gertvanjoe

Granted, checking the prices now again, a 48V 4.8kW Lithium pack might not be so much worse. My thinking is to install a Sunsynk 5kVA. Not that I will ever need that much, but the mppt charger seems to be specced decently in order for daylight to charge up the battery fully with enough panels

Good day everyone. I'm an electrician with some good knowledge of industrial UPS installations but alas, the sheer volume of different consumer products on the market has me stumpoed a little. What I'm looking to do is run a remote shop completely offgrid. Loads will be as follows. Daytime load : 3A Nightime would be around 1.5A. So give or take about 350W. My plan is to power these complete from solar and batteries. I'm considering a 48V Lithium system but cost is rahter prohibitive (as far as I understand these batteries can do 80% Dod safely) So far I settled on four 12V 200Ah (2s2p)(so 24V 400Ah) batteries. From my calculations I would draw about 1.5A at night so for a 12 hour darkness I would not be pushing these batteries past 50% dod. During the day the solar can charge them up again (lets state about 8 hours of good sunlight). Can I draw on your knowledge as to what is best practises and what to avoid.

Good day Busy building a store and wish to feed it with its own DB from the main I already have 2 flats each with its own sub db Will another one be allowed?

What are the prices?

I'm looking for a single phase power monitor that monitors voltage too. Single phase is fine Bonus if it is WiFi capable, but as long as it can log at least 5s apart Im good

I do it fairly. The bill is based on percentage used (which probably puts hurts me, but I'd rather have renters and a bill hurting than no renters and a small bill). For me it is also not worth the hassle of sub-metered kwh units (unless I can get two metered connections directly from the municipality). Back to the main topic, thanks for everyone's input so far. I have had my eye on a few inverters so far but had been mis-informed about only the Victron being able to blend. I will go and see which one best suits my needs and go with that far now. I have a feeling that the savings from getting the two geysers off the grid alone (included its running cost) alone will pay for itself in a time-span I am quite happy with. Add to that the fact that the blending will lower it even more and top it off with the fact that I would be able to pocket the included portion of the rent that has been added as a base cost for electricity (before metering was installed, I now bill them and subtract their base cost ) it'll be swell. I will think of it as their rent increase (something I hate discussing, never had to as the previous renters moved before I really could justify a proper increase, but seems like Tony wants to grow old here, which I don't mind at all)

That's what I did already. Usage get distributed between the three units. Unfortunately running all of this from one metered connection puts an awful lot of the kwh used in the maximum price bracket. (I average about 1100 kwh) Tony 700 kwh Skoonma and me 400

Well from utility side it likely will not be an option as they are very reluctant to install a second feed around here and the municipal electrician told me he won't connect a second prepaid. It would have worked a charm though as the cost involved would likely be covered in the first 4 months of not have such a high max bracket usage since there will now be two meters registered. Will try and push harder on that one

True about the efficiency, but R2500 (gas) and installation vs R11000 (solar electric. We have lot of overcast days and they are paying tenants so "deal with it" will likely not go well. If it was just me, sure, my SO.. maybe... Paying tenants nah) and installation does make a difference. It also means I can safely have a smaller system without needing to worry that two 2kW elements kick in at the same time and sends the system belly up. To the other poster chastising me on my units, sorry, it came out as a flood of text but I'm sure you yourself understand the concepts just as well as I do so I hope it was not too confusing. To another poster, I don't have any batteries currently. lithium battery packs will be phase 2

Yes that electrician is me. I'm an industrial electrician who mainly do faultfinding on MCC panels and motors. I also on the odd occasion do faultfinding on VSD's, mostly LV ones ( oe oe I should really tell you about our 11kV softstarter, that thing is a beast lolol, filled to the brim with plc's and wizardry but anyways. It mostly idles though but even at idle will burn through my electricity bill in mere seconds minutes if not seconds lol). Why am I telling you this?L Speak your gibberish and techspeak, I can follow Allow me to sketch my prentjie with you. At the evenings I go home and look at my daily usage and cry lol. On the yard sits three dwellings (which functions as two separate families, main house is rented out to Tony, Tannie and three young men, flat 1 is your truly and his partner, flat 2 is her mother. The three of us (me, wife, mom) eat together and her unit literally uses 25 - 30 units a month, it has a gas geyser ). So our family average 10 units a day whereby the other averages 30. I have not been able to run proper load tests as I don't have recording equipment but we average about 1.6kw/h over a months rolling average. I have confirmed this both weeksdays and weekends multiple times. I am yet to really spend the money to optimize my usage but I now I must really get down and dirty with it, change out Tony's old LP geyser to HP whatever (I really want the other family to be able to shower for both their pleasure and the total cost (top bracket really eats away at money but I can not just tell them, hey you put me in the top bracket, you pay the top bracket for everything, we split the bill percentage wise as I have installed separate kw/h meters in all three DB's subtracting our two from the main as we feed from it to make it truly "fair" since they are paying customers you know). So plan/current is : Tony : Gas / solar hotwater, Gas stove and oven already installed (a few years back I lived in there just when I bought it and I can tell you a gas oven is a gift straight from Satan, don't buy that @$%@!) . Old Speed Queen washing machine, two oldish fridges last time I was inside there and had not seen at large boxes so I believe it to be still be there Me : 50L HP geyser (want to convert to gas / solarelectric), will soon install gas stove and new electric oven as I ripped the old stuff out during remodeling, modern washing machine(not inverter), dishwasher, modern 210L fridge/freezer Skoonma : Gas already on water, two plate electric portable, no oven, modern washing machine (not inverter), 180L fridge/freezer I'm leaning towards gas due to conversion cost and it being solidly removed from the bill and it being each unit's own responsibility, unit cost is less too. Question I want to start out with a 5kwh unit (and 10 panels for a start) as I believe it will be sufficient to handle the spikes ( I am open to corrections please, I'm here to learn). For now I'm good on batteries but the plan is to add 7 kwh to get us through the evening and night as ideally I want to be "offgrid" (will still have Eskom just in case). From what I understand the only Inverters that can supplement utility with solar are the Victron ones. Am I correct ? Thanks for reading my convulsion. Happy days ahead for you.