Craigm

That's a good point. 
 
I stay in Pretoria east, where we have regular unscheduled blackouts for extended periods. My current system is adequate for our needs, but has some limitations. The biggest pain point is hot water. I want to put in a changeover switch, so that I can switch the non-essential side over the essential in the event of a longer term grid failure. I'd be more comfortable having more PV capacity when switching over. 
 
The system is paying itself off nicely so far. The upgrade is less about pay back, but more for extra convenience at this point. That's on top of our increased usage as my wife continues to install aircons and have babies 😂

It would not make a difference, may need to extend the cable connecting the panels but not difficult and shouldn't be a problem.

Success!!!!
 
I contacted HARMAN (who took over Adobe AIR) and they provided me with a link to the runtime.  Small download, install and it works.
 
Here is the link for anyone else who might face the same challenges as I did.
 
https://airsdk.harman.com/runtime

Success!!!!
 
I contacted HARMAN (who took over Adobe AIR) and they provided me with a link to the runtime.  Small download, install and it works.
 
Here is the link for anyone else who might face the same challenges as I did.
 
https://airsdk.harman.com/runtime

I smelt the cookies, no smoke. 
 
I jumped on the app an hour after this peak, didn't even realise it. I was in a meeting at the time. 
 
Most of the load was on the non-essential side (ovens, pool pump, kettle) but there was also a fair load on the essential side (dishwasher, washing machine plus normal idle load). 
I love it when my wife gets in these moods (bake and clean), I just wonder when we'll see the smoke. (I am sure the system would trip if it wasn't happy, but so far so good). 

You aren't really comparing apples with apples. 
 
Assuming you're talking about the geyserwise pv kit, this will generate more power to heat your water. Your listed alternative is another battery, which is storage.
 
If your objective is to save more, get a water heater. If it is to run your house off battery for longer, get a battery. It's not worth it to heat water from a battery. 
 
Personally, I'd add more panels and heat your current geyser through your new system. 

You aren't really comparing apples with apples. 
 
Assuming you're talking about the geyserwise pv kit, this will generate more power to heat your water. Your listed alternative is another battery, which is storage.
 
If your objective is to save more, get a water heater. If it is to run your house off battery for longer, get a battery. It's not worth it to heat water from a battery. 
 
Personally, I'd add more panels and heat your current geyser through your new system. 

You aren't really comparing apples with apples. 
 
Assuming you're talking about the geyserwise pv kit, this will generate more power to heat your water. Your listed alternative is another battery, which is storage.
 
If your objective is to save more, get a water heater. If it is to run your house off battery for longer, get a battery. It's not worth it to heat water from a battery. 
 
Personally, I'd add more panels and heat your current geyser through your new system. 

Bull 6.4kWh.
I just prefer to step it down gradually over the course of the evening, to make sure there is enough capacity for a longer term outrage. But his night time idle load seems pretty low, so it should be sufficient. It's all trial and error at the moment, as long as we get the basics right. 
 
He changed soc to 75% and caught it there, battery stopped discharging as expected. 

Very exciting this!! I'd be keen to give the BETA dongle a go! Does anyone know how to get hold of one?  Any installers that I could arrange to get one from, when they arrive, please? 

Success!!!!
 
I contacted HARMAN (who took over Adobe AIR) and they provided me with a link to the runtime.  Small download, install and it works.
 
Here is the link for anyone else who might face the same challenges as I did.
 
https://airsdk.harman.com/runtime

I ended up going for the sunsynk. I've had it running for about 3 weeks, no complaints! 

You can work on the following rule-of-thumb.
Your PV will generate between 4-6 times your PV installed over the year, usually 4 in Winter and 6 in Summer. So you're talking 20kWh to 30kWh max on a cloud free, cool day.
With your pitch of roof, you will probably get very good generation in Winter and not to good in summer.
Remember that the 20kWh is produced from dawn to dusk, so you will not get 5kWx4hrs, you will get a normal bell curve with max generation between 11am - 2 pm in Winter. In summer from 10am to 3pm...See my PV generation profile. Clouds and rain etc. will give you the spikes, tree shade will eat into it as well.
This production is with 6kW installed PV, where only 4.8kW is generated and then if there is additional load or battery needs charging it will go to 6kW briefly.
 

I had a chat to one of the guys at Solar Advice. They have rebranded the Deye and will be providing the support for them. They got 100 of them. 
 
I have the manual. Would anyone with the Sunsynk be keen to do a quick comparison? I don't want to kick myself later for saving the 2.5k if it's not worth it. 

