Moffat

Let me weigh-in with my 2-cents here: I also would love to know at what ambient temperature(s) you expect to be running this load. I would hazard to say no matter how good or efficient the inverter is, if temperatures going to the load are coming either from Pv or from Battery should cause heat, non is good for the inverter and thus derating may occur or shorter hours due to inefficiency.

Ideally would want to put it on the Induction Cooktop (3000w) on the Essential side of the load, am trying to get away from the high costs of gas, locally in my jurisdiction. The hope is that with a big enough battery bank should be able to cook within an hour if grid is down and not pull power from grid when it's up either... gradually going off-grid, item by item.

Now what if I have a small array, 3000watts with a 5Kw Sunsynk inverter and want to use a 3000w Induction Cooker... would that tax my inverter too much? I'm really not sure if the Induction cooktops also have a high startup draw... would be interested to find out if anyone here knows.

I concur on multiple points with your logic. Just it's frustrating when trying to juggle multiple areas especially punitive socio-political ones. I too rely, for my business on having a reliable power supply and internet connectivity. Just as I invested in solar, to create a stable power supply, my ISP stops investing in their redundancy infrastructure. So now I find I have power for my router, but their substations switch off during a black out due to not investing in generators or even solar systems. Frustration building I guess and now that I have to replace my batteries as they have reached end-of-life, over time and research I have discovered my initial Solar system contractor did a shoddy job, meaning it's literally having to start all over again and the cost is high, not to mention the fact that now some of the earlier invested hardware is getting obsolete and newer better technologies like lithium and more efficient inverters are now on the market at substantively higher costs. C'est la vie (such is life). So now the hard choice is do I invest in gel/agm batteries and limp along till I can afford to overhaul my system or do I begin by buying the inverter and rewiring my panels plus adding system protections which were not initially incorporated and at the same time plan to move from my current ISP to a more expensive one who can also be erratic and not provide a good service level agreement in terms of attending to faults (Rhetorical question)?

Have you calculated the return on investment for this, relative to the load they have. The real joy for offgrid living seems to me, the security and joy of having electricity 24/7/365. Is the cost worth it or a smaller system could still do? That would be for you to determine.

My location is: 17°47'36.0"S 30°59'45.4"E -17.793344, 30.995948 * Panel tilt is 15º * 31ºNorth East is my roof line where I have 8 x 250watt Panels * 226º South West, I have 4 x 250watt Panels * Average minimum temperatures, would be a "guess-timate" - at 10H00 in winter it's about 10ºCelsius, Summer 20ºCelsius. Interestingly, I appreciate that the Sunsynk is a more efficient inverter, but am wondering if truly solar on the whole is a good return on investment. I know for blackouts it's great, but I already have a Chinese MPPSolar/Axpert-type inverter and am thinking given budget constraints, may be good to continue limping along with it till it eventually packs up and then upgrade my inverter and other components to lithium. I'd love to meet someone who's satisfied/happy with their ROI, apart from the joy of electricity 24/7/365. What's your take?

Today, I was just touting how Hubble is a good battery and hours later, I'm fretting thinking am I about to eat humble pie? Has anyone (a) received any feedback from hubble either directly or through other forums or; (b) tried to charge the batteries and leave them at 100% SOC for a while (a day or two) or consistently charge them to 100% SOC using the "USER" option instead of the BMS and then see if the cells will balance and capacity will be regained? I think sincerely, Hubble needs to urgently address this, either through a firmware update or to check their hardware otherwise some of us who are not in SA, will definitely not buy or invest in this battery.

If they cannot even spell "Energy" correctly on the LCD and the warranty is only 1 year, it doesn't inspire confidence in me and I concur, there's a lot more options for cheaper in the market. Shop around a bit more.

I was going to suggest the bottleneck is your installer and to by-pass him/her and share threads of your issue if they are not playing ball. On a separate but equally important issue, hopefully am not hijacking your thread: The 5kw Sunsynk inverter mentions that one needs a 150v PV array for the inverter to start up, I only have 3,000watts (250w panels x 12) which is roughly 56.25v, does this mean that I am unable to upgrade my system to a 5Kw Sunsynk system? Due to limited roof space I am unable to add more panels, is there a work around? PLEASE HELP.

That's a bit of a bummer. I'm based in Zimbabwe and nearest dealer or supplier would be SA, so if they start giving me problems and then manufacturer is reluctant that's no good. What also happens then with warranty issues? Suppliers tend to refer end-user to manufacturer and are not always prepared to assist sometimes.

Cheap is expensive, especially when disaster strikes or checks are done to establish code compliance. Seldom are checks done by relevant bodies but at the minimum we need to, as best as possible get things done to code or to a level where, even optically things look good. The example in this thread is atrocious. Conversely, the attendant costs of getting qualified people to do the work is not cheap. It becomes and egg and a chicken issue, what to do? (Rhetorical). With regards to a socket, I can confirm I have replaced some domestic sockets myself and am not a qualified electrician, but I have looked at the previous standard that was there and have sought to adhere to it, now imagine coming into sight of such and when maybe trying to fix a burnt wire, I would be clueless of how to fix it, without resorting to the same errors and hazards. This post has been a great eye-opener and conversation for us to all throw in our 2-cents and see how best we manage, compliance vs cost of engaging qualified contractors at various levels, for minor work as well as major work. I would hazard to even suggest that for example when getting a major job done, on a separate job, that same person (qualified electrician) can even be kindly asked to look at our "other" works elsewhere to ensure code was complied with, thereby saving costs and creating goodwill between him/her and ourselves for future work knowing they'll always throw in a "freebie" in other areas and in turn, we don't always gripe too much on their bills. A give and take relationship is therefore cultivated.

