Leslie

I bought the AlphaESS Smile5 and luckily got rid of it 1 year later due to it having issues not working off grid . There was no support and they only changed their manual after I had sold mine. Now I have 2x5kva Victron inverters installed and can't be happier. I rather spend more than buy unsupported Chinese equipment.

This system was installed at my sisters place  by a large solar company as an offgrid system. They could not get this unit to work reliably - kept on having brownouts approx once or twice a day .  Even contacted China only to be told later this is not designed as an offgrid system. Installation manual explicitly states "that its not an offgrid system" , even though the glossy brouchre says it can work offgrid. Unit was removed and replace with SunSynk. now all is OK

This is what they told me in a reply when I asked about this problem...
Dear customer, Thank you for contacting! Please know that our inverter is not allowed to use at totally off grid mode. Inverter do has UPS mode that can support load when grid down, but it's not OK without grid absolutely because this is not a pure off-grid inverter. So that's why aorund sunrise or sun down, when the PV voltage fluctuates, the inverter will start self-checking caused output not stable. Normally, the mains grid supply should stabilize the output at this time, but this inverter do not have that access. Best Regards,
 

This will be my little review or thoughts I want to share after having used this system for about half a month. I hope this can help someone researching and deciding to buy this system or somehting else.
I live totally off-grid, no Eskom line to my home. The system I installed includes the Alpha-ESS Smile5 Inverter, 2x Alpha-ESS Smile5 Battery 5.7kWh, and 12x Sharp 330W Poly Solar Panels.
I mainly went for this system, which is more expensive (at least on the Inverter side) than something that would not have grid-tie capabilities because it looked simple to install and nice, clean and modular. I actually started off with just one battery but soon decided to add another as I did not want to have power problems if it happens to be very cloudy. I am a freelance video game programmer so my days are spent behind a computer.
I mainly run my computer, fridge and some LED lights on it through the day. I can toast some bread, boil the kettle or run the electric pressure cooker, microwave oven, and washing machine just fine. My power tools like the grinder and circular saw works just fine too. I do use these quite a bit since I am still setting up my home, building a chicken coop, etc. That was before I got the additional battery too.
I mainly use gas for cooking and boiling water and also for hot water during a shower. My pressure pump and borehole pumps are on separate gel battery and panels so they are not drawing from my main setup.
Overall it has been providing me with enough power and I was even surprised to find the panels giving 500W, and later over 1kW, of power to charge the batteries during a cloudy morning. This is the first time I dealt with anything solar so I am still learning.
I've had load shedding one morning after a cold front came over. It seems to have happened just as the batteries was about to start charging and power was out till around the afternoon when the batteries warmed up enough. They went into a protection mode because it was so cold and the system is installed in the garage area. I've since build an insulated box around it with vents and door I can control to prevent this kind of problem in the future.
Now for some negatives,
Something that really disappointed me is that this Inverter has not been able to start my 1800W air compressor even though my neighbour's 5kW Kodak is able to start and run the compressor. My Inverter simply resets when I try to start the compressor on it. I talked to a representative from ESS and they say that the in-rush current might be too high during start up. I'll have to do a test next time I am near a grid to see just how much this current really is.
The Dashboard requires an Internet connection to function. There is no way to check the status without going through www.alphaess.com to do so, except of course for using the LCD to check the SOC, and so on there; but no graphs.
For some reason this setup totally ignores all the power my panels can generate and keeps drawing from the batteries after they are fully charged. So for example, while I am typing this I am on 90% battery since they were fully charged just before 12 this afternoon and the system stopped drawing from the panels and have not touched them once since then. It has been a clear sunny day the whole day. Why has it not been drawing from the panels and kept the battery for when the panels can't generate enough power? I hardly needed anything with the average through the afternoon being around 0.15kW. It might be that the system ignores the panels when the draw is not high enough because I do see in the graphs that it would draw from the panels when I used the washing machine or microwave during the day and then the batteries even got a little and went up in charge for that duration. Very strange one this but I know too little to know whether this is normal for this system or whether something is not set up correctly. Certainly nothing related to this in the settings I have access to. I've attached an image to show just how ridiculous this is. The spike you see in late afternoon is when I was using the microwave.
Hope this info is useful to someone considering this system. I'm guessing if you were to use it on-grid as a backup and is looking for a nice looking system then most of the negatives are moot. But if I were to buy again I would not go with this Inverter as an off-grid solution.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I made another discovery. The Inverter can't start an Air Fryer rated for 1300W without the power tripping 1st. Funny thing is, I leave the fryer on and right after power comes back on it runs fine. With the fryer and my commonly on stuff, like computer, there is a total load of 1500W according to monitoring software. This Inverter is rated for 5000W.
 