I was given a link to this forum by Richard Mackay who thought I would be interested in the topic. After reading through the posts it would appear that no one on this forum has used, or owns, the Geyserwise product.
We lost our house in the 2017 Knysna fires but rebuilt on the same site in 2018. In the process, having always being interested in the solar topics, I decided to invest in the Geyserwise system for the new build. I have found, over the last two years, that the system does what it says on the box!
The installed system is as follows:
1) Panel orientation, North East
2) Panels set flat on the roof with a pitch of 30 degrees.
3) Panels, Renesola standard 250 watt, 3off.
4) Geyser 150l Kwikhot mounted vertically on South wall.
5) Standard geyser blanket fitted.
6) Element Geyserwise dual AC2.2kW/DC(8-72volt)
7) DC element set to a maximum of 60 degrees.
8) I have installed a voltmeter and ammeter on the DC input to the geyser so that I can see what is going on.
9) Electricity availability charge roughly R4.00 per day.
10) Electricity charges are roughly R2.00 per kW.
My personal details are:
1) Retired.
2) 2 persons in the house.
3) Hot water is used for showering(no bath in the house) , generally once a day in the evening. hand washing etc when necessary and sink duties 2 times a day. We have no dishwasher, never have had.
4) No domestic help.
5) Cooking is carried out using a combination of induction hob combined with two gas burners and a double oven. My wife does a fair amount of baking.
6) We have two cooked meals a day, full English breakfast and lunch. We do not eat out a lot.
7) There is one large fridge/freezer unit.
8) All lighting is LED.
9) We have no electric space heaters. I have tried to insulate the new house as well as possible and our climate is fairly mild.
10) I have a number of fair size machines in my workshop.
I am sketching this all out as a previous poster has mentioned, quite correctly, your power consumption depends entirely on your lifestyle and without this information you cannot make an informed assessment! Also, as someone has posted the solar salesmen are salesmen….
Because of my interest in solar water heating I kept a detailed record of power consumption in the previous house. The long term average was 13kW per day.
With the Geyserwise system installed our household power consumption is now between 7 and 8 kW per day during summer and 9 to 10kw per day in winter. From the above detail I am saving approximately R5.00 per day in winter and R9.00 in summer.
In retrospect I would consider an additional panel to support the winter power generation. This power would however go to waste in summer?
 

@Craigm I am no expert, but the Geyserwise PV system is specified so that it normally heat your geyser in around half the day. So if all conditions are good your tank should be heated by midday(ich).
However it is never just so easy. It depends on the sun your house receives, the weather, your water usage, geyser size and your house efficiencies (long distance from the geyser to where you use the hot water). 
Do the following test: switch your geyser on around 11am for 3 hours and then switch it off. That should be enough to heat the water to temperature. 
Now use your hot water as described above and see if it last. 
This is what any solar geyser will give you. You get the water heated during the day while the sun is shining. In winter there is less sun and in summer there is more. 
When you use hot water in the evening it is replaced with cold water. During the night this cold and hot water does exchange heat between the layers in your geyser giving you not so hot water in the morning (no matter how much you insulate your geyser as the cold water is already inside).
So in practice you will see that if everyone showers in the evening, or everyone showers in the morning a solar system will work fine. 
If some people shower in the evening you will need to use electricity to heat the water for the morning shower person to feel happy.


PS. This is true for any solar geyser system. 

Thanks @Fuenkli. I didn't expect that answer at all, but it's refreshing to see the honesty!  Based on my consumption, I know my break even point is far far into my future.  I did the sums on a solar geyser (based on consumption at the time) and it was a 30 year break even period. I wont be in the house that long. Decided not to go that route until something drastically changes.
The trolley option I view as a pure cost and will be for convenience only.
I hear you regarding the subsidy. But I am also cognizant of the fact that panels might be taxed at some point, which we cannot factor into our calcs at the moment.

Hi guys
 
I grew up with an interest in electronics, playing with peg boards and electronics kits. I was heading towards a technical career, until the world of finance called. I still do the odd DIY project with DC and AC and get my hands dirty, but nothing hectic. Electrickery can kill you, so there's a healthy respect there. 
 
I, like many, am becoming increasingly frustrated with the loadshedding situation. I have managed fine by just being prepared and dealing with the inconvenience. However, I have a little one on the way (due late April) which changes things.  I cannot leave my wife and newborn at home with no electricity, especially due to the fact that I have no cell signal (I live in a cell signal dead spot). So it’s time to make a plan.
 
I have an efergy power monitor so I know what my average daily consumption and peak consumption is.  I have reduced my consumption pretty much as far as I can, by decreasing geyser temp, changing to LED lights etc.  I use about 4.5kwh per day (excluding geyser and stove) and apparently that’s pretty low.
 
