first week of December" I understand that the November load shedding caused a huge spike in orders and that had inevitable consequences on deliveries. The part that I found very disappointing and frustrating is the lack of feedback and honesty - lots of promises made and not kept. I made many calls and I suspect that the only reason I got the battery is that I made a complete nuisance of myself. If I had patiently waited I would still be waiting...

Yes. You can have a changeover switch to bypass the system, or use the bypass feature of the inverter. Yes. It is not available on paralleled Kings but that should not be an issue for you.

I don't know about other manufacturers, but the cycle counter in my Pylons (US3000B on firmware 2.8) is based on full original capacity cycles. They see a cycle as 266400 Coulomb (74Ah) irrespective of the battery's SOH. So for a Pylon the internal cycle counter will reach 6000 after 6667 cycles at 90%DOD, or 7500 cycles at 80%DOD.

Everything on their web site looks suspicious - be VERY careful. Almost certainly a scam...

Just to confirm - 3 micro Volt, or a typo? Either way - thanks. Happy with my Pylons but your DIY journey has given me itchy feet...

Great point 🙄

I have Kings in parallel and Pylontechs so I might be able to help, but you really need to post more information on your setup. Are you using the Kings in USE or PYL mode, or ICC or some other management software? The firmware version and all the settings on the Kings. Ideally also some photos of the inverter screens.

We differ on many things, but not on this. I used the word entity deliberately - it can be anything from a person to a large corporation. Google it.

Welcome to the world of "alternative facts"... Apparently the city even gives him back his property taxes and "Surage" (which I assume means sewerage) If only...

The announcement by Mr Ramaphosa lifted the limit for entities producing their own electricity without a license from 1MW to 100MW. Unless you have a REALLY big installation it makes no difference to you. I have never suggested that local government can override national laws - of course they cannot. The rules of the COCT (no net exporting and feed-in compensation of a maximum of one third of consumption) are not unique to Cape Town - this is the national policy. (see Outdated thinking and reactionary rules hold back elect... (dailymaverick.co.za) You have still provided no evidence that one can "get money from the council". I wish you could and would - it would be great news. Sadly, despite your claims to the contrary, it seems to be impossible at this time.

If I understand you correctly you are saying that there are laws or regulations that compel municipalities to allow you to be a net exporter of energy and to pay you at such a rate for the exports that they will actually owe you money. Furthermore I understand that the COCT is actually doing this with you (giving you money back), despite publicly saying that they will not do it. These laws / regulations appear to be a very well kept secret - I can find no reference to them. Perhaps you would be so kind as to provide a reference to this information? I am sure that many members here will find it very useful.

From a press release on COCT web site (February 2021): "‘The feed-in tariff works when customers are net consumers of electricity over a rolling 12-month period. They must therefore consume more electricity from the network than what they put back in over the course of a year. The feed-in tariff offsets their electricity bill and, while they will never receive money from the City, the excess power that is generated back into the City’s grid, will be used to balance out their month’s bill." The feed in tariff is about one third of the usage tariff, so even if you export as much energy as you use you will still pay two thirds of normal price. Last time I looked Melkbos was part of City of Cape Town. Something does not add up...

If the battery is rated 5.5kWh that means you can take out 5.5kWh if you discharge it from 100% to 0% SOC and will "use" 1 cycle. If you do that 3000 times you will have taken out 16500kWh. If you discharge it from 100% to 50% SOC you will take out 2.75kWh and use half a cycle. If you do that 6000 times you will also have taken out 16500kWh. Correct. But you cannot use them alone - they need to be charged, and inverters are required to generate the AC. In practice PV panels and inverters have finite lifespans, so the effective cost of using them is not zero.

A few corrections. Not to nitpick but some of your terminology and calculations will confuse some. Remember that kWh is a measure of energy, whilst kW is a measure of power. If you have a geyser that has a power rating of 2kW that you run for 3 hours, you will have consumed 6kWh of energy. Clearly you mean kWh, not kW. But, it would be 0.2c per Wh, not 2. Actually, 6000 cycles at 50% DOD will yield exactly the same energy as 3000 at 100% DOD. There is normally no good reason to cycle your battery several times in one day - once it is full you will simply use your input power (grid or PV) to power your loads, keeping the battery full. Discharging the batteries whilst you PV exceeds your loads makes no sense at all.

Surely a typo? If not, as @Buyeye said, this inverter needs a 48V battery. Disconnect it asap, the battery might be already ruined.

From Pylon documentation: So, the Pylons are clearly optimised for 25C, but in practice 20-30 range is good.

If it is a 48V (5kW) King and the batteries are 12V, you certainly can not - you need all 4 in series (4 x 80Ah is VERY small for a 5kW inverter). If it is a 24V (3kW) inverter and it won't start off 4 it is unlikely to start off 2. Best bet is to get them charged up / desulphated separately.

Short answer: no. Slightly longer one: you can start it with a bench power supply provided that: it supplies a slightly higher voltage than the inverter is set to charge at. it can handle the initial surge current as the capacitors in the inverter charge up.

Use option 10: Operation mode Online. (default is auto) To be sure it stays that way: set option 23 to Bypass Forbidden.

Look at their reviews on Google and you will see that good service is not something that you can count on there. Their prices are very good (possibly the best?), but they seem to achieve if by cutting staff to less than ideal levels. (Once you have the owner's cell number service becomes a lot better.🙄) I am in Cpt and bought all my major items from them. It took about 192 phone calls (mostly unanswered. messages NEVER returned) but I eventually got what I paid for. To be fair, this was 2 years ago, perhaps things have improved.

Another key issue: Even when batteries use the same chemistry they can have different cell counts. For instance the Pylons are 15S while most other LiFePO4 batteries are 16S - they can most definitely not be paralleled.