Yellow Measure

No need to flash the firmware on the Sonoff stuff as they all have LAN support. Only time you would want to flash is if Sonoff and eWelink dissapeared.

I still have the 8 kVA multiplus, and it is bore than what we need. Maximum draw, with the geyser and oven on is around 6.8 kW (with typical use), and I am installing a heatpump the end of the month to remove that geyser element (2.8 kW down to 1.4 kW).
I bought a Pylontech battery cable from HDcabling, but it does not work. After tracing the error, I see that they had it incorrect, with them swapping pins 2 and 3 on the serial interface. I did fix it, but the cable still does not work, so I do not know if it is the USB - Serial cable that they supplied. So for now I cannot read the status of the batteries.
Anyone know where I can purchase a new and working Pylontech battery cable and USB interface, or have one made up in Pta. As a last resort, where I can borrow one (I am in Garsfontein area, Pta)?

Hi all,
Not sure if it's worth posting here, but there's a site listing gas refills across SA if anyone is interested:

GasNearMe
Not too shabby if you're looking for gas refills in the winter time

6-7 years ago Sunsynk was top of the pops, the darling of installers and homeowners alike. That honeymoon period has expired and lots of water has passed under the bridge. Their South African country manager (David Drake at the time) made written promises of loaner units for repairs / swop-out under warranty, which were later dishonored and rescinded, and which left a bad taste in many people's mouths.
The Sunsynk is not a bad inverter at all, I have one that hasn't skipped a beat for the past 6+ years. I have another that had a calibration issue since day one, which ought to have been returned under warranty, but I haven't done it (since 4 years ago) because it would inconvenience the client to be without a unit for the 6-8 weeks that it takes to decommission, ship, await repairs, reship and re-install. It's OK, does what it says on the box, but today it is hardly worth the price premium.
If I were to turn the clock back, in hindsight the Deye would have been the better choice (at the time).
If I were to do the same installations again today, I would rather install a Solis S6 series, far better support and warranty, and far more advanced technically than any Deye / Sunsynk, as well as a far cheaper price. Moreover they are a Tier-1 manufacturer with an excellent global reputation vs the Sunsynk / Deye's tier-2/3 status (at best).
Let me put it this way: If my own personal Sunsynk blows up today, I wouldn't even shop around, I would gladly replace it with a Solis S6 in a heartbeat. The 16K Solis S6 made its debut in April this year, the 5, 6, 8 and 12K quite a few months earlier than that. Check out Powerforumstore's reviews on the S6 range, they are great.

The power landscape could look totally different in years to come. Not it looks good to be off grid but if wheeling/virtual networks take off those with space might want to be on TOU and buy during off peak to sell during peak.
Hybrids would serve one well. Just a thought to have the extra functionality.

This is actually 2.56kwh - if it was 25.6kwh - steal of the Century!! Order 100

I need to agree with @Yellow Measure .
I personally have been in contact with solis support many times, most recently with my parallel setup. The installer made a mistake installing the second one, they got on the phone with me diagnosing the issue. I would never consider any other brand.

6-7 years ago Sunsynk was top of the pops, the darling of installers and homeowners alike. That honeymoon period has expired and lots of water has passed under the bridge. Their South African country manager (David Drake at the time) made written promises of loaner units for repairs / swop-out under warranty, which were later dishonored and rescinded, and which left a bad taste in many people's mouths.
The Sunsynk is not a bad inverter at all, I have one that hasn't skipped a beat for the past 6+ years. I have another that had a calibration issue since day one, which ought to have been returned under warranty, but I haven't done it (since 4 years ago) because it would inconvenience the client to be without a unit for the 6-8 weeks that it takes to decommission, ship, await repairs, reship and re-install. It's OK, does what it says on the box, but today it is hardly worth the price premium.
If I were to turn the clock back, in hindsight the Deye would have been the better choice (at the time).
If I were to do the same installations again today, I would rather install a Solis S6 series, far better support and warranty, and far more advanced technically than any Deye / Sunsynk, as well as a far cheaper price. Moreover they are a Tier-1 manufacturer with an excellent global reputation vs the Sunsynk / Deye's tier-2/3 status (at best).
Let me put it this way: If my own personal Sunsynk blows up today, I wouldn't even shop around, I would gladly replace it with a Solis S6 in a heartbeat. The 16K Solis S6 made its debut in April this year, the 5, 6, 8 and 12K quite a few months earlier than that. Check out Powerforumstore's reviews on the S6 range, they are great.