Based on my interest in electronics and gadgets, together with the consumption and backup requirements, I have started looking around at various solutions. This forum was mentioned on another forum that I am on, so I came to check it out and am amazed at the amount of knowledge that is here. I have A LOT of reading to do!
 
Originally, I started off thinking small.  I need to keep the internet going for about 3 hours at a time. I checked my “box of random cables” and found that an old nokia 3310 charger fits the router and an old printer power supply fits the optical unit. I thought of cutting these cables and attaching to a decent 12v battery.  Charge the battery when AC available.  I could probably do this under R1k, as well as get some extra batteries and cheap Chinese DC lights/LED strips dotted around the house.  Bit of a hassle and manual intervention required. But ticks a box and is cheap.
 
OR….I looked at the long use UPS options. A basic inverter with 2 lead acid batteries in a trolley format, plug relevant appliances into trolley.  Lots of cheapies around and most have high voltage variances (only the 5kVa Axpert was ±5%, others were 10% or more). This option, with 200ah, was about R11k.  More capacity, can run more appliances, still a bit of hassle, requiring extension cords etc. But ticks more boxes.
 
OR….If I am going the inverter route, do it properly and wire into DB. Run all light and plug circuits. Don’t feel loadshedding. Happy days. Extra $$$. Then I think to myself, if I go this route I must add panels, and if I add panels, I might as well get a hybrid inverter and feed back into the grid (I have a rotational meter).  Here I was looking at a Goodwe 4ES 4.6kva with 2.4 - 4.8kwh and add some panels. And then I got a quote from an installer with a Schneider 4kw, Pylontech 4kwh system at R150k.  At this point, I get despondent and take a long walk to forget about it.  The slippery slope catches me and by the time I stop to look up, I have a system that way exceeds my budget and requirements.
 
I am going to read up more on this forum and hope that the slope isn’t so slippery this time round.  I am open to any and all advice, I really appreciate it.
 
Cheers
Craig

Hi guys
 
I grew up with an interest in electronics, playing with peg boards and electronics kits. I was heading towards a technical career, until the world of finance called. I still do the odd DIY project with DC and AC and get my hands dirty, but nothing hectic. Electrickery can kill you, so there's a healthy respect there. 
 
I, like many, am becoming increasingly frustrated with the loadshedding situation. I have managed fine by just being prepared and dealing with the inconvenience. However, I have a little one on the way (due late April) which changes things.  I cannot leave my wife and newborn at home with no electricity, especially due to the fact that I have no cell signal (I live in a cell signal dead spot). So it’s time to make a plan.
 
I have an efergy power monitor so I know what my average daily consumption and peak consumption is.  I have reduced my consumption pretty much as far as I can, by decreasing geyser temp, changing to LED lights etc.  I use about 4.5kwh per day (excluding geyser and stove) and apparently that’s pretty low.
 
Based on my interest in electronics and gadgets, together with the consumption and backup requirements, I have started looking around at various solutions. This forum was mentioned on another forum that I am on, so I came to check it out and am amazed at the amount of knowledge that is here. I have A LOT of reading to do!
 
Originally, I started off thinking small.  I need to keep the internet going for about 3 hours at a time. I checked my “box of random cables” and found that an old nokia 3310 charger fits the router and an old printer power supply fits the optical unit. I thought of cutting these cables and attaching to a decent 12v battery.  Charge the battery when AC available.  I could probably do this under R1k, as well as get some extra batteries and cheap Chinese DC lights/LED strips dotted around the house.  Bit of a hassle and manual intervention required. But ticks a box and is cheap.
 
OR….I looked at the long use UPS options. A basic inverter with 2 lead acid batteries in a trolley format, plug relevant appliances into trolley.  Lots of cheapies around and most have high voltage variances (only the 5kVa Axpert was ±5%, others were 10% or more). This option, with 200ah, was about R11k.  More capacity, can run more appliances, still a bit of hassle, requiring extension cords etc. But ticks more boxes.
 
OR….If I am going the inverter route, do it properly and wire into DB. Run all light and plug circuits. Don’t feel loadshedding. Happy days. Extra $$$. Then I think to myself, if I go this route I must add panels, and if I add panels, I might as well get a hybrid inverter and feed back into the grid (I have a rotational meter).  Here I was looking at a Goodwe 4ES 4.6kva with 2.4 - 4.8kwh and add some panels. And then I got a quote from an installer with a Schneider 4kw, Pylontech 4kwh system at R150k.  At this point, I get despondent and take a long walk to forget about it.  The slippery slope catches me and by the time I stop to look up, I have a system that way exceeds my budget and requirements.
 
I am going to read up more on this forum and hope that the slope isn’t so slippery this time round.  I am open to any and all advice, I really appreciate it.
 
Cheers
Craig