cvzyl

Visiting my brother on his farm this weekend. He has a 102kW installation. 408 250W panels connected to 4 SMA Sunny Tripower inverters.
Man, wish I could have an installation like this. He generated 18MW last month.

Update: I've just returned from a site visit and instead of 50 people using the system, there are now 90 people using it daily. They have used 244000l of hot water in just over a month (no water restrictions there!) so we are pretty chuffed that the system has held up with the added demand.

Just pulling your leg plonkster, couldn't resist. So much seriousness going on on the forum...
I'm a closet Victron fan. I'm going to expand my solar system (from 3kW to 6kW) in the next couple of months. Plan on having 1.5kW of that on a Victron MPPT (150|35, maybe someone can recommend something else). That will be charging in parallel to the Infini which will have the remaining 4.5kW.
Cobus

Like the R1000 cable? 

All I have to share are a few facts that I have learnt in my many decades through life which are edging towards eight although thankfully not quite. So perhaps some may reason that I am already senile. All those who have expressed views on this thread, have probably at some time or another contributed to the welfare of others. But as an absolute believer in capitalism as opposed to socialism with it's terror, misery and death, I am convinced that capitalism can only function in a state of complete individual freedom which by definition prevents one to do harm unto others. @Energy this is economics, not politics and I am glad that individual freedom is not included in the list of prohibited subjects. That as a basis for discussion.
1. @Manie developed a commercial product that was and is probably still purchased by at least a fair number of the members of this forum and others. In the process he obviously spent many long hours of hard work of which the users of ICC-Pi are and will be reaping the benefits at a price acceptable to them. When members started requesting ICC for Windows, Manie knuckled down and produced that in record time and again some bought the program. It is a basic principle of sound business practice to protect your intellectual property. If one obtained critical and valuable information from another source, other than open source, which would be freely available in any event, you would be particularly foolish to hand it out like a bowl of soup at a soup kitchen. The Japanese say "Business is war" and see where it got them, in record time, after the devastation of WW2. There have been many demands for Manie to release his code as open source. Where would that have taken us users of ICC. Already a formal association between two developers did not last long. I would rather pay for the software and know there is some help at the end of a communications channel of whatever nature. It also denies Manie his right of freedom to decide what he does with his code. If he makes the wrong decisions, it may go the same route to oblivion of AICC which after all was a fine program. Solarmon also looked equally promising and it too bit the dust, or so it seems. If Manie chooses to improve his product over time, then the only other factor of price will determine the volumes sold. I for one hope he does continue development for purely selfish reasons of wanting to use an application that is enhanced on a continuing basis. As the outspoken Ayn Rand titled one of her books "The Virtue Of Selfishness" and then went on to prove it.
2.Those who have voluntarily contributed did so on their own accord. If they wanted compensation, they should have negotiated it before saying their bit. What on earth prevent the proponents of an open source program to start such a project. There has been enough demands for it but so far zero action, to my perhaps admittedly limited knowledge. I am of course only interested in the Axpert MKS range, which is what I have. Those who need something different, must drum up their own support.
3. Jay as moderator has the power to stop trends in any thread dead in their tracks if he believes them to be contrary to the intentions of the forum. It is to his credit that he allowed the many tsunamis in a teacup. But relentless efforts to bludgeon an opposing view into submission leads to the type of avoidable friction that we have often witnessed. If co-operative efforts, proposed by some, had any chance of success, The United Nations would be a shining example instead of a money wasting ineffectual fiasco, persistently wasting other people's money.
4. I realise that my views are contrary to some who have in the past willingly helped me and I hope in some small way I also managed to contribute something of value. But having differences of opinion does not make us enemies. It demonstrates the ability to actually think, a rarity in the world we live in, as well as maturity. Let us add respect for individual freedom to it, with emphasis on individual.
Now this may be the proverbial stone at a hornet's nest and if true, so be it.

This is how I do any upgrades:    1. Close ICC Running on Pi 2. Download the Rar file from ICC Website to your pc 3. Extract the Rar file on your pc 4. Start WinSCP on your pc and locate the extracted files on you pc 5. Locate the ICC folder on your Pi 6. Select only the ICC file on pc and drag the file to the ICC Pi folder 7. You get a warning that you are about to overwrite the file – Select yes, to overwrite the file 8. Start ICC on your Pi     The upgrade process takes me less than a minute.  

Ja genade , then we will have to pay triple the amount of money for them , rather let it stay grey/silver ..

I have been on PVoutput since day 1, which was 1 January this year. Today has been my best day ever, clouds and all. I produced > 28.5 kwh for the day. That is not much compared to other guys that have 30, 40 or 60 panels, I only have 12 panels. My efficiency for the day was > 7.5. I have not been on the grid since 23h00 last night.
 

Ya, in Australia they are called Gaint's and are painted red. I hear they paint new Axperts blue in South Africa.