 
 

I have been running an Alpha Smile 5 system with 2 batteries for just over a year now. I would NOT recommend the system for the following reasons:
Because it insists on feeding small amounts into the grid from time to time (even though it is set to 0% feed-in) it is not compatible with Conlog pre-paid electricity meters. This means that every time it feeds in, the meter trips with the resulting interruption to the supply.
In UPS mode it will not start any but the smallest inductive loads - even our Daikin inverter airconditioner (825 watt) sometimes trips the Inverter on start-up.
We also experience the dips in voltage that other people have described above. Sometimes it even fluctuates at a fairly high frequency for a few seconds at a time.
The technical backup from the Chinese manufacturer is hopeless - when they do respond, it is simply to say that the system cannot do what it is advertised to be able to do.
The Alpha ESS Smile5 is grossly misrepresented and should either be significantly improved to be able to achieve their claims, or be truthfully marketed - and at a much lower price-point!

An annoying thing started happening. The power will go off and on twice in quick succession. It will then stay on for a while and then do same again...... until I unplug the Inverter from my network! This happened some time last week and again today.
The Internet LED is blinking (it is normally solid on) so that is why I suspected it is related to something with the Internet connection and disconnected the Inverter. This seems to work since the power has not gone off again. When it happened last week I did the same and unplugged it.  Later that day I plugged it in again but the LED was still blinking and not long after the power went out again. So I unplugged from network and put it back on the next day and it was fine till today.
Not sure what is happening but it could be that it is trying to do an update o, which would be very strange, reset cause it is struggling to connect to a cloud server.
My Internet works fine and I was actually browsing the web when this happened. There was not any high loads with just my computer, fridge and a light on - same as every morning. The batteries were above 50% and it was nice and sunny with the PV charging it.
Of course now none of the stats are recorded since this thing needs to be connected to the Internet to get access to the monitoring site.
I suppose if I was on-grid with it then this would not be an issue.
Basically, if you want to go off-grid, stay away from Smile5.
 
 
 

I used www.solar-shop.co.za to purchase my solar setup.
I can not remember how long my main system took to deliver but the additional battery I purchased a few weeks ago took a week. I do not live near any major city so that is to be expected. They are very fast to reply to support questions via email and on the website so no problems there.

I've used www.sustainable.co.za for my 12VDC pressure pump with a panel and battery, and a gas water heater.
No problems with delivery here either.
 
 
 
 
 

@jykenmynie I finally got the aircon hooked up and it is working fine. It is this unit if you want to have a look at the specs.
Will be running it through the week to see what power consumption is like. Although, I live in a converted shipping container (tiny house) so the area to keep cool is much smaller than in a typical houses.

@Leslie
Just did a rough calculation on your setup and if the ambient temp is about 10 C, then your predicted max PV Voc will be about 580 V, which happens to be the maximum V the ESS Smile will handle. 
The solution, I think, is to split the array into 2 strings (6 panels in series) in parallel.  This will halve the PV voltage, but double the Amperage which will have to be taken into account if you have fuses and cable sizing.

I have the AlphaESS smile 5 , also sort of off the grid and yes , the alphaESS is not meant for off grid situations as confirmed by their head office in China . 
 
I contacted them because my system “blinks “ every day Twice a day at exactly the same time . By blinking I mean the voltage dips for a second then returns. A few seconds later same story . This goes on for a minute or so. The guy who installed it hasn’t finished the full installation and is now ignoring me. AlphaESS tech guys said they can’t test the system until there is a Eskom connection into the inverter . Basically a catch 22. It’s a nice system ....except for the Daily voltage drop Which results in a bit of a disco effect in the rooms where the lights are on.