You make a good point, I was seeing it as an off-grid portable point solution, and it can only function as an off-grid inverter if it is Franken-monstered into a "solar house". Not impossible, but potentially troublesome.
It's still overpriced though, compared to the far more extensible and feature-rich the Hinen / Knyee combo at R18,342.50:
11.4kW solar input vs 6.5kW ;
2x low amperage MPPT vs 1x high amperage MPPT;
Parallel capable;
Hybrid connection possible vs off-grid;
Integrated Type II DC SPD & Type III AC SPD (amazing!);
Built-in aerosol fire extinguisher;
10-Year Warranty vs 5 on inverter only.

Power Forum Renewable Energy Store | By Powerforum.co.za
Hinen H6000-EU 6kW Hybrid Inverter + Knyee ES-LV-5 5.12kW...
Combo DEAL: Hinen H6000-EU 6kW Hybrid Inverter + Knyee ES-LV-5 5.12kWh Wall-Mounted Battery Combo High Performance Ultra-Quiet Advanced Safety 10Year Warranty

I didnt have experience with solar before we got the house but did get lucky in that the house can take 28 panels from the measurements I took. Currently my 12 panels are sitting on the garage roofs which dont have the best orientation to be honest but I am offgrid with how it is now. It was very easy to do the DIY install on the corrugated roofs they have than deal with the tiles on the house.

I can add another 16 to the house roof but will get a professional to come do it as it does get hot up there and have no interest in going through that exercise again. The orientation there is much better and will generate way more if I did. These are plans for the long long future though.

You reminded me of something quite important, which I forgot: Whilst house-hunting during 2019, I made a point of only viewing properties with:
a clear W-->N<--E view; and
0 degree azimuth (10-15 degrees max either side); and
a roof that can take 24+ panels.
I did not have to look long for a suitable home, and having made my wishlist upfront helped a lot.

I have a Sunsynk 5K, 6kWp on roof since 2020, and recently upgraded storage to 32K Hina (Knyee white-label), been off-grid since January 2026. I have been optimising usage and current drain over the past 6 years:
Outdoor heatpump for hot water;
Gas stove, oven is still AC, but I built a Pizza oven outside (and a whole outdoor kitchen too!);
Added 2x Inverter aircons (24000 + 18000 BTU);
Gas heater;
Slowly migrated current hungry devices, like firewall / router / NAS / security cameras / NVR to fanless low current models;
Don't operate Class-A amplifiers continuously, or moved to Class-D.
Next on the list is the fridge freezer, eyeing a Bosch AAA+ model.
Optimising a power budget is basically the same as running a bank account: You either create more income, or you cut / replace expenses, or a combination.

That's a great setup. Similar Journey to what I took also. We got the house in 2024 so right off the bat we got the most efficient items we could. We have 2 fridges, one outdoor by the pool house and a much bigger one indoor. Both Hisense and I kid you not when the big one runs it registers as 60W on the app. It uses nothing pretty much.

Only thing I need is the aircons but everything else is similar to you with Gas stove and Gas heaters. Might even add a 15kWh LFP battery in the next 2 years. No extra panels as I already generate much more than my consumption but that battery would allow life to continue without needing to switch off pool pump and fish pond during 3 days cloudy days.

I have a Sunsynk 5K, 6kWp on roof since 2020, and recently upgraded storage to 32K Hina (Knyee white-label), been off-grid since January 2026. I have been optimising usage and current drain over the past 6 years:
Outdoor heatpump for hot water;
Gas stove, oven is still AC, but I built a Pizza oven outside (and a whole outdoor kitchen too!);
Added 2x Inverter aircons (24000 + 18000 BTU);
Gas heater;
Slowly migrated current hungry devices, like firewall / router / NAS / security cameras / NVR to fanless low current models;
Don't operate Class-A amplifiers continuously, or moved to Class-D.
Next on the list is the fridge freezer, eyeing a Bosch AAA+ model.
Optimising a power budget is basically the same as running a bank account: You either create more income, or you cut / replace expenses, or a combination.

Do you know what the average wind speed is in the area where you want to install the wind turbine ?
Global Wind Atlas
The Global Wind Atlas is a free, web-based application developed to help policymakers, planners, and investors identify high-wind areas for wind power generation virtually anywhere in the world, and tThis resource will give you a good Idea of the average wind speed also to convert from MS to KPH simply multiply MS X 3.6 =KPH the resolution is quite low but will give an idea if its worth it Estimated cost installed for a decent 2KW turbine could easily cost up to about R130K all in.

