JAvandermerwe

The thick cable to the panels is only to minimise voltage drop.  You only need 1.5mm² cable for the current capacity.

Hi there and welcome.
Yes you will only be able to supplement the phase connected to the inverter. Ct on the same phase supplying the inverter.
I would think that you will need permission from the estate to do any changes?
If you have prepaid the meter will have to be changed and the supply side will have to be rewired to single phase.

Ok. Then you can get an electrician to rewire and split your db for essential and non essential. This will allow you to install a single phase inverter or you can keep the db as 3 phase let them split between essential and non essential and install a 3 phase inverter.

So if you have it ticked then the aux will send power to loads on the aux output if the grid is available. The geyser obviously has its own element that will switch on and off as required. 
This power it sends to the aux would come from available solar first during the day and from the grid at night. 
On bad solar days it will then rely on the grid to power the aux loads. 
 

Yes you can.
First option is that it will allow the aux to be permanently on if the grid is available.
If the first setting is deacativated then it will rely on the following two setting.
PV power. You can specify at pv power point you want the aux to switch on. you can set this as high or low as you need. if your base load is only 1.5kW then you could set it to turn on the when pv generation reaches 1 500W. It will switch off as the sun sets and pv production goes under this value.
Aux off battery would be the minimum SOC the battery reaches before the aux is switched off. This to avoid using all your battery for the geyser. You could set this to something like 85%.
Aux on battery would be the point that it will switch the aux. This could be at 100% or any other amount higher than Aux off amount.
It wouldn't be switching on and off every hour. It would basically switch on in the morning as pv production increases and then off again late afternoon. Only on eratic pv days due to clods you could have a few starts and stops but the battery should then decide to switch on and off. If you have a bad solar day and batteries are below 85% based on the example above, it will not switch on and off and only switch on when batteries are 100% and pv is more than 1 500W.

Have just installed 2 x Hubble AM-2 with the 5kVA MKS Axpert.  The Website voltage setting for "switch back to grid" is 47V.  Measured on a Victron BMV-700 this equates to only 60% discharge (40% left).  Has anyone else experienced this?  For the rest it runs like a dream.

I paid around R450 each from LiteGlo. Only way I managed to get it working with Home Assistant was to get Tasmota loaded on it. It involved replacing the internal WiFi module with and ESP module (another R60). I broke down the process below; I even got power monitoring to work
https://mybroadband.co.za/forum/threads/cbi-astute-power-monitor-switch-tasmotized.1108106/#post-26290342

@Barryv, @Jay-Dee awesome, thanks for taking the time guys. What you are saying makes sense to me, and accords with what I've managed to informally work out from the various forums.
I will take a pic of the key parts of the setup, and post them here later to show you what it looks like.
 

@Barryv, @Jay-Dee awesome, thanks for taking the time guys. What you are saying makes sense to me, and accords with what I've managed to informally work out from the various forums.
I will take a pic of the key parts of the setup, and post them here later to show you what it looks like.
 

To add to Barry above... having just had my 2nd system signed off yesterday by a 3rd party Electrical company for COC and registration with CoCT

NOTE: I am also not a licensed electrician and the below is from my personal experience with one
Yes
Separate spike (for CoCT at least). If you have multiple arrays separate from each other, they each will need their own spike.

For what it is worth, the reason behind this is there is a max resistance allowed on an earth connection and generally the distance from panels to DB to original spike will create a higher than allowed resistance. Also some grid installation have a bonded / supplied earth which confuses things even more.
 
Not a requirement but strongly advised to protect your investment. Only requirement is a PV cutoff and in certain areas (i.e. Stellenbosch) an external fireman's switch.

Personally, I would recommend a fuse on both positive and negative sides, a surge arrestor and the required cutoff.  Also to keep in mind.. over a certain amount of strings, you need to have a combiner box and not connect all on the roof. I am not sure on this number 
As per Barry... This would very much depend on your panels. Based on the general specs you have given... 6mm would be suitable but I would double check this agains the actual spec's of your panels
Yes, you will need a new / updated COC... This would be required for the registration of your panels as well as your insurance company

Hello.
I'm no license electrician, but I like to do the installation to Solar PV COC standard.
I know someone that can give a COC on solar system and check the work is correct.  
I'll hope so yes. My sister them order the new SANS book for their work. will check.
I think it is the same but I can be wrong.
 
