Tursiops

I am purchasing a new Sunsynk 8 kW inverter and 1 x Dyness 5.12 kW battery to replace a Kodak inverter and 2 x Pylontech batteries on an existing installation. The PV panels, wiring from the panels and into the main DB board, breakers, etc., are already installed as part of my original setup. Can anyone indicate what the typical ballpark cost an installer in the East Rand area will charge to do this, in order that the warranties on the new equipment are valid. The installation is in the main house and no new wiring is required. It should really be a "plug-and-play" type scenario as far as I am concerned.

I currently have an off-grid Kodak OG-Plus 5.48 inverter, which looks like it might be failing and thus need to be replaced. If my system is able to generate excess power, can a hybrid inverter be used to supply excess current into the parts of my home that are on separate circuits from the solar installation (i.e. in my case primarily two geysers and an electric oven)? In terms of price, how much more can one expect to pay for an off-grid inverter vs a hybrid (?) that can do the above, and what recommendations do users have for brands that can do the above in say an 8 kW inverter? (As an aside, I have never been completely happy with my Kodak - most of the time it worked okay, but from time to time it would lose its settings and supply electricity from the mains when the output priority had been set to SBU for example).

I posted a question yesterday with regard to a problem on my Kodak off-grid inverter. I subsequently noticed that one of my Pylontech batteries is also swollen. It is a small system installed in January 2020 - 1 x Kodak OG-Plus 5.48 inverter and 2 x Pylontech US 2000 batteries, and it seems like it is reaching the end of its life (much earlier than hoped/anticipated when first installed). I would probably like to install an 8 kW inverter and a single battery to start with, and add more as I can afford to do. I want to post a separate question with regard to off-grid vs hybrid vs grid-tied inverters in another forum, so here I think just to stick to the topic I am looking for brand recommendations in terms of the items below. TBH I have really struggled with after-sales support in trying to do the DIY approach to solar, with Segen Solar absolutely refusing to deal with end users. Easy of installation, operation and management Quality After sales support and warranty

Hi, my system consists of the above Kodak inverter and 2 X Pylontech US2000 batteries. It is several years old and has run without any issues for a long time (except that now and then the inverter seems to lose its settings). We have just had a power failure, however, and I encountered an F03 problem. I have tried resetting everything several times by turning off the batteries, but to no avail. As the municipal power supply is down, after a few restarts, it has reached the stage where the inverter stays on for a minute or so and then powers off on its own. The batteries are both measuring 50.2 V on their output terminals. The Kodak inverter manual says "Return to repair centre" for this error code. Any ideas??? I do not know who to even contact for technical assistance anymore. Segen Solar do not deal with the public, and a very helpful installer who assisted me previously when I had some problems around 2020 or 2021 apparently passed away. I cannot remember his name.

I have a few questions relating to settings on my Kodak OG 5.48 Plus inverter currently running with 2 x Pylontech USB 2000C batteries that i have never fully understood. 1. Maximum charging current always reverts to 10 A - according to the battery settings for my batteries it should be N x 20 A where N is the number of batteries - i.e. 40 A. I set it to 40 A, save the settings and when I go back in it has reverted to 10 A. Why is this? 2. Is ECO mode the same as bypass mode? If running in ECO mode, solar and battery power is only ever utilised in the event of the utility failure? This is then obviously not the ideal setting if I want to utilise solar power or stored battery power? 3. If I set 10 (Operation logic) to Auto and Bypass function (23) to disable but not forbidden, if there is an overload on the system and the inverter switches to bypass mode, it stays in bypass mode indefinitely until I reset it. Is this normal?

To be honest I do not know what corrected my issue. I powered everything off at the time and turned it on again as I did when the installation was new. Nothing. I spoke to two installation "experts" that the company I purchased from referred me to (my sytem was installed by a "solar non-expert" electrician, and I didn't even bother trying to get assistance from him), but they did not help other than confirming that there seemed to be a problem on the inverter. I then returned the Kodak inverter to the supplier. It was sent off to the agent - Segen. After 3 weeks at Segen, the inverter was returned to me with the report that they found nothing wrong. I reinstalled it myself and voila it worked. So you tell me? I have to be honest, if I wrote the firmware on my inverter seems to be buggy. Offhand I cannot remember, but I think I cannot get the system to work properly in SLB UDC mode (option 16 I think on the settings). Also, the system keeps resetting the maximum solar current to a very low value without me changing anything. No doubt there is other nonsense in the firmware that is also buggy if I had the inclination to go through all the settings. Also, if I had to write the firmware, there are other very useful settings I would include that are just not available.

The voltage on the battery terminals is 0.

Good day I am not sure if this is a battery or inverter problem. I thought it was the inverter, but the chaps from Solar Advice who sold me the system tell me I should start by checking my batteries. Batteries - 2 x Pylon Tech US2000B Plus 2.4 kWh Inverter - KODAK Solar Off-Grid Inverter King with UPS 5kW 48V Yesterday afternoon/early evening we discovered that there was no power supply to our house from our solar power system. When I went out to check the system, I discovered that the inverter was completely dead. I tried switching everything off and on again, but it did not power up. The screen is dead, the fan is not running and the batteries did also not seem to have charged. The only lights on the batteries are the LEDS showing that the battery is turned on, but all the others are dead. Up to this point as far as I know the system was 100% fine aside from some initial minor teething problems in February when it was installed. According to the Solar Advice people, the inverter will not power up if there is no supply to it from the batteries. The components are still supposed to be covered by the warranties, but as I first step do I need to check my batteries? If yes, how/where? I do not have access to a battery charger of my own that I can use. (I am on the East Rand if anyone this side of the world can help me or direct me to someone who can assist). Any useful advice will be greatly appreciated.

10 - AUt 23 - bYE

Thanks, reading the manual does help, I glossed over it and got stuck at trying to fathom out what is meant by Eco mode. Question for another day. However, I still have a problem - I set it to SLb, UdC, but it seems that solar is still only charging the battery with the load being supplied directly from the utility via bypass. I would have thought that on this setting, only spare capacity from solar would be directed to the batteries?

Hi, I am new to solar power. I have recently installed a system with: 1 x 5 kW 48 V Kodak King inverter 2 x Pylontech US 2000 batteries 2 kW array of panels Output source priority is set to SBU. At the moment the system appears to configured so that the batteries are being charged from both solar and the utility. I want to change this, so that only solar is able to charge the batteries. It seems I do not have enough storage on the system and the batteries run out during the early hours of the morning, at which point they charge from mains. This seems pointless. Mains should take over and provide power to my home when the batteries are low and there is no/insufficient power, but mains should not be charging the batteries. At least not normally - I am happy to occasionally manually change this for example if load shedding is expected and the batteries are low due to say cloudy weather. Ideally - what I want is guidance on the best settings to optimize electricity saving and maximise the use of solar while minimizing the use of mains power. Thanks.