Jump to content

PhilFM

Members
  • Posts

    39
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Everything posted by PhilFM

  1. Hi GregIsh Sorry for only answering now, I will check the invoice details for you and revert a.s.a.p.
  2. For a start I would say adjust your gas geyser temperature to the desired temperature and not "piping hot". Remember gas geysers heat on demand and does not need to be kept at extremely high temperatures. If you have this sorted, you can only open the hot water tap in the shower and won't need to adjust with cold water, this will then immediately show if your pressure is to low. But I do agree with Thunderbolt, if you only rely on gravity for pressure here, you are going to struggle as you will be needing more than 20m height or some kind of a pressure pump.
  3. Hagu13, I think you are set up nicely and as you said when there is loadshedding, you can plan for that with the needed SOC Unfortunately for us here in rural Limpopo, infrastructure maintenance is a huge problem so it's almost always a gamble with how deep you discharge your batteries as one storm, one gust of wind, one fart in the wrong direction can mean anything from 1 to 24 hours without grid, and this happens a lot. So I run my batteries from 2am (can probably start at midnight rather), then wait for PV to start up after 6am, charge batteries during the day, which is usually done around mid day on a good day, then we add load as needed to maximize PV and switch back to grid around 5pm. I can extend my night hours on the batteries, but then we have no backup should something go wrong and there is a rainy day or two. Here in the Lowveld it gets seriously overcast some days, we had two weeks now with very little sunshine and lots of rain, but we do not complain as we are coming from a severe drought. Unfortunately it is under these conditions (wet/damp) that we experience most of the grid cable faults, potentially leaving you without grid for a long time. All this said, it basically just comes down to different circumstances, there is no one correct answer for everyone and it seems you understand your needs and risks well and plan/run your system accordingly
  4. I think you are at a good level currently, given that your panels are able to recharge completely during the day and you do not need grid power to do so
  5. Picture of the mounting system used, worked really nicely on the IBR sheets
  6. A quick update on this project So we installed another US3000, making it a total of 3 of them as well as installing 6 more panels. The extra panels is not really needed to carry extra load as we managed well with only 6, but double the capacity just increases the time we can run on batteries at night and charge them up quicker during the day, as well as stretching a few more watts at the end of the day. We find we are also now going to be able to switch the old "heavy load" circuit to the inverter and just balance our load more during the day in order to now use the solar for the washing, coffee machine etc. Have been running these loads off a lead from the other circuits just to test and the system is really doing well with the extra loads. We are learning more and more every day about how our consumption works and where we can improve and balance loads a little better Some pics of the new equipment installed
  7. Really looking very neat. Makes me want to redo some stuff on my install
  8. Mine is also not that old, but I doubt it will change, might become worse as I love to tinker
  9. https://www.gntc.co.za/products/solar-4-string-combiner-box?_pos=2&_sid=60b7785af&_ss=r Contact Geoff, he is always a great help and best service
  10. Hi John, easiest way is to connect with a combiner box, this will already have the parallel connections in as well as fuses for every string. They also include a DC breaker. I attach a photo of my setup. This combiner box is for 4 strings. 6mm Solar cable will be sufficient
  11. Cuzz, what inverter are you running?
  12. Hi Cuzz No you need to connect 1 to 0, see attached
  13. PhilFM

    Battery Usage

    Swartkat, yes I agree with those figures, but Voltage under load will read lower if I am right, and that would be the voltage the inverter uses to determine when to switch back to utility So what I am basically saying, voltage on a battery not connected to anything will be higher than if it was under load. Same thing as you will see with your panels, no load, high voltage, the higher the load gets, the lower the voltage gets
  14. PhilFM

    Battery Usage

    Here I need to be corrected, hopefully someone here with more knowledge will help. But under load, 50% SOC will be close to 46V. If you take the load off, the voltage will probably shoot up to 48V again, which is basically 50% SOC without load.
  15. PhilFM

    Battery Usage

    Hi Swartkat Watts = V x A Thus, he has a potential of 48V x 200ah = 9600Wah, but at 50% DOD that just gives him usable 4800Wah. If we devide this by 500W, it will theoretically give him the 9 hours I stated. If I am not maybe missing something here
  16. PhilFM

