superdiy

The software will be slower to respond, because you have to poll the inverter constantly to get the data out of it. The time to update PV and power data will depend on where in the list of poll commands you are at that moment and what type of connection you have to the inverter, i.e. serial or USB. In the case of the 3KW infini you have to poll about 8 commands in a continuous loop and even via USB without any pause in-between commands it still only give you a refresh time of between 1 and 2 seconds.

On the BMV - that is then from battery. It is about 60W from the grid.

You'll have to calculate the maximum current draw when you use everything you want to. Say you have a 600W inverter which might draw up to 60A from the battery and you want to use a camp fridge on the 12V output which draws 8A and you want to charge 2 x tablets @ 5V 1A each, which would be approximately 1A @ 12V, you will have a total power draw of 60+8+1 => 69amp. You have to add about 25% to that to prevent nuisance blowing so you would require a 69A + 25% => 86.25A fuse, but since you cannot buy a 86.25A fuse off the shelf, you have to get something close to that and that would be a 100A fuse - if you put a fuse of less than 86.25A in that line it might blow under normal usage and you don't want that to happen, therefor you need to get a higher value than 86.25A. BUT, and here is the BUT: You still have to add fuses with lower A ratings in other individual lines in case something in any of those goes wrong. e.g. between the battery and inverter you would put a 60A + 25% => 75A fuse in case something inside the inverter goes wrong and between the battery and each charger you would need a smaller fuse - typically the maximum current that might flow in each of these lines + 25%.

I have not monitored VBUS, but it responds very quickly to changes in PV. I have a power meter between the infini and the grid right next to the inverter and if clouds move in font of the sun or out of its way, you can immediately see the change in PV power on the inverter's display and also on the power meter - there are no delays as you've experienced on the Axpert. During the night the infini 3K Plus draws about 60W - roughly the same as the Axpert 5KW.

That should be perfect - the nominal VMPPT is 360V and the MPPT range is 250V - 450V.

That is either the 5KW Plus or 10KW model - The 3KW can handle panels of up to 3200W and the 3KW Plus can handle panels up to 4500W. Vmax MPPT on the 3KW Plus is 500V. MPPT optimal working range is between 250V and 450V on the 3KW (Plus)

Hi Zeeshan, welcome to the forum. I think you meant 50.5Hz. I don't think you will run into a problem by changing the frequency slightly because all your appliances already worked on the higher frequency before you installed the inverter and also all the appliances of all the other people on the same grid also run on the slightly higher frequency. Since the inverter has the option to work on the higher frequency and since that is not even close to the maximum possible setting I reckon you don't have anything to worry about. I would be worried if the frequency maybe approached 60Hz while it is supposed to be 50Hz.

Hi Tiaan, welcome to the forum. I know there will be many replies to your topic and many ideas by other members, so I'll start off with the following: The charge controller might not have a secondary 12V output (if that is what you've tried to indicate) to connect the 12V outputs and USB sockets to - I'd rather also connect that directly to the battery, but maybe via its own switch and fuse of lower rating, depending on the load you intend to connect to those sockets. I will add a changeover (SPDT) switch with the common to the battery Positive and then one of the other two terminals to the AC charger and the other terminal to the Solar charge controller to select to use either one of the two at a time and to prevent power from flowing into the one not being used at that point in time. (maybe also with fuses in each charger's line) I'll add another switch between the battery Positive and the inverter to isolate the inverter (and also with a fuse in that line) then I'll put a "master cut-out switch" and a fuse between the battery positive and all the rest Depending on what other suggestions might pop up I might change my thoughts.

The infini will be able to do that. You disable "feed back to the grid", so no power will be fed back and if your load exceeds what your panels and/or battery can supply, the remainder will be drawn from the grid - that is how the hybrid works. Some people on this forum have had loads of about 8KW (266%) on the 3KW infini without any issues. I did a test on mine once where I loaded it with 5.5KW for about 15 minutes without any issues. I would not recommend doing it 24/7, but periodically should not be a problem.

So which one is your place? First or second picture? OK lets rephrase, which set of panels (and associated equipment) would you prefer?

12000BTU for 20m2 and high ceilings - that is quite remarkable or rather say a bit under-specced. I guess it is as I've described in a post above - the aircon will not really manage to get to 22°C in cooling mode, but since it is an inverter aircon and it might get close to 22°C, the compressor is not running at full power because it thinks the set temperature is almost in reach. Well thinking of it again, my Samsung non-inverter 12000BTU aircons run at 1KW, so if yours is running at "under kw - probably around 500w" that confirms what I've said above and this is a perfect example where the inverter aircon will save you money compared to a non-inverter aircon, which will run at full power without cycling because it can also not reach 22°C as in this case.

Maybe he meant to say it is quite quiet.