After reading your posts, and understanding your approach (and limited budget), I think that it's worthwhile to think about the ultimate end-state as well as "systems thinking" in your visioning.
First-off: Good on you for focusing on the biggest culprit, and the area where the most possible gains can be realised.
Secondly, be mindful that you don't lose your peripheral vision in the process. People with limited budgets can rarely, if ever, create their dream system in one big bang. Each component is one building block of the bigger system, like a grain of sand in the mortar, the mortar holding one brick to another, a brick in a wall of bricks, a wall in a room, a room in a house, and a house in a home. Each component should be reusable. Even wealthier people make this mistake, and those that aren't as wealthy are prone to do so because of "sticker shock", or they limit their big-picture thinking because they are either 1) unable to prioritise their spending, or are 2) unable to see how the gradual spending / investment of smaller amounts eventually adds up to total independence from the Socialist Eskom / municipality. 6 years ago this wasn't my own goal, but in January the greedy socialist municipality forced me to choose it, at very little cost to myself because the foundation was solid.
Today you are solving one problem, but tomorrow will bring another, and so your solution needs to be extensible and not just a "point" or standalone solution. A parallel can be drawn to those that purchase Mecer trolleys to "keep the TV on" during loadshedding. It was a great solution at the time, for short periods of outage, but the downsides were that it was clunky, required a place to stay and trip-me-over extension leads, emitted explosive hydrogen gases, produced motor-killing square waves and was subject to the shallow cycles and maintenance requirements of lead-acid batteries. Woe betide anyone who had a surge-protector after the inverter, or who had plugged them into wall sockets when the power returned. When load-shedding intensified, some people simply bought more of them, so we found households with two or three of them. Those who were smart enough to realise that Eskom's inability to keep the lights on, as well as their constant billion rand bail-outs and price increases was endemic to Socialist agenda, went for solutions earlier on that were more extensible and could be upgraded without risk of the big BOOM!
Granted that point solutions have their place: a 10,000mAh power bank is useful and portable, and can be repurposed in hundreds of different ways, but it isn't a power or money saver.
Many who have had solar-powered geysers before installing a full-blown integrated solar system argue that in hindsight, precious North-facing roof space used by the solar geyser heating system would be better served if they could replace it with traditional solar panels, purely because the electricity generated could be redeployed to either charge batteries or service other loads
Someone who seems to have achieved his clear objectives (off-grid!) in record time, and very limited budget is @Denns in his post https://powerforum.co.za/topic/34183-exciting-long-term-review-new-hubble-energy-am16-am5-in-a-real-micro-grid-setup/#findComment-230500
You can bet that he didn't arrive at it all in one month though, so I leave it to him to expand on his journey and budget, which I am sure that you will find to be inspirational.

...if the temperature of the water in the geyser is insufficient. Otherwise it will do nothing.
...if the temperature of the water in the geyser is insufficient after a whole day of using the DC power from solar.

Any "smart" system is fallible, you always need an override.

Indeed, even the Tesla Powerwall 3 has a charge rating of 0.37C and a discharge rating of 0.85C.

That is a lot of Google reviews maybe they are legit but rather go to them then. Just be careful as I saw that address 160 main reef road being used by other scamming websites.

And that's how savings are achieved, whilst balancing lifestyle options. It uses the solar panels' DC in a super-efficient way to heat the water, but ensures that, regardless of solar conditions, you and you family will always have a warm shower (even if you have to pay extra for it).
It's still just a better mousetrap though, and will suffice if you have zero aspirations of becoming completely independent from the municipality for electricity.

The nice thing I saw about the Elon is you can see the water temp in the geyser. I can see him only needing 1 hour of heating in the morning the majority of days. If he determines that the geyser is getting up to temp fairly quickly off solar by around 1 or 2pm then I would push to add a second 150 litre geyser and use a contactor that is driven by the thermostat of the first one to start heating the second geyser. The second geyser being the input to the main geyser.

The hot water would definitely be enough then for morning showers without grid usage as the main geyser will get warm to hot water from the second geyser, reducing the temperature drop inside of it. That is my plan for when my hot water needs go up. Replace the element with a 3kW and add a second 150 litre geyser. From experience I know with 2 to 3 people the geyser is fully heated by around 1pm in summer and 2:30/3 in winter so I should be able to dump the excess solar into the second geyser.

And that's how savings are achieved, whilst balancing lifestyle options. It uses the solar panels' DC in a super-efficient way to heat the water, but ensures that, regardless of solar conditions, you and you family will always have a warm shower (even if you have to pay extra for it).
It's still just a better mousetrap though, and will suffice if you have zero aspirations of becoming completely independent from the municipality for electricity.

Ah yes. I missed that part 🤦🏽‍♂️
Few years back I had a solar tube system... And on the DB board I had a basic timer... Allowing mains power for 1 hour around 5pm and again at 3am. And exactly as you say, it's just allowing mains to be used ... If the water is already hot, no mains power is used.

Ok... Brainfart moment... maybe I'm missing something obvious, but could I find a correct-spec MPPT and a "smart something" to handle the app monitoring and timing stuff, and that ends up being a better solution than the Elon?

Ok I realised what I'm missing... The thermostat needs to feedback somehow or the MPPT will keep feeding power into the geyser
Scratch all of that... Thermostat and DC switching are both obvious things I didn't even consider