Rclegg

It definitely fixed my issue; which was very similar to this. Voltage was 160 or so - then reconfigured and now its 280v and the issue went away. MPPT seems much happier at that level.

Love that Grafana dashboard. Would you mind sharing what panel components you use for the yellow / blue / red blocks at the top of the dashboard? I'd like to add something like that to my dashboard too. The consumption graph is a great idea too.. adding that to mine now lol Thanks

37A is the recommended max daw. 74 being the max. Though it will do 100a for like 15 seconds and that will probably void the warranty. I don't think going over 37a for a short period will cause warranty to be void.

The issue appears to be the MPPT voltage range, You're exceeding that and each time you do, the MPPT shuts down. Ideally, you want 2 panels per string. So you will need to reconfigure them to groups of 2, instead of three.

Okay, so yeah your second screenshot shows an issue. How have you configured these panels? That inverter has a max 145VDC - I wonder if the MPPT is not dropping, due to too much voltage from the panels. 12 x 330 is a lot for that inverter, voltage wise. You'd need to have small string sizes, of like 3 to 4 panels, depending on the specs.

As a comparison; here's my ICC as of right now House is using 0 watts from the grid. And 3900watts from the PV - load watts is 3400 or so, which means the inverter is supplying that from the PV. When the batteries are being used you will see a minus sign next to the value - eg: -1000 or so.

Wait. I have just looked at this again, properly. This is correct. You see Grid Watts is zero? It means the PV is carrying the load AND charging batteries.

See post below

I believe their issue is once the batteries are charged, they start draining due to carrying the house load. When, what should happen is the inverter should use power from the panels to supply the load, until there is not enough power from then, and only then switch too batteries.

Not strictly true for all Axperts. The king will blend with the grid. The unit I have, (Also Axpert) will blend with battery + PV to supply the load. If that isn't enough, then it goes to grid (or if the spike in load is very high, it goes to grid)

I don't think that would work, no.

Hi Deon, Which regulations have you read about that limit? I know in CoCT there is a 3.5Kw limit of sorts. As far the inverter, it comes down to budget and expectations. The Blue stuff (Victron) is very nice - however out of budget for a lot of people. So, that's generally what drives the decision making process there. I went for the Axpert MKSII 5Kva unit and its been working flawlessly. It might not last as long as the Blue Stuff will, and thus when it does break, I will replace it with the Blue Stuff if budget allows. Batteries: I went for the Pylontech 3.5kw batteries. A lot of people on these forums use them and recommend them. There are others though as you mentioned; can't comment on them.

Give HomeAssistant a try, if you haven't already. It makes controlling and automations all the smart devices much easier. I have ICC sending data to my HomeAssistant to then automate stuff based on PV production and inverter mode etc.

What about when the sun disappears and there is a power outage for 8hrs? Can you system cope with that? The only reason I am adding more batteries is to stay off the grid as much as possible during the night. That's it.

In my case, I will keep adding batteries until I can't charge them all during the day using the PV. I want to get as much as I can out of my panels; currently after 10am (When the single Pylontech I have atm is fully charged) My PV drops from 4kw/h to 1.6kw/h (House + pool) - So I am "wasting" up to 12 Kw/h a day - 370 kw/h a month. So for me, adding another one or two batteries is worth it. So happens that the second Pylontech should arrive on Thursday.

I'm in the same boat there. I wanted predictable energy. Once I had decided that was a goal; I did not really bother looking into ROI too much. All I know is the more I get off the grid, the more predictability I will gain. So far, I have managed to keep my lights on, including every plug in the house during the two load shedding events since the system was installed. At that point, I couldn't care less what the ROI is; I had power. The other question I wanted to answer was this: If Eskom magically ended load-shedding, tomorrow - would I still pull the trigger on the solar setup? Yes, yes I would.

In my opinion, if you buy those types of batteries, you use them every day. I drain my to 20% each day, regardless of what Eskom is doing or their prices etc. These batteries are designed to be discharged 6000 times. No point spending that sort of money on a battery and keeping it 100% each day, for the load shedding periods. That's wastage.

Enjoy! Great batteries!

I went with pylontech - no regrets. Just an amazing battery.

Yeah that just means the batteries are full. If you read the manual for them it will give you all the various states and their meaning.

Ooooooh yeah okay that makes more sense! 😅

What sort of loads are you running to have such a short period out of two Pylons? My single pylon does 2-3hrs. But loads are under 1kw constant. My pylon gets discharged to roughly 35% SoC as I only start discharging them from 5am when I switch from grid to Solar / Battery. But 7:30 the solar has picked up enough to carry the loads and the battery is at 35%

Not true. What if the DIY installation caused a fire and burnt the place down? Insurance will not cover it.

Looks like a scam site. Also, I see http://solarenergyrsa.co.za is now dead.

Not directly, no. You'll need to go through ICC.