Hyarion

I'm busy getting quotes for replacement aircon and new, I'm not an installer, but have learnt a bit from the various quotes and research that might help:
If you're dealing with a very hot area, make sure you have insulation.  Without insulation you're going to have the aircon(s) working way harder than needed.  Insulation helps with keeping it cool in summer.  It's not just about keeping it warm in winter. Get a trust-worthy installer - I've seen 2 really bad installs (one at a friend, one at my work many years ago) where the drip-pipe was done badly and resulted in water dripping inside. Almost every installer I've had come to quote has advised against using pumps for the drip-pipe (except for 1 installer who wanted to use them everywhere).  Apparently they need constant maintenance and if anything goes wrong with a pump you're going to have water leaking everywhere.   

I'm busy getting quotes for replacement aircon and new, I'm not an installer, but have learnt a bit from the various quotes and research that might help:
If you're dealing with a very hot area, make sure you have insulation.  Without insulation you're going to have the aircon(s) working way harder than needed.  Insulation helps with keeping it cool in summer.  It's not just about keeping it warm in winter. Get a trust-worthy installer - I've seen 2 really bad installs (one at a friend, one at my work many years ago) where the drip-pipe was done badly and resulted in water dripping inside. Almost every installer I've had come to quote has advised against using pumps for the drip-pipe (except for 1 installer who wanted to use them everywhere).  Apparently they need constant maintenance and if anything goes wrong with a pump you're going to have water leaking everywhere.   

I had a neighbour ask me to review their contract and have looked into them for friends.

Most important detail some people miss:  GoSolr is rent-only.  i.e. you never pay off the system, you never own it.  
The main take-away is that at the moment it seems their initial sales and installation are great, the equipment they install is great, but once it's installed it's very very difficult to get hold of them, especially if they need to make any changes/fixes to the system.  Hello Peter will give you a lot of stories along those lines too.  2 different neighbours who have them said the same thing.
Having read through their terms and conditions, I highly recommend you read any contract in detail.  There's quite a few 'gotchas' that may or may not be of concern to you.  In particular these stood out for me:
The monthly cost will increase "based on CPI".  It's generically worded enough that they could abuse it with pretty high increases annually if they wish. They reserve the right to at any stage switch to billing you based on the kWh the panels produce instead of the fixed monthly fee.  If they do this, you have 30 days to _notice_ they've done this and demand they change the billing back, if you don't notice it, then you're stuck with being billed for the power the panels produce regardless of whether you use it or not. If they ever decide to connect the system to export power, they get the full financial benefit of all exported power.  i.e. you sign away rights to that "income". If you cancel the deal - including e.g. if you sell your house and the new owner doesn't want the system - they will come and remove the system but will not do any maintenance on the building such as filling holes or anything like that.  I get that it's to protect them from owners demanding they repaint walls and excessive stuff, but the way it's worded makes it sound like they'll do the bare minimum when removing and leave you with the effort of cleaning up.  On the bright side though, the penalty for cancellation and even early cancellation is not high, something like R10k (I can't quite remember amount, but I know it was way less than I thought it would be) Doing some maths, if you plan on living in your house for more than 5 years, you're better off finding a rent-to-own solution or getting financing.  If, like my neighbour, you plan on selling in 2 years time anyways, then it's not a bad solution.
 

We use around 300-350kWh from Grid/Eskom per month now. 
Solar + Battery accounts for approx. 65% of our usage.  More batteries would increase that percentage but we don't really have the space for more.

I second Tailscale.  It works beautifully.  And very user-friendly.
Free for up to 3 users.  Install the plugin for home assistant, install the app on your phone/laptop and whenever you want to connect just connect on tailscale and then access home assistant as if you're at home on your wifi.

