Guss Davey

I not getting the title of this topic: This is Mega Watts we speak about, so its for the big players. Don't think anyone here has a 100 million or so to spend on a solar plant. Maybe if you have 100's of hectare of farm under tunnels with lights, or you have a iron smelting factory in the back yard So the argument here is if we keep economy by scale in mind, is 10MW worth it for investors, or is 10MW enough for a icon smelting factory (maybe not), etc. On the regulations for small residential install, this proposed relations has NO effect on you. Your LOCAL MUNICIPALITY is the ones that make that dismission. It should be defined in the yearly budged, under the electricity rate section where they should list the rates and mark-up for selling and at what rate they willing to buy in. If your town do not have this, stop voting for the current hyenas. Make the change from the ground up.... and stop hoping it will come from the top down (it will never) In my local municipality, they buy residential feed in at about 50% of what they selling it back (rate level 1). But, for this you need to have a prescribed meter, which rental is R500. So you have to calculate if you getting money in, than the rental of the meter. Use case: Its summer, your 5KW, 10kw, 20kw batteries is 100% charged... you drawing 2000W of the grid and its 13:00 and your solar is putting out 7000W. So you either roll your meter back (also a special meter at R250 / m from my municipality) and get some funny calculated credit... or you go the R500 / month meter and they pay you 1/2 price for that 5000W excess power you generating. OR Stuff them, and let the excess go for a waste. Or if you one of those home automation fundi's you will automatically start up some stuff (pool pumps, irrigation, etc), just for the sake of not wasting excess.

@Mark M Some solar panel technology is more sensitive than others regarding its orientation to the sun. Speak to your solar guy about that. I use JA Solar mono crystal half cell panels on a east and west at 15 degree pitch, and the efficiency is great (summer). I have no reference to compare it with for the winter angle of the sun, but I guess efficiency related to pitch and direction has a greater impact during winter than in the summer.

See it became a home automation topic now Agree with the smaller element in the geyser. I maintain 400W to 550W during night time, without having a timer on geyser. (it has a blanket, and inside greenhouse... so I guess its not getting cold), We just 2, but when someone bath, we share the water... else we shower. Heaters are managed like a dictator. Everything LED Dishwasher, AirCon., Washing, Drying, Fridge / Freezer, even oven is INVERTER type, low energy. (Oven is Siemens, it uses normal 16A plug, stove top is gas, Dishwasher only have water water line, so that internal heating is not required) Espresso machine (screw the energy... everyone should have a little pleasure) PC, switch it off when done (my media server and NVR is on a intel NUC - it uses less power than PC) And the last one, that may have a huge response. Learn form the people in Europe. If you work from home, do not sweat a lot, and wipe your ass thoroughly, there is no need to have long showers each night For the younger crowd.... this will also teach you not to have sex 10 x a day

@phil.g00 Man, has that definition become twisted now days.

Your choice. My choice: The ANC do not owe the sun. Bye. But then I'm the "dwarstrekker" (non-compliant) type. Get a jab, buy long sleeved tops, closed shoes, wear your mask, pay your tax, dont smoke, dont drink, pay your vat, pay your road use, pay, pay, pay.... Its just not stopping. They going to tax as soon for usage of the sun and CO2. In the future, if they ever going to introduce carbon points, and give me discount for having solar, I will register. But if its a trick to squeeze more money out of me, then tsek!

Flexible panels are so expensive. Normal panel between the 2 roof rails (with custom rail bars). What do you guys think? Prone to break? Do you think there will be small structural movement that may crack panel? It will be permanent mount (to lazy to remove it between trips) Do not want to glue things to the roof.

PS: On the dishwasher. I have a Smeg and I hardly see a difference when its running. My PC with i9 CPU uses more power. PS: Only the hotwater line is connected to dishwasher, and my geyser is set to 55. Normal cycle of dishwasher is 60 and I guess the internal water heater never comes on, because in the beginning of my solar journey I did note down the deltas of power consumption as I used different appliances, and I did not see an effect usually caused by heating elements. Washing machine and tumble dryers is just as bad as a bar heater. But then again, why complicate it by putting it on non essentials? JUST impose a "curfew" on the laundry area when the power is off We sometimes forget that we having blackouts.... as the only indictor in the house is the clock on the oven which is off during load shedding. You will also have to teach your fellow house residents some new "skills".

The downspikes 00:00 to 06:00 is: When I walk pass the damm heater, I put it off. Next time I walk past it, "a ghost" have switched it on again some people just like sleeping with the heater on... I will never win.

Hi Mark My setup similar (14 x 405 JA Solar mono, 7 east, 7 west), 8kw Inverter and 6.4 Bull) Your HEATERS is the nasty thing in your setup. (I have taught my wife about socks and jerseys in an attempt to address this) My geyser, oven (stove top is gas), borehole pump and large air/c is on the non essential load. In the summer, you will maybe not get through the night with just those 2 batteries (I do have a Zero bill in summer, but then we do have rollback on the meter). In a 2h load shedding, with the night usage as below (15:00 to 23:00), my battery get as low as 75%, so another 2h will take it to 50%. (so it depends have far you want to drain that batteries) I will empty my pockets, and get another battery, specially if your meter may not / can not be rolled back PS, The heating function on the air/c use less power (samsung inverter type) than the little bar heater, but wife not like the host air effect.