I have fuse on all lines, surge protect and DC Breaker in my DC box for the PV
 
All depends on the PV, Inverter MPPT and Amps setup, but a 6mm PV cable is a nice size on one string but all like I said it depends on the Setup. I use 6 mm per string.
 
Need to get a new COC.
Please can you send photos of the installation?
Like I said. I'm not a Electrician and I like to always say, extra safety is always better.
Please. if I'm wrong, please help me right, we all here to learn. 

I have been through the complete process with NERSA.... They have send me a formal document the will inform me when they are ready to accept applications. If you ask me the do not have a database that can handle it (and no Gupta's that can supply it ).

When I get it it I will publish it on the forum.  I have done all 3.  Checked with those "creating the new laws",. NERSA and CoCT. Te current suggestion is out for comments. One gets the impression from the constitution that they can't do "anything" until the "law" is published ( condition of Const.). From what I understand after the cut of date they will do the agreed changes in the "new" law. Then they will have a very short request before getting it through parliament.
Then we all will have to do it.
The nice side is all will have the same base. The reason for this is there can not be a local law contradicting a national law.
Thus with all specs inplace and published and database operational we will then all find it very easy to do the rest.

This brings us to another topic (to stir). The electricity "specs" for SA does not address 48V and lower. One soon will see that Fridges TV's ... will be able to work on this. Stoves if you use a 110V element @ 55VDC you will get pretty much the same affect.

So why doe we need a full house to be approved and wired if all are < 50V.
In my case when I had to redo my house lights all are on 12V with 48V charger and 12V batt backup. DSTV ... you can get a "regulator 48V - 16V ..."
My koi pond I only use 90W.

I recon in 1 - 5 years wiring of houses is going to change completely and the law once again

Exiting times ahead.

Sorry for all the tjol 

Are you aware that there s a new national regulations up for review that "should" become like the NHBRC (buiding rec) This is going to change a lot. But whether you are on or off grid you MUST register by NERSA>  They do not have the processes in place yet. I did it and they will inform me when they are ready.
Personally I believe that with the new "rules" it will be better it will come one set nationally. It will also become "law via parliament" then local authorities can't object and have own implementation.
A while ago I had a look at it and it is a good standard. The concern in studies shows that roof mounted solar systems can become more dangerous than the believe is currently and from that the "frame" system is a little tighter specked.

The problem munics are facing is the the bill of human rights/ constitution declares electricity is part of your rights.
Therefore they can not make laws against this. You can believe me on this as we are fighting in court re it.
I believe once a "group" gets together and chat to like City of Cape Town and get on court case going then the others will have to listen.

Will let you guys soon know what is court feeling re it.

Thank you very much for the information.
I do have a prepaid meter but have setup a separate DB board for my solar stuff, I do have a feed from the grid to this DB (grid connected). If is understand correctly all I need to do is to put  a change over  switch between the 2 DB's and need to have a COC for my PV system and then to register with NERSA once they have theit house in order.
Thanks again for the helpful information 

I am not going to get involved in this discussion other than to offer this one opinion (because the conversation is an endless circle);
There is no value in installing a grid connected system in JHB (which includes any inverter that connects to the grid, irrespective of its ability to feed back into the grid). The authorities have carefully calculated costs and complexities to make it just a dumb thing to do. In my opinion this is intentional to protect their revenue stream of which electricity sales is the major contributor.
If you want to move forward with solar then make sure you are "Off Grid" in that your inverter and the grid never meet. This can be accomplished by Having a Grid DB for things like Oven (gas?), geyser (solar?), A/C, under floor heating etc. Then have a PV-DB for lights, general plugs (not space heaters), fridge, TV+Decoder, PC's, internet, etc. You can have Grid Backup for the PV-DB via a suitable separate changeover switch.
This solution (off grid) will require that you register with Nersa as an SSEG when the time comes and regs are settled (unless panel capacity is below a pathetic 250W apparently), and have a COC for the installation - but no special applications, approvals, engineers, tariff changes etc etc etc
If you look at the numbers and feel that there is value in going the Grid Connected route then go for it.