It's really quite shocking that an electrician at any level would actually let this shody work pass. The ceiling also gets quite hot and chances of insulation tape pealing off, over time is high and you would never know it until you have a fire. Good thing you took photos. I would even go as far as saying, NEVER use this electrician again to be honest, the risk element is just too great of losing your whole house. Please as soon as possible get this redone.

I'm housed in a similar set up. The best and easiest solution is for each individual and at their cost to get a small installation that would then power lights and select plug points, like a Sukam 3kva. This is powered off the grid and when you have a blackout, the Sukam inverter then runs individual households. Also trying to get something to go into individual flats/apartments has the problem that one may put a kettle or iron on that outlet. For communal areas like hallways, security lights, security cameras, communal electric gate, I would propose a solar system with panels being put in a communal location, hopefully you have a communal garden or even a 3kva system (Sukam) or any other that powers off the grid and batteries are located in the main room where the meters are for the individual flats/apartments. I would not recommend a generator and would just as residents to be mindful of the Eskom schedule to avoid the elevator(s).

I was wanting to get Hubbles but given that I am outside of SA, this becomes a consideration, in cases like yours where the item may have to be returned to Manufacturer, more so across borders. The costs become considerable. Down the road, if you can, try and get as less a number of batteries as possible, I've heard on this forum and in my research, this generally helps with less parts having to experience pairing or uneven charge and discharge issues etc.

Sorry, given this information attached, I would recommend going 400v. Source: https://www.ellies.co.za/product/5kw-sunsynk-hybrid-inverter/

Keep it at about 450v. If say in winter, which is colder and you suddenly have solar, your voltage could go quite high hence why most people recommend the range of 450v, including videos from Keith at Sunsynk online.

Well I can tell you that at the minute, the market in Zim is flooded with used Narada batteries and some are being passed off as new because, the industry being new and customers not taking the time to do their research or not having equipment are unable to know what's new or used or how many cycles a battery has already done. These things come "boxed". It's sad.

That looks like a beautiful set of information gathering there. Would you be willing to share the software for this either free or even at a price? This would be very handy. Cost at the minute, given Covid-19 decimating incomes or at any other time is always a consideration for me and yes it makes sense to save every cent either for a rainy day or investment into retirement. Peace of mind on getting a decent enough kit with a long-term warranty, especially on the inverter is equally just as important. Thanks to this forum and YouTube channels, I've learnt a lot and have discovered that my installer didn't do a good job on my install, first time around and this is now leading to costly work of redoing the job. For instance from my solar panels, I do not have a Combiner Box and on my AC side, I do not have an AC fused protection, just a 13amp plug. I also didn't have my panels with a lightning arrestor, which I have now done. My current changeover switch will not allow me to completely by-pass the inverter, meaning if the inverter packed up, I would be without electricity even from the grid as everything goes through the inverter... all this factors are now shaping my thinking. Given your experience with lightning on your inverter, I would recommend having an AC fused protection device or Surge Protection Device (SPD) before the Inverter as well as a breaker on the DC side if you don't already have one.

The scrapping is quite an interesting concept which hasn't quite caught-on in Zimbabwe. What we have is that installers take the old batteries off you, likely recycle them quietly and sell them off without the customer, being non-the-wiser. I have yet to come across a company offering to buy old or end of life batteries here.

Reviews of Growatt are okay at it's price point but it seems niggly. ...and that's just one source.

You may want to get an installer to come and check your grounding on the unit, it may be that, just thinking outside the box, I suspect your Inverter does not have an earth cable connected to the chassis that then runs to an earth rod outside... food for thought.

Thanks for the response, that's quite a healthy battery. Best of luck disposing it.

Very well summarized. Any ideas about where to get the best price for a brand new 5Kw Sunsynk inverter? I'm more partial to this as there seems to be a robust community here as well as good reviews about it's reliability over the Growatt and Axpert. Fortunately being the frugal guy that I am, I am still driving my car from 2004 lol. It does the job and is still reasonable to maintain, but you are right about people not investing enough in the right areas. I'm based in Zimbabwe and Zesa, the local utility is just as bad as Eskom on load shedding and tariff increases if not worse. My own income and work has been decimated by Covid-19 as well, hence the attempted gymnastics of trying to make a dollar out of 25cents.

I'm based in Zimbabwe and whilst we also get augmented electricity from Eskom, our local utility Zesa, is not reliable either and has similar symptoms of high tariffs and frequent increases. Being someone who works from home, I have since looked at my options and am inclined for the minute to get 4 x 200ah Gel batteries and limp along on my current system. I've looked at the 5Kw Sunsynk inverter and it's about R21,750.00 inc. vat on the cheaper side, now add batteries, even if I get Gel/Agm (R12,600.00) for now plus rewiring, that would take my budget to about R34,350.00 and add installation and labour R3,130.00 for whooping R37,480.00, that's excluding transportation to Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, apart from Covid-19 the economy here has not been kind so outlaying that amount all at once is not easy on me, hence the gymnastics of trying to see how to rebuild the system. At least I had invested in the panels early on. If anyone can redirect me somewhere where I can get cheaper 200ah batteries or cheaper brand new Sunsynk would appreciate it. After research it seems Sunsynk is better and more reliable than the Growatt and Axpert options.

@TariqI'm actually based in Zimbabwe, but the issue with my post regarding Cape Town is that we have regulatory authorities who like to copy and paste some things without always looking at the local environment or just merely scrapping for more taxes on poor citizens. It's always good to stay abreast of regulations elsewhere so one is not caught on the wrong side with hardware that is likely to become suddenly redundant when regulations change.