My apologies, I was busy at the time, I didn't have the capacity to respond in full.
Axpert inverters typically work well if all you want is a UPS, keeping essential loads going during a power failure or load-shedding utility. That said, there are losses in efficiency with any inverter, charging batteries from AC (AC -->DC conversion), storing the DC charge (standing losses), and then converting it all back from DC to usable AC again. These efficiency losses means that It becomes expensive to just keep the lights on.
So you add some solar panels, thinking that it would be great to offset some of these losses using sun power. And it is, solar panels charge the batteries, and but when they are charged, they just sit there in the sun. So you decide that you want to use them directly to service loads, and they can, but the problem with most axperts is that they either use 100% Eskom power, or 100% battery power or 100% solar power, there's no in-between. This means that if you have a 5K Axpert inverter with panels capable  generating say 2500W DC, and your load is 2000W, all is good, the inverter will convert and use solar power to power loads. The problem is when a cloud happens along, and solar generation drops to 1500W. The axpert-type inverter will switch 100% from solar to grid, and if not grid, 100% to battery. This is true for most axpert-type inverters, although I have heard of some that can do limited "blending" of sources. The Sunsynk, by contrast, will blend any source depending on how it is set up. In the above scenario, it will still use the 1500W from the panels, but supplement it with 500W of power from the grid, battery, aux, genny or wind turbine. So it is far more efficient.
Another difference is that it is a true bi-directional hybrid inverter ( Sunsynk uses the term "Super Hybrid Parity Inverter"). The Grid and Aux input is bi directional in the sense that it operates as both an input and an output. So it can draw current from the grid or aux, and it can send current back to the grid / aux. It can also limit the load of the current flowing in either direction too, to a pre-determined wattage. This significant because, due to budgetary contraints, most homeowners cannot afford to put in a 20kW inverter, and so they split their db into essential and non-essential loads. Essential loads are usually quite light, and allow homeowners to reduce the size of the inverter to say 5kW. The non-essential loads are usually big current hogs (like water heating and pumping), and they are placed before the inverter, on the grid side, effectively being served directly by the grid before grid power even reaches the inverter. This also means that they are down when the grid power goes, but hot water is quite stable and doesn't change its temperature in four hours, and the pool won't go green immediately if there isn't any pump working, so this kind of works well from a functionality perspective. The problem with this is that it does not result in much efficiency gains or electricity savings, because the biggest current hogs are also the ones that are still serviced by the grid (when it is there). So homeowners either have to buy a bigger axpert type inverter, or get a smaller hot water installation, or change the element to a smaller one, or get a soft starter for the pool pump, and/or shift the load to the essentials side. The Sunsynk hybrid can safely export power to the grid side though, using a Current Transformer or CT coil to measure directional load (when the grid is up).
So if you have a 4000W hot water heater element, it can still be on the grid or non-essentials side, but the Sunsynk can pump 4000W of excess solar to it. The CT coil measures the power and the inverter will reduce power when too much power is detected going to the grid. Even better, if the Sunsynk inverter only has 2000W of excess solar, the element will receive the other 200W from the grid. So it is efficient. The same with the Aux port, it is bi-directional, so it can be configured to take a genny input, or act as an output or "Smart Load" as Sunsynk calls it, and you can dump excess solar power towards it.
Here is a video which explains it:
Also important is battery support, the Sunsynk manual lists over 3 pages of batteries that it supports, most with CAN or RS485 communications.
Another difference is the wide range of capacities that it supports. In addition to the ability for it to parallel (up to 16 inverters), it comes in 3.6K, 5.5k, 8.8K, and a whopping 16K for single phase installs, and there are 12 and 50K 3phase units available. Not even Victron makes such a wide range of self-contained units, their biggest is 5K.
Pricing is a little more expensive than axpert-types, but it is nowhere near the pricing of Victron, which is a whole lot more.
This probably covers the most pertinent differences between the majority of Axpert and Sunsynk Hybrid inverters, but it is certainly not all, and other forumites are welcome to supplement it with their favourite ones. There are many others, from its easy to use interface, to the warranty and support in South Africa, that are equally important. It's simply in a different league.
Please note that I am not affiliated to Sunsynk in any way, I am just an enthusiastic owner who discovered this brilliant piece of kit under two years ago. 
                 
   
 

I had a neighbour ask me to review their contract and have looked into them for friends.