Actually aluminium is an excellent conductor and at the thicknesses of the average rails for holding panels will do a much better job than some measly thin copper wire..
From what I understand it is more just because 'thats what the panel manufacturers say in the instructions' and because it is difficult to ensure that all the aluminium peices bond to one another electrically.
The seperate peices are usually anodised which needs to be peirced to conduct electricity and then further aluminum oxide also forms a non conductive skin.
There are special components for this - http://www.we-llc.com/products/weeb-washer - if this link doesn't work google 'weeb washer' to find many hits on it - to me this is a far *better* way of doing it, it makes way more sense.
Anyway this brings me to my question, does anyone know somewhere local that has this sort of product available or could make such a thing?

Most of the time 4mm2 bare copper wire is used.

Thank you very much.
How does one get around connecting copper conductor to the alluminuim panel?
Im wondering if there will be corrosion due to dissimilar metals?
Does this include copper?
Many thanks
J

You will always get galvanic corrosion between dissimilar metals, just more between certain metals and less between others.  The potential difference between zinc (plated) and aluminium is much lower than between copper and aluminium - if you would make use of the zinc plated clips or lugs the corrosion should be much less than between copper and aluminium.  If you are inland you should also have less worries than if you are close to the sea.
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galvanic_corrosion

The image you've posted is for DC systems - where you distribute DC throughout the premises e.g. your home and all equipment / appliances run off DC. That is why the DC negative is grounded as well.  On AC installations the Negative is also grounded before going into the E/L unit - when there is a ground fault (current leaking from Negative OR Positive to ground), the E/L unit disconnects the power if the leaking current is more than the leakage rating of the E/L unit.
 
You should however not connect the DC Negative of the PV panels or the batteries to the system ground unless your inverter / charge controller installation manual clearly states that you may do so, otherwise you risk damaging the inverter / charge controller.

Hi Carl
 
I did not explain myself properly then. I am not advocating multiple earth rods I am just saying if you have two don't link them.
 
The earth is a poor conductor over a short distance; the same chap in a different video  put in a 3m long earthing rod and 1 m away there was still 3/4 of the potential between the grounding rod and the earth. They had not bonded well. He then  ran some tests and it is only once the ground rod is 10m long that you start getting good conductance.
 
From minute 49 in the video it shows what happens when you bond two electrodes that are some distance apart. The lightning strike sets up a gradient of potential radiating out from the point of strike. The impedance of your earthing is lower than that of the earth and some of that energy from the lightning pulse travels down your earth pathway from the electrode closest to the lightning strike to the electrode furthest from the strike, subjecting all you earthed appliances to several thousand joules. Therefore use only one grounding rod and a good one. Even with a  grounding  rod 15 m in length you are not going to get enough flow to cause 15 A circuit breakers to trip. I am not recommending independent ground rods but if you do feel you need two rods do not connect them. A cluster of rods joined by cable is still only effectively one earth electrode, just one is hoping to decrease the impedance to ground.  
 
A direct strike on your installation is going to fry just about everything in spite of surge protectors etc. Hopefully the stray voltages induced by a close strike will go to ground through your lightning surge protectors. 
 
When earthing the panels and frame the only stray voltage should be atmospheric (lighting).  I would rather not have that energy coming into my home. A short within the panel should blow your solar fuses at your combiner box as it will draw energy from the other strings and exceed the 12A which I have installed in my case and this should warn you you have a touch potential problem. . Stray voltages are trying to go to source. In the case of lightning that is ground or quite often in the Karoo, adjacent cloud. 
 
In the case of a short circuit in you house, the stray voltage needs to go to source (Eskom - generator in my case). That is why the earth wire is bonded to neutral in your DB. You are providing a pathway for stray voltages to go back to source. I just question the logic of running 23m (in my case) of earthing wire (which in all likelihood will only conduct energy from lighting) through my home to an earthing point on the southern side of my home. Therefore in my case I will have a separate earth for my PVs, frame and PV home run cables, which are all on the northern side, which will not be connected to the earthing rod on the southern side of the house (which is for our current electrical installation). At my inverter, the input earth and neutral will be bonded, as from there the cable run is direct from generator to inverter. You need to bond the output too since in battery mode your inverter is acting as the power source and you need to provide a pathway back to source for stray current. The earth and neutral in the Axpert do not seem to be bonded in the inverter but I will check finally when I put wires in. Terminals and their screws often do not make good contact until tightened. Strictly speaking the earth bond on the output should open if the inverter is in bypass mode perhaps by using a contactor.
 