We are in the final stage of testing of version 1.1.3 for the Pi. Those of you that are data or Emon freaks will just love this version. Every time I had a problem, Manie would ask me to send him a screen shot of the Cluster Info page. The inverter 1 and inverter 2 Return strings are displayed there. Just a bunch of numbers that meant nothing to me. Manie has now split those numbers up and put them in nice little boxes, so the figures now mean something. Not just that, the individual inverter data is also sent to Emon and opens up a whole host of monitoring possibilities. (See below)

 
I also requested in another thread that Manie display the Inverter Temperature as well. We are all aware that it is the temperature of the inverter that is plugged into the USB and that it is not possible to display the temperature of the other inverter or inverters. At least it would give you an idea at what temperature your inverters are running at. A lot better than 0 degrees C. The inverter temperature is now also available in the new version in the Inverter tab and MQTT as well. The Inverter Temperature is also sent to Emon. So if you would like to add it somewhere or track your temperature in a graph, it is available.
Inverter Tab:

It is even available in MQTT:

Here is the data sent to Emon:

 
For those of you that are concerned about your Pi CPU Temperature, you can now monitor it as it is also available on each and every ICC Pi Tab. The Pi CPU Temperature is also sent to Emon if you would like to monitor it there.  
 
I asked Manie now that he is displaying each Inverter's return Sting in a separate box (See first pic), can you send the data to Emon? If that was possible, you would in fact have the data for each inverter separately. Just think of all the possibilities. You can now even compare data of your inverters. For those of us that always want to know the output from each PV Array separately, that would just be great. He sent me the latest Version file to test and said "Check out Emon!"


All I can say is WOW! Manie, you exceeded my expectations by a long way. 
You all have to excuse me now, with the addition of the new data available in Emon, I have a few new graphs to build and a few dashboards to add. That will keep me busy for a day or two. 
Manie will make the new version available as soon as he is happy that it is running stable. 
 

plonkster, maybe that is more an indication of the difference in bath frequency and duration rather than the performance of the geysers. I know hygiene was not a very high priority for some of the guys when I was at US.

Here it is. Quite a nice PV curve.
Emoncms and PVOutput uploads working perfectly on the Infini. Thanks Manie, lots of late nights. Thanks for all your hard work to get it working.

plonkster, maybe that is more an indication of the difference in bath frequency and duration rather than the performance of the geysers. I know hygiene was not a very high priority for some of the guys when I was at US.

plonkster, maybe that is more an indication of the difference in bath frequency and duration rather than the performance of the geysers. I know hygiene was not a very high priority for some of the guys when I was at US.

The Infini (3 x 5kW in parallel) can do this really well. It's a couple of clicks of the mouse.
1. Set charging of batteries from PV and AC so batteries will always be charged.
2. Set load supply priority with PV available: PV > Grid > Battery
3. Set load supply priority without PV available: Grid > Battery.
There is it!

The Infini (3 x 5kW in parallel) can do this really well. It's a couple of clicks of the mouse.
1. Set charging of batteries from PV and AC so batteries will always be charged.
2. Set load supply priority with PV available: PV > Grid > Battery
3. Set load supply priority without PV available: Grid > Battery.
There is it!

That's nogal a problem. It doesn't quite reach the 30s, but it gets close. Today is not doing too bad:
root@ccgx:~# dbus -y com.victronenergy.solarcharger.socketcan_can0_di0_uc30688 /Dc/0/Temperature GetValue value = 25.850006103515625 I just love how I can query this thing remotely...

When Manie asked for feedback on the Remote Dashboard I said on Tinkercity that switching the inverter state from it would be useful. This was at 00:30 this morning. And here it is, announced a mere 2.5 hours later. Looking forward to its release. Thanks Manie, RD just keeps getting better.

In this example, a load in excess of 30A would be needed to trip the 20A breaker. Currents in this example can not be added together, it needs to be subtracted. Without the load, 10A will flow through the breaker in the wrong direction. the first 10A of the load will be absorbed by the GTI (equalizing the current trough the breaker), thereafter you will need another 20A to reach the breakers capacity, and then you will need the excess to trip it. In short the same load without the GTI , would have in any case tripped the breaker. Conclusion, the GTI did not contribute to the tripping of the breaker, instead it contributed to preventing it from tripping. Perfectly safely. The load pulled its current from to places, 10A on the wire coming from the GTI and the rest on the wire from the CB, so in theory non of the wires were overloaded.
This on the other hand is only true if the load was connected to a power outlet between the Breaker and the GTI, if the GTI was connected between the Breaker and the load, the currents from the breaker and the GTI can be added into one wire feeding the load and then I can agree that the wire might not be designed to handle the 30A, but still the current through the breaker will only be the load minus the feed from the GTI. 
Applying the example on a bigger scale, on the other side of your main breaker up to the Mini SUB breaker, the rules will stay the same. You will not add to the load on the breaker, you will decrease the load. You will have to export more than the combined load on that specific phase before you will start messing around with the grid. If you are the only house connected to that phase, you might create problems, but being part of a network, the chances of creating havoc is less than slim.
One thing that will never be balanced or even close to balanced is the transformer down the street from your house, unless all the house had a three phase connection, and the loads in all the houses was balanced. In a normal situation where houses in the suburbs are fed by single phase, the phases wont even be close to balanced, 1 house is unoccupied,   the neighbor has 3 families staying in the back yard, his neighbor is on leave and switched off both his geysers for the month, his neighbor has his complete family over for the whole of December running all the geysers full time to keep everybody clean ext, No way on earth to balance it. Connected to the one phase you might improve the balancing of that transformer, connected to another you might worsen it, depending on current drawn on that phase at that specific day.
 