An annoying thing started happening. The power will go off and on twice in quick succession. It will then stay on for a while and then do same again...... until I unplug the Inverter from my network! This happened some time last week and again today.
The Internet LED is blinking (it is normally solid on) so that is why I suspected it is related to something with the Internet connection and disconnected the Inverter. This seems to work since the power has not gone off again. When it happened last week I did the same and unplugged it.  Later that day I plugged it in again but the LED was still blinking and not long after the power went out again. So I unplugged from network and put it back on the next day and it was fine till today.
Not sure what is happening but it could be that it is trying to do an update o, which would be very strange, reset cause it is struggling to connect to a cloud server.
My Internet works fine and I was actually browsing the web when this happened. There was not any high loads with just my computer, fridge and a light on - same as every morning. The batteries were above 50% and it was nice and sunny with the PV charging it.
Of course now none of the stats are recorded since this thing needs to be connected to the Internet to get access to the monitoring site.
I suppose if I was on-grid with it then this would not be an issue.
Basically, if you want to go off-grid, stay away from Smile5.
 
 
 

For all my fellow Victron fans out there:
 
 

Maybe the admins must put a pin/sticky somewhere...?
The MO is generally the same.
Batteries with 10 year warranties, at 50% discount as "end of year" (or "end of yeah" when they get sloppy with copy/paste), black friday, christmas, load shedding special, stock clearance sale. .... often with a nice big count down timer reminding you how close you are to losing out on the amazing special (or there are only 2 units left...).
The scam likely has 2 components. Some people eventually get (clearly used/abused, identifying info removed, no manual etc.) batteries (? stolen cell tower leochs etc.?). The second component is probably letting people pay via EFT/cash deposit and just not supplying any goods. (gumtree/olx/facebook etc will have a number of these ads).
They seem to do some homework and likely also take note of this particular forum since the newer site/s specifiy the "online only shop" part (too many people started asking about addresses and google street view?) so maybe the 50% discount will change to 45%....and the warehouse move to Askham... They also appear to have people posting positive reviews on hellopeter to counter negative comments. Many of the web addresses seem chosen to look like existing companies but with a strategic hyphen or variance of spelling that one will easily gloss over. Also they do not seem to bother to setup a mail account on the domain so fancy web domain only operates via gmail...
From info in the public domain here is a sample with some unifying themes and some info that is useful to cross reference with google when the next add/site pops up..
solarenergyrsa.co.za/?product=12kwh-lithium-ion-batteries-with-10yrs-warranty-last-chance-yeah-end-stock-clearance-sale-50-off
+27 84-302-7691
+27-65-952-7634
+27 62-456-0626
Offices: East LondonDistribution warehouse: Johannesburg(Please Note that We are fully a Online Store)
thewattsstore.co.za/product/12kwh-lithium-ion-package-discount-on-special-price-sale/
+27 62 456 0626
Beaconsfield Rd, Braelyn, East London, 5201Warehouses in Port Elizabeth, Cape Town, Durban & Johannesburg
thesolarwarehouse.co.za/index.php/product/6-0kwh-tesvolt-lithium-ion-batteries-with-10yrs-warranty-with-8000-cycles-days-life-now-month-end-50-off-clearance-sale/
+27 67 791 9959
+27 67 809 0979
Shipments from JHB/CPT Warehouse
li-iontech.co.za/index.php/product/12kwh-lithium-ion-batteries-with-10yrs-warranty-last-year-stock-clearance-sale-50-off/
+27 64 489 1208
Head office: Moffett Retail Park, Port Elizabeth, RSA Distribution Warehouses: JHB & PE
solarcityrsa.co.za/index.php/product/6kwh-lithium-ion-batteries-with-10yrs-warranty-last-chance-holiday-stock-clearance-sale-50-off/
+27 65 346 6447
+27 64 489 1208
JHB Wearhouse address: Items are Drop-shipped from suppliers in JHB, CPT & Germiston RSA 
thesolar-shop.co.za/index.php/product-category/lithium-ion-battery/
+27-65 952 7634
+27 68 011 2309
+27 61 363 4125
+27 79 763 3694
gooffthegrid.co.za
+27 65 346 6447
+27 68 233 2924
+27 83 998 1589
Shipments from JHB/CPT
sethsolar.co.za
+27 83 854 5027
Wearhouse Address: Port Elizerberth
thesolar-experts.co.za
+27 64 489 1208
Head Office: Moffett Retail Park. Warehouse in JHB & PE
solarstorage-experts.co.za/index.php/product/today-only-get-a-24kwh-lithium-ion-batteries-with-10yrs-warrant
+27 64 489 1208
solarguru-rsa.co.za
+27 83 854 5027
solarmarket.co.za