 

Multiple earthing rods are generally a bad idea as a strike close to one earthing rod will set up a difference in ground potential and you will have an energy pulse travelling along you earth wire from one rod to the other. If you have multiple earth rods they must not be interconnected.  Three or four rods with cable in between still counts as 1 earthing. To have a earth rod on the southern side of the house because that is where your municipal supply enters the premises and to have a earth rod on the north side because that is where your PVs are (and the two are connected through your home) is asking for trouble. Earth your frames and panels to their own rod and then earth your inverter to you home's earth rod.

We all know that in SA there are two types of electricity supply. Single phase and Three phase. What most people don't know is that when it comes to how the "earth" is supplied there are also different ways. (All legal and above board). One of which is tapping a wire off the neutral and supplying it as a earth wire to the consumer.
When you have a 3 phase power supply you will have 4 (or 5 wires) coming from the municipality. 3 of them are the live phases, one of them is Neutral. The three phases (live wires) will have 230 Vac relative to the Neutral wire. Remember Voltage is always measured between two points. In this case a Live phase wire and Neutral. In the distribution network the Neutral is always considered as the reference voltage (0V). But by convention the Earth (the planet) can also be used as a reference voltage 0V. It would be a very bad thing if the Neutral wire would be at a much higher voltage than the earth... So what Eskom does is they earth the neutral wire that come out of the generator. They also earth the neutral at various points in the distribution network. This is to ensure that the voltage difference between neutral and the real earth is very close to 0V. So in theory there is nothing wrong with splitting the Neutral wire into two, one they give you is labeled earth and the other is labeled neutral. (This is fine because the neutral is suppose to be earthed further up stream in the distribution network.) In an ideal world this would be the end of the story.... but..
Here's a little test you can do. Take a volt meter and switch it to measure mV. Now take the two leads about a meter apart and see what it measures. It will most likely never be 0V. The further apart the two points you measure the higher the voltage can be..  Depending from how far you are from the point where they earthed the neutral and how well its earthed you may find that there is a voltage difference between the Neutral and the real earth at your property. Typically this should be a small voltage difference.
The thing that really mess things up is when they steal cables.. If they break the neutral cable before they break the live cables you can potentially get hundreds of volts on the neutral wire and serous voltage differences between a given live and neutral wire!  This is because breaking the neutral cable they've effectively disconnected it from the ground.
In many cases (such as yours) the earth wire that you get from the municipality is nothing other than the Neutral wire. In addition to them bonding it to the earth, it is also connected to all the metal fittings in your house and all the other houses, all these fittings are connected to the earth really, so they all pull down the voltage of the neutral/earth back down to 0V relative to the earth. The problem comes in when its not done this way and the neutral is not bonded to earth properly in the distribution network...
If your sparky picked up that there is a high voltage between the earth/neutral supplied by the municipality/eskom and the real earth it could point to a wiring fault on the local distribution network. If I were you I'll contact the municipality and ask them to check it out.
Normally your appliances (inverter, fridges etc) would not be affected. They only really use the live and neutral to operate, they only care about the voltage difference between those two wires. The problem comes in with the earth wire you get from the municipality, if its connected to the metal casing of the fridge for example and you touch it you might not like it very much.
In theory the earth you get from the eskom/munisipality should be at very close to 0V relative to the earth and it should be perfectly acceptable to use it in your DB and for grounding your PV panels etc. It should be okay to connect it to your own earth spike as well. In your case I would not do that until the municipality had a look at why the earth/neutral is at high voltage.
 

Hi @Coulomb @weber
I see that you've done a lot of work for the PV community, namely when comes to improving firmware of a numerous Voltronic Axpert inverters. I noticed, that you're giving your time for free and also do not posses a sample of Axpert King, which greatly limits your ability to continue with the firmware testing and development.
Although I'm not personally using any Axpert, I am a big fan of self-sustainability and renewable energy sources. Therefore, I'd like to help you a bit:
I am publicly offering you a one-time sponsorship of 1000 USD, so you will be able to obtain necessary Axpert King sample. There's just one condition: you will include me as a HW sponsor in the Readme.txt file of all the future releases of Axpert King patched firmware. If you do agree, just send me your PayPal address in a PM.
This is not a joke.
Youda

That's extremely kind of you, @Youda; thank you. Especially as you don't personally have an interest in the King.
Of course.
So let's not do anything unless or until the firmware is stable. Then we can re-evaluate. I've mentioned this to Weber, and he agrees with accepting your offer (if still available) only when the firmware is stable.