Most important detail some people miss:  GoSolr is rent-only.  i.e. you never pay off the system, you never own it.  
The main take-away is that at the moment it seems their initial sales and installation are great, the equipment they install is great, but once it's installed it's very very difficult to get hold of them, especially if they need to make any changes/fixes to the system.  Hello Peter will give you a lot of stories along those lines too.  2 different neighbours who have them said the same thing.
Having read through their terms and conditions, I highly recommend you read any contract in detail.  There's quite a few 'gotchas' that may or may not be of concern to you.  In particular these stood out for me:
The monthly cost will increase "based on CPI".  It's generically worded enough that they could abuse it with pretty high increases annually if they wish. They reserve the right to at any stage switch to billing you based on the kWh the panels produce instead of the fixed monthly fee.  If they do this, you have 30 days to _notice_ they've done this and demand they change the billing back, if you don't notice it, then you're stuck with being billed for the power the panels produce regardless of whether you use it or not. If they ever decide to connect the system to export power, they get the full financial benefit of all exported power.  i.e. you sign away rights to that "income". If you cancel the deal - including e.g. if you sell your house and the new owner doesn't want the system - they will come and remove the system but will not do any maintenance on the building such as filling holes or anything like that.  I get that it's to protect them from owners demanding they repaint walls and excessive stuff, but the way it's worded makes it sound like they'll do the bare minimum when removing and leave you with the effort of cleaning up.  On the bright side though, the penalty for cancellation and even early cancellation is not high, something like R10k (I can't quite remember amount, but I know it was way less than I thought it would be) Doing some maths, if you plan on living in your house for more than 5 years, you're better off finding a rent-to-own solution or getting financing.  If, like my neighbour, you plan on selling in 2 years time anyways, then it's not a bad solution.
 

I had a neighbour ask me to review their contract and have looked into them for friends.

Most important detail some people miss:  GoSolr is rent-only.  i.e. you never pay off the system, you never own it.  
The main take-away is that at the moment it seems their initial sales and installation are great, the equipment they install is great, but once it's installed it's very very difficult to get hold of them, especially if they need to make any changes/fixes to the system.  Hello Peter will give you a lot of stories along those lines too.  2 different neighbours who have them said the same thing.
Having read through their terms and conditions, I highly recommend you read any contract in detail.  There's quite a few 'gotchas' that may or may not be of concern to you.  In particular these stood out for me:
The monthly cost will increase "based on CPI".  It's generically worded enough that they could abuse it with pretty high increases annually if they wish. They reserve the right to at any stage switch to billing you based on the kWh the panels produce instead of the fixed monthly fee.  If they do this, you have 30 days to _notice_ they've done this and demand they change the billing back, if you don't notice it, then you're stuck with being billed for the power the panels produce regardless of whether you use it or not. If they ever decide to connect the system to export power, they get the full financial benefit of all exported power.  i.e. you sign away rights to that "income". If you cancel the deal - including e.g. if you sell your house and the new owner doesn't want the system - they will come and remove the system but will not do any maintenance on the building such as filling holes or anything like that.  I get that it's to protect them from owners demanding they repaint walls and excessive stuff, but the way it's worded makes it sound like they'll do the bare minimum when removing and leave you with the effort of cleaning up.  On the bright side though, the penalty for cancellation and even early cancellation is not high, something like R10k (I can't quite remember amount, but I know it was way less than I thought it would be) Doing some maths, if you plan on living in your house for more than 5 years, you're better off finding a rent-to-own solution or getting financing.  If, like my neighbour, you plan on selling in 2 years time anyways, then it's not a bad solution.
 

I had a neighbour ask me to review their contract and have looked into them for friends.