late to the party but brought my own drinks so will hang around in the parking lot...and in the spirit of "give a man a fish blah blah... but teach him to hot wire a car..."
EDIT: @Darrenf noticed I bombarded you previously with my rambling, you are welcome to ask for more clarification/explanation 🙂
Don't worry about total household consumption since you only want to power a couple of very specific things.
Ideally get some form of power meter (about R500 from what ever your flavour of online shop)... .or less ideal check each "appliance" for the label that shows you the power rating (like a 2000W kettle).... or search online for general estimates since many appliances don't actually list the power rating (my TV does not... but I checked my 47" (OLD school, not OLED) TV, AV amplifier, android TV box thingi, and B315 router all combined average about 125W).
Add all the various power requirements up and you will probably not even pass 500W (but if possible check your own numbers). So you could probably get by with a 500-800W inverter.
Now multiply the total power requirement by hours you want to power it for. 4h * 500W =2000Wh - this is technically how much energy you will need from a battery to power these things. Because energy conversion is not perfect and to allow some extra room, add an efficiency factor of 80%.... devide the 2000Wh by 0.8... 2000Wh/0.8 = 2500Wh will be a safer number to work with.
Here is where things can seem to become too technical but soldier on...., batteries will specify their voltage (12V, 24V, 48V most common) and their storage ability (in either Amp hour (Ah) or Watt hour (Wh)). Lithium batteries often specify the capacity in Wh and lead acid batteries in Ah. So how do you decide if a given battery will be "big" enough? Lithium just compare the Wh numbers. For lead acid (like the adds posted in this thread) take YOUR Wh number and devide it by the listed battery voltage. The first add has a single 12V 100Ah battery. So...2500Wh/12V = 208Ah. You will need a 208Ah 12V lead acid battery to power 500W for 4 hours - so a single battery like the one add will not be enough since it is a 100Ah battery. You can connect two 100Ah batteries in parallel then you will have a 200Ah but still 12V battery, so two of  those batteries might be needed (or maybe two 60Ah batteries?....read on first).
The second add says it comes with 2 batteries.... but if you check the specifications you will likely find that the inverter works on 24V (the two batteries are connected in series), so you have a 100Ah 24V battery (even though it is made with two 100Ah 12V batteries).... will the 2 batteries be big enough?... 2500Wh/24V = 104Ah... so this is closer.
BUT lead acid batteries do not have a very long total life before they "break" if you tend to use more than 50% of their capacity. So if looking at lead acid battery systems you will make life simpler if you take your power requirement and double it from the start. 2500Wh * 2 = 5000Wh.... 5000Wh/12V~400Ah.... or 5000Wh/24V~200Ah. So whether you go with 12V or 24V you will need at least four 100Ah batteries (or eight 50Ah batteries or two 200Ah batteries). Lithium batteries will generally let you use about 90% of their capacity but lithium is heavy on the pocket (depending how you do your sums)
I attached an excel sheet which can help you play around with some numbers. Change the battery voltage and time (in red font) as you need/want and add your appliances+watts in the yellow columns to the list. Since this is about load shedding you should also look at things lile time available to recharge the batteries (the sheet will show you how much time you need depending on the charger capacity to recharge the battery). Use at own risk (do not use it to make calculations to power grandma's iron lung)
Any of the mentioned systems should meet your inverter requirement but I suspect you will end up with a flat battery often and/or have to buy new batteries after a couple of months.
The "off-the-shelf" solutions can generally be made up cheaper by just combining everything yourself. I would personally not install the Axpert inverter laying flat though (like in the add)... pretty sure the unit thermal regulation was designed around a vertical install. If you can change a plug on a toaster you should be able to make up a system - especially for your listed needs. If not comfortable doing that - no shame in that (and stay out of the DB!).
Another option to the miriad of "ready made" UPS type systems that you can look at in your budget is something like a DIY victron multiplus 12/800 inverter charger (R8500-9500) combined with a second life Mecer 200Ah/2500Wh 12V lithium battery (R6400-R7500). Add a victron Mk3 USB cable (R1200) so you can make some changes to the inverter settings from a laptop. Get a battery place to make you up some 25mm2 cable with properly crimped lugs, add a fuse between battery and inverter, put it on trolley in a box (make sure the battery terminals are at least covered) if you want and you should have the lightest, least intrusive system that should meet your power needs in terms of inverter power, fast enough charger for most load shedding scenarios, and with a bit of careful load management your total storage capacity should be enough.
The axpert type systems definitely are lower cost and simpler (no extra cable/laptop needed for changing settings) and you have a screen to see what is happening. Especially the 3000W inverters give you more options to power something like a kettle if you really need to (not gonna do that with a 800W any inverter). The axpert type systems also generally add the option out of the box that you can add solar panels later without needing any other bits than solar panels, solar cable and solar fuse/disconnects.
If you think/gamble that load shedding will only be around now-and-again for a day or two and you want to keep this grudge purchase as cheap as possible, then also consider just battery, a separate smallish inverter and a loose battery charger. (keep charger connected to battery, when load shedding comes around, hook up the inverter... when load shedding goes away again for 3 months... put inverter in cupboard). Here you will just lose out on the automatic/"seemless" switch over when load shedding happens that you get with the axpert/multiplus type systems.
If going axpert type system - try and make sure it is an original voltronic produced inverter (quality and support on the clones seems somewhat iffy).
last thing... Just a note on having any system next to the TV... all these systems contain fans that switch on at least when charging the battery at a high rate and possibly when powering the load... you could find that it bothers you if right next to the TV.
whoop-whooop...that's the sound of the police... off I go..
LoadShed_Calc.xlsx

