hoohloc

The inspector that inspected my whole house wiring after I installed my solar system, signed off with Top Tronic geyser timer in my main DB. I doubt it is SANs approved, so it all depends on who does your CoC

Eish! that is the downside about these inverters. wish there was a setting to automatically switch between modes for optimal PV production.

Correction, your inverter is a hybrid, not an offgrid inverter. ''a hybrid inverter (sometimes referred to as a multi-mode inverter) is an inverter which can simultaneously manage inputs from both solar panels and a battery bank, charging batteries with either solar panels or the electricity grid ''

This is a strange one, not familiar with the ES model but the TL models have 40A breaker that trips and switch the inverter off at around 40A. Mine tripped once and still don't know what caused the trip. It is a little black push button and the bottom of the inverter, next to where the AC wires goes. Coming back to your issue, try and get an 40A fuse that you can install on your Live wire, between your inverter and the DB

I don't think this one will be possible hey! You will not get more than 3K9w out of eight 490w panels

The real benefit is that, with a 1.5Kw, I can have my geyser ON the whole day and only switch it off at sun set. The old element that came out of my geyser has some dirt build up and I suspect that I was consuming a lot of power to heat my water because of all that crap. Only had this installed for few days and the wife hasn't complained about not Having hot water

Copied this straight from Geyserwise website : Heating elements made with PTC chips do not use resistance wire as a source of heat. Instead, it uses a number of ceramic PTC chips as the heating source. PTC heating elements are ceramic chips that have self-limiting temperature characteristics. As the PTC chips heat up it reaches a designed temperature at which the heat output decreases drastically and prohibits it from getting hotter. As ambient temperature increases and less heat is dissipated, the resistance of the element will increase culminating in a near zero current draw at its designated temperature. The dynamic resistance and output of PTC heaters makes them an excellent choice for providing controlled electric heating. In many applications it is possible to do away entirely with thermostatic controls. Simplification of design and reduced energy consumption represent significant cost savings for a given application. The removal of failure prone components such as thermostats can also add significantly to the reliability of a product. Safety is an added benefit, since no matter how much current is applied to the PTC; it will never surpass its intended surface temperature.

Got it direct from Geyserwise in Centurion, Unit 9, 183 Edison Cres, Hennopspark. The guys there are very help full with information, wasn't sure if I could use my old thermostat and they were happy to show me how I could use it and even provided me with special jumper cables to hook up the thermostat to the element.

You can also change the heating element of your geyser and use the Geyserwise PTC one, works like a charm. I went for the 1.5kw one for my 150L geyser. No need to install the complete Geyserwise system, you already have a solar system and you can use the existing thermostat with the PTC element. Paid R2200 for the heat tech geyser flange, thermostat tube and PTC element

Thank you for the info, much appreciated. I managed to get all and installed it yesterday. I must say, I'm glad I did this change. the old resistive heating element had some sort of dirt build up on it. I don't know how it still managed to heat the water up, with all that build up. I got the 1.5Kw and using AC for now, but noticed that it is actually drawing 1.9Kw when its ON.

Hi, where did you buy your stuff from?

I see you are in JHB, best will be to take a drive and go to communica in midrand and buy. You will not have to wait for weeks or days to get your cables. Check the address here https://www.communica.co.za/

I have been battling to get my RIOT connected. the installation manual info about how the device get powered if using the RED serial cable. It just says you shouldn't use the power cable pair with the red serial cable. You only use them with BLUE serial cable and mine didn't come with the blue serial cable. Sent email to support@Hubble and no response

Assuming that this is a new inverter which still have a five years warranty, Best will be to take it back to your supplier for warranty claim/swap. The firmware update will not help if the inverter doesn't switch on or power up

Yes you can install all 12 and you will not overload the inverter. You will never get the ideal power of 6480W from those panels, that is why it is always best to over size your system. I wouldn't worry 480W, it will come handy