Mono half cells a good choice for east west (mine is like that, 7 x 7 405W and in summer during peak 4 hours they easy stay over 5000W) If budget is running out, you can always construct a little 25x25 aluminium frame with Connect-It connector for the batteries. (picture below with one Bull 6.4, and place for a second one.... I had a space issue, so I had to get the batteries close to the wall. I also save a bit on cables, I guess) 32 x 375W panels.... your friend a serious power consumer , though for the winter where you will only produce 1/4 of what you do in summer on that east west setup with those panels, I guess 32 x 375 is the right choice. (see pic for real life data, not guessing)

Hey there. I'm planning to "work from home", with my VW kombi. So tired of the home environment and changing the scenery. Most of my work is just laptop stuff, teams meeting etc. Without going bananas and changing my kombi to a mobile off grid system... ..is there any complete camping type of packages available (plug and play style with battery and charge controllers build in), that any of you can recommend. https://www.lithium-battery-factory.com/product/portable-power-supply-batteries/ (dont know price) https://flexopower.co.za/collections/energy-storage/products/lithium555-power-pack-by-flexopower?variant=39705735299236 (any comments... maybe I want a bit more than 555Wh).... though... maybe just add some panels on the roofrack. https://flexopower.co.za/products/ecoflow-delta-1300-power-pack-ups?pr_prod_strat=collection_fallback&pr_rec_pid=4945051451532&pr_ref_pid=6659589800100&pr_seq=uniform (nice, but too expensive) (shit, I still have to do conversion in the kombi) All I need to drive is my Laptop, once internal battery used up... (maybe till 20:00 at night) Keep the mobile router / Wi-Fi going 24/7 A led or 2 for some light Keep iPad and phones charged Little 12V fan for me and my dog (When needed) What I will not use no need for freezer.... (take-outs and braai is the easy route) no TV (maybe radio)... SA TV has nothing to offer. Download a movie if need arise. What do you think.... will the 555 flexpower thing do the job? (with some panels on the roof rack later) Regards Guss

Hi Jason Just did something quick and dirty. 25x25x1.6 square aluminium tubing (dead cheap). Connect-it connectors to join everything together. Will later wrap the whole thing in a PVC cover (with enough ventilation) If your frame will have feet to the floor, the 25x25x1.6 alu sq tube is good. If its going to float off the ground, just with wall fastening, this structure is too lightweight. I would then (floating / no ground legs) rather go mild steel, 25 x 25 x 2, all welded and then also do not forget about the height of the wall fasteners head... like some bolt flanges somewhere.

Here is an example on Knysna municipality SSEG rules:

Below is the Small Scale Embedded Generation (SSEG) rules for the district of Knysna. SSEG refers in this instance to consumers who wish to fit a Solar generation plant (PV plant) to supplement their energy consumption by harvesting solar energy for their own use. These systems are generally Grid Tied to the municipal network allowing the consumer to draw energy (electricity kWh or Units) from the municipal network when their PV plant does not produce enough energy for their use. In the opposite case where the PV plant is producing more energy than the consumer is using this excess energy is fed back to the municipal network and the consumer receives some credit for this energy they supply to the grid. All consumers who wish to have a Grid Tied Solar plant must make ap[plication to the municipality via the Electrical Engineering Department, and this must comply with the municipal regulations as published. The applicant will be required to sign a contract with the municipality to ensure all conditions are met. The consumer will have to change to a Time of Use (TOU) tariff and will be required to fit a "4-Quadrant" electricity meter with a modem to the municipalities specification for the municipality to read the meter The consumer must remain a net consumer of energy in the year as no cash will be paid to the consumer. All installation work is to comply with SANS10142-1 Rev2, and any new regulation that may be published, and a copy of a valid Certificate of Compliance must be issued to the Electrical Engineering Department. The SSEG tariffs are in the process of being refined in terms of a municipal Cost of Supply study currently in progress. The below figures may change in the year 2019/2020.SMALL SCALE EMBEDDED GENERATION (SSEG)Page 4NERSA Approved Electricity Tariffs 2018 - 2019 IBT Small customers (NMD less than 66kVA, 100A) (2020/2021 tarif) Basic charge - With no buy-back by the municipality | per month | R103.59 Basic charge - With buy-back by the municipality | per month | R241.71 Power Charge - [e.g. 30 amp x R8,00 / amp = R240,00 per month] | R per Amp | R11.05 Energy charges will be as per the IBT rate Municipality buy back rate | per kWh | R0.69 Annexure-C_Tariffs.pdf

The question is, upgrading these to PC "quiet" design fans. Fans like this: https://www.quietpc.com/80mmfans The question then is: 12V - Yes / No Any minimum CFM recommended? I guess that just putting vibration dampers on the current ones will already make a huge difference. Most of the noise most likely coming from the sheet metal/vibration.

I guess the fans are the same type used in PCs? Is there a way to upgrade them to better ones, as we do for our PC (better bearings, quieter blade designs etc)The inverter is in the room next to my study, and with the doors close, I still hear the buzz when the inverter is working hard. Any recommendations? https://youtu.be/kXMLx5VACwk

Thanks... I will ask my installer about it.

I guess I can't ask for better. There is 7 x 405's on the east face of the roof, and 7 x 405's on the west face roof. Hitting 2.8kw already early morning.

...mmh, I'm not an electrical guy, so not sure what to look for. Is this maybe what you referring to:

Thanks, I figured this out (your message). Got my Wifi Dongle now, and updated to the latest firmware, and now I see everything as expected.