This method of vegetable (and other crop production) involves no digging, no weeding and very little work. It also requires little or no fertiliser or pesticide and keeps increasing the soil fertility the longer you practise it. Less water is required because of the mulch covering the soil retaining the soil moisture.  
Developed by Ruth Stout : https://www.goveganic.net/article182.html
Basically all you do is heap organic matter thickly on the ground, raise seedlings in trays and then plant them straight into the mulch. That's it. You may find a few weeds coming up, buy then you just heap more mulch on top. Once you have harvested, guess what, just throw more much on top and start again. The mulch composts at the bottom of the heap and you find after a few seasons that the soil becomes a writhing mess of nitrogen fixing earthworms and other soil organisms.
So this in one part of a permaculture system which tries to close the nutrient cycle as far as possible. The first stage is growing of nitrogen fixing legume crops as animal fodder. This I do fertilise with phosphate and potassium, as they are eitehr in the soil or not. You can't get them from another source. This I bale as winter feed. During winter I spread the bales all over the pastures so that the wastage is spread on the ground, and starts building thicker topsoil. Some of this residue ends up in the veggie garden as below. The  manure that accumulates is also spread back on the fields to improve the grazing which closes the circle. So the input is P & K and via various biological systems, the product is meat and vegetables.
To contrast this with modern industrial farming, the main difference is there is no bare earth! Nature doesn't do that, why should you denude the land surface to grow crops? All that does is kill off the beneficial soil bugs and require more fertiliser.
What I grow, depending on the season is cabbage, kale, broccolli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, tsan soi, potatoes, parsnips, spinach, peas, lettuce, tomatoes, chilli, garlic, onions, leeks, radish, lemons, limes, naartjie, grapefruits,  a variety of herbs, fish, chicken, duck, goose, sheep and goats. No mielies (monkeys and GMOs)