    Battery Usage

    Hi Shiraz If you set your voltage to go to a 50% DOD, with the available 4.8 KW and a load of 500W, your batteries should last between 9 and 10 hours
  17. tetrasection I am sorry, I do not completely agree with you here. Anyone that goes solar, knows they need to manage their power consumption constantly and will probably already have a lot of other energy saving tricks installed all over their home. So let's say we have the parents over for a whole week. That is one (maybe two) extra LED lights constantly burning from (at worst) 6 to 10 at night, given they don't switch off the light in the room, which I will switch off for them. Maybe an extra fan running at night if it is in the summer months. The rest of the electricity usage will be consumed in common areas that we are in any case occupying. Geysers are solar, gas cooking etc. So I do not see how this will seriously affect a properly sized system. You should size your system not for your best days but your worst or at least your average days. Then also, what Google says regarding gel batteries does not imply guarantee from the supplier. Which is much lower than 6 years. Yes gel is much cheaper, but I do still think that Lithium has a lot more advantages over them, especially as part of a daily managed system where they are cycled every single day. So to each his own, I know I Victron is much better than my Axpert, but that is what I could afford, rather opting for optimal PV and battery backup and rather at this stage seeing the inverter as 'n much lower priced "consumable" for I few years, then moving on to something else, hopefully budget allowing something better.
  18. But what is your guaranteed lifespan for gel batteries at a 25% DOD? Pylontech you have 10 years at 80% DOD. That is what sells them in my opinion. My 1.5 year old AGM's were struggling to hold load for even 2 hours during load shedding. The LifePo4's are (again my opinion based on experience with both), just much more robust if you plan to cycle them every day
  19. Hi George Bloubul is right. Unfortunately if you are planning on using lead acid, AGM, etc, you will have to work according to your planned inverter setup and series the batteries to get to the needed voltage. Usually 24V of 48V. That will mean either 2 x 12V in series or 4 x 12V in series. Remember Series = multiples of voltage Parallel = multiples of amps So practical 5 x 200ah 12V batteries in series = 60V 200ah (no such inverter I know of) 5 x 200ah 12V batteries in paralles = 12V 1000ah (would not advise using a 12V inverter) Both setups (series or parallel) will give the same Watts The problem with these batteries is that you will need to try and future proof as much as possible as it is not advisable to expand your battery bank, mixing old and new together if you need more capacity in the future. This is where lithium is much more versatile as you can expand on a modular basis. The question regarding battery capacity is a complex one, where you need to think carefully of what you are going to need the batteries for. Are they purely as backup when the grid is off? Do you want to cycle them every day and use in combination with PV, will you be charging them from PV or utility. Maybe share your needs and planned setup here and the forum will be able to give you great advice on what would be the optimal setup for your needs and budget
  20. PhilFM

    Mecer 5kva

    Maybe someone else has some better advice on this, but maybe increase your bulk charge to 57V and see if this helps
  21. PhilFM

    Mecer 5kva

    Hi Swannie Firstly, when taking a voltage reading while the batteries are still being charged, does not give you an indication of the current voltage of the batteries, as the voltage will be higher during charge. Best would be to switch of your mains in order for the system to revert to battery power and then take accurate measurements. How old are your batteries, is this a new system? What are the recommended charge and float voltages of the batteries, would be best to start there? I have experience with AGM and lithium, not with lead crystal, maybe someone else could help on this. Except for setting 11, most of your settings seems to be default. How long have these settings been working fine?
  22. Just to clarify Utility - Only Utility, no PV, no battery SUB - Solar First, Then Utility, Then Battery (Not supported by Axpert, only Axpert King). Load will be balanced between solar, then utility and only use battery as last resort SBU - Solar First, Then Battery, Then Utility. Load will be balanced between solar and battery, solar as priority, if load is to high, then supplemented from battery, but if SOC is below your back to grid voltage (mine set to voltage giving 20%), will switch over to grid until the SOC is back to where it will go back to discharge Hope this answers your question
  23. Hi CDK Jnr I see your time setting is set up with the day hours as SUB, only the Axpert King supports SUB, I do not think your Axpert will support that, only Utility or SBU. Had the same issue on my side, then Centurion Solar helped me out here, showing the mistake, switched over to SBU, now it switches on time morning and afternoon. But as per your post, you do not want the batteries to be draining during the day if you do not have sufficient PV. This will be a challenge on your Axpert as you will either have to run only Utility or accept that the inverter will use PV and supplement with battery if there is not enough watts coming in. If you bought your ICC through Centurion Solar, you can give them a call for help on other settings as they are very helpful, they might be able to advise better on a solution that could help with your batteries, maybe by playing around with the back to grid voltage. If you keep this quite high, you can still run SBU during the day, but limit the drain on the batteries and keep the SOC high. Hope this helps
×
×
  • Create New...