Most important detail some people miss:  GoSolr is rent-only.  i.e. you never pay off the system, you never own it.  
The main take-away is that at the moment it seems their initial sales and installation are great, the equipment they install is great, but once it's installed it's very very difficult to get hold of them, especially if they need to make any changes/fixes to the system.  Hello Peter will give you a lot of stories along those lines too.  2 different neighbours who have them said the same thing.
Having read through their terms and conditions, I highly recommend you read any contract in detail.  There's quite a few 'gotchas' that may or may not be of concern to you.  In particular these stood out for me:
The monthly cost will increase "based on CPI".  It's generically worded enough that they could abuse it with pretty high increases annually if they wish. They reserve the right to at any stage switch to billing you based on the kWh the panels produce instead of the fixed monthly fee.  If they do this, you have 30 days to _notice_ they've done this and demand they change the billing back, if you don't notice it, then you're stuck with being billed for the power the panels produce regardless of whether you use it or not. If they ever decide to connect the system to export power, they get the full financial benefit of all exported power.  i.e. you sign away rights to that "income". If you cancel the deal - including e.g. if you sell your house and the new owner doesn't want the system - they will come and remove the system but will not do any maintenance on the building such as filling holes or anything like that.  I get that it's to protect them from owners demanding they repaint walls and excessive stuff, but the way it's worded makes it sound like they'll do the bare minimum when removing and leave you with the effort of cleaning up.  On the bright side though, the penalty for cancellation and even early cancellation is not high, something like R10k (I can't quite remember amount, but I know it was way less than I thought it would be) Doing some maths, if you plan on living in your house for more than 5 years, you're better off finding a rent-to-own solution or getting financing.  If, like my neighbour, you plan on selling in 2 years time anyways, then it's not a bad solution.
 

I had a neighbour ask me to review their contract and have looked into them for friends.

Most important detail some people miss:  GoSolr is rent-only.  i.e. you never pay off the system, you never own it.  
The main take-away is that at the moment it seems their initial sales and installation are great, the equipment they install is great, but once it's installed it's very very difficult to get hold of them, especially if they need to make any changes/fixes to the system.  Hello Peter will give you a lot of stories along those lines too.  2 different neighbours who have them said the same thing.
Having read through their terms and conditions, I highly recommend you read any contract in detail.  There's quite a few 'gotchas' that may or may not be of concern to you.  In particular these stood out for me:
The monthly cost will increase "based on CPI".  It's generically worded enough that they could abuse it with pretty high increases annually if they wish. They reserve the right to at any stage switch to billing you based on the kWh the panels produce instead of the fixed monthly fee.  If they do this, you have 30 days to _notice_ they've done this and demand they change the billing back, if you don't notice it, then you're stuck with being billed for the power the panels produce regardless of whether you use it or not. If they ever decide to connect the system to export power, they get the full financial benefit of all exported power.  i.e. you sign away rights to that "income". If you cancel the deal - including e.g. if you sell your house and the new owner doesn't want the system - they will come and remove the system but will not do any maintenance on the building such as filling holes or anything like that.  I get that it's to protect them from owners demanding they repaint walls and excessive stuff, but the way it's worded makes it sound like they'll do the bare minimum when removing and leave you with the effort of cleaning up.  On the bright side though, the penalty for cancellation and even early cancellation is not high, something like R10k (I can't quite remember amount, but I know it was way less than I thought it would be) Doing some maths, if you plan on living in your house for more than 5 years, you're better off finding a rent-to-own solution or getting financing.  If, like my neighbour, you plan on selling in 2 years time anyways, then it's not a bad solution.
 

According to their website, it's either 8 or 16 as max: https://www.sunsynk.org/532kwh-battery  (this isn't the exact model you have though)
At the top it says
In the specs listed it has:
I suspect it's 16 as this is quite a common number for the communication protocols.

There is another possibility. If on your ID you are in arrears for other munic debt they also deduct some of the power loaded. It can even be for another property. 

None of the above schemes. The correct one (in a simplified way) is this:
 

