Achmat

CoCT has published their proposed budget for the next financial year for public comment. They are proposing a 13.5% increase for electricity. https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family and home/Meet-the-City/the-city-budget/the-citys-budget-2021-2022 Electricity tariffs for Home User tariff. Current tariffs in brackets. Including vat. Monthly network charge R194.29 (R168.95) Block 1 0-600kWh R2.40/kWh (R2.09) Block 2 More than 600kWh R3.31/kWh (R2.88)

I have 4 us3000 batteries but started off with 3 us3000b batteries and the max discharge rate can be an issue. Fortunately I only had the BMS switch off the batteries twice during loadshedding. With 4 I no longer have to worry about the Max discharge rates. If I had to start over I would go with the hubble Am2 5.5kw. Even one of these to start with would be better than 2 us3000c batteries.

Correct

All of the apps have the same refresh rate. I have them all installed.

When you get it post a pic of the label on the inverter. That max DC power is incorrect as it can take 10 500w of solar panels.

Basically if the grid is ticked then it is the target for grid charging and if there is no tick then its the minimum SOC that the batteries will no longer be used. No tick on 40% will use batteries to 40% SOC. Tick in grid charge will result in batteries being charged from the grid until they reach 40%.

Ok. That makes sense.

Any indication on local consumer pricing?

Do you have any equipment that actually runs on 3 phase? Have you measured your load to determine the actual current draw of your single phase appliances. 3 phase for a purely domestic installation is normally not required and simply there because the house was initially setup as 3 phase.

You should open the front panel on the inverter and find two LAN ports marked as CAN and RS485.

I also have a cottage I'm renting out thats running from my inverter. First thing I did before getting the tenants was to put in a gas stove and oven. They have a 30l under counter geyser for their shower and kitchen which seems to work fine instead of the on demand hot water systems. My daily usage including my tenants is 35kwh per day. I also installed a private prepaid meter for them so they are now much more aware of their electricity usage. Cooking on gas works out better as you don't need to wait for a plate to get hot. Pots and pans are hot enough to cook fairly quickly instead of waiting for an electric stove to heat up so you also end up wasting less time and heat when cooking with gas.

You could put 10 panels on a string on each MPPT to get to about 400v. You can then connect connect another string in parallel which will give just over 19A. The inverter will clip the amps down to 18A but voltage should always be under 500v. 32 panels should get you to 10 400w if you have the roof space. I would put 16 panels on each MPPT. 8 panels per string with two strings in parallel on each MPPT.

I thought I was a heavy user. What's your load during this time that your batteries are drained by 22:00? Till what SOC do you run your batteries to? Your 12kwh batteries last you only about 4 hours from sunset to 22:00. I have 2kwh more battery capacity at 14kwh and they last me till 4:00 in the morning running them down to 25% SOC.

The max input power is the max solar panel wattage that you can connect. You want to spec it to within the mppt range. 125v is the minimum at which the mppt will start to work. 500v is the maximum but you want to stay will below this. 400v is probably the best. What's the Voc and amps of the panels? I have 34 x 305w Canadian solar panels on my 8kw sunsynk.

Sunsynk is testing their 12kw 3 phase inverters. Maybe try contacting one of their local agents to find out a release date for SA.

Which sunsynk do you have? Can't comment on the 3D printer but I'm running my 4kw geyser from my 8kw sunsynk, a couple of water pumps and aircons without any flickering of lights.

So you have 4*6v batteries?

Could the battery bank not be reconfigured to 100ah 48v? Assuming its not a single 200ah 24v battery.

Looks perfectly normal. Mine from today.

It can if you want it to.

There are settings on the inverter to prevent feed back to the grid.

Your Goodwe would have a CT sensor clamped over the main grid feed. The inverter can then monitor what is coming from the grid and will compensate by sending power back so the grid will be zero provided that there is sufficient pv available to supply the essential loads and send excess to zero the municipal meter.

You can split your DB three ways. Essential, configurable non essential and grid side non essential. Basically what he has done is only put the geyser on the aux output of the inverter so if certain parameters are met then the inverter will supply power to the loads on the aux output.

You can leave it set to on grid always on so you don't need any manual intervention.

The sunsynk has 3 connections. The first is the grid input for the incoming grid connection. The servings is the ups or load connection for your essential loads. The third is a configurable input/output connection known as the aux connection. You can configure this as an output for other loads such as a geyser or aircons and run these from excess solar. Or you can use it as an input for a generator, micro inverter or wind turbine. If you use the aux output for your non essential loads you can then use these appliances during load shedding if you have excess solar generation whereas if you leave these before the inverter you will not be able to use them during load shedding. I have my whole house on the ups connection and still contemplating what to do with the aux. Considering a 3kw wind turbine so I have wind power when the sun is not out.