Bottom line: A GTI. installed correctly would in 99.9 % of the time improve the network.
There is a enormous difference between a wind/solar farm helping Eskom to feed the network, the above statement is only true for them. They can supply more power than the network can handle. We as consumers will never be faced with this problem. The transformer supplying your house was designed to do that, you are allowed to pull your 60A, they made provision for it, now if you connect your GTI, you will only draw 10A, or 20A , or 30A or what ever, how can drawing less than the design be wrong for the network.
We must guard against trying to apply statement like this to the end user, we as end users are not the "Unplanned Generating Capacity" they are talking about!! What your GTI can generate will be consumed before it reacher the corner of your street (unless you are occupying the corner house).
People don't seem to understand how the export on a GTI is done. A GTI installed correctly (even without approval) poses no thread what so ever to workers in the street. on the other hand, a solar or wind farm, feeding into the Hight voltage grid might pose some serious dangers if connected to the grid illegally.
Lets talk about End Users with GTI's (Or any other Inverter for that matter).
You need to connect the GTI output power to the grid to pose any danger to people. Please try it while the grid is on, and then let us know where you are buying your new inverter?
Do it while the grid is not available and see how long your unit can run in overload mode. Would love to see if your inverter can run long enough to hurt someone.
Do it while your main feed cable is disconnected from the network, then get some guys to work on your supply cable and you will surely hurt them.
All three the above is incorrect ways of connecting your GTI, and in most cases it will be imposable to run the inverter like that.
Once the council engineers sit down, and try to understand how these machines work, they might even refrain from statements like this, or at best rephrase the statements so that we can see who they are referring to. (I might be blaming them for a mistake we might be making by thinking the above statements was meant for us)
 
EDIT: I think a lot of what they say does apply to the IPP's on the supply side of the network. They contribute to capacity of the network, the end user in turn with his 4kw GTi supplies a degree of relieve to the network and IMO can not be seen as a true IPP.

Yes, as the temperature decreases the ability of air to "absorb" water is reduced, therefore the same quantity of moisture in air represents a higher relative humidity. Up to the point where condensation starts to take place. If you cool the air further then the air remains at 100% relative humidity and water continues to condensate. If you then heat up the air again the relative humidity will drop as the amount of moisture remains the same but the air's ability to absorb it is higher.
Heating up the air slightly should be an effective way to avoid condensation. I think @Mike suggested installing the inverter inside a cabinet could help to increase the temperature inside the cabinet and avoid condensation in that way. Not sure an AC will be the right direction.
For interest, here on the West Coast relative atmospheric humidity peaks >90% almost daily with the average daily humidity around 60-70%.

Yes, as the temperature decreases the ability of air to "absorb" water is reduced, therefore the same quantity of moisture in air represents a higher relative humidity. Up to the point where condensation starts to take place. If you cool the air further then the air remains at 100% relative humidity and water continues to condensate. If you then heat up the air again the relative humidity will drop as the amount of moisture remains the same but the air's ability to absorb it is higher.
Heating up the air slightly should be an effective way to avoid condensation. I think @Mike suggested installing the inverter inside a cabinet could help to increase the temperature inside the cabinet and avoid condensation in that way. Not sure an AC will be the right direction.
For interest, here on the West Coast relative atmospheric humidity peaks >90% almost daily with the average daily humidity around 60-70%.

Yes, as the temperature decreases the ability of air to "absorb" water is reduced, therefore the same quantity of moisture in air represents a higher relative humidity. Up to the point where condensation starts to take place. If you cool the air further then the air remains at 100% relative humidity and water continues to condensate. If you then heat up the air again the relative humidity will drop as the amount of moisture remains the same but the air's ability to absorb it is higher.
Heating up the air slightly should be an effective way to avoid condensation. I think @Mike suggested installing the inverter inside a cabinet could help to increase the temperature inside the cabinet and avoid condensation in that way. Not sure an AC will be the right direction.
For interest, here on the West Coast relative atmospheric humidity peaks >90% almost daily with the average daily humidity around 60-70%.

...for all your effort and time you spent with me fixing "small" problem on my AICC ( it was my fault) and designed the Emoncms dashboard for me.
Excellent after sale service. by Manie and the AICC team.
All the best guys

I look forward to your feedback about the results of Coulomb's firmware upgrade of your inverter. Is your inverter a 5Kva Axpert. If not and the upgrade went well maybe the firmware will work on other models. I thought Coulomb said his firmware was for the 5Kva inverters.
It is good news to hear that both upgrades went well. Gives me confidence to upgrade my 2 x  5Kva inverters. Do you use AICC and if so also a BMV? What are your float voltage and tail current settings? SInce you flashed the lead acid firmware I am very interested as my batteries are Trojan T105 flooded lead acid.