The IRF540N is similar to the 45N15, if they've used IRF540's in your unit than it is not a problem. You local electronics supplier might or might not have the diodes, I can't tell, but otherwise you can try one of the bigger suppliers e.g. Mantech R8.79 ex VAT RS R9.71 ex VAT each per pack of 5

I've used about 400m x 15mm irrigation pipe. This is a pic of the initial installation in 2006. Initially I had 21 coils each connected between the 2 headers, but soon realised that the pool pump was not pushing water through all the coils and then "rewired" all the coils to only have 7 parallel "strings" of 3 coils in series each. A bit later I've replace the headers to get rid of all the unused blanked-off saddles. 2 years ago some of the black pipe stated to get brittle and leak and I've replaced some of it, but some of it is still the original pipe after 10 years - that was the cheaper pipe guaranteed only for 5 years. It takes less than 3 minutes to replace the hot water in the pipes with cooler water from the pool so I've used one of the cheap (R100) digital timers with 8 programs to control the pool pump, switching it on 8 times a day for 3 minutes at a time at intervals of about 30 minutes - that is a total pool pump run time of 24 minutes per day. In mid-summer I bypass the heating coils because the water temp easily goes from 20°C to about 33°C in a day. Must admit it is only a 5kl splash pool, but if you increase the total length of pipe etc. you might be able to achieve the desired water temp in a bigger pool as well.

While we're a bit off-topic, I had an APC 3000VA UPS with 4 x 102Ah batteries before I went the solar & infini route - both wired into the DB. Both APC and infini switches fast enough to never switch off or badly dip anything including any of my Samsung TVs, the Yamaha amp or the MEDE8ER - a transition is only sometimes noticed on certain lights e.g. fluorescent tubes, but not on CFLs and LEDs - the filter caps in their PSUs prevent a visible dip. Maybe this bit of useless information might help someone in future.

OK, the diode (2 legs) is a BYV29 and the FETs (3 legs) are 45N15's

No worries, just my 2c.

Just check the cap as well, that cap looks a bit small to be used as a dropper in such a circuit. If I judge that cap by its size it is probably a 10nF or 22nF. Using the formula for capacitive reactance 1/2*Pi*F*C for 10nF, it gives you a capacitive reactance of 318K ohm and using ohms law (V/R) that will give a current of roughly 0.75mA at 240VAC. Say the secondary side of the SMPS gives 12V only (usually 5V, 12V and sometimes a few other voltages as well) and ignoring all losses etc. that would result in a current of about 15mA @ 12V. That might not even cover the load resistance on the SMPS output stage.

The symbol of the dual inductor looks similar to a symbol of a transformer, but it is wired differently - just trace the tracks on the board. It also has far to little windings to handle mains if used as a transformer.

I currently have one at home which I need to repair - also got some water in. There are two FETs (3 legs) and a diode (2 legs) (all 3 TO220 package components) in a row - I will get the part numbers tonight. Those might not be the only components which need to be replaced though.

A bit late to the conversation, but just trace that circuit again. The cap in green is usually not a capacitive dropper in this instance, but rather a filter cap connected between live and neutral on the incoming AC - that is the cap Coulomb mentioned which might fail because of the sharp rise and fall times. The "transformer" in the red block is usually a dual inductor / coil filter, not a transformer - effectively an inductor in both the live and neutral lines wound around a single iron core.

Yes, they can.

Yes, 2 panels per string would be within the safe MPPT Voc, BUT the voltage would be to low for the MPPT to work 99% of the time. If the MPPT cannot do its thing, you essentially waste power. Yes, when the batteries are charged and the load is low, you are not going to use the power in any case, BUT when the batteries are not charged and/or the load is high enough to make use of all the available power from the panels, you will have less available power using 2 panels per string than what you would have with 3 panels per string and the MPPT doing what it is designed for. The Voc of 3 panels per string is still well below the max PV input voltage of the inverter, so no worries there.

OK, looking at the "combiner boxes" it seems that you have 6 strings - I assume 2 panels in series per string. The Voc of 250W panels are about 38V per panel and the Vmpp is around 31V per panel, thus having two panels in series per string will give you a Voc of about 76V per string and a Vmpp of about 62V per string. Your inverter has a maximum PV input voltage of 145V and the MPPT will operate with a voltage between 60 and 115V. Say you have a bright sunny day in summer and an irradiance of 1000W per m2, low ambient temperature and the sun hitting the panels at 90° you should get about 62V per string, but since it is winter, with probably a much lower irradiance than 1000W per m2 and the sun not hitting the panels at 90° all the time you should seldom reach anything close to 62V per string and therefor the MPPT in the inverter will probably never work at all. As mentioned earlier in this thread the ideal PV array using your existing panels would be in a "4 parallel strings of 3 panels each connected in series" configuration - that would give you an open circuit voltage of about 114V, which is much lower than the maximum input voltage of 145V on the inverter and under ideal conditions the panels will produce a max power point voltage of about 93V per string which is well within the MPPT range of the inverter (60V - 115V). So what it comes down to is to re-wire the panels in a 4 x 3 configuration and while you do that add a fuse per string as well (if you currently don't have any installed) (PV string fuses are usually installed in the combiner boxes and your's do not have any installed).

Very good advice indeed. I've experienced a similar situation, but with cooling. On the hot summer days you could feel the heat radiating through the ceiling if you held your hand about 30cm away and the ceiling was warm when touched. Then I decided to install isotherm and did a test in one of the rooms by covering only a section of the ceiling with some isotherm and you could clearly feel the difference below - no more heat radiating from the ceiling where the isotherm was installed and the ceiling was not warm if touched although the section not covered with isotherm still radiated heat and was warm when touched.