superdiy

Yes, we have a "single plate" one. Used it about 4 times and now it sits in the cupboard. If I remember correctly mine draws up to 2000W. It does heat the food etc faster than a conventional plate, but peak current draw is still a lot. So, if you intend to save on total usage, then you can go for it, but if you want to lower your peak draw e.g. from an inverter, the induction cooker won't help much - it may even draw more (peak) power than a conventional plate turned on low heat. Keep in mind that not all pots and pans work on the induction cooker - easy test is if a magnet will stick to the bottom of the pot or pan, it should work on the induction cooker.

batterypitstop.co.za is the cheapest I could find.

The Infinis have an endless amount of configuration options. By checking/un-checking one check-box you can configure the Infini to feed back to the grid or not. So, yes, the Infini can do all 3.

If you want to run your servers from solar most of the time you would obviously need more than 800W if their constant consumption is 800W. To get 800W from solar panels you would need to have 4 x 200W PV panels with direct sunlight and an irradiance of 1000W/m2 - that is ideal conditions without any losses. Currently (not summer) you will not necessarily get irradiance of 1000W/m2 and unless you are planning to use a sun-tracker to ensure that the sun hits your panels directly, you will not get 800W from 4 x 200W panels, not even in summer. Then you still have to add losses in cabling and the efficiency of the inverter. You don't have to get the 5KVA unit, according to the user manuals the 2KVA 24V Plus and 48V Plus models will accept PV up to 1500W and the 3KVA 24V Plus and 48V Plus models will accept PV up to 3000W - just make sure you get the "plus" models. I would suggest that you add panels of at least double the power required by your servers, in order to charge the batteries if and when access PV power is available. You did not mention if you want to run the servers off-grid (only from PV and batteries) or not, because if you want to run them off-grid, you might have to re-calculate everything, because then you might need much more batteries and more than 3000W of PV panels.

Hi Chrisy You can try Delano, not sure if he has stock at the moment, but you can contact him. http://www.gumtree.co.za/u-seller-listings/v1u100261270p1

You mentioned somewhere that you have separate earths for the PV panels and the rest of your house. To me this sound like a possible earth-leak as soon as enough power comes from the panels (10:00 to 11:00 in the morning as you've mentioned in a later post). Do you perhaps have the battery NEGATIVE grounded anywhere - you should not have! I am wondering if your specific type of prepaid meter does not have a kind of earth leakage detection built-in and that maybe causes it to trip when the PV gets a certain amount of sun and a leak above the trip-point is generated. I would suggest to link the PV panel's earth to the main house earth and see what happens.

Hi Wetkit The correct method of connecting your cold water to your taps etc is after the pressure control valve (T-junction between the pressure control valve and the geyser inlet). If you connect your cold water feeding your taps, toilets etc. after your pressure control valve you will have balanced pressure at all your fittings. Mixer taps will have the same pressure on hot and cold water and when somebody flushes the toilet the guy that showers will not start to burn. If you connect the "balanced" cold water supply to the "mixing valve" you will effectively add the same pressure cold water and hot water to it and you won't need check valves (one-way valves) in the hot water line. If the existing plumbing's cold water taps are currently connected to high pressure and you cannot change it easily, you can still connect the "mixing valve's" cold inlet to "after the pressure control valve" to have the incoming hot and cold water pressure on the "mixing valve" balanced - then you still don't need a check-valve for the hot water line. Since you will now have balanced pressure on the "mixing valve" all the time (hot and cold water pressure will always be the same), you will not run into the problem of having a "pressure drop on the cold water" as you described either.

Now looking at this inverter again - it is a re-branded InfiniSolar with a slighly different front cover plate....

OK, I thought the charge controller was the issue here...

May I ask why you decided on 6 strings of 3 panels each instead of maybe 2 strings with 9 panels each? Or can the charge controller not handle a higher PV input voltage?

So which way is North? Is the vacuum tube collector facing North? Do you get any power from the panels on the right hand side in the picture? How are the panels connected, one serial string on the left and another serial string on the right either connected to two separate string connections on the charge controller or the 2 strings connected in parallel or as one serial string?

Not in the house, but in the garage in my case. The Infini has 2 variable speed fans which run most of the time - they are not very noisy, but you don't want the inverter installed in your living room though. Our average usage is between 400 and 450 kWh per month, approximately 14/15 units per day. It is too soon to tell, but I think the system might produce enough power for our household.

Thanks

Finally, I've almost completed my installation. It is running already, but I still need to tidy up a few things and install the 12th PV panel. I decided half-way through the installation to space the panels further apart and ended up with 5 rows instead of the planned 6 rows. I'm going to mount the 12th panel in line with the single panel in the middle row, but first I need to paint that section of the roof. The initial switch on was just after 15:00 on Saturday and I was amazed with the amount of energy still generated till early evening when the sun was hitting the panels at an almost 0