True, but you can still get the same rated power with any of the big PV panels. For example, I can have all my PV panels,8 x 405w and 6 x 400w, total of 5640W connected to one inverter. I did this when one of my inverter was faulty and it works just fine. It is limiting but you can get around that limit and have a working system, easily. 2S7P and my voltage is withing the limits at +/-80v, with a total current of +/-70A. So, the limiting max open circuit voltage becomes no issue but at the end of the day is up to you, what you want. Are you happy with low voltage and slightly high current? or you want high voltage with slightly low current? And to be honest, 70A is not high and I use 6mm2 PV cable. My system ran like this for two, full months and not at once did I felt my cables hot

To answer your question, yes you can achieve that and you will not even need the SMART DEVICE , by just getting two Growatt SPF5000TL inverters and parallel them. It will work out the same in terms of cost but you will have 10Kw with the Growatts compared to only 5kw that you will get with only one sunsynk. You will be able to put all you load on the two inverters and never have to worry about splitting your DB to essential and non-essential loads. Thats what I did and it works perfect, with 3kw geyser ON, you can still cook on your stove, or bake, use washing machine and do other things without any issues

Apologies for the late response, I don't know how I missed this post. The 4 x panels were not enough to charge my two batteries to 100% and still have some PV to supply the house. I have noticed that, to charge 1 x Battery to 100% before mid day, I need atleast four panels. Now with four batteries, I need a minimum of 16 x 400w panels. It doesn't exactly blend PV/Bat/grid but only uses all the three source together when the battery reaches the minimum set point. It uses the PV and grid to charge the battery, and at the same time the grid powers my load/house. If that is not blending then I don't know what to call it . when the battery reaches the set point, back to PV, the grid switches off and I use PV and battery again until the battery gets to minimum set point and then cycle starts again. one thing to note is that, when the battery gets to 100%, the inverter switches off the PV and I use only the battery until it gets to 95% and then it switches the PV back ON. Most people don't like this but I'm ok with it. Think of it this way, I use PV to charge the battery and supply my load, but if PV is not enough, it blends the PV with battery so that I can have enough to supply my load. It will only use the grid if the battery reaches the min set point and disconnect the grid once the battery has charged up to a certain set point, 60% in my case.

Most definitely, you will get higher production in Summer but if you have funds, it will not hurt to add more panels. I would add two more

I think I will give this a try, thanks

Since your inverters can not export excess power produced to the grid, it will be limited to what the load demand is. For example, you have 10Kw of installed PV panels but your load is 700w and battery needs 1600w to charge. You will never generate more than 2300w because you will not be able to use the extra generated power. Where will the balance go? since you can not store it or use it. Only if you could export that balance to the grid, then it would make sense. Unfortunately the out put of SPF5000TL is not meant to be connected to the grid, therefore you can not export any power to the grid As for the 60A max current, you shouldn't worry about it if you have BMS connected. Your max current and voltage will be determined by your battery, I have seen this with my two inverters

The two inverters will draw current needed to charge your Lithium batteries and supply your load. I'm pretty sure that if you need 120A, you will get it. You have more than enough PV panels. Mine are set at 25A max charge current but I have seen 80A on one inverter at one point, so I don't worry about the max current that I see on the inverter settings anymore. BMS will request the current needed for your batteries to charge and you will still have enough to supply your other loads. Your second issue, it is also not an issue as such. In summer days you will be able to see a lot more than 6Kw. Now in winter, production seems to be lower. In my case I'm down to 60% of my total installed PV power, which seems to be more or less the same as what you are getting.

what do you use to clean?

If you suspect the issue to be with the master battery, trying swapping that master, make it a slave and choose different battery to be master and see if the other battery will also trip. If it trips, then the issue is with your inverters settings. Maybe the inverter setting doesn't allow for five batteries I would also go further and disconnect one of the good batteries and use the same master with three batteries, bank of four batteries, and see if the same problem will occur

BTW, mine is set to 25A on each inverter but I have seen 90A at one point, on the trends. Even now on bad winter days, I get 37A on one inverter and 21A on the other inverter. I don't worry much about the settings because I rely on BMS to sort that out.