I went digging for more info and did some maths when they announced it.
Quick summary of changes and unknowns for anyone interested:
CoCT will pay R1.04/kWh Net-consumer rule is apparently being dropped They are busy testing a different prepaid meter, if it passes all the tests then it will reduce the cost from R12k+ to around R5k (near the end of the interview: https://omny.fm/shows/the-john-maytham-show/cash-for-power-cape-town-gets-treasury-exemption-t) What's unknown:
Is there still a monthly fee to be allowed to feed in?  i.e. the R160 mentioned in this thread (I found a R200/month mention in another thread). Is there still a limit on size of residential system to be allowed to export (i.e if I understand correctly, most residential houses are limited to 3.6kW of solar panels if they want to export?)  
Doing some napkins maths, based on 2kW of spare solar power to export:
If the monthly fixed fee is dropped:  You can recover the cost of the prepaid meter in just over a year.
If the monthly fixed fee is not dropped: It'll take 3-5+ years just to recover the cost of the prepaid meter. 
With the fixed monthly fee, in order to recover the cost of the prepaid meter in under 2 years, one needs to reliably export 14+ kWh per day (year round - so approx. 5,000kWh per year).  If there's also a limit of 3.6kW of solar panels allowed in order to export, then that means you need to be exporting 70%+ of your solar production.

I was looking into this a few months back.  The version of the dongle is important.  The newer dongles have changed the protocol and caused a lot of headaches.  If you browse the 'issues' section on github you can see lots of threads about it.  

The end of this thread seems to indicate someone might have cracked v5 of the protocol: https://github.com/XtheOne/Inverter-Data-Logger/issues/37

MQTT would be ideal. 
I personally would only want something that can do a direct connection to the dongle, if it requires connecting to an API on the internet then I wouldn't use it. 

I think it would be great if it was possible for a limited set of settings that could be changed as well.  In particular the 'System Mode' time slots.  This would allow for creating automations involving loadshedding or things like adjusting settings based on clouds or day of the week or such.  Being able to change _any_ setting is perhaps a bit risky, but it would be great if at very least the less critical settings were possible to change.

Good day All,
Over the past couple of months I have received numerous requests to share my NodeRed flows used for monitoring the status of the SunSynk inverter.  My initial idea was to package all of the flows into an easy to use package and user interface, however my work loads have not provided me the luxury of time to play around and make it a fool proof system. 
Please note that the use of these flows are at your own discretion with no liability to either myself, this site nor any members of this site.  Do not attempt implement these flows if you are unfamiliar with the working of the ModBus protocol or basic programming.
Brief overview of the flows:
LoadShedStatus - This flow determines the loadshedding status through a webscraper.  I use this information to trigger a secondary set of settings to the inverter in case of load shedding. ModBusRead - This flow is responsible for reading information from the Inverter via the Modbus Flex getter ModBusWrite - This flow is responsible for writing settings back to the inverter via the Modbus flex getter Inverter Monitoring - This flow is responsible for obtaining all of the inverter monitoring values.  The values are then send to Home Asssistant via MQTT as well as logged to an InfluxDB for monitoring via Grafana SSFormRead - This flow reads the current system settings from the inverter and display it via the NodeRed UI SSFormWrite - This flow writes any changes made to the system settings via the NodeRed UI back to inverter SSDSRead - This flow reads the "Default Settings" from storage and displays it via the NodeRed UI.  I use the "Default Settings" to store my optimal system settings when there is no Load Shedding. SSDSWrite - This flow writes the "Default Settings" from the storage to the Inverter.  The flow is also triggered automatically from the LoadShedding status flow SSLSRead - This flow reads the "Load Shedding Settings" from storage and displays it via the NodeRed UI.  I use the "Default Settings" to store my optimal system settings when there is no Load Shedding. SSLSWrite - This flow writes the "Load Shedding Settings" from the storage to the Inverter.  The flow is also triggered automatically from the LoadShedding status flow TimeMode - This flow triggers different settings on different days of the week.  My PV Solar is currently not big enough to carry my whole house, I utilize this flow to feed electricity back into the non-essential loads on the days which my domestic worker is not working.  This helps me to optimize my savings on certain days of the week while maintaining healthy battery levels. NodeRed Palettes required for the flows:
node-red-contrib-actionflows node-red-contrib-influxdb node-red-contrib-modbus node-red-contrib-queue-gate node-red-contrib-schedex node-red-contrib-simple-gate node-red-dashboard The next couple of posts have been reserved to further expand on the hardware requirements and basic set up of the monitoring.
The idea of sharing my flows is to contribute to the community, let us keep this going as a community project by assisting and contributing to project.
flows (5).json sunsynk_modbus.docx